Hey there. If you were looking forward to reading the Monday Ramblings written by Dobber himself, sorry, you're stuck with me for one more day. I look forward to reading his Ramblings just as much as you do, so I'll try to fill the space with something worth your time here. If you need to find out why, just go to his Twitter.

So how have your fantasy playoffs been? If you were able to win this week, congratulations. Hopefully you can keep that momentum going. If not, we knew it would be a wack season and just getting to play fantasy hockey would be a reward. Myself, I was able to win both of my head-to-head playoff matches this week. One matchup was a blowout victory against a team that blew me out just two weeks before, which nearly knocked me out of playoff contention. I won the next week and had to get help from another team to make the playoffs. In my other league, a 7-0 category lead at the start of the day became 6-4, but I had enough of a lead in the other categories that I was only mildly concerned that I would lose. Plus I held the tiebreaker of a 5-4 head-to-head win from earlier in the season.

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If you needed goals from the Boston/Pittsburgh game on Sunday, you unfortunately did not receive them. At least not for the first two periods, where these two top-half offenses were held scoreless. Then in the third period, Jake Guentzel scored the game's only goal to give the Penguins a 1-0 victory. Guentzel pulls into the team goal lead with 21.

Since January 1, 2019, Jake Guentzel has quietly amassed the 16th best point per game production (1.05)

That's ahead of guys like Eichel, Schiefele, Stone, Rantanen, and Aho.

Not bad.

— /Cam Robinson/ (@Hockey_Robinson) April 25, 2021

Tristan Jarry pitched a 30-save shutout, which is his very first shutout of the season. He hasn't struggled recently, though, posting quality starts in six of his last seven games. Over that span he has a 6-0-1 with a 1.98 GAA and .931 SV%. Pittsburgh has some tougher matchups next week (vs. BOS, 2x @WSH), but start him as you normally would.

Jeremy Swayman stopped 28 of 29 shots in the loss. He has also posted six quality starts in the seven games that he has played in since being recalled, with a shutout in his previous start Thursday against Buffalo. His season ratios (1.57 GAA, .946 SV%) have been exceptional, so he's worth a spot start when he gets the nod.

Patrice Bergeron was back in the Bruins lineup after a one-game absence, which meant that Charlie Coyle's time on the top line was short-lived. Coyle has just one point in his last eight games, and he has not scored a goal in 27 games (just seven assists over that span). I suppose you can give him a go if you desperately need a streamer, but he simply hasn't been producing.

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It's been a tale of two seasons for Mika Zibanejad, who recorded his league-leading third hat trick of the campaign on Sunday.

Jan 14 – Feb 28: 19 GP, 2 G, 4 A, 6 PTS, 3.5 SH%, 57 SOG

Mar 1 – today: 30 GP, 17 G, 22 A, 39 PTS, 20.2 SH%, 84 SOG

By late February, there was concern that something was off with Zibanejad, who reportedly battled COVID before the season started. He was shooting the puck, but the finish wasn't there. Now it's completely swung the other way and he's been producing at last season's pace (1.3 PTS/GP) since March 1. Do the math and you'll see that he's been shooting at the same rate the entire season (in fact, he was shooting a little more when he was slumping). He's scored at a top-10 rate for nearly the past two months. Hopefully you didn't bail, and maybe you even seized the opportunity to buy very low. Patience is a virtue.

Kaapo Kakko chipped in a pair of goals for the Blueshirts. It's hard to know whether youngsters like Kakko, Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil, and Vitali Kravtsov will play enough meaningful minutes to add as potential streamers for the rest of the season. I am, of course, describing their value in the here and now as opposed to their long-term value, which is very high for each. Kakko has at least recorded points in back-to-back games, so there might be something there if he's on your waiver wire.

With a goal on Sunday, Sam Reinhart now has eight goals in his last nine games, including a hat trick on Friday. Only 12 players have more goals than he does. For more on Reinhart, read the Ramblings from two days ago.

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A two-goal lead with under two minutes to play seemed like a safe lead for the Devils to break their nine-game losing streak, right? Claude Giroux said not so fast, scoring two late third-period goals with the goalie pulled. Not long before Giroux scored the two goals, I answered a question on Twitter as to whether he should be dropped. The reason? Giroux entered this game no with goals in his last 11 games and just two assists in his last eight games. I said this even before the two goals: hang onto Giroux, as he and the Flyers face New Jersey three more times this week. When deciding whether to add or drop a player during this crunch time, consider not only the player's performance, but also his overall number of games and strength of schedule.

So that's now a 10-game winless streak for the Devils. Note that I didn't say losing streak, as Philly eventually won in a shootout and New Jersey was at least able to collect a loser point. Over that span, Mackenzie Blackwood has posted three really bad starts to go with three quality starts, which works out to a 3.62 GAA and .874 SV%. In addition, the Devils have allowed a minimum of three goals in each of these 10 games. Beyond the Flyers, the only remaining opponents for the Devils are the Bruins and Islanders in May, which if things continue to trend this way are days to stack players from those teams.

Shayne Gostisbehere, a player I suggested as a stream earlier in the week, missed this game with an MCL strain. He is expected to be sidelined for 7-10 days. Perhaps as a result, Ivan Provorov logged 29 minutes, while Travis Sanheim played a season-high 25:38. Provorov's 25:10 ATOI is sixth in the NHL this season.

Ivan Provorov played 29:01 tonight. It's the fourth time he's played at least 29 minutes in a game this season. The only players to do it more: Drew Doughty (9), Thomas Chabot (8), Darnell Nurse (5). Brent Burns also has 4 games of 29 minutes.

— Adam Kimelman (@NHLAdamK) April 26, 2021

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The last game to finish also went past the usual 60 minutes, but ended just 10 seconds into overtime.

Victor Hedman wasted NO TIME getting things done in OT!

NHL x @trulyseltzer pic.twitter.com/rVDPV6luiu

— NHL (@NHL) April 26, 2021

Ondrej Palat continued his point streak with that and more, scoring a goal and adding two assists. He now has goals in back-to-back games as well as a five-game point streak. No Steven Stamkos recently and no Nikita Kucherov all season has been no problem for Palat, as he is scoring at a career-high 0.88 PTS/GP. His linemate Brayden Point chipped in three helpers.

Alex Barre-Boulet was the third man on the Palat-Point unit. He also played on the first-unit power-play unit, where he scored his first NHL goal (and point). Barre-Boulet also fired six shots in his eighth game of the season. He has logged 17+ minutes over the last two games, so he might be worth keeping an eye on if you need immediate help. He's established himself as a near-point-per-game threat in the AHL over multiple seasons, so it's just a matter of him receiving more of an NHL opportunity. The Stamkos/Kucherov injuries have opened the door for that. For more, see his Dobber Prospects profile.

In a losing cause, Eric Robinson scored two goals for the Blue Jackets. He played on a line with Oliver Bjorkstrand and the struggling Max Domi, who both assisted on both Robinson goals. Robinson had not scored a goal in his previous 11 games, so this two-goal game would have helped very few rosters out there.

Joonas Korpisalo left this game right after the Barre-Boulet goal. He appeared to have injured his groin, although the team called it a lower-body injury. If you're considering adding Elvis Merzlikins as a result, keep in mind that the Jackets are the only team to play just two games next week (every other team plays either three or four games).  

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There are eight games tomorrow, so a relatively busy Monday is ahead. The first game starts at 6:30 pm ET (Montreal @ Calgary), so make sure your lineup is set a little earlier than normal. And good luck this coming week! For more fantasy hockey discussion, or to reach out to me, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding