If you needed points, there were lots of them in the early games.

Pavel Buchnevich picked the perfect way to celebrate his birthday – with a hat trick. The three goals give Buchnevich 40 points in 43 games, which is easily the best points-per-game total of his career. Over a full season, that would put him on pace for 76 points. Beware the 18.8 SH%, which will likely regress for the Rangers' goal leader (19 goals). But that's not a massive outlier if you consider that his career shooting percentage is 14.0%.

Buchnevich's linemate Mika Zibanejad recorded three assists in this game. He's currently on a five-game point streak. His early-season deep freeze seems like a distant memory.

The Rangers received scoring from multiple lines in this game. Artemi Panarin piled up another four points (1 G, 3 A). He's scoring at an absurd pace right now with seven points over his last two games, as well as 21 points (8 G, 13 A) over his last ten games! Go to the hot players list on Frozen Tools and you'll find Panarin on the top of that list.

Bread Man's linemate Ryan Strome scored a goal and added two assists of his own, giving him five points over his last two games.

The Rangers are the only NHL team that has five players with 33+ points this season (Panarin, Fox, Strome, Buchnevich, Zibanejad). #NYR
— NYR Stats & Info (@NYRStatsInfo) April 14, 2021

Adam Fox was the only player on that list who did not record a point on Saturday. Fantasy owners shouldn't be too upset about that given Fox's overall body of work this season. However, he is no longer the leading scorer among defensemen.

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That leading scorer is John Carlson, who with four assists on Saturday pulled ahead of Fox in the blueliner scoring race. That was the first time in Carlson's career that he had recorded four assists. Carlson isn't scoring over a point per game like he had last season, but he does have seven points (all assists) over his last three games. Has Carlson been the top fantasy blueliner over the past few seasons in pure points leagues? His numbers seem to suggest that.

John Carlson leads NHL defensemen in points this season with 42 (10g, 32a). Since the start of the 2017-18 season, Carlson's 255 points (53g, 202a) rank first among defensemen.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) April 17, 2021

Alex Ovechkin scored another pair of goals along with an assist. Ovie now sits at 24 goals, which is third at the time of this writing. After a slow start, Ovechkin has scored 16 goals in his last 20 games, so I think we can safely conclude that this will not be the season where he slows down, even though he got off to a slow start (by his standards). Career-wise, he's now up to 730 goals, just one behind Marcel Dionne for fifth on the all-time list.

Ovie's linemate Evgeny Kuznetsov scored a goal and added two assists of his own. Kuznetsov entered this game with just one assist over his previous six games, so this was much-needed for him.

Anthony Mantha now has a goal in each of his three games in a Washington Capitals uniform. If the Capitals overpaid for Mantha, so far they've gotten what they've paid for.

Fantasy Impact: Jakub Vrana Traded for Anthony Mantha

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This shouldn't be a shocker to anyone. The Buffalo Sabres have been officially eliminated from a playoff spot. That's 10 consecutive seasons without playoffs. One more season of missed playoffs and they will hold the record for longest playoff drought in NHL history.

With the loss, the Sabres are officially eliminated from playoff contention.

10th straight season they will miss the playoffs ties the Florida Panthers (2001-11) and Edmonton Oilers (2007-16) for longest in NHL history.
— David Satriano (@davidsatriano) April 17, 2021

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Carey Price returned to the Montreal net after missing nearly two weeks with a lower-body injury. Save percentage wise, it wasn't his best start, as he allowed three goals on 14 shots.

The goalie at the other end was the star. Matt Murray recorded the Senators' first shutout in two years in stopping all 23 shots he faced. It was also Murray's first shutout since October 2019. In other words, a Senators shutout probably paid very good odds. Murray has posted two quality starts this week, so maybe he is starting to turn a corner on an otherwise disastrous season.

Drake Batherson scored two goals and added an assist to power the Senators offensively. Five of his 15 goals this season have been against the Habs. The line with youngsters Batherson, Brady Tkachuk, and Josh Norris has loads of potential. Tkachuk and Norris assisted on both of Batherson's goals. As well, Norris currently has a four-game point streak along with seven points (4 G, 3 A) over his last six games.

Also for the Senators, Shane Pinto (Dobber Prospects profile) made his NHL debut on Saturday. He recorded an assist in 9:24 of icetime playing on a line with Connor Brown and Alex Formenton. In spite of the win, Brown's nine-game point streak came to an end.

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Another goalie returned from injury on Saturday, this one from an even longer layoff. Darcy Kuemper played his first game in over a month, and it resulted in a much-needed win. Kuemper stopped 20 of 22 shots to help the Coyotes snap a five-game losing streak in which all of Adin Hill, Ivan Prosvetov, and Antti Raanta started. Even with Kuemper and Raanta recently returning, Hill remains on the roster. Assuming Kuemper is fully healthy, he should take over as the starter again, considering his numbers are clearly better than the other three goalies. Raanta has been in and out of the lineup with injury so often that I wouldn't write Hill off completely this season, even with a Kuemper return.

Michael Bunting was at it again on Saturday with another goal. He now has seven goals (and just one assist) in 10 games. What's his shooting percentage, you ask? 31.8%. As I mentioned last week, there might be some bangers league value, but obviously the goals won't continue to come at this pace.

You probably haven't heard much about this stat because he plays in Arizona, but Alex Goligoski now has 12 points (2 G, 10 A) over his last 13 games. This after he recorded a meager two assists over his first 32 games. Added power-play time has something to do with it, as four of those points have come with the man advantage. But since there hasn't been a big jump in his overall icetime otherwise, what explains the rest of the points? Maybe being Jakob Chychrun's defensive partner.

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With another goal on Saturday, Zach Parise now has goals in three consecutive games to go with a plus-5 over that span. The Parise – Nick Bonino – Nico Sturm line has been connecting recently, as Bonino now has six points over his last three games and Sturm has points in three of his last four games.

Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc were both demoted to the fourth line after the first period of Saturday's game. Labanc ended up playing 17:34 in the game while adding an assist in the third period. Meier was affected more, skating just 13:29 in the game, but it must have motivated him because he took five shots. I wouldn't be too concerned if you own either player (Meier more likely to be owned than Labanc), but we have seen players healthy scratched more often this season due to poor defensive play or lack of effort.

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It's crunch time in fantasy leagues, which is why it makes perfect sense that Mike Smith picked up a shutout on Saturday. My head-to-head opponent had him on his bench, so maybe he didn't feel confident in starting Smith against the Jets (or the more likely scenario that he will probably miss the fantasy playoffs and doesn't care at this point). Smith has three shutout this season to go with solid ratios (2.36 GAA, .922 SV%) and has taken over the starting goalie job. I've criticized Dave Tippett for sticking with Smith this long, but maybe that's why he's the Oilers coach and I'm not.

Tippett recently decided to let Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl join forces again, and the lucky third man on that line is Jesse Puljujarvi. By many accounts, Puljujarvi had a strong game on Saturday, scoring a goal assisted by both of his linemates. Pool Party hasn't been a consistent fantasy option this season, or for his entire NHL career for that matter. Now would be a great time to add him (just 13 percent owned in Yahoo leagues), even though the Oils play just two games next week (Monday and Wednesday against Montreal).

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The Predators received Matt Duchene back on Saturday, as he had been out of the lineup since early March. Duchene was held without a point in just under 15 minutes while playing on a line with Erik Haula and Nick Cousins. Duchene probably shouldn't be on your fantasy roster at the moment, as he has been held without a point in nine consecutive games dating back to mid-February.

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Sam Bennett impressed in his Panthers debut on Saturday, recording two assists with a plus-3 and five hits. Bennett had been rumored to have requested a trade from the Flames earlier this season, so this might fall into the "fresh start" category. The fact that he has been placed on the second line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Anthony Duclair might help with that fresh start. Little-known fact: Bennett currently has a five-game point streak (seven points, all assists), although it won't be recorded as such because of the games he missed while quarantining.

Fantasy Impact: Panthers Acquire Sam Bennett

Speaking of Duclair, he has a legit five-game point streak, including goals in three of his past five games. He's also a plus-7 over that span.

The loss to the Panthers was Andrei Vasilevskiy's first home loss of the season in 15 home games.

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Kevin Lankinen has the big-time split against Detroit (4-1, 1.60 GAA, .950 SV%), but he struggled a bit on Thursday against Detroit. So naturally (or not), Malcolm Subban received the nod for Saturday's rematch with the Wings. That was the right call, as Subban stopped all 29 shots he faced in earning a 4-0 shutout win. That was his first start since way back on March 28, as it's been all Lankinen for the Blackhawks recently.

Since being traded to the Hawks, Vinnie Hinostroza has recorded five assists in six games. Even though Hinostroza had some success with Chicago in the past, I'll admit I did not see this coming. Hinostroza has been added to Patrick Kane's line, which will no doubt help. As Dobber mentioned here, trading Mattias Janmark and Carl Soderberg may help Hinostroza. However, one red flag if you're adding Hinostroza: virtually no power-play time, which has limited his overall icetime with the Hawks to just 12 minutes per game.

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Finally, congratulations to Patrick Marleau for playing in his 1,767^th career NHL game, tying the great Gordie Howe. Marleau certainly wasn't as old as Howe when he played his final NHL game for the old Hartford Whalers, as Howe also had some WHA games in his career. The fact that Marleau has played this many games is amazing, if you consider the accolades that a player receives when he reaches 1,000 games. Marleau will have the opportunity to break Howe's long-standing record on Monday night in Vegas.

This is one of the coolest stats I've seen in a while.

Mind blowing stat>> Patrick Marleau of #SJSharks has appeared in at least one game with 37% of every #NHL player who has ever played in the 104 year history of the league (3009 of 8100)
Source @SharksStats pic.twitter.com/TkSU0jiOPN
— Jonathan Becher (@jbecher) April 17, 2021

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