Ramblings: Elliott's shutout streak, Carlson returns, Stralman breaks his leg and more.

The big news last night was Anton Stralman going down with a broken leg. Check out the play:

Stralman went to the dressing room after injuring his knee here… #Isles #TBLightning pic.twitter.com/uNW7umWnEx

— Gotham SN (@GothamSN) March 26, 2016

That’s ugly.

Stralman is officially out indefinitely but I don’t see a scenario where we see him again, even if the Lightning go to the Cup final.

This could very well dash the Lightning’s playoff hopes. Stralman is that key of a player, especially with how far Matt Carle has fallen off this season.

With Stralman out you should expect Victor Hedman to play even more than normal, particularly on the power play so this might help his fantasy owners.

Also of note, as much as I have maligned Carle, he was second on the team in ice time last night skating over 24 minutes, including some second unit power-play time.

Lots of offense from the back end for the Lightning last night as they got goals from Hedman, Jason Garrison and Andrej Sustr.

I really liked the forward group that the Lightning had without Valtteri Filppula or Ryan Callahan in the lineup:

20.08%EVKILLORN,ALEX – KUCHEROV,NIKITA – STAMKOS,STEVEN 

18.11%EVJOHNSON,TYLER – MARCHESSAULT,JONATHAN – PALAT,ONDREJ 

15.35%EVBROWN,J.T. – NAMESTNIKOV,VLADISLAV – PAQUETTE,CEDRIC 

13.78%EVBLUNDEN,MICHAEL – BOYLE,BRIAN – CONDRA,ERIK 

Getting Filppula back at some point is probably important but if Callahan returns, maybe just use him on the fourth line because Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos have built some excellent chemistry. That opens up a spot for one of Jonathan Marchessault or Vladislav Namestnikov to fill in as the third Triplet. It makes for a really dangerous lineup. Not sure John Cooper wants to succumb to the whims of fantasy hockey writers though.

*

Thomas Greiss, oh how you have imploded at the worst time for us fantasy folk. He allowed six goals on 41 shots for his fourth straight loss. Granted he has faced four consecutive playoff teams.

Shane Prince has been skating on the third line so he doesn’t carry a ton of fantasy value but he is giving the coaches something to think about once guys like Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen leave in free agency this summer:

SNIPE CITY! Population: Shane Prince. #Isles pic.twitter.com/IJzBfPw4xj

— Gotham SN (@GothamSN) March 26, 2016

*

John Carlson returned to the lineup for the Capitals and scored the only goal of the game, an overtime winner. Not a bad welcome back. He only skated 19:27 despite the overtime affair, which pales in comparison to the 24:14 skated by Matt Niskanen but Carlson should be skating more than Niskanen in short order. I’d probably drop Niskanen in shallower formats.

Breezy 22-save shutout for Braden Holtby. His first shutout since December 28. Been a long time coming for someone who has been so dominant.

*

On the other side, Scott Wedgewood came damn close to his second consecutive shutout. He’s definitely a better option in goal than Keith Kinkaid. I never really thought much of Wedgewood, especially with Cory Schneider in goal. Schneider is arguably the best goalie in the league so Wedgewood will be in tough for minutes whenever Schneider returns. The Devils are hopeful that he will be back this season but that may not be the case.

Since I finally went out and added Devante Smith-Pelly yesterday, it’s natural that he was finally held off the board. Please accept my apologies, everyone who jumped on board his hot streak.

*

Meanwhile Brian Elliott did extend his shutout streak to three games, with his second straight blanking of the Canucks:

Via @EliasSports: @StLouisBlues @KidElls1 is only active goalie to record 3 straight shutouts 3x times in his career pic.twitter.com/e5fCoKXGiM

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 26, 2016

When Elliott is hot, he is HOT. Also, the Canucks’ offense is pretty damned impotent right now. They managed just 15 shots last night.

Guess who the Blues’ top scorer since the All-Star break is.

Did you guess Robbi Fabbri? Because that’s the correct answer, as the rookie forward has 19 points in his last 23 games.

Second up is Paul Stastny. No surprise that these two have been paired together (along with Troy Brouwer) recently. Fabbri’s ability to step up and provide some secondary scoring has really helped the Blues weather the absence of Alex Steen.

Steen, by the way, is back skating but won’t play this weekend.

*

PK Subban will not play today against the Rangers so the tease continues.

*

More injury news for the Penguins:

Olli Maatta is week-to-week with a lower-body injury that occurred in last night's game vs. New Jersey.

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 25, 2016

It does look like the Penguins will get Ben Lovejoy back into the lineup but Olli Maatta was easily their second best defenseman. Like the Lightning above, this is not an injury the Penguins can simply fill. They also have Evgeni Malkin out of the lineup.
 

If the Malkin injury didn’t do them in, this Maatta injury might. This is why it’s important for some teams to go eight or nine deep on the back end or to simply avoid injuries altogether. The Blackhawks won the Cup last year with what amounted to four defensemen because they avoided injuries to any of the important ones.

The Anaheim Ducks have a different approach. They go perhaps 10 deep on defense with their normal top six, plus Clayton Stoner and Korbinian Holzer typically in the press box. Then they have Brandon Montour and Shea Theodore as Black Aces in the minors.

*

While we’re on the Ducks, Pierre LeBrun had a great profile on Rickard Rakell yesterday:

"First off, he's just a great, quality person," Velluci said. "That's the biggest thing that stands out, he's just such a solid person and great teammate. Everybody loved playing with him. Hockey-wise, he always had the offensive talent, but he was so good defensively, he was a coach's dream that way. I was trying to get him to think a little more offense, because he's so responsible defensively, that sometimes he sacrificed his offensive skill. It's hard for a coach to say that.''

This is an interesting contrast to Rakell’s explanation of why he switched from playing as a defenseman to forward:

"I didn't like that I didn't have a lot of scoring chances," he said. "I wanted more scoring chances. I wanted the puck more. It's not fun to stand on the blue line and wait for it.''

He may have urned for more offense but it’s pretty clear that his old defensive habits died hard. This has the smell of a player who becomes a late-bloomer.

*

Dalton Prout signed a two-year contract extension with the Blue Jackets yesterday. If you are in a deep league, Prout has been a good source of hits and PIM.

It was going to go one way or the other for Prout with the blueline additions the Jackets made. He was either going to fall out of the lineup entirely or he was going to solidify himself as an every-night player. Under Tortorella he has turned into the latter.

*

Fantrax rolled out their 2.0 look yesterday after rumours that it would be coming out for the past few months. I hated the timing but found that they left open the possibility of reverting back to the old site, which is good news. Last thing I want to do is be doing my playoff tinkering on a new format.

The new site layout looks good and it is supposedly customizable. I am a huge Fantrax supporter. No site offers more unique settings for fantasy hockey leagues, in particular keepers. The only drawback was that the site was visual ugly and somewhat clunky. It looks like Fantrax 2.0 has cured many of those ills. If so, I might be moving all of my leagues there for next year.

*

One last thing. I am starting to look at playoff pool content for this spring. What is your favourite format for a playoff pool? Do you have any unique settings? Do you have anything that keeps things fun for people who may not have a shot at the main title once one round of playoffs is over? I’m looking for fun ways to spice things up and am open to suggestions.

*

Steve Laidlaw is the Managing Editor of Dobber Hockey. Follow him @SteveLaidlaw.