Hopefully you bet the over in the Habs/Jets game, and that you didn't own either goalie. The two teams combined for seven goals in the first period alone, in a game that finished with 12 total.

Josh Anderson had a hat-trick early in the second period and finished with four PIMs, four shots, and a block for good measure. He has really turned it on of late, scoring six goals and seven points in his last five games. The exposure to Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki is playing a big part of that, and the trio looks to be one that could play a big role in how the second half plays out for their fantasy owners too.

The big guns did the damage on the other side, with Pierre-Luc Dubois, Kyle Connor, and Mark Scheifele each netting three points for the Jets, with at least one each on the man advantage. With Nikolaj Ehlers due back very soon, it's good for Dubois especially to be solidifying his spot on the top unit.

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With Dougie Hamilton having played four games since returning from injury, we can now look into the deployment of the defence core and try to draw a few conclusions to extrapolate for the rest of the season. This is worth looking into because the Devils were the league's top offence in February. Yes, they topped the Panthers, the Leafs, the Lightning, the Avalanche, the Blues, the Flames… you get the idea.

The Devils we're the top offense in the NHL in February. pic.twitter.com/FKRLd7C9n4

— CJ Turtoro (@CJTDevil) March 1, 2022

Since Hamilton's return, he has been taking a back-seat offensively to Damon Severson, who has run with the top power play gig on a team where most expected it to be shared between Hamilton, Ty Smith, and maybe P.K. Subban. Hamilton is still shooting a ton, and has put up three points in the four games, but he isn't a threat for 60+ points unless he's on the power play. He's a hold/buy at this point, as the Devils could bump him back to the top unit at any time and he's too good to sell low like this.

Meanwhile, look into Severson as an excellent mid-term streamer, putting up a ton of points, adding some solid peripherals, and getting the proper deployment to look for a while.

LAINE! WHAT A MOVE! Patrik Laine dangles the socks off Severson and snipes one home for an absolutely BEAUTIFUL goal!#CBJ pic.twitter.com/9wL6tgLqbc

— Hockey Daily 365 (@HockeyDaily365) March 2, 2022

Well, he's good for your fantasy team anyways… and on that note, let's segue into the fact that that was Patrik Laine's 14^th goal in his last 13 games. It's possible someone reminded him that he's up for a new contract, and he realized he should play again. I'm going to be a little cautious with him going into next season with a fat wallet, but ride the wave for now.

Speaking of riding the wave, Laine's most frequent linemates have all put up some excellent assist numbers over the last baker's-dozen worth of games: Gustav Nyquist (seven assists in the last 13 games), Boone Jenner (eight in 13), and Jakub Voracek (12 in 13). Columbus actually isn't a black hole offensively anymore.

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The trade deadline in one of my leagues has already passed, which saw me make a few moves. Despite putting up the fourth highest point total in the league thus far, the H2H scheduling gods have not been kind, and I find myself outside of the playoff range (top eight of 24 make it).

It's tough when you have a team you feel can compete, while you also can't win one year, how do you manage the deadline (and the following offseason)? In this case, I was pretty open to options, and let the market dictate what moves I made, putting pretty much everyone on the block, and only taking what I felt was good value. I moved out a few pieces such as Jack Campbell, Zach Whitecloud (it's a cap league so his cap hit being under league-minimum is huge), Craig Smith, and Noah Dobson, while holding onto players like Claude Giroux, Patrick Kane, and Jakub Voracek. The biggest deal though was moving on from Brad Marchand, who is the ninth-highest scoring skater in our setup.

In return, I received Taylor Hall, and a first round pick for the 2022 draft, likely falling in the 12-16 range, but with a change to jump up in the draft lottery. The key here was knowing that Taylor Hall was averaging close to similar numbers as Marchand over the last month or so, as well as having asked around before making the deal to see who might then be interested in acquiring Hall for a 2023 first rounder in the offseason (once teams are able to deal those picks). Having the flexibility to roster a younger, still very productive player or moving him for a package including a 2023 first which would give me a shot at lucking into another top piece at the top end of that draft is some great flexibility. Trying to deal a 34-year-old Marchand in the offseason may have yielded a slightly higher return, but it's also possible that the market for the older winger would have been much narrower, which would have limited my options. With Hall, there is also the possibility that Boston brings in a second-line centre that has been sorely lacking, giving Hall a similar lift as he saw when he joined David Krejci and Craig Smith for the second-half of last season. Without Krejci though, Hall has fallen back closer to the numbers we saw him post in Arizona and Buffalo. He can still produce at a high level, but it seems like he needs a high-impact centreman to do so – and that just isn't Erik Haula or Charlie Coyle.

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As a Luke Evangelista owner in a few of my leagues, I've been keeping a close eye on his goal-scoring pace, which is currently at a goal-per game 41 games into the OHL season. I'm not a prospect guy, but he's definitely someone that should be on your radar in any kind of league with a prospect system. He has really upped his stock since being drafted in the early second round back in 2020.

A few other players of note that aren't just your former top-15 picks that everyone already knows about:

Ryan Winterton (C, Kraken)

Winterton flew under the radar a little after being drafted 67^th overall in last year's entry draft by the Seattle Kraken, mostly due to his injury. He has worked hard to return though, and is now tearing up the OHL, with an excellent 1.56pts/gp mark, as well as a top-five PNHLe in the league.

Rory Kerins (C, Flames)

Kerins wasn't drafted until the sixth round, but the has been one of the fastest risers since. He looks like an NHL player at this point, and is profiling with some second-line upside.

I got it. Kerins is nice, nice. https://t.co/QYtg1yNaQ0 pic.twitter.com/7EzZRY0erS

— Byron Bader (@ByronMBader) March 1, 2022

Mattias Maccelli (LW, Coyotes)

Maccelli has recently been called up by the Coyotes, and (deservingly) should make his NHL debut soon. The former fourth round pick crossed over to North America last summer, and has torn up the AHL this year, scoring 55 points in 42 games thus far. He's closing in on Tucson Roadrunner scoring records, should he get sent back down for a few more games.

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I do find it advantageous in fantasy leagues to draft players in North America, and especially major junior and from the USNTDP, as they get the most media exposure. More exposure means their stocks can be built up, and it means when you're looking to trade a prospect for an NHLer, there's a higher likelihood that your league-mate has heard good things about said player.

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On the topic of prospects, we've seen a few ELC signings in recent days, and this is in part due to the fact that NHL teams can now sign players to their ELCs with them not kicking in until next year. A few of those players are highly-touted college free agents, and from year to year those can be a very mixed bag. Typically though, they aren't huge upside guys, and the top options end up being middle of the lineup players such as Tyler Bozak and Danny Dekeyser. However. Rolling the dice with these guys does give you the advantage of knowing if you have an NHLer, or even a high-impact player, a lot sooner. If the player flames out, you move on to the next one.

Corey Pronman over at the Athletic had a write-up of a few of them, while there is a list of them covered in the DobberHockey midseason guide as well. Something to keep an eye on depending on how your league adds players and prospects to your teams.

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Mathew Barzal remained out of the lineup last night, which meant that Jean-Gabriel Pageau was picking up the slack at the centre ice position again. He notched a point in each of the last two games with Barzal absent, and might be worth a short-term look until Barzal returns. Unfortunately, when Barzal is back in the lineup, there just isn't enough offence to go around to keep Pageau relevant in most leagues.

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Find me on Twitter @alexdmaclean if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments.

Cheers!