Before Saturday's game, Brad Marchand was placed on the COVID protocol list. That resulted in young banger Trent Frederic being placed on the top line with Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak. Although Frederic did not record a point, he logged a season-high 17:30 of icetime and 2:14 on the second power-play unit. Frederic is the Bruins' runaway leader in penalty minutes (53) and is tied for fourth in hits (42), so those in bangers leagues in particular should keep an eye on him while Marchand is out.

Linus Ullmark was activated from IR to start Saturday's game. He qualified for a quality start in allowing three goals on 36 shots, but as expected the Sabres lost again. It's now 17 games without a win, which has now been over a month. Ullmark's season numbers (2.49 GAA, .918 SV%, 46.2 QS%) are actually pretty good if you consider the team he plays for. If you're okay not earning a win, he may be worth adding. Conversely, he should improve Buffalo's goaltending situation, which might mean they finally pull out a victory at some point.

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The Flyers were in desperate need of a strong goaltending performance on Saturday, and they received it from Brian Elliott. The 35-year-old Elliott stopped 24 of 25 shots to backstop the Flyers to a 2-1 win over the Rangers. This was a nice bounce-back game for the Flyers, who allowed eight goals to the Rangers on Thursday, just over a week after allowing nine goals to the same Rangers squad.

Despite the loss, Mika Zibanejad scored another goal. We know that he's gone from freezing cold to scorching hot this season, so let's check out his splits:

Quarter	GP	PTS
1	13	3 PTS (1 G, 2 A)
2	13	8 PTS (2 G, 6 A)
3	7	16 PTS (8 G, 8 A)

Mika Zibanejad this season:

vs Flyers: 15 points (7 goals, 8 assists) in five-plus games
vs all others: 12 points (4 goals, 8 assists) in 27 games

— David Satriano (@davidsatriano) March 27, 2021

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Here's Max Pacioretty's overtime goal, which is his 18^th of the season.

OT winner No. 4 for Max Pacioretty this season!

NHL x @trulyseltzer pic.twitter.com/goW4TdqmeZ

— NHL (@NHL) March 27, 2021

With six goals over his last six games, Patches is now tied for fourth in league goal scoring. A top-5 shot total also helps, which has made him a top-tier option in roto leagues.

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Joonas Korpisalo is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, so it's going to be Elvis Merzlikins time for the Blue Jackets. Unfortunately, he could not take advantage of a matchup with the Red Wings, allowing three goals on 34 shots in a 3-1 loss. That does qualify as a quality start, but his fantasy owners were definitely hoping for more.

Dylan Larkin registered two assists while taking six shots in the Detroit win. Despite that, Larkin has been held without a goal for seven games.

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On Saturday, the Rangers traded Brendan Lemieux to the Kings for a fourth-round pick. Lemieux is not a big-time scorer, as he has two goals and seven points in 31 games. However, he has some value in bangers leagues with 59 penalty minutes and 65 hits, as well as double-digit penalty minutes and hits over the past two seasons. Because of the Lemieux trade, Vitali Kravtsov could find a spot in the Rangers lineup sooner rather than later.

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Cole Caufield has signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Canadiens. Caufield was named the Big Ten Player of the Year after leading the division with 52 points in 31 games. Caufield is being assigned to the AHL to start, but I'd have to think it won't be long before he's on the Canadiens. View his Dobber Prospects profile.

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Even with Filip Forsberg out on Saturday with an upper-body injury, the Predators won their fourth consecutive game. With the win over Chicago, the Predators are now only two points behind the Blackhawks for the final playoff spot in the Central Division (same number of games). Not to mention that the two teams face each other again today (Sunday).

Juuse Saros has a lot to do with that Predators resurgence. In stopping 29 of 30 shots, Saros posted his seventh quality start in his last eight games. Compare his quarterly splits:

Quarter	GP	GAA	SV%
1	9	3.66	0.880
2	4	1.81	0.933
3	5	0.81	0.977

How good has it been for Saros? Since February 13, no goalie that has played a minimum of 10 games has better ratios (1.28 GAA, .959 SV%) than Saros. Remember that Saros posted a .935 SV% over the final two months of last season, so he has some brilliant play in him. Obviously he'll need to demonstrate this play over a longer stretch before he can be listed in the same breath as the top fantasy goalies, but he's shown flashes of brilliance. More wins from the Predators would also help.

A game after his four-goal outburst, Rocco Grimaldi scored again for the Predators. Grimaldi now has eight goals but just one assist on the season.

You may remember Kirby Dach's untimely broken wrist at the start of the World Juniors. He finally made his return from that injury on Saturday, logging 20 minutes on a line with Dylan Strome and Mattias Janmark. He did not record a point while taking one shot. The 2019 third overall pick is worth a pickup in deeper leagues and is worth watching in other leagues.  

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No Aleksander Barkov? No problem, just turn to Carter Verhaeghe. Maybe fantasy hockey's out-of-nowhere player of the year, Verhaeghe recorded a hat trick by scoring at even strength, on the power play, and shorthanded. Verhaeghe also logged a career-high 24 minutes in this game. After being a spare part for the Stanley Cup champion Lightning last season, Verhaeghe has found a home with the Panthers.

You may also remember Noel Acciari from back-to-back hat tricks, but he has also benefitted from Barkov's injury. He has moved on to Verhaeghe's line and recorded four primary assists over his last three games.  

Aaron Ekblad had an overtime he might never forget. After scoring an overtime goal that was called back because of offside, he promptly fixed the problem by scoring another one.

If first you don't succeed, try, try again! Aaron Ekblad (@Ekblad5FLA) notched this one for the OT winner.

NHL x @trulyseltzer pic.twitter.com/Gs8godmcMv

— NHL (@NHL) March 28, 2021

Lost in that ending is the fact that Ekblad is tied for the league lead in goals from defensemen with Jeff Petry and Darnell Nurse. All three d-men have scored 11 goals. Also, Ekblad logged 27:43 in a game in which the Panthers used seven defensemen.

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Is it time to stop calling Bryan Rust's 2019-20 season a fluke and start considering him a legit fantasy option? Rust recorded his own hat trick on Saturday, which extends his point streak to six games. It seemed like a given that Rust wouldn't repeat his 27 goals and 56 points in 55 games last season, even as a winger for Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. If a point per game isn't possible, then how about 0.8 PTS/GP this season (28 PTS in 35 GP)?

Make that 36 goals, 77 pts as Rust gets the hatty.

— NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) March 28, 2021

Rust's 0.93 PTS/GP between this season and last ranks him 31^st in the league among players who have played at least 60 games. That puts him in the same ballpark as players considered stars like Brayden Point, Elias Pettersson, and John Tavares. Interesting.

The Penguins chased Ilya Sorokin from the net after he allowed four goals on nine shots. That ended Sorokin's eight-game win streak. Over that time he's managed to push himself into a timeshare with Semyon Varlamov. In spite of the really bad start, expect that timeshare to continue.

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The Arizona version of Phil Kessel has been channeling the Phil Kessel of old recently. With a hat trick on Saturday, Kessel now has goals in three consecutive games. His 14 goals on the season matches his total from all of last season – in half as many games! Before you run to the waiver wire, though, keep in mind that Kessel is shooting an unsustainable 22.2%. So this run won't last, even though this is a nice story and proves that Kessel's fantasy value hasn't dried up in the desert.

Clayton Keller scored three points of his own (a goal and two assists) on Saturday. He's also been on a run recently with seven points (3 G, 4 A) over his last six games.

Playing on consecutive nights isn't always bad for a goalie. Just ask Adin Hill, who posted a 34-save shutout a night after he earned a win against the same Sharks. If you need goaltending help, you could do worse, as it looks like he will start a ton of games while both Darcy Kuemper and Antti Raanta are out of the lineup.

Don’t look now, but the Coyotes are now tied with the Blues for the final playoff spot in the West. The Blues possess a game in hand, though.

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Martin Necas is becoming a serious scoring threat for the Hurricanes. He led the way with two goals and two assists to go with six shots in Carolina's 4-3 win over Tampa Bay. Here's more stats on his night:

Marty Necas has been going off all month, but tonight vs. the Lightning was next level:

•23:16 time on ice
•2 goals (including game winner)
•2 assists
•10 shot attempts
•Hit the post twice

— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) March 28, 2021

In case you didn't know, Necas is knocking at the door at reaching a point per game (28 PTS in 30 GP), which includes nine points over his last six games. His emergence is one key reason that the Hurricanes are just one point behind the Lightning for first place in the NHL.

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Connor McDavid threads the needle on this pass to Leon Draisaitl. Just another day at the office.

This post features Connor McDavid (@cmcdavid97) and Leon Draisaitl. You know what it's about.

🇨🇦: https://t.co/Z5AV7GQ8RJ @Sportsnet
📱: https://t.co/A1bUV93mft pic.twitter.com/2K5DFxWIKj

— NHL (@NHL) March 28, 2021

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Here's Darryl Sutter being Darryl Sutter. Not the usual canned response that you'd find in a typical hockey interview.

"Hopefully he has more energy than in his 499th game." – Darryl Sutter on Johnny Gaudreau playing his 500th career @NHL game tonight. pic.twitter.com/4SPRPePft3

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 27, 2021

At the time I wrote the Fantasy Take on the Sutter hiring, I wondered how Johnny Gaudreau would fare in a Sutter system, and we're finding that out now. Gaudreau assisted on Mark Giordano's first-period power-play goal, which helped the Flames break their four-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Jets. This assist is important because it was playmaker Gaudreau's first since the Sutter hiring.

In those 12 games under Sutter, Gaudreau also has four goals. However, five points in 12 games for a player as talented as Johnny Hockey doesn't strike me as a player who is thriving under Sutter's system. If the Flames miss the playoffs, I'd think they're shopping Gaudreau, who has a year left under his contract.

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Finally, a late-night quintuple-overtime winner for the Minnesota-Duluth over North Dakota. You don’t get to see that every day.

UMD wins in the 5th OT, the eighth period pic.twitter.com/61z9bcRpvB

— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) March 28, 2021

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