Fantasy owners will need to make do without Kevin Fiala for the next three games. The Wild forward was suspended for his dangerous hit from behind on Matt Roy during Thursday's game. The suspension will make Fiala unavailable for Saturday and Sunday's home series with Colorado, as well as Tuesday's rematch with the Avalanche. Fiala was off to a slow start with no points in his first four games, but he has scored goals in three of his past four games.

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More short-term bad news for Vegas Golden Knights. The NHL has postponed Monday and Wednesday's Golden Knights-Sharks matches because of the Golden Knights' COVID situation. As I mentioned yesterday, the Knights play two more times against LA later next week. If you are in a weekly league and need to make a roster decision by Monday puck drop on whether to start Golden Knights players, the safe call might be to leave them on your bench.

The silver lining for the Sharks could be that instead of these games being played in their home-away-from-home in Arizona next week, they will be rescheduled for later in the season. By that time, the Sharks will be back in San Jose.

For more about the schedule, check out Adam Daly-Frey's latest Looking Ahead.

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The Patrik Laine plane finally landed in Columbus on Friday. After quarantine, Laine is expected to join the Blue Jackets on Monday with his debut expected Tuesday against Dallas. Assuming that holds true, fantasy owners will have the services of Laine for all three of the Blue Jackets' games next week. Go ahead and add the sniper back into your lineup.

Fantasy Take: Dubois Going to Winnipeg for Laine, Roslovic

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There was only one game on Friday, and it involved the aforementioned Blue Jackets. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 31 of 32 shots he faced to lead the Jackets to a 2-1 win over the Blackhawks. Korpisalo has now recorded quality starts in four of his five games, so you should be able to start him with a reasonable amount of confidence.

Offensively, Oliver Bjorkstrand led the Jackets with a power-play goal and an assist and three shots. Bjorkstrand is scoring at a near point-per-game pace (8 PTS in 9 GP), which you shouldn't be overly surprised about if you frequent this website.

With the win, the Blue Jackets extended their lead in the Central by three points over Dallas and Nashville. That's good for the Jackets, who should be even better once Laine arrives on the scene. Keep in mind that the undefeated Stars have five games in hand on Columbus, so don't expect that lead to last. There's going to be some very wild imbalances when it comes to games played by teams, so total points are hardly the best indicator of where a team really stands.

For the Blackhawks, Kevin Lankinen made 25 saves in the loss. Lankinen has now started five of the past six games for the Hawks. With quality starts in each of his past four games, he has grabbed the Hawks' starting goalie job and run with it. This could all change in a week or two, but for now, he's the Hawks goalie worth owning with some strong ratios (2.16 GAA, .930 SV%).

Patrick Kane recorded an assist while also loading up on both shots (6) and icetime (27:14).

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I recently saw a question about listing top 3-player combos to own to make multiple points on one goal. This is something to think about not only for targeting players on your waiver wire who might be producing on top lines, but also for stacking lineups in daily leagues.

Here are the top line combinations in terms of goals, after Thursday's games, from Frozen Tools. You can find the full list here.

Even Strength

VGK: MAX PACIORETTY – MARK STONE – CHANDLER STEPHENSON (8)

NYI: JORDAN EBERLE – ANDERS LEE – MATHEW BARZAL (7)

MTL: TOMAS TATAR – BRENDAN GALLAGHER – PHILLIP DANAULT (7)

VAN: TANNER PEARSON – BO HORVAT – NILS HOGLANDER (6)

COL: GABRIEL LANDESKOG – NATHAN MACKINNON – MIKKO RANTANEN (6)

WPG: PAUL STASTNY – NIKOLAJ EHLERS – ANDREW COPP (6)

In the Thursday Ramblings, Mike listed goals per game by division (see below), which was interesting indeed. So it should come as no surprise that three of the top six even-strength lines are from Canadian-based teams.

North – 3.40

Central – 2.90

West – 2.84

East – 2.81

I'll hand-pick a few players in particular and discuss what their prospects are like going forward.

Chandler Stephenson

Let this sink in. A player on the top-producing even-strength line is owned in just 3 percent of Yahoo leagues. Yet Stephenson seems like the third wheel on this line. To give you an idea, when Max Pacioretty recorded a hat trick on Tuesday, Mark Stone assisted on all three of his goals. Stephenson? Not a thing, in spite of nearly 20 minutes of icetime.

One of the goals was on a 5-on-3 power play when Stephenson wasn't on the ice, but hopefully you get the idea. Stephenson was involved in some nice passing on another Pacioretty goal, but he was not one of the two Vegas players to touch the puck before the goal. You can watch this game's highlights and break down the numbers in the new Fantasy Hockey Game Boxscore at Frozen Tools.

The Patches-Stone line is nothing new for Stephenson, who also spent considerable time on that line after joining the Golden Knights partway through last season. His fantasy value has increased significantly from being a spare part in Washington to just over a 40-point pace with Vegas. Because of his linemates, it's highly possible that he could go on a run that generates interest in many fantasy leagues. For now, he's probably best reserved for deep leagues.

Nils Hoglander

It's still early in the season, and the Canucks have played more games (10) than any other team. Yet it's worth mentioning that Hoglander is tied for third in rookie scoring with five points (2g-3a), with four of those points coming in his last five games.

Should we have seen this coming? Probably not – at least not yet. Hoglander was widely considered to be another year away from the NHL, but a standout training camp was too much for the Canucks to ignore, considering they had a void to fill on the top 6. Hoglander has done everything possible to ensure he doesn't let go of that spot.

Check out the effort by Nils Höglander to set up Tanner Pearson.

The kid wants to stay in the bigs. pic.twitter.com/xTp3OufUYX

— /Cam Robinson/ (@Hockey_Robinson) January 26, 2021

Much of the success of this line has to do with the strong start of Bo Horvat (10 PTS in 10 GP). The geography and depth of the leagues I play in meant that I was unfortunately late to the Hoglander party. But at just 12 percent ownership, Hoglander might be available in yours. I'm willing to bet he's sticking on a scoring line the rest of the season. If you don't agree, who do the Canucks have that they should promote? If you said Jake Virtanen, he was a healthy scratch for Thursday's game. Hoglander has already passed Virtanen on the depth chart – probably for good.

Paul Stastny

You're probably expecting me to talk about frequent waiver-wire pickup Andrew Copp here. Sure, I'll mention Copp. But fantasy owners have already rushed en masse to the waiver wire to the point where he is now owned in nearly half of Yahoo leagues (40 percent, to be exact). So I'm here to buck the trend and promote adding the 20 percent owned Stastny instead. At least Stastny is a great possible backup plan if your hopes of adding Copp were dashed.

We don't know exactly when Pierre-Luc Dubois will arrive in Winnipeg. I've heard that center Stastny could get dropped out of the top 6 once he arrives. I've also heard that Copp will be the odd man out upon a Dubois debut. Both are listed as centers, although Copp has some left-wing eligibility. I can't say for sure Copp will be demoted, but Stastny has the better track record when it comes to scoring. In addition, Stastny is the better power-play option, as he is currently being used on the first unit (although again, that could also change with Dubois).

Because Copp is viewed as a short-term add for his recent hot play (nine points in his last five games), you can probably also view Stastny in the same context (six points in his last three games). Although I listed Stastny as a potential "player this hurts" in the Fantasy Take, I'm very interested in where he lands in the lineup once Dubois makes his long-awaited Jets debut. If nothing else, Stastny is a great one-day add when the Jets face a flimsy Canucks defense at home on Saturday.

Power Play

COL: NAZEM KADRI – GABRIEL LANDESKOG – NATHAN MACKINNON – MIKKO RANTANEN (7)

CGY: SEAN MONAHAN – ELIAS LINDHOLM – JOHNNY GAUDREAU – MATTHEW TKACHUK (7)

BOS: PATRICE BERGERON – DAVID KREJCI – BRAD MARCHAND – NICK RITCHIE (7)

BUF: TAYLOR HALL – SAM REINHART – JACK EICHEL – VICTOR OLOFSSON (6)

VAN: J.T. MILLER – BO HORVAT – BROCK BOESER – ELIAS PETTERSSON (6)

Notable on this list is Nick Ritchie, who struggled to the point where he was healthy scratched for a few playoff games last season. He's been hot recently with five points over his last four games, and his style of play fits bangers leagues. However, a potential David Pastrnak return on Saturday means that Ritchie will likely be moved off the first power-play unit.

Elias Pettersson's slow start (no goals and just one assist in his first six games) has been well-chronicled. However, he has been recently rounding back into form with a goal and an assist in each of his last two games. Upcoming games against the Jets and the Canadiens will serve as tougher tests than the Senators, though.  

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For more fantasy hockey discussion, or to reach out to me, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding