Evgeny Kuznetsov made his Hurricanes debut on Saturday, playing on an even-strength line with Jesper Fast and Jesperi Kotkaniemi while receiving first-unit power-play minutes. He was held without a point in 13 minutes, but he took two shots. Even though it looks like he might have to start in the bottom 6 for the Hurricanes, he showed flashes of what he is capable of. Kuznetsov is still widely available (12% Yahoo/34% Fantrax) and is worth at least keeping an eye on.

Evgeny Kuznetsov is already so impressive to watch.

What a shift in the opening minutes of the game.

• Clean win on the draw, getting a set look
• Sweet vision, hitting Kotkaniemi back door
• Disgusting one-touch pass to create another chance for Fast pic.twitter.com/wYuFG5QDZb

— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) March 9, 2024

Fantasy Take: Evgeny Kuznetsov Gets a Fresh Start in Carolina

Teuvo Teravainen led the Canes with a goal and two assists in their 4-2 win over New Jersey. Turbo has a six-game point streak going with eight points over those six games. He's receiving top-line minutes with Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, so he's worth starting in many formats.

I wrote about Timo Meier yesterday, so just a quick update: Meier scored again on Saturday, giving him six goals over his last four games and nine points over his last five games. If he's been glued to your bench for a while, you need to get him back into your lineup right away.

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This ending to the Edmonton/Buffalo game was bananas. Imagine that you're in the dressing room ready to hit the showers and you're told to go back out there to finish the game because of an offside. Fortunately for Buffalo, they won a second time in the shootout.

chaos at the keybank center as the sabres overtime goal was called back, and both they and the oilers had already left the ice. pic.twitter.com/S22DCeAefW https://t.co/GlTR8XB3dm

— zach (@zjlaing) March 9, 2024

Do you think this is offside? Pretty close, but it appears to be the right call.

Also, the word is "offside," not "offsides." More and more people keep getting this wrong. Maybe it's the editor in me, but let's retire "offsides", shall we?

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen might be approaching must-start territory. In a tight goaltending matchup this week, I decided to bench him in what appeared to be a daunting matchup with the Oilers. Yet he delivered with another win and quality start, allowing two goals on 32 shots. UPL now has six wins and nine quality starts in his last nine games. Since December 30, he's been lights out with a 14-8-1 record with a 1.90 GAA and .931 SV%. He's allowed more than three goals only once during that span, which is his only really bad start (against Anaheim of all teams). My loss, but at least I'll take credit for picking him up off waivers while dropping Vitek Vanecek in mid-January. That move upgraded my goaltending significantly.  

Connor McDavid's 13-game point streak came to an end on Saturday. McDavid had 29 points – 27 of them assists – during that span. McDavid is the third player to hit the century mark in points, although he is on pace to finish with "just" 30 goals after leading the league with 64 goals last season. His shot total is down nearly a shot per game from last season (4.3 SOG/GP to 3.4 SOG/GP), which might explain how his goal total has been cut in half.

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Columbus isn't a goldmine of fantasy hockey value in the 2023-24 season. That's why it's worth mentioning that Alexandre Texier has a five-game point streak with six points over that span, including a goal on Saturday. Texier has three shots in each of his last three games playing on a line with the also-suddenly hot Alexander Nylander. Although the younger Nylander brother was held without a point on Saturday, he did manage to take five shots on goal. Texier doesn't receive any power-play time, so he might be for only the deepest of leagues. Nylander is also on the top power play, so he might be worth keeping an eye on.

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If Vladimir Tarasenko happens to be on your league's waiver wire (60% Yahoo), find a way to add him. Now. In his second game with the Panthers, Tarasenko scored a pair of goals and added an assist with a plus-3 while playing on a stacked line with Sam Reinhart and Aleksander Barkov. Florida then has Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe, and Sam Bennett on their other scoring line. Do you like their Stanley Cup chances yet?

The move to Florida appears to be helping Tarasenko's value, and that's not always the case with a team that's loading up for the playoffs. The only downside is that his power-play percentage has been sub-50% in his two games, which could be an issue as he competes with some established scorers. Yet as long as Tank is on an even-strength line with two other studs, I'm all in.

Fantasy Take: Panthers Acquire Tarasenko

Even though the Panthers won 5-1 over Calgary, they could be dealing with some injuries. Aaron Ekblad left Saturday's game with a knee injury, while Evan Rodrigues left the game with an ankle injury after blocking a shot.

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With two goals and an assist on Saturday, Pavel Zacha has a four-game point streak with five goals and seven points over that span. The Bruins probably would have liked to add a top-6 center at the deadline, hence the Elias Lindholm rumors. Since a trade didn't happen, they'll have to go with Zacha and Charlie Coyle up the middle. Zacha's 82-game pace is 57 points, which is the same total that he registered last season.

Meanwhile, Coyle is on pace for 65 points, so he seems to be the player benefitting the most from the offseason retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. Coyle is now at 52 points, having cracked the 50-point mark for the first time in his career. Not surprisingly, his advanced stats suggest at least mild regression (16.9 SH%, 2.6 PTS/60), but some of that could be from having better linemates. Coyle has had Brad Marchand on his wing for much of this season while the two were hardly together last season. 

