Hi everyone! You get a double dose of me today as I am filling in for Dobber this week for the Ramblings. 

Sunday was a semi-busy day in the NHL, so let’s get right to it. 

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With the Bruins’ win on Sunday, Boston became just the fourth team in history to post 60 wins, and they have an excellent shot to set a record by reaching 63 wins in a season. Linus Ullmark, who made 35 saves on Sunday, is one of the big reasons for this team’s success. 

It’s been an excellent season for Ullmark, and he has to be not only one of the MVPs of the fantasy season, but also one of the biggest surprises. Many fantasy general managers stayed away from Ullmark in pre-season drafts. In Yahoo leagues, Ullmark was on average the 25th netminder taken, 146th overall. It’s not like many expected the Bruins to be bad, but many preferred teammate Jeremy Swayman instead. Swayman went on average as the 15th netminder drafted, 82nd overall.

Yesterday’s win was Ullmark’s 38th victory of the season, tops in the league. He also leads in wins and save percentage. He is the clear favorite for the Vezina Trophy this season. Not too shabby for a netminder that went so late in drafts.

Tyler Bertuzzi picked up a goal while playing on David Pastrnak‘s line. With the Bruins looking to rest some of their key players the rest of the way, look for guys like Bertuzzi to have some value as a streaming option if he’s available in your league. Bertuzzi now has three points in his last three games and nine in 16 contests with the Bruins.

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In the Blues’ loss to the Bruins, Sammy Blais failed to pick up a point for the second game in a row. That may normally not seem to be a big deal, but before this “slide,” he had nine points in six games and 15 in 12. 

He’s also been a hits machine. From February 11 when he first suited up for the Blues again and leading into Sunday’s action, Blais had 103 hits. Only Radko Gudas, Michael Pezzetta and Tanner Jeannot had more, but it’s a pretty-close battle as Gudas led with 108. 

Blais picked up another three hits on Sunday. In the last three games, he’s been lined up with Jordan Kyrou. Stretch it to the last 10 games, and he’s also seen time with either Pavel Buchnevich or Brayden Schenn. He’s still available in the majority of Yahoo leagues, so he could be a smart streaming pickup for anyone still battling for a championship. 

Schenn picked up an assist on all three Blues goals and now has 17 points in his last 13 games. 

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Don’t look now, but Alexis Lafreniere is in the midst of a hot streak with six points in his last six contests. Maybe not so coincidentally, the Ranger forward is at 211 games played, so he’s right in line for that 200-game breakout threshold. Something to keep in mind for next season. 

Vincent Trocheck had a great fantasy night. His two assists give him 60 points for the first time since 2017-18 and he’s only seven hits away from a career high. He also had four shots, was a plus-two and won 14 faceoffs. It’s safe to say his first year with New York has been great. 

Artemi Panarin picked up three more assists on Sunday. In my mind, he’s one of the most underrated elite players in the league. He’s on pace for 93 points, which is a down season for him. 

John Carlson picked up two assists in a losing cause for Washington. He now has five points in five games since his return from injury. The lack of games this year may make some fantasy general managers shy away from him in drafts next year, but you should be confident of another 60-point season from him next season. 

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Evgeni Malkin picked up two assists in a 4-2 win over the Flyers. That gives him 80 points on the season, the first time he’s reached that number since 2017-18. Maybe more surprisingly, Malkin has played in all 77 games so far this campaign. If he plays in the remaining five games, it will be the first time he has not missed a game since 2008-09. While it would have been great if he could have stayed healthy during his elite days, it’s always a treat when older players turn back the clock a little. 

Rickard Rakell scored twice to reach 27 goals and 56 points. This has been one of his best fantasy seasons in years. Like Malkin, he’s surprisingly managed to stay healthy. He’s averaging three shots a night and has a career-high 135 hits. 

Sidney Crosby also had two points to get him to 88 this year. And he’s also shockingly played in every game this year. I don’t know if there’s ever been a time when Crosby and Malkin have played so many consecutive games together. 

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Alex Debrincat scored on Sunday in a losing effort to Columbus, his 26th goal of the season. That gives him five goals in his last six games, but it’s not enough to erase a disappointing season from a goal-scoring perspective. This is a player who had 41 goals last year and 32 in 52 in the shortened Covid season a couple of years ago. He should be getting 30 goals in his sleep. 

Drake Batherson is an excellent young player, but his last few games haven’t been that great. Sunday night against Columbus, he had one shot in 18:10 of ice time. Nothing else. That’s just brutal, but it could have been worse. 

Looking at the worst players for plus/minus shows plenty of players from the bottom teams, such as Chicago, Anaheim, St. Louis and Arizona. However, Batherson’s name stands out among them. Up until recently, Ottawa was fighting for a playoff spot, but Batherson’s minus-37 is just awful. That is the second-worst mark in the league, only one away from Andrew Peeke‘s minus-38. 

Already at 58 points, Batherson could be the first player to finish with at least 60 points and a minus-40 since Alexei Yashin in 1993-94, coincidentally, also with the Ottawa Senators. 

As for the team that the Sens lost to, Columbus rookie Kirill Marchenko scored his 21st goal of the season in his 53rd game. In a much more surprising development, Marchennko picked up an assist, only his fourth of the season. The 21-4 stat line has to be the Cy Young favorite at this point of the season.

Linemate Johnny Gaudreau picked up two assists, pushing him up to 71 points and breaking the 70-point barrier for the fifth time in his career. 

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Jesse Puljujarvi picked up an assist on the game-tying goal Sunday night against the Islanders. That was his first point in 11 games as a Hurricane, and his first point since February 23. His advanced stats are positive and he’s shooting the puck, but he can’t seem to produce, which is why he was a healthy scratch a week ago. 

Puljujarvi is a bigger player, so his breakout threshold isn’t until he hits the 400-game mark. He’s at 328 games now, so he still needs another full season yet, so this would normally be the time to preach patience for one more season. 

However, we may not get that opportunity. Puljujarvi is an RFA this offseason, and he’s already shown his willingness to play in a league outside of the NHL. Usually, you want to be patient with a player who is showing signs of improving, but his production is nosediving. If you have the space in deep keeper leagues, he’s worth a stash. Anything else, and you’re better off going with someone else. 

Jesperi Kotkaniemi picked up his 15th goal of the season, already improving on a career high. After a great rookie season, his numbers dropped as a sophomore, but his points-per-game mark has slowly crept up every season since. 

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Alex Nedeljkovic made 42 saves in a 5-2 win over the Leafs. The Red Wings goalie has been excellent since he was called up from the AHL a couple of weeks ago. His first start was a loss to Philly, but he gave up only two goals. Since then, he has three straight wins, defeating Pittsburgh, Carolina and Toronto while making at least 31 saves in all of them. The Wings have some tough opponents next week, but their three games this week are against Montreal, Buffalo and Pittsburgh. He could be worth a shot if you’re desperate for a goaltender. 

Dylan Larkin scored a hat trick on three shots and has been excellent since the start of March no matter how games back you want to look. He has eight points in his last four games, 12 in his last nine and 19 in his last 16. Those three goals bring him to a career-high of 76 points.

Calle Jarnkrok picked up a goal for Toronto in the game. Jarnkrok could be one of those sneaky late-round playoff pool picks. That goal was his first point in four games, but he’s continuing to play in a top-six role. Mitch Marner didn’t play in this game, so Jarnkrok could slide down to the third or fourth line once Marner is back in game action. At playoff time, he could be the one to get back to that top-six role. 

But the big news out of the game is that Matt Murray left in the first period after Lucas Raymond collided with him. Murray didn’t return to action. As of the time of writing, there is no word on if the injury is serious or if he is expected to miss any time. However, none of this is surprising news as injuries have limited Murray to 26 games. 

An amusing moment from the game though, was that former NHL Curtis Joseph was the emergency backup goalie in case Ilya Samsonov was injured. How great would it have been to see CuJo play one more game as a Leaf?

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Big game for the Jets’ big-name players in a 6-1 win against the Devils. Pierre-Luc Dubois, Nikolaj Ehlers, Blake Wheeler and Josh Morrissey all had two points each while Kyle Connor had a goal and Mark Scheifele had an assist. 

For Wheeler, this is his second two-point night in as many games after going pointless in seven games. After being a consistent 70-point pace player for almost a decade, Wheeler is now on pace for 65. However, he hasn’t been the biggest disappointment for the Jets. Scheifele is on pace for 68 points. He just turned 30 a couple of weeks ago, so we shouldn’t be seeing such a steep decline already. Hopefully, this can be chalked up to a one-year swoon. 

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With two points on Sunday night, Tyler Toffoli now has his first 70-point season under his belt at the age of 30. His 71 points are tops on the Flames, and has to be a little bit surprising considering his previous high was 58 back in 2015-16 with the Kings. Toffoli now becomes the second player on my pre-season list of 10 players with a long shot to reach 70 points for the first time. Maybe most surprising is that he has accomplished this away from Jonathan Huberdeau at even strength.  Toffoli now has 15 points in his last nine games and hasn’t gone three games without a point since November. 

Huberdeau picked up an assist in this game and has points in 10 of his last 12 contests. It’s been a disappointing ride for anyone who had Huberdeau in their league, but at least he’s come through in the fantasy playoffs. 

Jacob Markstrom got the start but was pulled after allowing two goals on nine shots in the opening frame. According to Sportsnet, it’s the eighth game this season that Markstrom has allowed a goal on the opening shot. I tried to acquire Markstrom as part of a package in one of my leagues at the deadline by dangling Alexander Ovechkin. I wasn’t able to make the deal work, but even though goalie production can be considered to be erratic, it’s worth taking a risk to get a number-one netminder that has proven to produce. 

Jakob Pelletier was a healthy scratch again on Sunday. That’s the eighth time in the last nine contests.

Frank Vatrano had two goals and an assist to lead Anaheim. The two goals give him 20 on the season and two back of Trevor Zegras for the team lead. His 39 points match a career high while averaging 2.8 shots per game is a career best. 

Mason McTavish went pointless again and has two points in his last 10 games. His ice time is dwindling as he played only 12:37 on Sunday night. He put up what I like to call the Sam Mitchell line: Zero, zero, zero, zero. For those unaware, Sam Mitchell was the coach of the Toronto Raptors and was frustrated with some of his players when he gave this quote: “We didn’t move, we didn’t box out, we didn’t even jump, and we have athletes. We had guys with stats lines that read zero, zero, zero, zero. And I don’t have to tell you who they were, you can read it for yourself.”

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Anze Kopitar picked up two points against the Canucks to reach 68 on the season, his most productive season since his 92-point season in 2017-18. That snapped a four-game pointless streak. 

J.T. Miller‘s season has been a strange one from a fantasy value. He started with many fantasy general managers expressing disappointment in his production. While he’s gone through some struggles, he’s been having an excellent season. Picking up an assist on Sunday gives him 77 points in 75 games. That pales slightly to last year's 99 points, but is still second on the team in points and puts him on pace for 84 over 82 games. It's not even like he had a poor first half, as he had 27 points in his first 26 games. He had an awful December, but in truth, almost every Canuck did.

Like many others on the team, he produced much better once Bruce Boudreau was replaced in January. In 29 games under Rick Tocchet, Miller has 35 points, second-most on the Canucks. 

I already have Miller in one keeper league, and I’d be looking to acquire him in almost every league as long as you can keep the expectation of him finishing as a point-per-game player. Anything better is just gravy. He's put up at least a point per game in three of the last four years and should be able to continue that mark for at least a few more years. 

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Although he didn’t play Sunday, rookie Jack McBain is a player to keep an eye on in keeper leagues that count peripheral stats. The Coyotes forward already has 281 hits, which not only leads all rookies but is sixth among all players. 

He's also earning the trust of his coaches. He averaged fewer than 14 minutes in the first half of the season, but is up to 17-plus a night over his past 11 games since March 5. He's also getting some looks on the second power-play unit. 

All this trust has led to seven points in those 11 games and 11 points in his last 15. That 60-point pace isn't sustainable for next season, but 45 points would certainly be doable. Add that to his 300-plus hits, and he can be a valuable player next year.