Dylan Larkin was back in the lineup on Thursday night for Detroit as the Red Wings had a big home matchup against the New York Islanders. The captain had missed eight games due to injury and the team went 2-6 in that time, and one of their wins was a miracle late-minute comeback against Columbus. He skated on a line with David Perron and Lucas Raymond with the latter wing also skating with Larkin on the top power play unit. They were joined on the man advantage with Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat as the team decided to stack one unit, something that hadn't been a frequent occurrence over the last couple of months.

Speaking of the Islanders, this was nice to see from coach Patrick Roy:

Patrick Roy, talking about his transparency with lineups, says #Isles fans deserve that.

— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) March 21, 2024

As someone who cares a lot about what line combinations are for each team playing on a given day, it was nice to see this. I will also say that I don't really understand the complete aversion some coaches have to this. If, say, Vegas decides to put Paul Cotter alongside Nicolas Roy and move Brett Howden up the lineup in Cotter's place, does that really change the approach of the opposition? Are coaches going to call emergency tape sessions to alter their gameplan because Brett Howden is all of a sudden on the third line? Coaches have no incentive to ever tell the truth to the media about anything, so that's why it's good practice to take everything they say with a grain of salt the size of a 10-gallon hat, but there's no reason for things to be like this. "Yes, we're going to have the same lineup," or "no, we're going to swap Sam Bennett with Anton Lundell" would go a long way with a lot of people.

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The NHL announced that Washington winger Tom Wilson earned an in-person hearing for his stick-swinging incident against Toronto on Wednesday night. An in-person hearing combined with Wilson's lengthy suspension history sure seems to indicate he'll miss a lot of games. With a key game against Detroit next week where a regulation win will mean a lot to either team getting to the postseason, the timing is not ideal.

Also, as an aside, I saw numerous writers (and, apparently, the Sportsnet broadcast) talk about this being an accident. Whether Wilson wanted to slash another player in the face is known only to Wilson, but he had bodychecked Noah Gregor literal fractions of a second before he swung his stick at him. The only possible way he didn't know that Gregor was still beside him is if Wilson has the object permanence of a 10-month-old baby. Other than that, the most generous way to read the play is that it was wildly reckless at best, and intentional at worst. Wilson has long run out of earning the benefit of the doubt in situations like this.

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Montreal provided an update on winger Joshua Roy:

#Habs Joshua Roy will be out 4-6 weeks with an upper body injury.

— Priyanta Emrith (@HabsInHighHeels) March 22, 2024

With four weeks left in the season, his year may be done. Roy took a shot off the hand on Tuesday night and now it appears he's played his last regular season game of 2023-24. He had four goals and five assists in 23 games while skating just 12:08 per night. He had formed a solid second line with Alex Newhook and now it's up to Newhook to find the same chemistry with a new left winger. It was Rafael Harvey-Pinard to start with on Thursday.

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Colorado coach Jared Bednar said they hope to get Nikolai Kovalenko into some games before the regular season finishes. The winger had 32 goals and 89 points in his last 98 KHL games and is now making his way to the NHL roster soon, it seems.

Kovalenko is currently nursing a lower-body injury so his insertion into the Colorado lineup is not imminent, but it'll be interesting to see how they use him when he does. This doesn't mean he'll be a lineup regular this season, either, but his line mates might indicate what the team hopes to see from him, and, in turn, what fantasy owners might be able to expect if (when) he pushes for a full-time roster spot next season. Getting healthy is the most important point right now, but it sure seems he'll get a chance to impress the staff this season.

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Buffalo was in Edmonton Thursday night and Sabres coach Don Granato moved JJ Peterka to the top line with Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch. Peterka has not spent much time there this season, and even seemed to be in the doghouse recently with some very low ice time games. He is getting a chance at the top of the lineup and it paid off immediately as he scored less than two minutes into the game, his 22^nd of the season, and added another goal later. He had five shots and two PIMs in a good fantasy night.

Unfortunately, that's where the good news stops for Buffalo as Edmonton pounded them 8-3. With Detroit and Tampa Bay both winning on Thursday night, that about wraps any faint playoff hopes the Sabres had.

Connor McDavid had four assists, Leon Draisaitl had a goal (PP), and two assists, Zach Hyman had two goals and eight shots, Mattias Ekholm had a goal, two assists, five shots, a block, and two hits, while Connor Brown even had a goal and an assist. It was quite the night for a lot of Oilers skaters.

In a fun coincidence, I wrote about Peterka's playmaking improvements through the season just yesterday. It also covered some other forwards like Nikolaj Ehlers, Seth Jarvis, and Logan Cooley, so go read that for more on those guys.

Generally speaking, there's still a lot to be excited about for Buffalo in the near-future. They have to figure out how to balance the defence and offence a bit better, but there is so much talent in the top half of the roster that it's hard not to be excited for 2024-25 (though I do understand the dejection of Sabres fans).

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Artemi Panarin reached the 40-goal mark (41, actually) with a hat trick in New York's 5-2 win over Boston on Thursday. That gives him his first 40-goal season of his career, and those tallies also pushed him to 97 points, which is also a career-high. He has 12 more games this season to keep pouring it on and were it not for hyper-elite seasons from the likes of Nathan MacKinnon or Nikita Kucherov, he'd be in the Hart Trophy conversation.

Mika Zibanejad had a goal (EN) and an assist with three shots in the win. Not for nothing, but Zibanejad now has four goals and 25 shots in eight games since the team acquired Jack Roslovic. Correlation does not equal causation (especially with that empty netter) but Roslovic has found a home on New York's top line.

Adam Fox also had a goal and an assist, registering one shot and four penalty minutes. Going back to January 1^st, Fox now has 10 goals and 35 points in 35 games. Not bad!

Jonathan Quick was in net for the win and now has 391 for his career. That ties him with Ryan Miller for the most ever by an American-born goalie. The Rangers don't have another back-to-back situation this season but they do have Arizona and Ottawa ahead of them so there are soft starts for the team to turn to Quick before the season is out.

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Jake Neighbours scored twice, and Brandon Saad, Jordan Kyrou, and Colton Parayko also tallied in St. Louis's 5-2 win in Ottawa last night. Neighbours finished with three shots, two blocks, two PIMs, and three hits in a great multi-cat night. He is up to 24 goals on the year and has been a big part of St. Louis's secondary scoring (and power play).

Parayko had that one goal on three shots with three blocks and three hits. It was Parayko's 10^th tally of the season, tying a career-high, and is the same number of goals he had in his prior 161 regular season games. With 185 blocks, he has 200 blocked shots well within reach in what has been an unreal multi-cat season.

Joel Hofer had a great game in net for St. Louis by saving 36 of 38 shots for the win. He made a few absolute 10-bell saves in the first half of the game that preserved St. Louis's lead that they eventually extended. One of the better goalie games I've seen this season.

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The Red Wings took that key home game in Larkin's return by a 6-3 margin over the Islanders. Larkin scored twice (once in the empty net) while Andrew Copp also scored twice with Christian Fischer managing a goal and two assists.

Lucas Raymond assisted on Larkin's empty netter, and that was Raymond's 60^th point of the season. Just 15 of those 60 points have been with the man advantage so he's had a tremendous even strength season. This is a player I've come around on more a lot this season and he really does look like a very good top line offensive force moving forward (something like Seth Jarvis).

Mike Reilly, Jean Gabriel-Pageau, and Mathew Barzal scored for the Islanders, but James Reimer saved New York's other 34 shots for the win.

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Three power play goals (two from Jack Hughes and one from Nico Hischier) sent New Jersey on the path to a 4-1 win over Winnipeg. Timo Meier added an empty-net goal to go with two power play helpers as his torrid pace continues. Meier finished the game with three shots, a block, and a hit, too. He now has 12 goals, 19 points, and 56 shots in his last 14 games.

Hischier had two assists of his own for a three-point night. He is now five points shy of his third straight 60-point season, and that's with 10 games missed to this point.

Jake Allen won again, saving 18 of 19 shots. It would really be something to see him go on a run with the Devils (and a healthy roster) next season.

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Carolina managed a 3-2 overtime win against Philadelphia last night. Seth Jarvis had the overtime winner, his 26^th goal of the year. He needs four more points for his first career 60-point season and has a decent chance at his first 30-goal season, too.

Jordan Martinook and Jalen Chatfield had the other goals for Carolina. Chatfield now has four points in his last five games as his career season continues.

Travis Konecny and Scott Laughton replied for the Flyers. Konecny had three shots, four blocks, and a hit to round out his fantasy night. He needs nine shots for a career-high, two goals for a 30-goal season, and one point for a 60-point season. Considering how bad the Flyers' power play has been (Konecny has as many short-handed goals as he does power play goals over the last two years), he's been incredibly productive.

Frederik Andersen stopped 31 of 33 shots for the win.

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Kevin Lankinen saved all 33 shots he faced as Nashville took a 3-0 win in Florida. The Panthers were without Aleksander Barkov, and Aaron Ekblad is still injured, so there is context here, but the Predators do seem to be a team peaking at the right time.

Filip Forsberg had a goal and two assists, Gustav Nyquist had a goal and an assist, and Ryan O'Reilly had a pair of helpers as Nashville's top line did a lot of the damage. Forsberg has 10 points in his last five games and needs two goals and one assist for a 40-40 season. That would be his second 40-40 season in three years, too.

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Lukas Dostal saved all 29 shots he faced as Anaheim blanked Chicago 4-0. Alex Killorn had two goals, Frank Vatrano tallied once on six shots, and Brett Leason had a goal and an assist in the win. That was Vatrano's first goal in 10 games and finally pushed him to the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career. With 227 shots, 128 hits, and 67 blocks, Vatrano has had a great multi-cat season.

Leo Carlsson left the game late in the second period and did not return. He had an awkward collision with Chicago’s Alex Vlasic which looked knee-on-knee (and genuinely an accident; not a Wilson-esque accident). A tough year for the rookie, health-wise, and hopefully it’s not as bad as it looked.

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Nikita Zadorov scored twice (honestly) with five shots, a pair of blocks, and a hit in Vancouver's 4-1 win over Montreal. Conor Garland and Nils Aman also got on the board in the win. Casey DeSmith saved 16 of 17 shots in the win. The Canucks are now 2-1-1 since Thatcher Demko's injury and DeSmith has given up just nine goals in those four games, so he's done his part.

Juraj Slafkovsky scored in the loss and now has a six-game point streak (two goals, five assists). He has 11 goals and 12 assists in his last 27 games, totaling 60 shots and 44 hits in that span.

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Jack Eichel scored again, managing seven shots and two blocks in Vegas's 3-1 win over Seattle. The center now has three goals, six assists, and 30 shots in his last six games.

Pavel Dorofeyev returned to the lineup for Vegas and skated alongside William Karlsson, but finished the game with less than 10 minutes in ice time.

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Brayden Point had two goals (one PP) and an assist, Nikita Kucherov had four helpers (one PP), and Anthony Duclair had a goal and an assist in Tampa Bay's 4-1 win over San Jose. Those assists pushed Kucherov over 80 helpers for the second straight season overall, and third time in the last five seasons (three of those being shortened seasons for COVID or injury).