The 2021 Dobber Hockey Midseason Guide is now available in the Dobber Shop! It has everything fantasy owners need to get them through the stretch run of the season and into playoffs. For those that may be out of the running in their leagues, there is a lot on prospects and European players that are making their way to the NHL, and that will be very useful for future seasons. There is something in here for everyone so grab your copy now!

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An update on Ben Chiarot:

Habs announce D Ben Chiarot underwent surgery today to repair a fractured hand and will be out 6-8 weeks

— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) March 15, 2021

A 6-week outlook would take him to the end of April while an 8-week outlook would end his regular season. Either way, this likely means more minutes for guys like Joel Edmundson (who has been over 20 minutes in four straight games) and Alexander Romanov, who cracked 20 minutes his last time out for only the second time in a month. We will see if this changes their deadline moves at all.

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An update on Tuukka Rask:

Cassidy said Tuukka Rask has traveled with the Bruins and is on the ice now with the taxi squad.

— Amalie Benjamin (@AmalieBenjamin) March 15, 2021

It looks like the Bruins should be back to their 1A/1B situation soon.

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Washington laid the wood to Buffalo 6-0 in a game where the Sabres really seemed they'd rather be elsewhere. I get that Jack Eichel is out and that hurts, but this is something else.

Anyway, it wasn't a huge night for anyone not named Nick Jensen (0-2, +2, 2 BS) or Justin Schultz (0-2, +4, 1SOG, 1BS) as those players were the only ones, including Conor Sheary's two assists, to have multi-point games. Kuznetsov, Ovechkin, and Sprong among the goal scorers. For Sprong, that makes three goals in four games and six in 17 on the year playing basically 10 minutes a night. That is a good showing.

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Nashville took a 4-1 matinée from Tampa Bay, largely thanks to the four-point game from Calle Jarnkrok. Eeli Tolvanen also scored, giving him six goals in 20 games on the year while playing 14 minutes a game. It is a wonder he wasn't in the lineup for the first three weeks of the season.

Pekka Rinne had arguably his best outing of the year, saving 38 of 39 to stonewall the Lightning in the win.

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Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists while Evgeni Malkin had one and one in Pittsburgh's 4-1 win over Boston. For Malkin, that's points in eight straight, a stretch that has seen him put up 12 points. Again, still not much for shots, but the points are real nice.

This pushed Crosby over a point-per-game status, giving him 29 in 27 games on the season.

Tristan Jarry stood on his head, saving 42 of 43 shots.

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Aleksander Barkov had a three-point game (1-2) while Carter Verhaege, Alex Wennberg, and Gustav Forsling each had one and one.

Barkov just had one of those games where it seemed he willed the team over the finish line. Over 21 minutes, a short-handed goal, and two of his three points in the third period. Those are the kinds of things Hall of Famers are made of.

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Thatcher Demko stopped 44 of 46 shots faced in an outstanding 3-2 win over Ottawa. J.T. Miller scored the overtime winner, but it would have all been for naught were it not for Demko's heroics.

That is the fourth game on the season with at least 40 saves for Demko. He is 2-2 in those games.

Colin White scored his eighth goal of the year to continue his solid season. Though, he did give the puck away on an earlier goal, so we'lll call it even.

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I am legally obligated to talk about Jakub Vrana at least once a month so I figure I'll get my March obligation out of the way today.

In years gone by, I have extolled the virtues of Vrana and his production. Mostly, I lamented the fact that he was one of the most productive wingers in hockey for years and the team refused to use him on the top PP unit, and used him in borderline third-line minutes. It isn't hyperbole to say he was one of the most productive wingers in hockey for a couple years, either – in the two seasons covering 2018-2020, here are Vrana's comparables by primary points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5:

Hey, those guys around him are pretty good! And yet, Vrana earned less TOI per game at 5-on-5 than guys like Vinnie Hinostroza and Brett Connolly. Even among his own team's forwards, he was a distant sixth by TOI/game.

Fast forward to this year and, well, it's just more of the same. By total points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, Vrana leads the Caps and is top-10 league-wide, exceeding even names like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. This isn't a mirage of secondary assists, either, as he still exceeds those guys when factoring just primary points.

All this has led to a season where he has 10 goals and 20 points in 26 games. He is still averaging under 15 minutes a game, which would work out to about 1200 minutes in a full 82-game season. That is playing to a 30-goal, 60-point pace with under 15 minutes a game. And he is basically on his third year of this level of production.

The power play is where we had hopes he could make strides. And, for the first time in years, the Caps have run two somewhat even PP units this year. What they've done is just spread Alex Ovechkin over both units and gone with something like a 60/40 split. This has led to a career-high in PPTOI/game for Vrana.

The unfortunate part is that Vrana has done nothing with those PP minutes. In fact, almost no one on the team has: Nicklas Backstrom is the only Caps forward in the top-40 league-wide in PP points/60 minutes. The team still has a top-10 power play, so they're achieving more or less the same results with a different process. This is probably good for the team as it gives some of their top guys a bit more of a rest, but it's not great for us fantasy-wise. This is especially true where the Caps draw among the least PP opportunities per game in the league.

Even just modest production on the PP this year would have Vrana flirting with point-per-game status; the median points/60 rate at 5-on-4 this year is about 2.5 times higher than what Vrana has done. That would push him to roughly 23 points in 26 games, again, playing under 15 minutes a night. It is absolutely incredible what he's done, and he's probably left points on the table.

Ovechkin is UFA after this season and Vrana is RFA. If they want to keep the former, they're probably looking at a short-term deal worth $10M-plus annually. Vrana is an interesting case. He is clearly a top-end winger but doesn't have the raw stats to back it up because of a lack of TOI. Maybe they can get them both in under the flat cap? If they do let Ovechkin go, they could turn the keys over to Vrana. What they do with Ovi will tell us a lot about Vrana's fantasy value for the next couple years.

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When thinking about Washington, I would be remiss to not mention just how well they've played over the last month. They got Evgeny Kuznetsov back in the lineup exactly a month ago and this is the team's stats and results since (not including Monday night's game, and all from Natural Stat Trick):

• Second-best expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5
• Seventh by expected goal share at 5-on-5
• Sixth by actual goals for per 60 minutes at 5-on-5
• Fourth by actual goal share at 5-on-5
• 11-2-1 in that span

That is just superb hockey. They are riding a bit of a shooting streak, coming in fourth by shooting percentage, but they've been one of the best teams in hockey with mid-pack goaltending. After a rough start to the season that saw like half the roster on the COVID list, they look every bit the Cup contender they hope to be.

The defence is what's really throwing me for a loop. This wasn't a good defensive team last year and there were no significant additions outside of Zdeno Chara. Can he be having that much of an impact? I doubt it.

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Just wanted to say that I thought the Flames looked very impressive under new coach Darryl Sutter. Yeah it's a small sample and all that, but this is a Flames team that should be able to run three lines and has basically looked like a doormat for most of this season. This wasn't the case with the two games under Sutter.

It never made sense to me that Sutter was fired in Los Angeles. That was just a very bad roster that no coach could do much with. I even pointed out two and a half years ago that he probably got the most out of that awful Kings team that he could:

suppose this is the time to just casually mention that in Darryl Sutter's last season with the Kings, they were 2nd in 5v5 adj. CF%
in the 95 games since he was fired, the team is 19th in 5v5 adj. CF% https://t.co/QBLZItByYa

— Michael Clifford (@SlimCliffy) November 4, 2018

Maybe I'm wrong and Sutter flames out (pun definitely intended) but I've always thought he was a very good coach. Is he the right coach for Calgary? We will see. But I do think this is an improvement and this makes Calgary a genuine challenger for the final playoff spot.

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One thing I have talked about a lot over at AwesemoDFS is that I think the injury to Colton Parayko has hurt St. Louis more than any other injury. Since he left the lineup, the team is 24^th by expected goal share, worse than teams like New Jersey and Ottawa. It isn't as if they're getting good results despite poor play, either, as their actual goal share in the last month is 38.2 percent, or 30^th in the league. Only Buffalo is worse. Only. Buffalo. Is. Worse.

ONLY

BUFFALO

IS

WORSE

Sorry I just had to write that out a few times to make sure I understood it.

Yes, there are other injuries here. Jaden Schwartz and Robert Thomas surely hurt as well. But teams like Chicaco (Toews, Dach) and Colorado (four defencemen, namely Makar and Byram) have been hit with serious injuries and not done nearly as poorly. Is there another issue besides Parayko? Yes, absolutely. This drop-off isn't entirely on him.

At the same time, this is a team without a true number-1 defenceman as long as he's out of the lineup. We can extoll Torey Krug's virtues, but he's been playing nearly 24 minutes a game this last month, and the processes/results speak for themselves: 43.3 percent expected goal share over the last month, 40.4 percent actual goal share. A number-1 defenceman, he is not.

This team needs Parayko back in the worst way and between him and the problems in Nashville, there are back-end problems across the league that are sinking teams. It is quite the phenomena to watch.