From the games that I caught at least a part of on Saturday, tempers seemed to be more heated than normal. Of all of the nastiness, the story of the night was sparked by a slapshot on an empty net. No big deal, right?

A suspension is coming for Morgan Rielly. I know Ridly Greig's slapshot into the empty net would have elicited vitriol from just about every other team, but Rielly's hit on Greig afterward was a violent overreaction from a key player. The hit seemed reminiscent of Dale Hunter's hit on Pierre Turgeon in the 1993 playoffs. If you don't remember that hit, Hunter received a 21-game suspension after blindside clobbering a celebrating Turgeon. I doubt Rielly's suspension will be that long since he doesn't have a long rap sheet, but you should prepare to be without his services next week. David Perron's six-game suspension might be more of a template, but the NHL wheel of justice will have the final say.

Ridly Greig buries the empty-netter with a slapshot and Morgan Rielly takes exception 😳 pic.twitter.com/6NISK4AMSt

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 11, 2024

If you're already thinking about who benefits from a Rielly absence, maybe look up Timothy Liljegren for power-play minutes. He has only two power-play points all season, but I'm not sure which other defenseman to suggest. I also wonder if the Leafs try five forwards and stick someone like Tyler Bertuzzi or Max Domi there.

In their 5-3 win over their Ontario rivals, the Senators were led by Shane Pinto, who had a goal and two assists, a plus-3, and five shots. Pinto now has multiple points in back-to-back games, which raises his season total to seven points in seven games. The Sens have now won three games in a row. What if Pinto is that piece that the Senators have been missing all along? Surely, he has to be motivated to have a strong second half after the first-half suspension and the fact that he is in another contract year. I traded for the 23-year-old Pinto in one league a few games before his suspension in the hopes he can inject some youth onto a keeper team that is clearly on the decline.

Josh Norris scored his first goal since December 23, when he had scored a goal for the fifth consecutive game. That seems longer that it really is, since Norris missed a few games due to injury. Taking that into account, Norris had not scored a goal in his previous 14 games. He's down to being 23 percent rostered in Yahoo leagues, so there's a potential buy-very-low opportunity here. Keep in mind that Norris is an injury risk, having never played 70 games in a season.

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This caught me by surprise, but the Red Wings have a top-5 offense in the league in terms of both total goals and goals per game. How did that happen? Three players (Dylan Larkin, Alex Debrincat, Lucas Raymond) have already reached 40 points, and Shayne Gostisbehere is a top-20 scoring defenseman (32 PTS in 50 GP).

The Wings have one more player that has reached 30 points. That is Daniel Sprong, who has scored a goal in two consecutive games. Sprong continues to produce in spite of limited icetime, with his average icetime "increasing" just over a minute per game from last season to 12:42 this season. Sprong is also just outside the top 30 with 3.1 PTS/60 – a similar number to studs like teammate Larkin, Steven Stamkos, Jack Eichel, Joe Pavelski, Quinn Hughes, and Brayden Point. What will it take for him to receive more icetime? At 9% rostership in Yahoo and 29% in Fantrax, Sprong is at the very least a sneaky streamer. Perhaps he's a victim of the depth on the Wings.

After one of his worst games of the season on Thursday in Boston, Elias Pettersson bounced back with a three-point effort on Saturday against the Wings. Rick Tocchet decided to juggle his lines, stacking Elias Lindholm with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser while also moving Nils Hoglander and Pius Suter onto Pettersson's line. Hoglander's goal was his first point in six games, although he's mainly been on the fourth line this season. If Hoglander can stick on this line, he might be worth a look in fantasy since he has earned the promotion with his overall game.

Against his former team, Filip Hronek scored a goal and added two assists. Hronek had previously gone nine games without a point. In spite of the recent slump, Hronek is one point shy of reaching 40 points for the first time in his career. Being mainly partnered with Hughes at even strength has helped Hronek considerably.

After this game, Nikita Zadorov was suspended two games for a check to the head of Raymond. Zadorov had already received a match penalty for the hit. 

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In the Flames' 5-2 win over the Islanders, Mackenzie Weegar recorded his first career hat trick. After struggling in his first season in Calgary last season, Weegar has bounced back considerably. In fact, he has now passed Cale Makar and Rasmus Dahlin as the league leader in goals by a defenseman with 15. Weegar started making noise a few seasons ago in Florida, where he posted back-to-back seasons with a 40+ point pace with robust shot and hit totals before he was traded to Calgary. The shot totals (2.5 SOG/GP) are as high as they've ever been, and he has already surpassed 100 hits this season. He's having a tremendous season in multicat leagues, so I'll have to move him up in the Top 100 Roto Rankings for February.

Since December 31, Jonathan Huberdeau has 16 points in 16 games. Isn't that what we expected from him all along? Just forget about the 15 points in 35 games before that, that's all. That being said, too many fantasy teams gave up on Huberdeau, as he is still only rostered in 42% of Yahoo leagues.

