If you targeted Rangers this week because of their Wednesday/Friday/Sunday off days, you may have been rewarded. Ryan Strome scored a goal and added two assists with a plus-2 and five shots to power the Rangers to a 6-2 win over the Bruins. Strome is now riding a four-game point streak in which he has seven points.

Strome has been skating on a line with Chris Kreider and Colin Blackwell. Fresh off a hat trick on Wednesday, Kreider chipped in another goal and an assist on Friday. He's now scored goals in three consecutive games. I managed to add him to one of my teams just before Wednesday's game, so lucky me!

In case you've never heard of Blackwell, he's a former Predator who is taking advantage of time on a scoring line. He has seven points in 10 games, including points in four of his last five games. If you're looking for an end-of-week Sunday add and play in a relatively deep league, chances are he's available (owned in just 1 percent of Yahoo leagues). His icetime has increased a little bit since Artemi Panarin took his leave of absence, and he's also receiving power-play time.

The Rangers welcomed a limited number of fans in the stands on Friday. We'll have to wait and see whether this provides a real boost to teams, but hopefully it's a sign that life is returning to some sense of normalcy with vaccines starting to roll out.

In a losing cause, both Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak recorded two points. All three members of the top line (Marchand, Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron) are scoring at over a point per game, so nothing to worry about there even though the Bruins have lost four of their past five games.

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Meanwhile, the Wild are hot again, having won five games in a row. Just at the right time for Cam Talbot, who saw his first action since February 2 after being in COVID protocol. Talbot was just under three minutes away from a shutout when Jeff Carter scored, so he'll have to settle for a win. Talbot is unowned in just under half of Yahoo leagues, so go get him if he's available. He'll have to battle for starts with rookie Kaapo Kahkonen, who has posted wins and quality starts in each of his last four outings. Both Wild goalies are worth owning at the moment.

Kaapo Kahkonen is 7-4 with a 2.37 goals-against average and .917 save percentage.

Cam Talbot is 4-2 with a 2.19 goals-against average and .926 save percentage.

Combined .920 save percentage. Team save percentage is .917 (ENG's), which is tied for fourth in NHL

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) February 27, 2021

Since making his season debut in mid-February, Mats Zuccarello has points in five of his six games played. He extended his point streak to five games on Friday in recording an assist on Kirill Kaprizov's goal. That gives Zuccarello 10 points over his last five games, as he's formed instant chemistry with Kaprizov and Victor Rask.

Speaking of Kaprizov, he now has seven points in his last four games. Here's the goal he scored where he simply found a way to outmatch Drew Doughty.

Words can't describe how impressive of a skater Kirill Kaprizov is. pic.twitter.com/gNq8NozClZ

— NHL (@NHL) February 27, 2021

After two seasons where he seemed to completely fall off the fantasy radar after being traded from Carolina, Rask has found a way to earn his keep on a scoring line. He entered this game with seven points in his past five games. He has an absurdly high 41.7 SH%, so any addition to fantasy rosters should be considered short-term.

With the loss, the Kings saw their win streak end at six games. The Wild and Kings face off again today (Saturday).

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The only other game on Friday featured an Adin Hill/Hunter Miska goaltending battle. Just when it looked like Miska would pick up his first career shutout, the Coyotes scored two late goals to make it interesting. However, the Avalanche held on for a 3-2 win, with Miska picking up his first career win. Expect Miska to receive only the odd spot start going forward, as Philipp Grubauer has taken the vast majority of minutes in the Colorado crease.

Hill was starting for the Coyotes because Darcy Kuemper was dealing with what was described as a "very minor lower-body injury," while Antti Raanta was returning from another injury of his own. No word on who will start for the Coyotes on Saturday, but as usual check Goalie Post for the latest updates.

Nazem Kadri led the Avalanche with a goal and two assists. He managed to bounce back nicely after being tagged with a minus-5 in Wednesday's game against Minnesota. In spite of the plus-2 on Friday, Kadri's season minus-9 is still the worst ranking on the Avalanche.

With a goal on Friday, Andre Burakovsky broke a slump of seven games without a point and eight games without a goal. Burakovsky also took five shots, which was his highest total of the season.

Gabriel Landeskog was held without a point again on Friday, which means he has no points in his last four games and no goals in his last 10 games. He usually shoots in the double-digits (three-year average of 13.4%), but he is currently stuck with a season 6.8 SH%. He's been playing on the top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen as per usual, so it should only be a matter of time before he breaks out of that scoring funk. He might even be worth looking into as a buy-low option.

Phil Kessel scored one of the Coyotes' late goals and assisted on the other. He's been showing signs of returning to the Kessel of old recently with goals in four of his past five games, as well as eight points over those five games. There isn't a Malkin or Crosby to feed him the puck in Arizona, yet he's still unowned in about two-thirds of Yahoo leagues. This point pace seems unsustainable given his recent history with the Coyotes and a high 19.0 SH%, yet being on a 66-point pace as opposed to a 45-game pace is a major difference.  

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I mentioned this last season, but there seems to be a correlation between coaches getting fired and poor goaltending. Carey Price's recent play lines up with that theory. His Thursday start against Winnipeg didn't help the cause of his new coach either, as it was his second Really Bad Start © in three games. Since February 4, Price has a 1-4-1 record to go with a disturbing 3.49 GAA and .870 SV%. New coach Dominique Ducharme might have no choice but to give Jake Allen a higher percentage of starts now that the Habs are no guarantee to make the playoffs in the North Division.

For three of the last four seasons (including this one), Price's save percentage has been below .910, his goals-against average above 2.75, and his GSAA (goals saved above average) has been negative. 33 years of age isn't ancient for a goalie (see the goalie below), but he's been trending the wrong way for a while. Although his contract situation and reputation as a top-tier goalie should result in him receiving plenty more opportunities to right the ship and pick up many more wins, I'm having a tough time keeping him in the Top 100 Roto Rankings.

Allen is expected to start on Saturday for the rematch against the Jets, as per Goalie Post.

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Meanwhile, I still can't wrap my head around the fact that Mike Smith is now 6-0-0. I had many, many goalies ahead of Smith in my pre-draft rankings, and I'm sure you did too. Smith has posted four quality starts in a row, and has season numbers that make him look like he is suddenly among the league's elite (1.73 GAA, .944 SV%). Watching the Oilers play, I can say they appear to be much improved defensively, as they limited the Canucks from many high-danger scoring chances on Thursday in spite of a decent shot total from the Canucks.

Maybe Smith's not washed up, but yes… absolutely… you should try to sell high on the soon-to-be 39-year-old goalie. The Oilers are on an absolute heater right now, and the North Division has been a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs for all of its teams, so it seems inevitable that they will cool off at some point. Determining goalie value is getting harder and harder every season, and it's especially apparent over this 56-game COVID season.

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