After a week off, let's see if I remember how to do this. Setting a fantasy lineup in these times of the omicron variant has been more about finding players that fit the following criteria: 1) Their team is playing today, and 2) The player is not injured or on COVID protocol. There. That's it. I guess I can wrap up today's article with that little bit of sage advice, right?

Okay, I need to come up with a little more than that. So let's go.

A good place to start might be that Sunshine State battle between Florida and Tampa Bay. While players run through the revolving door known as COVID protocol, we're witnessing some crazy scores. 8-7 between San Jose and Arizona two nights ago? How about the defending Stanley Cup champions giving up nine goals because both their first- and second-string goalies are on the COVID list?

NHL COVID-19 Tracker: Monitoring outbreaks across the league

Maxime Lagace started for the Lightning for the second consecutive game, allowing six goals to the Panthers in two periods before being pulled. Lagace has allowed at least four goals in each of his two games with Tampa since his callup. Despite playing for one of the league's top teams, he only appears to be a matchup-based start at best. It's possible that Hugo Alnefelt (Dobber Prospects profile) could make his first NHL start against the Rangers tonight (Friday) if Andrei Vasilevskiy isn't ready to return from COVID protocol. Alnefelt took over in the third period of Thursday's game from Lagace, allowing three goals of his own. Just an awful night for Lightning goalies. Vasilevskiy can't come back soon enough.

Victor Hedman was a minus-6 in this game, by far the worst on the Lightning. Even if you don't look highly upon plus/minus, you have to admit that's not a number you'd expect from Hedman. Consider it an anomaly.

The Jonathan Huberdeau – Anthony Duclair unit did the most damage for the Panthers. Duclair scored twice and added an assist, while Huberdeau scored a goal and piled up four helpers while finishing with a plus-4. Duclair has scored goals in back-to-back games since the pause. Meanwhile, Huberdeau's 1.23 PTS/GP pace is the best of his career. If Huby can keep up that pace, he will be in for his first 100-point season. He's currently the best player on one of my fantasy teams.  

One of those four assists looked pretty damn impressive.

Huby's pass >>>>>>>>@FlaPanthers | #TimeToHunt pic.twitter.com/0m9HlHGRnI

— Bally Sports Florida: Panthers (@BallyPanthers) December 31, 2021

Let's talk about five-point games for a bit. Huberdeau is quite familiar with them.

Jonathan Huberdeau had four regular-season games with five points in the calendar year 2021.

The last six players to do that in a calendar year — Eric Lindros, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Dave Andreychuk, Pat LaFontaine and Wayne Gretzky — are all in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) December 31, 2021

Jonathan Huberdeau (1-4—5) factored on five of the @FlaPanthers' nine goals, the second most the club has scored in a game in franchise history behind a 10-goal contest on Nov. 26, 1997 (10-5 W vs. BOS).#NHLStats: https://t.co/IhldVsoQI9 pic.twitter.com/5KLDosiEfo

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 31, 2021

Frank Vatrano scored a goal and added an assist, ending a 10-game goalless slide. He had recorded just one assist over that span.

Not all Panthers could bump the slump, though. Patric Hornqvist was the only Panthers forward who failed to record a point, which means that he has been without a point for five consecutive games. What's more concerning is that his icetime has been dropping. Hornqvist was held to just under 13 minutes on Wednesday, and he skated just 11:01 on Thursday. The good news is that he has taken at least three shots in each of those five games, averaging just over five spots over that span. He's still receiving some power-play time, so you can continue to be patient if you are in a deeper format.  

It hasn't been all bad for the Bolts either. Steven Stamkos scored one of the Lightning's goals, which gives him points in 14 of his last 15 games. He has 19 points (6 G, 13 A) over that span.

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Brendan Gallagher left Thursday's game with a lower-body injury, which will make the Canadiens forward lines even more unrecognizable if he misses time. Only a diehard Habs fan would recognize some of the names below from Thursday's line combinations.

RYAN POEHLING – RAFAEL HARVEY-PINARD – COLE CAUFIELD

BRENDAN GALLAGHER – NICK SUZUKI – LUKAS VEJDEMO

JAKE EVANS – JESSE YLONEN – ALEX BELZILE

CEDRIC PAQUETTE – JAKE EVANS – JESSE YLONEN

CEDRIC PAQUETTE – BRANDON BADDOCK – MICHAEL PEZZETTA

Early daily fantasy tip: stock up on Panthers for Saturday's matchup against the Habs in South Florida.

With Frederik Andersen just clearing COVID protocol, Antti Raanta was a nice spot start for me on Thursday. Raanta stopped 26 shots in pitching a 4-0 shutout over those same Habs. This was Raanta's first shutout as a Hurricane, and he has posted three consecutive quality starts. Expect Andersen to continue to carry the load, but Raanta could help you earn a W as a short-term add whenever he starts.

Teuvo Teravainen scored two goals while firing six shots. He has scored power-play goals in back-to-back games and has 11 points in nine games this month.

Sebastian Aho, who assisted on both of Turbo's goals, now has six straight multipoint games. That's 14 points over those six games. Aho was playing in his first game since December 11, but it goes without saying that he should be in your lineup every time he plays.

Jaccob Slavin chipped in three assists, giving him points in back-to-back games.

