In yesterday's Ramblings, Michael Clifford mentioned the Ottawa lines and what they looked like post-Josh Norris' surgery announcement, including the recall of Ridly Greig. Mathieu Joseph is the one name to key in on here, because he's someone that is on the waiver wire in most leagues, but could be one of those players that goes-off in the second half with 30+ points in the remaining 36 games if he stays up on that top line with Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle. I mention this because last season Joseph closed out the campaign with 12 points in his last nine games after being traded to Ottawa. During that stretch, he was playing almost exclusively with Norris and Tkachuk, on the team's top line.

It may not stick, but at this point he's worth a speculative add, especially considering the upcoming schedule for the Sens. They play three games the next four nights, with two of those three games coming against other non-playoff teams in the East.

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Speaking of, head over to Frozen Tools to check out the schedule planner. With the teams seeming to have the "bye weeks" on one end of All-Star weekend, you'll want to know how to maximize your streaming spots.

In one of my leagues with limited adds, I have already traded my three depth Sabres for three depth Hurricanes players, in a series of moves that processes on Thursday. That gets me three Sabres games from Mon-Thurs, and then four more games from the Hurricanes from Friday into the All-Star game break. Carolina plays the most games in the league from Friday into the break, but depending on your scoring periods and when adds reset, you may be looking at different teams to maximize your rosters.

Coming out of the break, there is going to be a short week, and while every team plays at least once, there are a number of teams who do only play one game, compared to another handful of teams playing four times in the same time period.

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Chris Kreider has come back to Earth just as we all expected, nestling himself into his usual 55- to 60-point-pace after his golden 77-point season a year ago. However, if we look under the hood a little, Kreider's shot rate, usage, and ice time all line up more with last year than the rest of his career. This year, his shooting percentage is a bit below his career norm, and his teammates aren't scoring at quite the same rate with him on the ice either. The bad luck shows that maybe there is hope for him to finish the season above a 60-point-pace, especially if the team picks thing up around him. The Rangers started slowly overall, and the team hasn't generated the same expected-goals-for numbers as last year, especially with Kreider on the ice.

Overall there is reason to believe we see Kreider finish the last 35 games with at least 26 points – a 60+ point-pace.

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Before I got sidetracked looking into Kreider's production, I had meant to check out how Alexis Lafreniere did in the three games Kredier was absent last week, finally getting some time to play up in the lineup. Any guesses before you read on?

Well, he saw the ice for 19:30 per game, played over five minutes on the power play in two of the contests, and still did not record a point. Of course, in the two games since Kreider's return, Lafreniere has been back on the third line, and scored three points. He's not someone to give up on yet, despite poor treatment from the coach, and especially not now that he is only 20 games away from passing his breakout threshold. If anything, now is the time you need to look into buying.

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Colton Parayko was demoted for the third period, playing down on the third pairing. Torey Krug returned to the lineup as well for the Blues who were juggling their pairs trying to make something work. Krug put up two points last night, giving him seven points in his last five games, and seems to have really found his grove – and managed to keep it while returning from this latest injury.

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Kris Letang made his return to the Penguins lineup, two games after Jeff Petry also returned. In those two games, Petry totaled two assists, eight shots, nine hits, and three blocks. With Letang back, he still managed an assist, plus a few added peripherals, but there were a lot of points to go around in that game, and he was relegated to the second power play unit. Petry is an excellent multi-category own, but his upside is capped while Letang is healthy. As we know though, his status can change in the blink of an eye.

Letang himself wasted no time in re-introducing himself to the scoresheet, posting two goals, two assists, six shots, four hits, and two blocks. Hope you re-activated him in time!

That top power play is still lethal, and if you want a slim piece of it, Rickard Rakell will be the cheapest of the group to acquire.

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Sticking with Pittsburgh and injuries, Tristan Jarry was set to start the game, but Casey DeSmith was then named the starter in warmups as Jarry wasn't good to go. He had just returned recently from an injury, so it could be a re-aggravation of what he was previously dealing with. We should know more soon, but in the meantime Casey DeSmith could be spot-started depending on the matchup.

Hopefully none of you saw the change soon enough and thought last night was a good matchup to play him in. The game finished 7-6, and also produced some Emergency-backup-goalie (EBUG) drama, as Panthers goalie Spencer Knight also didn't start after being the expected starter as of Tuesday morning. This meant that for the second half of the game, one more goalie injury meant an EBUG appearance. Two more and we would have a player strapping on the pads.

Filling in for Knight was Alex Lyon, who is someone that you only want to be hitching your wagon to if absolutely necessary. If Knight misses any time, and with Bobrovsky out, it will be interesting to see if last year's standout OHL goalie Mack Guzda gets a shot to show what he can do for the Panthers. Luckily for Florida, they don't play again until the 27^th, though that does start a back-to-back set of games against the Kings and Bruins, which is not a good set of matchups to be tossing out sub-par goaltending for.

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Coming back to defencemen on hot streaks, Dougie Hamilton is up to 26 points in his last 24 games, up from 16 in 23 in the first quarter. He has game-winning OT goals in back-to-back games, and in typical fashion, only one game on the season without a shot on goal. He's up to the 3.5 shot-per-game mark, a mark that he has only held one other season, the other year he paced for 70 points. This pace is here to stay, and he will finish the season with 70+ points assuming he stays healthy.

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The Arizona Coyotes re-upped Juuso Valimaki for another year, at a $1 million cap hit. The young defenceman has been a nice depth piece for the team, and may even see his role increase for the end of this year and into next year as the Coyotes trade off Jakob Chychrun and Shayne Gostisbehere. He's not fantasy relevant at this point, but does have some eventual upside, and the drop in cap hit adds some value in cap leagues.

Speaking of cap leagues, the updated bi-monthly rankings are as of this morning for the skaters (here), and tomorrow for the goalies.

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Wade Allison has been a nice surprise for the Flyers. He took some time to get back up to speed after getting the season started late due to an injury. He has since found his groove on a line with Scott Laughton and Kevin Hayes, putting up seven points in his last 11 games, with over two shots and three hits per game in that same stretch. This is all being done while seeing 12 minutes of ice time per night, and taking on a heavier defensive role. There is some scoring and grit upside here as he develops.

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It's Erik Karlsson's world, we're just living in it pic.twitter.com/jtz4xBx5i0

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 25, 2023

Erik Karlsson is having fun out there and I can't wait until he gets traded to the Kings at the deadline.

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See you next Wednesday!

In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter @alexdmaclean if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments.