Since the return of Evgeni Malkin, Evan Rodrigues has seven points in 26 games. This surprises no one. But for the last couple of games he has been playing with Malkin and getting reasonable ice time in that 15–16-minute range, and he has points and at least four shots in each of his last two games.

Tristan Jarry, 26, is having the season of his life. As things stand now, he has career bests in GAA (2.32), SV% (0.922), QS% (59.6), RBS (8.5%) and GSAA (+15.20). Not to mention career highs in games and minutes played, wins and shutouts. After a weak postseason last year, I was surprised when several readers questioned why I had him ranked so high in the goalie rankings. Because his youth, the fact that he was the unquestioned No.1 goalie for a team that was still pretty good, and two years of pretty good numbers in the regular season pointed to an upward trajectory and a safe bet.

After a cold spell of six points in 23 games, Brett Pesce has been pushing hard to break out of the funk. He fired a season-high seven SOG (he hadn't had even five SOG prior to this) and scored.

With Tony DeAngelo out, Jaccob Slavin is pointless in nine games. The two had been partners since November.

Antti Raanta was on fire during the three games that Frederick Andersen was sidelined, not only winning them all, but also earning Quality Starts. So with Andersen back, it seems like they want to keep Raanta going. He took the loss on Sunday, but it was another Quality Start. Although Raanta is very injury prone, he is definitely one of those goalies that thrives with a heavy workload. Thanks to this recent run, he has boosted his GAA to 2.29 and SV% to 0.917. The 32-year-old is signed for next year on the cheap ($2M AAV).

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Toronto should offer the Islanders Petr Mrazek, a 1^st round pick, and a good prospect like Mac Hollowell or Nick Abruzzese – for Semyon Varlamov. It's not often I float fake trade offers here, but who says no? The Isles are out. And Varlamov is perfect because not only does he back up the struggling Jack Campbell, but he could also take over as the starter if those struggles continue. He's injury prone, but you're not counting on him. The Leafs have an amazing group of skaters, but Campbell has slid pretty quickly since November. And the Isles are clearly riding Ilya Sorokin now, so Mrazek would just be his backup at a smaller cap hit. Varlamov is just a wasted asset right now. To turn that into a top pick and a decent prospect is worth doing.

Jack Campbell since November:

12-5-3 (that's good)

3.53 GAA, 0.889 SV%, 36.4 QS% and -14.616 GSAA (that's…horrible)

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The Sabres are finally icing a pretty decent three offensive lines. Besides the Alex Tuch – Tage Thompson – Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo – Casey Mittelstadt – Victor Olofsson lines, now that Vinnie Hinostroza is back the third line of him, Dylan Cozens and Peyton Krebs sure went to work on the Leafs. Vinnie had three points and Krebs had two. Insert Jack Quinn and John Peterka into this mix and things could finally start turning around next season. A goalie should be tops on the wish list now. Krebs is now at 13 points in his last 20 games, Hinostroza 12 in his last 18, Cozens 15 in his last 22. Very solid depth numbers.

With a goal Sunday in a losing effort, Auston Matthews now has 38 goals in his last 39 games.

Ondrej Kase was back in the lineup and rookie Nicholas Robertson was the healthy scratch. Robertson has one point in seven games this year, and his possession numbers (albeit in limited action) are the worst on the team. I think it was smart to give him a couple of games in the show, and as their top prospect he's definitely a threat whenever he's out there. But returning from an injury that took him out for most of the season, he's not ready to step in for so many games at this level. I would expect he heads back to the AHL soon.

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Okay Roman Josi, it's just getting out of hand now. Who do you think you are, Cale Makar? Another four-point outing for Josi, his second in five games. He has 22 points in his last 13 games. He is on pace to finish the year with 93 points. With 23 games left he needs 24 to reach 90.

Speaking of Makar, Josi passed Makar and took over the scoring lead among defensemen.

Filip Forsberg, who is a 100% guarantee to miss 10 games in a season and likely 15, is still going to flirt with 80 points this year even though he's missed 13 games (so far). At 27 years of age, he's finally having his breakout. As a rookie, Forsberg tallied 63 points and his production has hovered around that level every since. Until now. A lot of this year's jump is puck luck and absurd S% (he's scored 22.5% of his shots!). His offensive zone starts are down and his shot volume is down. I would consider Forsberg a 'sell high'.

Eight points in his last eight games for Philip Tomasino.

David Rittich has struggled being a backup this season, mainly because the starts have been sporadic. But perhaps he's starting to figure it out, as he has posted a Quality Start in two straight efforts that were eight games apart.

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It was a rough outing for Kaapo Kahkonen on Sunday, coughing up four goals on 23 shots. Just remember that he was getting his wins and QS while Cam Talbot was hurt and Kahkonen was starting all the games. As soon as Talbot returned, the start frequency dropped and Kahkonen started losing. Many wondered why I still had faith in him last summer when last season's numbers were bad. Well, same thing – last season he had a great first half because Talbot was hurt. Once Talbot returned – cue the falling bomb sound effect. Just remember this in the summer when you review the numbers – I suspect Kahkonen ends with similar to last year's 0.902 SV%.

Kevin Fiala has 49 points in his last 47 contests, and 17 in his last 12. Really loving that Fiala – Matt Boldy chemistry.

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Watching the Montreal – Philadelphia game I noticed that the Flyers broadcast made Claude Giroux their first star. I found that weird, since Cole Caufield picked up two points and scored the OT winner. I quickly flipped to the Montreal broadcast and they made Nick Suzuki their first star. The official NHL first star ended up actually being Caufield, with Giroux second and Suzuki third.

Caufield has 17 points in his last 14 games.

When the game started, Nick Suzuki centered Caufield and Josh Anderson. By the end, it was Rem Pitlick in place of Suzuki moved to center Mike Hoffman and Brendan Gallagher. The move paid off, as Pitlick tied the game and set up the OT winner. Pitlick is red hot right now with six points in three games and nine in his last nine. So far he's been a solid waiver pickup for the Habs.

Since January 4, Carter Hart is 4-11-3, 3.19 GAA, 0.904 SV% and -4.354 GSAA.

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Cole Sillinger picked up his first career hat trick on Sunday, and much of that is probably due to being put back on a line with Oliver Bjorkstrand. Sillinger had zero points in five games heading in. Bjorkstrand is on a bit of role, and he had four points himself. That gives him 12 in his last 10. Cole's father, Mike, had one career hat trick in his 17 years in the NHL.

Max Domi was the other member of the line and he added a pair of assists. Domi has had a tough year but now has seven points in seven games. If this line can stay together, it actually looks pretty promising and benefits all three.

Shea Theodore has just two points in his last 10 games. He has also gone 20 games without a point on the power play – about 60 minutes of total PPTOI in that span.

Jonathan Marchessault has 12 points in his last nine games. On Sunday, Jack Eichel took Reilly Smith's spot on the classic Vegas line. Smith is out with an undisclosed injury.

Logan Thompson finally got his third start of the season. Five games after his Quality Start back on February 20. Although he gave up five goals, his team hung him out to dry often. Of the three goalies playing for Vegas this year, Thompson has the best goals saved above average at -0.19.

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The Nik Ehlers – P-L Dubois – Kyle Connor line comminated for the Jets, outshooting St. Louis 13-4 when they were on the ice at evens. Ehlers has six points in six games since his return, and Kyle Connor tallied three points. Connor has 27 points in his last 20 games.

For the Blues, we continue to look at Jordan Binnington. He's running out of time to show that he really is their No.1 goalie. His goals saved above average is -7.30 whereas Ville Husso is +12.44. Hell, even Charlie Lindgren is +5.24 in his five games (all five were wins). How long can Craig Berube continue trotting Binnington out there when his team is 13-12-4 with Binnington… and 21-5-4 when it's not Binnington!

David Perron had 22 points in 35 games to start the season, but has 13 in his last 10. Much of that earlier funk was his slow return from injury. Just four points in 15 games after he returned. But he's back to his normal now.

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Ryan Pulock, whom we had given up for dead, has seven points in his last seven games. All at even strength. Most of his success is with Adam Pelech – and now that he's back being paired with him, the numbers seem to be coming. Zdeno Chara was an anchor. Andy Greene was an anchor. Pelech seems to be the answer.

Anthony Beauvillier is giving us his usual "I'm overrated…I'm overrated… I'm overrated… Just kidding – I'm awesome" crap. Points in four straight games now, seven in that span. The metrics say he still has a pretty big market correction to go. I'm cautiously optimistic about this next 25 games or so.

Anaheim's Sonny Milano has just one point in his last 10 games. The book on Milano back when he was a prospect was that he was an inconsistent player with the talent to have tremendous upside. But couldn't bring it every night. And that hasn't seemed to have changed. He's still playing with Trevor Zegras, and that's the most important thing for Milano owners.

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With Gabriel Landeskog sidelined, Valeri Nichushkin got to play alongside Nathan MacKinnon on the big line. He was held pointless on Sunday, but he'll be a wise pickup. Nichushkin is one goal away from 15 and four points away from 35, which would be career highs. His 0.74 points-per-game average is easily his best. As a big forward (6-4), you shouldn't be surprised that he's breaking out at 27.

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The Kings were without Drew Doughty, Mikey Anderson, Viktor Arvidsson, Brendan Lemieux, Alex Edler, Matt Roy, Andreas Athanasiou and Sean Walker. And then Sunday they lost Tobias Bjornfot.

With all these bodies gone, the likes of Martin Frk and Jordan Spence got to play – and Gabe Vilardi got the long-awaited call-up. Vilardi was held pointless in his first NHL game since October, but the other two players picked up points. Frk, who is 28, has eight goals and 10 points in 21 games with Los Angeles over three seasons. Three power-play goals. He should be given more of a look as a PP specialist at the very least.

Say hey to the hardest shot ever recorded. 💣@Frky91 ties it up with 30 seconds left! pic.twitter.com/drskXEtYrl

— LA Kings (@LAKings) March 14, 2022

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Sergei Bobrovsky didn't start Sunday (Spencer Knight did), but he still suffered an injury as the backup! In the first period a shot went into the bench and his glove missed it – it caught him in the face, resulting in a bloody lip. No long-term harm done, but not something you see often.

Most single season assists by a left winger:
70- Joe Juneau (1992-93)
69- Kevin Stevens (1991-92)
67- Mats Naslund (1985-86)
66- Michel Goulet (1983-84)
65- Jonathan Huberdeau (2021-22 thanks to his 2nd period helper for the @FlaPanthers vs LAK tonight)
65- Johnny Bucyk (1970-71) pic.twitter.com/XKweGsJKib

— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) March 14, 2022

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See you next Monday.