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Before Weegar scored his three goals, Thomas Harley was temporarily tied for the league lead in goals by defensemen. That shouldn't take away from the kind of season that Harley is having with 13 goals and 30 points. First-unit power-play time would be more ideal, but a 50-point pace should be enough of a reason not to consider dropping him.

With two goals on Saturday, Tyler Seguin now has seven points in his last six games.

With a goal and an assist on Saturday, Nick Suzuki extended his point streak to six games. Suzuki has 10 points over those six games. He is quietly having his strongest season, currently on a 76-point pace.

Suzuki's linemate Cole Caufield extended his point streak to 11 games by assisting on Suzuki's goal. Caufield has 14 points over his point streak.

Juraj Slafkovsky scored a goal for the third consecutive game on Saturday. The 19-year-old sophomore forward is now up to 10 goals on the season while receiving even-strength minutes with Suzuki and Caufield, as well as prime power-play minutes. In addition, he's picked up 16 points over his last 22 games. Slafkovsky is still rostered in only 11 percent of Yahoo leagues, so I wouldn't be surprised if that starts to increase.

Alex Newhook returned to the Montreal lineup on Saturday after missing the past two months with a high ankle sprain. He was added to the top power play and logged nearly 19 minutes in the game. Those seem like good signs for potential fantasy value, although the scoring numbers drop significantly beyond Montreal's top line. For that reason, I like Slafkovsky a bit better.

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Time to put in a missing person's report on Tage Thompson? He was held without a point on Saturday, which means he has just two points over his last nine games. Thompson is at least shooting the puck, taking 11 shots over his last two games. Currently Thompson is on pace for 51 points, which is not what you were expecting if you had made him an early-round pick. His analytics (10.7 SH%, 7.8 5v5 SH%, 2.3 PTS/60) hint that he can improve on that. I wrote more about Thompson last week while we were on the All-Star break, explaining that you should not consider him elite.  

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In Jim Hiller's coaching debut with the Kings, Big Save Dave came up big. David Rittich stopped all 27 shots he faced in a 4-0 shutout win over the Oilers. Before he was let go, Todd McLellan had been leaning on Rittich over Cam Talbot, so Hiller might decide to do the same. The Kings are one of three teams to play four times next week (Arizona and New Jersey are the others), so Talbot should squeeze in a start and maybe two. Regardless, Rittich is a possible goalie pickup next week (19% Yahoo/21% Fantrax). He's another example of how goalie situations are fluid, as he began the season as the third-string goalie.

There's a reason they call him Big Save Dave. 🤷‍♂️

David Rittich picks up his first @pepsi shutout as a member of the @LAKings! 👑 pic.twitter.com/ldEgxWztnj

— NHL (@NHL) February 11, 2024

In the win, Quinton Byfield picked up two goals and an assist. Byfield has picked up points in each of the last five games he has appeared in. Byfield's stock has picked up so much that the Hockey Night in Canada panel was discussing him as a possibility for Team Canada for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Winter Olympics.

Yes, that was Pierre-Luc Dubois who scored a power-play goal on Saturday. Despite the goal, Dubois has just two points over his last nine games. He happened to contribute two shots and four hits as well.

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There were a total of four shutouts on Saturday, which was the highest total for any day this season. Here are the other three:

Charlie Lindgren, 18 saves vs. Boston. Lindgren has been better than expected this season, but this was his first win and quality start in his last five appearances.

Pyotr Kochetkov, 34 saves vs. New Jersey. This was also Kochetkov's first quality start in his last five appearances. Antti Raanta is expected to miss at least the next two weeks with a lower-body injury, so Kochetkov will be playing a lot. Frederik Andersen could still return this season, but it doesn't sound like a return is imminent.

Sergei Bobrovsky, 35 saves vs. Colorado. Keep rolling with Goalie Bob, who now has four consecutive wins and quality starts.

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In the Washington/Boston game, Alex Ovechkin scored a goal for the fourth consecutive game. He also passed Wayne Gretzky for a record on Saturday… the empty-net goals record (and no, he did not take a slapshot). Ovie is now the all-time leader in empty-net goals with 57. He also chipped in an assist to give him seven points in his last five games. Ovechkin is still on pace for only 20 goals, but he at least appears to be trending in the right direction.

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With two more points on Saturday, Matthew Tkachuk has 32 points over his last 18 games. Since the calendar turned to 2024, Tkachuk has more points (29) than any other player. To the guy who asked me if he should trade Tkachuk while he was still slumping and didn't seem right… I hope you took my advice and held onto him.

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Brandon Hagel is on fire right now. With a goal and two assists on Saturday, Hagel now has goals in four consecutive games and points in six consecutive games. Over those six games he has 10 points. The Lightning have stacked their top line with Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and Brayden Point, so Hagel is making the most of lining up with Anthony Cirelli and Nick Paul. Only six of Hagel's 48 points have been on the power play. In other words, Hagel is proving that he no longer needs top-tier linemates in order to produce.  

Boone Jenner broke a nine-game point drought with a pair of goals on Saturday – both Columbus goals. Jake Neighbours is the only player with more goals than Jenner (15) that also has fewer assists than Jenner (5).

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Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday, if you happen to celebrate.

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