Luongo returns, Soderberg’s first goal in two months, Pirri’s goal binge and more…

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Huge win for the Senators last night pulling to within two points of the Bruins with a game in hand to boot. It wasn't Andrew Hammond's best start. In fact, it was his worst as the first time he had allowed more than two goals in a game at the NHL level. Still got the job done though.

Milan Michalek and Mark Stone with three points each. Kyle Turris got three points too but odds are he is owned in your pool. Michalek and Stone on the other hand, likely riding the waiver wire.

One Senator who has actually fallen off is Mike Hoffman. It was only a matter of time considering his unsustainably high shooting percentage. He's gone scoreless in six straight and his shooting percentage has slipped to a more reasonable 14.4%.

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The Bruins got some nice offensive output from a few players but the most crucial one was probably Carl Soderberg who scored his first goal in over two months. And it's not like this was two months missed with injury. This was two months of coming home with a fat zero night after night. Soderberg went 24 games between goals. That's not just a cold streak. That's frost bite.

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Very solid outing for Roberto Luongo in his return to the lineup shutting down the Datsyuk-less Red Wings. I hope his return wasn't too late for your fantasy squad although I know it was for many.

Jaromir Jagr scored a pair to end a three-game drought. He's up to seven points in nine games, which sounds about right.

Brandon Pirri is indulging in one heck of a goal-scoring binge. He has goals in four straight games, and 13 of his last 19. He has 14 goals in those 19 games. Unreal. His shooting percentage on this run is 18.9%, which is high but it's not as obscenely high as I was expecting. Probably because Pirri has fired 74 SOG during this stretch, which is damn near four per game.

Pirri isn't a future 40-goal guy. At least I don't think so. But he's doing well fitting in alongside Nick Bjugstad lately and that chemistry could go a long way if the Panthers develop into a real contender in the coming years.

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With Pavel Datsyuk out it was Riley Sheahan stepping onto the second line. Darren Helm returned to the lineup and also grabbed a second-line role pushing Tomas Jurco down to the fourth line. Sheahan got an assist on the lone Red Wing goal so this is a potentially productive spot for him as Datsyuk will miss at least tonight's game.

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If the Hurricanes get shutout for the rest of the season is that even affecting any fantasy pools? Honestly, it seems like any team rostering someone off Carolina is out of it by now rendering any points from a Hurricane player essentially useless.

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Antti Niemi is doing his best to become the ideal model of the league-average goaltender. He's won basically half of his starts (28 of 55), has exactly the league average save percentage (.914) and is just slightly worse than league-average in goals-against average at 2.60. Way to shoot for the middle.

He vanished from my consciousness for a while but Melker Karlsson is back on the radar with points in his last three games. He's still skating up on the top line so the scoring opportunities are there. He has fired 18 SOG on this three-game streak.

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