Patrik Laine is expected to miss the next two to four weeks with a tricep strain from Thursday's practice. Unfortunate timing, as Laine had posted multiple points in each of his last three games and four of his past five games. Try to move Laine to an injured slot or the bench if you can, but he is droppable in single-season leagues in the fantasy playoffs with that kind of recovery timeline. Prior to Friday's game, Laine led the Jackets with a 0.95 PTS/GP pace.

Jack Roslovic moved up to the first-unit power play in Laine's absence, recording a power-play assist in the second period while finishing with two assists and four shots. Roslovic now has four points over his last two games, as well as back-to-back games with power-play points. Just 5% rostered in Yahoo (28% in Fantrax).

Johnny Gaudreau's first season in Columbus has been a bit of a bummer, and his point pace has declined as many of us expected. That being said, he's turned it up recently (12 PTS in his last 7 GP) as the Jackets play out the string. Remember that players and coaches don't tank, only management and some fans do.  

This will break the monotony of a Blue Jackets/Islanders game:

Kyle Palmieri scored a goal and added an assist for the Isles, giving him seven points over his last four games. The Isles don't have the greatest volume in terms of games remaining (see Schedule Planner), yet Palmieri has been on a scoring line and the first power play. He's only 4% rostered in Yahoo and 15% rostered in Fantrax, so maybe you can get some mileage out of him the rest of the way.

Also for the deep leaguers out there, Hudson Fasching has a four-game point streak, including an assist on Friday. Go back a little further and he has nine points in his last 11 games. He's making the most of very limited power-play use and under 15 minutes per game.  

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JJ Peterka has six points in his last five games. Peterka, Dylan Cozens, and Jack Quinn have formed a kid line for the Sabres, with none of the three being older than 22 years of age. Each of them recorded two points in the Sabres' 5-4 win over New Jersey. Cozens is now rostered in the majority of leagues, but Quinn and Peterka are rostered in less than 10% of Yahoo leagues (Peterka just 1%!) Keep in mind that Buffalo has a bit of a tougher schedule next week, which you can find out about in the latest Looking Ahead.

Alex Tuch led the Sabres with two goals and an assist on Friday. He's at a point-per-game pace (68 PTS in 63 GP) this season. His career season seems overshadowed by the surprise breakout of Tage Thompson.

By the way, Thompson is considered a "question mark" for today's (Saturday's) game, according to Sabres coach Don Granato. Thompson left Friday's game after the collision below but was able to return later in the game.  

My judicious use of starting goalies meant that I dodged a bullet in not starting Akira Schmid on Friday. In other words, just because the goalie is on your roster doesn’t mean you have to start him. The Devils goalie has been tremendous when called upon this season, as only three goalies with as many games played have a better goals-against average than Schmid. However, he was pulled in the first period on Friday after allowing three goals on seven shots. I knew that Schmid has been effective, but I decided to sit him because I knew a matchup against high-scoring Buffalo would be tough, and I'm trying to preserve my strong ratios in my head-to-head playoff matchup.

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In case you missed it, Filip Hronek's debut in Vancouver resulted in no points but a team-leading 24:25 in icetime. As expected, Hronek skated on the Canucks' second power-play unit. Hronek is already on pace to reach 40 points for the first time in his career, although I wouldn't expect a major change in value in him moving from Detroit to Vancouver. The Canucks have banked a lot on him (1^st and 2^nd round pick) to be that missing piece to lift them into the playoffs next season. Expect him to play a ton on the right side of the defense, which might be the most glaring weakness on the roster. That in itself should provide solid peripherals and shouldn't hurt his overall point totals either.

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Many players in Winnipeg haven't been immune to the team's recent struggles. One of them is Kyle Connor, who scored his first goal in seven games and first goal in 12 games on Thursday. To top that off, the Jets are one of a handful of teams with just nine games remaining effective Saturday (see Schedule Planner for more).

If you need to make a hard decision this weekend in order to stack for a do-or-die Sunday in head-to-head playoffs, you'll probably want to hang onto studs like Connor, Mark Scheifele, and Josh Morrissey. The latter two players have not scored a point in three games, which is hardly the worst slump out there but still not coming through in the clutch. Since literally about half the questions I've seen recently ask whether to start Nikolaj Ehlers among a small group of players, retain him I suppose. Players like Blake Wheeler (0 PTS in last 5 GP) and recently acquired Nino Niederreiter (1 PT in last 5 GP) seem droppable, though.

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A common fantasy playoff strategy this week has been to load up on Avalanche and Coyotes players to maximize games played on off nights. In a week where games have been heavily stacked on the usual Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday busy nights, the Avalanche have played on four light days, while the Coyotes have played on three light days. You may be considering clicking the add button again on players from both teams on Sunday, when the two teams face each other for the second consecutive game.

The first game was played on Friday night. It appears that the popular adds from these two teams were a non-factor in the boxscore, as the usual suspects were the ones to accumulate points. Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar each posted three points, while Valeri Nichushkin recorded two assists in the win for the Avalanche. Makar returned to the lineup on Friday after a two-game absence due to a lower-body injury.

Nichushkin was elevated to the top line with MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, bumping Denis Malgin to the J.T. Compher – Alex Newhook unit. Malgin had been a popular waiver-wire pickup for that top line role after Evan Rodrigues went to concussion protocol. It's great to find the next player to catch fire because he has the perfect linemates, but these ideal situations can change like the weather. I guess what I'm saying is that we can try to stream our way to a championship, but a fantasy team first needs a solid foundation in order to win.  

Clayton Keller scored the Coyotes' lone goal, giving him a staggering 10 goals in his last 10 games and 20 points in his last 11 games. Nick Schmaltz assisted, giving him five assists in his last four games and keeping him at a near point-per-game pace (51 PTS in 54 GP). J.J. Moser was the only true Coyotes streamer to hit the scoresheet, adding an assist to give him three points in his last four games.

For those adding Juuso Valimaki, Lawson Crouse, Mattias Maccelli, Jack McBain, and Travis Boyd recently: sorry, you were out of luck on Friday, at least from a scoring standpoint. McBain did lead all Friday players with seven hits, while Crouse chipped in four hits. You're probably dropping many of these guys by the middle of next week anyway. Also, I don't think I've ever been this interested in the Arizona Coyotes from a fantasy perspective as I have been this past week.

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Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding for more fantasy hockey.