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The good news for the Canucks is that they shut out Western Conference rival Winnipeg 5-0, getting revenge on a Jets team that they lost to three weeks ago. The bad news is that Thatcher Demko left the game in the second period with something that didn't appear obvious to those watching. After the game, Rick Tocchet told reporters that he didn't think the injury was serious but that he hadn't spoken to the doctor.

Since the Canucks seem to have a 99% probability of making the playoffs at this point, expect Demko to be rested more often down the stretch, even if he's not technically injured. That will obviously make things a little harder for fantasy teams that have been relying on Demko, but the fantasy playoffs are never fair. Expect Casey DeSmith, who shared the shutout with Demko, to see a higher frequency of starts, which makes him worth at least a speculative pickup. If Demko misses games, Arturs Silovs would likely be called up from the AHL. The Canucks play only two games next week, so Demko owners may want to consider other options for next week anyway.

I remember listening to a pregame show for this game where a Canucks analyst predicted that the difference in this game would be Quinn Hughes. They were sure right and then some, at least in the first period. Hughes had a CF of 20 and CA of 0 for a CF% of 100% in eight minutes.

Either Demko or Connor Hellebuyck could be the Vezina Trophy winner this season. While Demko is battling some kind of injury, Hellebuyck has hit a bit of a rough patch, allowing at least three goals in each of his last five games. Lucky me, as I decided to bench Hellebuyck today because I had two other goalies starting earlier in the day (Pyotr Kochetkov and Linus Ullmark). Something about a blind squirrel finding a nut?

I'm not suggesting that you should bench Hellebuyck, but just keep an eye on this recent cold stretch (at least by his standards). Laurent Brossoit has four wins and four quality starts over his last four games, so Rick Bowness might turn to him with more frequency down the stretch since the Jets seem like a lock to make the playoffs as well. Again, less ideal for fantasy teams, but maybe it results in better quality starts. Oh yeah, and Brossoit is streamable too.

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The Flyers played their game against Tampa Bay with just five defensemen… and without a head coach for most of the game. This is classic Torts!

Torts didn't want to leave the bench after being ejected. 😳 pic.twitter.com/VTt70Bho49

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 10, 2024

Not surprisingly, the Flyers lost this game 7-0. Travis Sanheim led Flyers' d-men with nearly 29 minutes in icetime, while Cam York logged 25:32.

Darren Raddysh's five assists stand out here. Raddysh had recorded just one point in his previous 10 games, so you can't be blamed if you missed out on this one. Since Mikhail Sergachev is out, Raddysh is receiving second-unit power-play minutes, and he's also on pace for 33 points. He has a bit of offensive upside, having scored 51 points in 50 games in the AHL last season. That makes him worth consideration in deeper leagues.

In his first game as a Lightning, Anthony Duclair scored a goal and added an assist while taking three shots. Duclair is actually on a hot streak right now because he finished his time in San Jose on a high note with two goals and two assists on Tuesday. Duclair was on a line with Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli, which seems like an upgrade over Mikael Granlund and Fabian Zetterlund. Just getting out of San Jose should help his value, although his production has declined after two career seasons in Florida in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Fantasy Take: Duclair Back in Florida But With Tampa Bay This Time

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After playing just two games this week, the Rangers suit up for five games next week. You shouldn't need me to tell you to load up on Rangers, and that includes the usual suspects all the way down to Jack Roslovic. I wasn't initially super excited about him being traded to the Rangers, since he seemed to be more of a depth piece there. However, Roslovic was slotted alongside Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad for his Rangers debut on Saturday, although he was held without a point. It kind of makes sense, since this is the spot where Blake Wheeler played before suffering a season-ending injury. Roslovic is only 4% rostered in Yahoo and 20% rostered in Fantrax, so at the very least he's worth a stream for next week.  

Fantasy Take: New York Rangers Acquire Much-Needed Roslovic

Igor Shesterkin picked up his second shutout of the season, stopping all 26 shots he faced. You'd think he'd have more shutouts than that, but it's been an up-and-down season for him. Fortunately, he's back on track with quality starts in six of his past seven games. Shesterkin also benefits from the Rangers' five-game week, although with two pairs of back-to-backs, Jonathan Quick should probably starts two of those games. Quick has been solid this season, so he's worth streaming for sure. I'm surprised that he's rostered in over one-third of Yahoo leagues, but that could be due to his solid ratios (2.45 GAA, .916 SV%) without the high volume.

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Jonathan Marchessault registered a hat trick on Saturday, also making his presence felt with a plus-3, two minor penalties, and nine shots. Marchessault is up to 35 goals, which is a career high for him. Only six players currently have more goals than him. Both an elevated shot rate (3.4 SOG/GP) and shooting percentage (16.1%) are contributing to the goal increase, although Marchessault is typically a high-volume shooter who averages over three shots per game.

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If I missed anything important, I'm back tomorrow to fill in for Brennan. In the meantime, follow me on X @Ian_Gooding and Threads.