When Tim Stützle went hard into the boards last week, both Ottawa fans and fantasy owners were sent into a panic about what had the appearance of a possible long-term injury. Those same fans and fantasy owners got some extremely good news on Thursday, though:

Stutzle is good to go #Sens

— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) December 22, 2022

He was back in his usual spot on the top line with Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux.

Stützle's last 82 regular season games have seen him post 29 goals and 72 points as he starts to scratch the surface of his upside. As the team around him keeps growing, so will he, and I don't wonder if we see 90-point seasons from him in the very near future.

*

We got a small update on Aleksander Barkov and Radko Gudas:

Maurice says Barkov and Gudas are both out tomorrow, but tracking well for a return after the break.

— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) December 22, 2022

For Barkov, he has now missed nearly 30% of the team's games this season. This team, and us fantasy owners, really need him to be healthy so let's hope he really is ready to go coming out of the holiday break.  

*

On the topic of returns, Elias Pettersson was back in the lineup for Vancouver on Thursday after missing a couple of illnesses. The Canucks started the game with their three-center setup of having Pettersson, J.T. Miller, and Bo Horvat on three different lines, pushing Andrei Kuzmenko off the top PP unit.  

*

Adam Boqvist was practicing in the Columbus defence rotation on Thursday so look for him to potentially return to the lineup Friday night in Chicago.

*

Just a heads up: as of Thursday night, we've already had two Friday postponements as TBL/BUF and DET/OTT are no longer on the schedule due to the huge snowstorm(s) heading to the Midwest and Northeast. We need to watch for more postponements Friday morning.

*

Boston was able to erase a 2-0 first-period deficit at the hands of Winnipeg to take a 3-2 lead halfway through the third period thanks to a goal from Nick Foligno, the game-winner and his sixth of the season. David Pastrnak scored Boston's first of the game, following up with power-play assist on a Jake DeBrusk deflection. Pasta had six total shots as his marvelous fantasy season continues as he's posted 13 goals in his last 15 games.

Hampus Lindholm had a power-play assist, seven shots, four blocks, and a hit in a very well-rounded fantasy performance.

*

A late goal from Kaapo Kakko off a beautiful pass from K'Andre Miller with fewer than three minutes left in the game lifted the Rangers to a 5-3 win over the Islanders. That makes five goals in eight games for the young winger, as we're all hoping he's turned a corner in his development.

Artemi Panarin had a goal and five shots in victory.

Mathew Barzal scored once on two shots, adding an assist on Alexander Romanov's first goal of the season.

*

William Nylander had a goal on five shots with two assists as Toronto managed a 4-3 win over Philadelphia. The Flyers made it interesting late with goals from Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee fewer than 90 seconds apart in the third. Mitch Marner continues his own superb fantasy campaign with a power-play goal, a helper, five shots, and a hit.

Travis Konecny had two assists on the late Flyers goals and is now up to 30 points in 28 games.

*

An overtime winner from Jaccob Slavin lifted the Hurricanes 4-3 over the Penguins. Martin Necas also scored in the game, giving him 14 tallies on the season. That ties his output from each of his last two seasons in just 33 outings.

Carolina is now 11-0-2 since the Thanksgiving holiday and has been without Sebastian Aho for seven straight wins. It is quite the run the team is on.

*

Alex Ovechkin was held without a goal, but his team skated out of Ottawa with a 3-2 victory of their own. Ovechkin had two assists and six shots. so it wasn't as if he was held completely off the scoresheet.

Stützle had a power-play assist, three shots, and two blocks with two hits in nearly 28 minutes of ice time in his return. It was an overtime game but that is still a lot of minutes.   

*

The Ramblings yesterday discussed certain forwards and how they've performed over the last calendar year. We looked at top performers in areas like goals, points, power-play production, and shots, as well as on a per-60 basis for most of those. It is just a little wrap of the last 12 months of regular season NHL action, and we're going to continue on today.

These Ramblings will cover the defence and goalies. There are obviously way too many stories/stats to cover so we'll be looking at a few from each position, but the notable ones will be mentioned. As always, data either from our Frozen Tools or Natural Stat Trick. We are going from the pause before the holiday last year (December 22^nd, 2021) to Wednesday afternoon (December 21^st), or one full calendar year.

Fascinating Five at 5-on-5

There are three names we'd expect among the top five defencemen in points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5: Erik Karlsson with 1.91 in first place, Roman Josi at 1.83 in second, and Adam Fox managing 1.52 in fourth (Cale Makar is down a little ways at 1.41 in seventh place, for those wondering.)  It is the other two names worth mentioning: Brady Skjei in third at 1.67 and Justin Faulk in fifth at 1.46.

Karlsson obviously has many fewer games played than the rest of the list but his production in the early portions of this year make this standing make sense. Josi and Fox are two of the most talented blue liners in the league, so that seems normal. But Skjei and Faulk? The latter did go on a heater earlier this season, but it wouldn't have crossed my mind to be enough to be where he is. And Skjei? Carolina has struggled to score at 5-on-5 this season, particularly the last month or so. It would not have dawned on me that he'd trail only Karlsson and Josi in this regard.

Skjei has 44 even-strength points in those 85 games, which speaks to the upside he could have if he ever ran a power play. He has settled in nicely in Carolina with the rest of that stout blue line.

Florida's Fierce Duo

The Panthers have two defencemen in the top-10 in points/60 at 5-on-5 and neither of them are Aaron Ebklad. Blue liners Gustav Forsling (1.43) and Brandon Montour (1.39) are sandwiching Makar, which speaks to the fantasy goodness on the blue line here. When Radko Gudas is healthy, there are likely four players on this blue line worth rostering in banger leagues, and three in leagues without hits.

At this point, it's important to bring up the fact that Forsling was acquired through waivers from Carolina. Since arriving in Florida for the start of the Bubble Season in 2021, Forsling has managed 76 points in 147 games, or pacing for 42 points every 82 games. The Panthers are also out-scoring the opposition by the third-largest margin as he plays an important role at both ends of the ice, but particularly in the offensive zone.

Montour, meanwhile, is pacing for 44 points every 82 games in his Florida career thus far. He has had more run on the top power-play unit, and that matters, but he's also been very capable when he's been handed the role. That is meaningful and gives them a backup plan should Ekblad be injured (Montour's even shared the job when he's healthy). The huge minutes he's been playing have helped juice up those peripherals as well, so he's really helping fantasy owners across the board.

Evan Bouchard's Shots

The two leaders in shots per minute in all situations among defencemen are Dougie Hamilton and Roman Josi, tied at 8.9 per 60 minutes. That probably isn't much of a surprise. What is a bit of a surprise is seeing Evan Bouchard in third place, ahead of names like Zach Werenski, Noah Dobson, and Cale Makar. That he has a penchant for shooting isn't a surprise, it's just seeing him this high that might have myself (and readers) taken aback a little bit.

There may not be a defenceman in the fantasy game that causes more consternation than Bouchard. Watch any Oilers game and it's clear he has a wealth of offensive skills (even if turns the puck over). But he hasn't been able to earn anything approaching significant minutes in Edmonton and cannot keep hold of the top PP unit for any stretch of time. Despite all the goals the Oilers score, if Bouchard is playing 16 minutes with little PPTOI, he won't be productive.

Tyson Barrie has another year left on his deal so it might be a while before Bouchard ever gets that role on a consistent basis. Until he earns more ice time, the fantasy numbers will be passable but nothing approaching great. And so, we wait.

Alright now that we've gone through some defencemen, let's look at the goalies.

Linus Ullmark

To no one's surprise, the leader in overall save percentage in the last calendar year is Igor Shesterkin at .927. Even with a downturn at the start of this season, his 2021-22 campaign was absurd. Ilya Sorokin is technically in second place due to games played with a .925 but Boston's Linus Ullmark also has the same mark. For a guy that was left to walk by Buffalo, he's largely been very good for the Bruins.

Playing for a great team no doubt is helping Ullmark here, but he's really separated himself from Jeremy Swayman and he's now started four of the last five games (again, as of Wednesday). If Ullmark can get a 70/30 split, or better, for the rest of the season, playing behind this Bruins roster? The top fantasy goalie may be here.

Saving The Tough Ones

All of Sorokin, Shesterkin, and Ullmark are in the top-5 net-minders by high-danger save percentage at 5-on-5 in the last calendar year, but none of them are first or second. Rather, we have a pair of goalies that came into the season with some uncertainty: Spencer Knight in first place at .902 and Ville Husso behind him at .884. (We should note that the cut-off for minutes was 1500, which barely put Knight on the list at 1509, and he has 25 fewer games played than Shesterkin. There isn't a huge sample size here.)

It should also be cited that if we take Knight's entire career as a sample, he's still first in the league at .877 with Husso, Shesterkin, and Juuse Saros rounding out the top-5 (Ullmark in sixth). It is still just 52 games, or about one full season, but he is certainly on the right path, even with a bad couple of starts recently.

As for Husso, it's funny how fortunes change for goalies. This guy had an .893 save percentage across 17 appearances in the bubble season and has turned into one of the top goalies in hockey over the last two years. With the poor performance from Alex Nedeljkovic wearing the Winged Wheel, Husso is the reason Detroit is anywhere near a playoff spot. He should continue as the number-1 starter, even if some of his fantasy numbers don't look great due to the team in front of him.

Ottawa's Hope

Though not a perfect, or great, metric, Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA) isn't a bad way to tell us how goalie has performed relative to the league average. Well, among the 38 goalies with at least 2000 minutes in all situations over the last year, Anton Forsberg is tied for fifth in GSAA/60 with Semyon Varlamov, having nearly 800 more minutes played than Varlamov. Just behind Forsberg are Jake Oettinger and Connor Hellebuyck.

A lot of the great Forsberg performances came in the second half of last year and not the first half of this year, but he hasn't been bad for the Senators, and far from the reason the team is not winning a lot of games. He has two more years left on his deal so it's worth wondering if the team has the goalie for the near-term as they continue to search for a long-term solution.

*

This will be my final Ramblings before Christmas so for those who celebrate, Merry Christmas! For those who don’t, happy holidays to you and yours and enjoy the final night of NHL action for a few days.