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The Vegas Golden Knights were getting healthy, but now they're getting injured again. Max Pacioretty is expected to be out indefinitely following wrist surgery. That's an entire first line that's not active at the moment. Mark Stone is on IR again, while Jack Eichel has yet to make his Vegas debut. The plan might be a Tampa Bay Lightning-like salary cap maneuver, but the Golden Knights first have to ensure their scoring doesn't run dry to the point that they can't secure a playoff spot. Regardless, they currently sit atop the Pacific Division.

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If you try to pay attention to recent line combinations but don't stay up too late, you may want to keep Vinni Lettieri on your watch list. Not only was Lettieri on the Anaheim first line with Troy Terry and Ryan Getzlaf on Wednesday, but he was also on the first-unit power play. Trevor Zegras will likely bump Lettieri from the first-unit power play once he returns from COVID protocol, and Sam Steel may do the same on the top line. Yet COVID protocol is putting a lot of teams in flux, which makes players like the 26-year-old AHL veteran Lettieri cheap short-term adds. He's also available in just about every Yahoo league (0% rostered, which doesn't mean he hasn't been added anywhere… just that the number is closer to 0% than 1%).

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Mathew Barzal returned from COVID protocol with a bang, scoring a goal while adding two assists and firing eight shots. If you ignore the break while he was sidelined, Barzal has at least a point in each of his last seven games. For the month of December, that's 12 points in seven games. The Islanders haven't had a whole lot of hot skaters this season, but Barzal has been the exception this month.

After injury and a slow start, Semyon Varlamov is finally finding his game. With 36 saves in the 4-1 win over Buffalo, Varlamov has allowed just one goal in each of his last two games. Those two games constitute his only two wins of the season.

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Patrik Laine returned to the Blue Jackets lineup on Thursday, having been out since early November. The sniping winger managed to do what he does best, which is score a goal while firing seven shots. It's a small sample size, but Laine has 11 points in 10 games this season. Perhaps he is primed to be that bounce-back player some of us expected, although he's missed the majority of the season with an oblique injury.

Adam Boqvist also returned to the Columbus lineup, having been out since early December. Boqvist recorded an assist.

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Wouldn't you know it… Mark Giordano scored three points in his first game against his former team. Giordano scored a first-period goal, then later added two assists for his first multiple-point game as a member of the Kraken. Gio entered the game without a point in his previous four games and without a goal since November 6 (13 games), so getting picked by Seattle in the expansion draft hasn't really helped the 38-year-old's fantasy stock, which is on the decline. With the Kraken currently sitting at the bottom of the Pacific, it's quite possible they move their captain at the deadline, since he's on the final year of his contract.

Mark Giordano scores against his old 𝙛𝙡𝙖𝙢𝙚. 😏 pic.twitter.com/xDX5IjBnFf

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 31, 2021

In the end, Giordano's old team prevailed 6-4. Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk also each recorded three points. Gaudreau scored two goals while taking five shots, and he was even on the ice in the final minute to help protect the lead. The Darryl Sutter hiring last season was thought to spell the end of Gaudreau in Calgary, but Johnny Hockey is scoring at over a point per game for the first time in three seasons. There's still the matter of trying to sign him before he becomes a free agent this offseason, but it seems like Gaudreau and Sutter can make it work together in Cowtown.

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For those of you who play the Tim's Hockey Challenge game, I specifically picked Bo Horvat to score a goal on Thursday. He did everything but score on Wednesday, taking six shots and getting open for numerous scoring chances. He came through on Thursday, scoring the game-tying goal on the power play in the third period. Horvat now has four goals in his last four games and has taken six shots in three of his last five games. He's another player who has benefitted under the new Bruce Boudreau system in Vancouver.

With the assist on the Horvat goal, J.T. Miller now has an eight-game point streak. That's points in all eight games under Boudreau. The Canucks are in a conundrum with Miller, who has been their best player under Boudreau and arguably further back than that. If the Canucks continue to accrue points and climb back into the playoff race, then they need to keep Miller. But if they fall back to earth, then they have to consider trading Miller and his team-friendly ($5.25 million) contract that expires at the end of next season. Imagine a team on a seven-game win streak (now eight games with at least a point) discussing trading their best scorer.

Cal Petersen's last game was on December 6. Even with the COVID-extended holiday break and with Petersen in COVID protocol for part of that time, that was eight games ago. We might have been a year too early on the "Jonathan Quick is ready to give up the net" take. Quick was hardly tested by a weary Canucks team on Thursday, making 17 saves in a 2-1 shootout win. Quick had allowed five goals in his previous two starts. So it seems like Todd McLellan is committed to the veteran, at least for now.

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Tomas Hertl scored the overtime winner and added an assist on Thursday, extending his point streak to eight games. Hertl has been red hot with eight goals and 12 points over those eight games.

In his NHL debut, Felix Sandstrom (Dobber Prospects profile) probably deserved better. Sandstrom made 43 saves for the Flyers but could not pick up the win in a game that was 31 seconds away from a shootout. Sandstrom received the start because Carter Hart is currently in COVID protocol and Martin Jones started the previous night. Assuming Hart returns soon, I don't know that we'll see much more of Sandstrom this season.

Sean Couturier has officially been placed on IR. He is currently week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

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Happy New Year! Even if your celebration is more subdued, I'll still have a Ramblings for you tomorrow. For more fantasy hockey discussion, follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding