Ryan Johansen was not on the ice for Nashville's third period at home against Vancouver on Tuesday night. He left the game with an injury late in the second period, needing help from his teammates, and did not return. We got word from Elliotte Friedman on Wednesday that Johansen was having surgery:

Surgery today for Johansen. Really unfortunate. https://t.co/i7fAWcG9gz

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) February 22, 2023

No immediate timeline was offered but a walking boot followed by surgery the very next day cannot be a good sign for the remaining third of the schedule. We will update when we get more information but I am not optimistic at the moment.

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A bad news update on Jake Muzzin:

Maple Leafs announce Jake Muzzin is done for the season following a cervical spine injury. 

The team says they'll provide a further update on his future in training camp.

— Joshua Kloke (@joshuakloke) February 22, 2023

Nothing to say except all the best to Muzzin in his recovery.

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An update on Alex Ovechkin:

Alex Ovechkin is back at the Capitals practice facility this morning and likely to skate today.

Capitals are practicing at noon.

Status beyond that TBD

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) February 22, 2023

Washington's coaching staff said they hoped to have him back with the team this week and here he is. He has missed four games due to the death of his father and the team plays at home Thursday to Anaheim. This team desperately needs him back as soon as possible as they've lost five straight, all in regulation, and are 7-12-1 in their last 20 games.

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It was an optional practice for the Florida Panthers but Sam Bennett was on the ice in a full-contact jersey and we got this tidbit:

Here's what I'm seeing this AM, with "XXXX" being guys that filled in.

Lundell – XXXX – Reinhart
Verhaeghe – Bennett – Tkachuk
Duclair – Luostarinen – White
Lomberg – XXXX – Cousins

Barkov, E. Staal, M. Staal, Tierney, Smith not skating.

— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) February 22, 2023

The team said a while ago that for Anthony Duclair, it's about him being comfortable on the ice post-Achilles surgery. Given what just happened to Max Pacioretty, being cautious seems prudent. The Panthers are 13-8-2 in calendar 2023, were in a playoff position as of Wednesday afternoon, and seem to be getting healthy at the right time. A healthy Florida roster is not someone any team wants to face in the first round, shaky goaltending or not.

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Good news on the Jake Sanderson front:

D.J. Smith says Cam Talbot will be back for sure vs CAR on Friday.

Nick Holden might play too.

Jake Sanderson will practice in a regular jersey tomorrow and there is a chance he could also come back against the Hurricanes.

— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) February 22, 2023

There is a logjam of seven teams fighting for the final two Wild Card spots in the East and Ottawa is among them. They need as many healthy regulars as they can muster if they want to keep any hopes of a playoff appearance.

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One of the top goaltender battles in the NHL – Ilya Sorokin of the Islanders and Connor Hellebuyck of the Jets – ended up exactly that as New York took a 2-1 win over Winnipeg. Simon Holmstrom scored the game-winner halfway through the third, giving the Islanders a lead following an earlier power-play goal from Nikolaj Ehlers. Hellebuyck stopped 20 of 22 while Sorokin stopped 25 of 26 shots for his 20^th win.

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Every year, there are players that take us by surprise. That is the nature of any sport – there have been nearly 900 different skaters suit up this season in the NHL – but hockey's randomness can sometimes kick it up a notch like baseball does. There are times we are flat-out wrong about a player but sometimes a player rebounds more than expected, shines brighter in a debut season, or sometimes just gets lucky for a while. Given that the notion of surprise is relative to the expectations of the individual person, not all of these will be a shock to each and every reader, but hopefully some lessons can be gleaned from a few of these players. Let's dig in, using Yahoo's standard fantasy scoring with data from either Frozen Tools or Natural Stat Trick.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

The relationship between RNH, the Oilers, and the fans is an odd one. He is the last remaining vestige of the prior core that included Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall and had never reached the next level in the fantasy game: six seasons with at least 50 points, two seasons with at least 60 points, and zero seasons with at least 70. He also had four 20-goal seasons and zero 30-goal seasons. Well, he's already cracked the 70-point barrier for the first time in his career thanks to an assist on Tuesday night and needs three goals in the remaining 24 games to reach 30 on the campaign. Yes, being a staple of the top PP unit is the reason for the career year as over half his points (38) have come with the man advantage, but he's really helped fantasy owners that drafted him back in September/October to a level I didn't think he could reach.

Brandon Montour

Excitement around the Florida blue line in a post-MacKenzie Weegar world was largely around Aaron Ekblad (for very good reason) and Gustav Forsling, who took a step forward in 2021-22. However, Montour has been more valuable than either of them, ranking as a top-10 defenceman on Yahoo! as of Wednesday afternoon. That is partly due to Ekblad's injury issues, but Montour has still posted 10 goals and 38 assists with 19 power-play points while pacing for over 230 shots. It is the PPPs that really help here because if he has secondary PP time like Forsling, we could probably cut at least 10 points from Montour's total. All the same, players have to take advantage of opportunities when they happen, and Montour certainly has.

Bo Horvat

There is a gap between "I think this is a good, useful fantasy player" and "this 27-year-old with a career-high of 31 goals could break 50 this season" and that is where Horvat falls. My expectations for goals and points were low-30s and low-70s, and he's already surpassed the former. We will have to wait and see how the rest of the season goes in an Islanders lineup without Mathew Barzal, but it's hard to imagine any way this season is a failure beyond a complete production collapse. Even a big slowdown should see him reach 40 goals and 70 points.

Jamie Benn

This is probably a forward that took almost every fantasy hockey player by surprise to some degree. Now, a big chunk of his production came in a single month – 23 points in 14 November games, 24 points in the other 43 games of the season – but we can't pick and choose when players produce. He has already set four-year highs in goals and points with 25 games remaining (before Wednesday night's tilt). There are some sacrifices made elsewhere as his hits and PIMs per game are extremely low for him, but anyone that drafted Benn is not complaining. His chemistry with Wyatt Johnston has been a big factor in the team's success and will be crucial to success in the postseason.

Erik Gustafsson

Washington signed the well-traveled defenceman in the offseason, and it looked like pure depth. Fast forward several months and John Carlson gets injured, forcing Gustafsson to a much bigger role. After averaging 16:13 in the first 12 games of the season, never cracking 20 in any of those outings, with just three points, he's averaged 21:16 over his last 46 games, totalling seven goals and 31 points. He hasn't scored since January 8^th as the production has slowed a bit but anyone that grabbed him off the waiver wire back in November cannot be displeased with the return. A guy I assumed was, more or less, done at the NHL level thrust himself back onto many fantasy rosters.

Brandon Hagel

It isn't to say I thought the Hagel trade was bad or he'd flounder, but the assumption was Ross Colton was in line for a bigger role and that Hagel would not get anywhere near the PP exposure he's received. He has blown all expectations out of the water with 22 goals and 47 points in 56 games, managing 12 PPPs, 44 hits, and pacing for 185 shots. Prime slotting on the top line/top PP unit, along with nearly 19 minutes a game, is going to help almost anyone, but Hagel is playing legitimately well: per Corey Sznajder's tracking data, he's had similar scoring chance contribution rates at 5-on-5 to Jeff Skinner and Andrei Svechnikov:

His line mates have helped tremendously, but he had good rates in Chicago back in the Bubble season. Whatever the mixture here, he's clearly reached the levels Tampa was hoping for and he's a key part of their Cup hopes.

Kevin Hayes

The 2021-22 campaign was an awful one for Hayes for a number of reasons, and the biggest one happened off the ice with the passing of his brother. Expectations were not high for him in 2022-23 but he has certainly found his offensive game again: his 17 goals are a three-year high and he needs eight more to tie a career-best, while two more points would give him just his second 50-point campaign. Those playing in leagues with plus/minus, like Yahoo!, may not be as excited about what he's done but there has still been a lot of good production here that could have been had for next-to-nothing in drafts back in the fall of 2022. Whether he can repeat this year after year is a different matter but one of the best stories of this entire campaign has been the resurgence of Hayes, which culminated in bringing his nephew to the All-Star Game. It's hard not to feel good about that.

Andrei Kuzmenko

As with any player coming from the KHL, there was uncertainty about how Kuzmenko would perform in the NHL in his first year. We have seen superstars like Artemi Panarin and Kirill Kaprizov, and we've seen players not make much of an impact like Nikita Gusev and Vadim Shipachyov. For now, Kuzmenko looks much closer to the first pair than the second with 26 goals and 50 points in 56 games. As of Wednesday afternoon, he had as many goals as Auston Matthews, Kyle Connor, and John Tavares. Of course, he's shooting 25.5% and there's almost no chance he maintains above 20% season after season, so we'll need to see some more progression from him, but the results to date have been more than stellar.

Vince Dunn

Dunn has always been a player that seemed to have more offensive upside than he was showing, but it seemed a tall task to reach his upside in Seattle. That franchise struggled mightily to create offence in their inaugural season and despite the additions of Andre Burakovsky and Oliver Bjorkstrand, questions remained. Those questions have been answered, to a degree, as he's already cracked 40 points for the first time in his career, and is ahead of names like Tyson Barrie and Victor Hedman at the moment. He is also on pace for 89 blocks (a career-best), 132 hits (and he's already set a career-best with 92), and needs one more PPP for the most of any single season in his NHL time (12). With Matty Beniers developing very well, a deep forward group, and Shane Wright on the way, maybe this is more the level to expect from the 26-year-old moving forward.

Carter Hart

To be sure, things haven't been as rosy since his hot start – .946 save percentage in his first eight games, .898 save percentage in the 35 games since – but Carter Hart is having the rebound season the Flyers needed to see. An overall save percentage of .909 might not seem great, but the league average is .906, and it's better than names like Ville Husso, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Jacob Markstrom. It has helped Hart be a top-10 fantasy goalie on Yahoo! along the way. Per Evolving Hockey, Hart is saving one goal above expected (GSAx) every 167 minutes of game action. For reference, Stuart Skinner (.913 SV%) is at one GSAx every 153 minutes while Igor Shesterkin (.912) is at one GSAx every 215 minutes. That is a measure that helps take the team in front of the goalie into context and Hart is showing extremely well. If he can maintain this level moving forward, the Flyers do not have to worry about their goaltending for the first time in… a while.