In the Lightning's 5-3 loss to the Sabres, Jon Cooper decided to send his stars a message, benching Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Brayden Point for the entire third period. After the game, Cooper said that the three weren't giving the Lightning their best chance to win. All three had made the scoresheet earlier in the game on a power-play goal from Point; in fact, all three are currently on the Hot List over at Frozen Tools. I'd have zero concern about this if I roster any of these three players, and if anything, the benching should motivate the key players on a team that has won multiple Stanley Cups.

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Nikolaj Ehlers might be into "move to bench" territory, as he is in a slump and has seen his icetime reduced. After Saturday's game, he has no points and is a minus-5 over his last five games. On Friday he was even held to just 10:48 of icetime, including no power-play time. Then on Saturday, he played 11:52 while playing on the Jets' second power-play unit with Adam Lowry and Kevin Stenlund.

The Ehlers power-play situation has been a constant source of angst for fantasy teams throughout his career. He has the talent to be on the first power-play unit, so why isn't he there? Earlier this week, I tweeted out the Jets lines showing Ehlers back on PP2 with Nino Niederreiter on the first unit. Later that day, someone close to the Jets DMed me explaining that the issue has to do with Ehlers and Mark Scheifele wanting to play the same spot on the wall on the power play. Scheifele could move over to the bumper spot in the slot and is effective there, but he prefers not to.

The year of Josh Morrissey continues!! 🛫

He beats the buzzer with 1.2 seconds left on the clock to extend the lead for the @NHLJets! pic.twitter.com/OGhY1tdMe7

— NHL (@NHL) March 5, 2023

All in all, we may just have to accept the fact that Ehlers is not a PP1 option for the Jets, at least while both he and Scheifele are there. From more of a macro view, it's important to remember that power plays aren't simply constructed by looking up the top four scoring forwards and top scoring defenseman on the team and then throwing them onto the ice. It's a bit more nuanced than that, where teams have to make room for their own configurations as well as individual strengths and preferences.

It’s also a shame that Ehlers did not record a point in a game where the Jets scored seven goals. All of the other Jets fantasy regulars scored, including Josh Morrissey with two goals, an assist, and six shots. Morrissey is still humming along with 66 points in 63 games, which is second among all defensemen.

Leon Draisaitl recorded a hat trick while finishing the game with a minus-1. That's not a Draisaitl Hat Trick, but that has to be some other kind of hat trick, Right Eric? Draisaitl now has 20 points in his last 12 games and five goals in his last two games, well on his way to another 100-point season. More importantly, Draisaitl has just one DHT (G, A, -1 or lower) this season.

Also of note for the Oilers is the fact that Evan Bouchard recorded three assists, two of which were on the power play. Bouchard entered the game with only five power-play points all season, but the trade of Tyson Barrie to Nashville has opened up a spot for Bouchard on the first unit of the league's top power play. Bouchard also snapped an eight-game point drought with the three-point game. Expect Bouchard to fill the scoresheet much more often the rest of the season.

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Auston Matthews was forced to leave Saturday's game in Vancouver late in the first period after blocking a shot on what appeared to be the inside of his knee, although he returned during the second period. It's a good sign that he returned, although this may have to be filed under nagging injuries to remember later.

Although the top 100 players in blocked shots are all defensemen, it may surprise you that Matthews is the top shot blocker among all forwards (78 BkS). In fact, three of the top five shot blockers among forwards are at least close to being universally rostered: Matthews, Elias Pettersson, (76 BkS), and Anze Kopitar (73 BkS). Matthews has blocked five shots in a game multiple times this season, while Pettersson blocked six shots against the Stars on Monday.

Ryan O'Reilly took Matthews' spot on the top power play while Matthews was out, but then O'Reilly had to leave the game after blocking a shot of his own with his hand. The Leafs started the game with only 11 forwards, so losing Matthews/O'Reilly at separate times meant they played with just 10 forwards for a considerable portion of the game. Losing O'Reilly to a hand injury would be horrible luck for the Leafs with the trade deadline just passing and with the fact that he may only be a rental.

Matt Murray returned to the Leafs lineup on Saturday after missing a month and a half with an ankle injury. He was tagged with a really bad start after allowing four goals on 24 shots. Dating back to January, Murray has allowed four goals in each of his last three games and has really bad starts in back-to-back games. Over his last 11 games, Murray has five really bad starts, which should be concerning for Leafs fans as well as those rostering him. Among goalies with at least 20 games, only Kaapo Kahkonen and Spencer Martin have a higher percentage of really bad starts than Murray (30.0 RBS%).

The Canucks have a historically bad penalty kill, so it was quite something to see Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller both score shorthanded goals on the same penalty kill. Both Canucks forwards assisted on the other's goal, so you would have received two shorthanded points from each player in a category that can be difficult to fill on a weekly basis.  

Not one, but two shorthanded goals 44 seconds apart for the @Canucks! 🥳

📺: @Sportsnet ➡️ https://t.co/uEVY6yXLpz #NHLonSN pic.twitter.com/nxgLJHUiLY

— NHL (@NHL) March 5, 2023

After stopping 36 of 37 Leafs shots, Thatcher Demko now has back-to-back quality starts. He's faced 38, 36, and now 37 shots in the three games that he has started since returning from injury, so the Canucks continue to bleed shots even under Rick Tocchet. That being said, he's shown in the past that he can steal games, so he should be at least somewhat better than he was before his groin injury. The Canucks have a relatively easy schedule down the stretch, so Demko may not be the worst goaltending option for your fantasy team during the fantasy playoffs. The Canucks are actually a middle-of-the-pack team in shots allowed (31.3 SA/GP).

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By stopping 22 of 23 shots, Ilya Sorokin posted his seventh consecutive quality start. Sorokin has 32 quality starts, a number that is only surpassed by Linus Ullmark.

Speaking of Ullmark, he posted his 11^th consecutive quality start and 7^th consecutive win on Saturday, stopping 24 of 26 Rangers shots. Ullmark is pretty well matchup-proof, and I'd probably do the same for Sorokin.

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William Eklund was recalled on Friday and made his season debut on Saturday. It turned out well, as Eklund recorded an assist on the first-unit power play while taking four shots and totaling nearly 20 minutes of overall icetime. Eklund was also on a line with Tomas Hertl and Fabian Zetterlund, who was recently acquired in the Timo Meier trade.

Moving out Meier has cleared the way for the Sharks to provide their 2021 first-round pick with a significant role – not just the limited minutes that rookies will see initially. Why not stick your young star with your best players and see what he can do? Eklund scored 41 points in 52 games with the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL. He's worth taking a flier on in mid-level to deeper single-season leagues if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

In his first game as a Washington Capital, Rasmus Sandin recorded three assists, one of which was on the power play. Yes, he's on the first-unit power play with Alex Ovechkin and friends. He was averaging second-unit minutes with the Leafs, so this is a big step for the 2018 first-round pick (29^th overall). Sandin will be keeping the seat warm for John Carlson, although it is still not known when Carlson will return. Regardless, Sandin should be rostered in more than 14% of Yahoo leagues at the moment.

Speaking of Ovechkin, he scored another two goals and added an assist in the Caps' 8-3 win.

Recently acquired Craig Smith found some chemistry with Dylan Strome and Sonny Milano. Smith scored a pair of goals, Strome had a goal and two assists, and Milano had two assists.

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John Klingberg made his Wild debut on Saturday, finishing with a plus-3 and an assist that was later taken away. To answer the key question from the Fantasy Take yesterday, he played on the first-unit power play. In fact, Calen Addison was healthy scratched for this game, which might be the norm for the rest of the season. You might want to begin looking for other options if you're rostering Addison in single-season leagues.

Filip Gustavsson pitched a 31-save shutout against a Flames team that was booed off the ice at the end of the game. Gustavsson has frustrated a lot of teams recently, as he has allowed no more than three goals in any of his last 10 games. Among goalies with at least 25 games, only Ullmark has a better goals-against average and save percentage than Gustavsson (1.99 GAA, .933 SV%). I mentioned on Thursday that Marc-Andre Fleury hasn't been playing badly either. Both have provided the kind of goaltending that the Wild have needed to win eight of their last nine games.

With a goal on Saturday, Marcus Foligno broke a 10-game point drought and an 18-game goal drought.

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Joonas Korpisalo made his Kings debut on Saturday, stopping 24 of 26 shots in earning a 4-2 win over St. Louis. Korpisalo has had much-improved numbers across the board following hip surgery last season. Since being recalled, Pheonix Copley has started quite a few games for the Kings and provided adequate goaltending, but it seems as though Korpisalo will at least split starts with him the rest of the way. The Kings were believed to be looking for another goalie before the deadline, so there was an opportunity to sell high on Copley. Barring injury, it seems like Cal Petersen isn't in their plans unless there's an injury.

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Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding for more fantasy hockey.