Jack Quinn returned to the Buffalo lineup on Wednesday night after missing two months due to a lower-body surgery. Considering the time he missed to start the season, it has been a brutally unlucky stretch of health for the young winger. He slotted in his usual spot on the second line with Dylan Cozens. JJ Peterka remained on the top line.

With just three weeks left in the season, Quinn has time to get his game back up to speed and head into the offseason for a normal training schedule. It will be interesting to see where he lands in fantasy drafts come September considering his upside but his lack of sample this season.

Buffalo's game against Ottawa was over before some fans even got to their seats with the Senators scoring four goals in the first nine minutes, chasing Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen from the net. Ottawa would go on to cruise to a 6-2 win with Joonas Korpisalo saving 36 of 38 shots faced for his 18^th win of the season. One more ties a career-high so he could set a personal best with two more out of the next 11 games.

Shane Pinto had a goal and three assists with four shots and two hits in a great fantasy performance. That moved him up to 25 points in 30 games since returning from his suspension.

Brady Tkachuk, Jakob Chychrun, Drake Batherson, and Boris Katchouk each had a goal and an assist in the win. After going 18 games without a goal, Chychrun now has three goals in his last two outings. He had five total shots, three blocks, and a pair of PIMs to go with those two points, too.

JJ Peterka and Connor Clifton replied for the Sabres. Peterka is now up to 25 goals on the season and with a healthy Jack Quinn back, the team's top-6 forward mix is starting to resemble what the team had hoped for most of this season.  

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Both Brayden Point and Victor Hedman were back in the lineup for Tampa Bay on Wednesday after being game-time scratches on Sunday. Hopefully no worse for the wear because both the team and fantasy managers need them healthy moving forward.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 23 Boston Bruins shots while allowing just one goal and that led Tampa Bay to a 3-1 victory on Wednesday night. Brayden Point scored once on four shots, Nikita Kucherov scored once on two shots with a hit, and Mitchell Chaffee got on the board as well for the Lightning. Hedman chipped in an assist with five shots along the way.

Linus Ullmark stopped 28 of 30 shots faced but took the loss in this one. Danton Heinen scored the only goal for the Bruins.

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It looks like Minnesota is getting some much-needed reinforcements:

#mnwild coach John Hynes said signs are pointing toward Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin returning tomorrow vs. San Jose.

— Sarah McLellan (@sarah__mclellan) March 27, 2024

Despite a couple of weeks missed, Joel Eriksson Ek is knocking on the door of his first 30-goal season (he has 29) and needs two points to set a new career-high in that regard.

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An update on Mitch Marner's status:

Sheldon Keefe says the hope/plan is for Mitch Marner to return to practice on Friday

"Progress looks to be good. He's in a good place, we just got to continue to build him up"@TSN_Edge

— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) March 27, 2024

Toronto has a game Saturday in Buffalo, but my guess is if all goes well at practice on Friday, a return Monday is more likely.

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Dakota Joshua was practicing with JT Miller and Brock Boeser on Wednesday and looks about ready to make his return to the lineup. It isn't confirmed yet, but it does take away a top-6 role from Pius Suter when/if it does happen, though Suter may yet retain a top power play role.

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There are just three weeks left in the NHL regular season. With the fantasy week starting this Monday, April 1^st, teams will have 10 or fewer games left on the docket. Fantasy managers that are clawing for a top finish in roto leagues or wrapping up their head-to-head formats need to know where to target and where to avoid. Andrew Santillo's weekly 'Looking Ahead' column is a good place to start, and consider today's Ramblings supplemental material. Given some trends with player usage and the upcoming schedules, here are players to consider (or avoid) in a variety of formats for the final fantasy push. The Schedule Planner in our Frozen Tools section will be a helpful resource for us, as will the Report Generator. Other data from Natural Stat Trick, unless otherwise indicated. Let's start with the two weeks from April 1^st – April 14^th.

No team in those two weeks plays more than seven games, and over half the league plays that many, so games-played advantages will be minimal.

Arizona Coyotes

In those two weeks, Arizona has seven games and five of them are on light days. Just be wary of the 'light day' moniker because Monday April 1^st has eight games and Sunday, April 7^th has nine games. It isn't always the case, but there are some 'light' days up ahead that won't be very light.

Regardless, of those seven games, five are on the road and the seven games include Vancouver twice, Vegas once, and road games in Seattle, Edmonton, and Calgary. Other than a Sunday matchup in San Jose, it's not really a favourable schedule, and that could be tough on fantasy mangers with top options like Clayton Keller, Sean Durzi, or Connor Ingram.

New York Rangers

The first team to officially qualify for the 2024 Playoffs also has seven games in the two weeks, but five of them are at home. Starting Monday, the Rangers play three of their next four games at Madison Square Garden with a schedule of: vs. Pittsburgh, vs. New Jersey, at Detroit, vs. Montreal. It isn't exactly the easiest schedule imaginable, but it's not far behind.

All of the top power play options are rostered, of course, but new alignments and injuries have opened some potential streaming options. We have to keep an eye on the status of Ryan Lindgren, Erik Gustafsson, and Jacob Trouba, but Braden Schneider has now skated at least 20 minutes in four of his last five games, and posted nine shots, 12 blocks, and 16 hits in that time. He may be rostered in some multi-category leagues, but shallower banger-league owners may want to check the waiver wire in case the team doesn't get their injured defencemen back.

Alex Wennberg has lost ice time relative to what he was getting in Seattle, but he has been used in a shutdown role at times, and that could mean decent minutes in his home games. He is also over one block per game on the season which will be hurt by the loss in minutes, but he brings some value in multi-cat leagues.

Of course, watch for when Jonathan Quick gets a start. He is still in line to set the record for goalie wins by an American netminder and though the team has no back-to-back situations, this is a good schedule for the Rangers to give Quick one, if not two, starts against weaker teams. They can help him set the wins record and provide a break for Igor Shesterkin at the same time.  

San Jose Sharks

Oh yes, the Sharks are very relevant for the end of the fantasy season. They are another seven-game team, and six of those contests are at home, including all four the fantasy week starting this coming Monday. It isn't a brutal schedule, either, with Seattle, Los Angeles, and a back-to-back with St. Louis and Arizona on the weekend.

At the top of the list has to be Thomas Bordeleau. The prospect is not earning a lot of ice time – 15:30 since being called up and 15:53 over his last five games – but he is getting top power play time. Since his recall on March 7^th, the Sharks are fifth in the league in goals per minute with the man advantage. That is a result of the power play shooting 26.7%, which is far too high, but we're at the point of the season where hot streaks like that will decide fantasy leagues. He is one of four Sharks forwards earning at least 55% of the team's power play time over the last two weeks and 5/7 of his points since re-joining the Sharks have been at that strength.

Toronto Maple Leafs

This is a good news/bad news situation. The good news is Toronto is a seven-game team with five of those games being at home. The bad news is the April 1^st-April 7^th stretch has just three games and the four-game stretch the week after is an easier schedule: vs. Pittsburgh, home-and-home with New Jersey, and vs. Detroit.

Wait, why is a four-game week with a soft-ish schedule bad news? Well, by April 8^th, it seems likely Toronto will virtually be locked into the third spot in the Atlantic (Tampa Bay can catch them but it'll take a big point swing). Last year, Toronto rested players down the stretch and with a back-to-back to start the week of April 8^th, that four-game week may be a three-game week for certain fantasy options. Do not expect John Tavares to play all four, or the team to push Mitch Marner if he's back in the lineup at that point. Maybe they wait until the week after, but fantasy managers having a back-up plan to not lose games played is a good idea.

New Jersey Devils

There are five teams that have seven games in those two weeks and also have two separate back-to-back situations. However, just one team has two back-to-back situations in the same week, and that's New Jersey. My dear fantasy friends: you will probably need to invest in New Jersey's goaltenders. Funny how the season works, yeah?

At this point, Jake Allen may be gone from fantasy waiver wires; four wins in six starts with a .925 save percentage will do that (his roster percentage on FanTrax is 34%). However, fantasy mangers may be able to grab Kaapo Kahkonen, who is rostered in just 20% of FanTrax leagues. The schedule next week is a home/road back-to-back with the Penguins and Rangers, and then they're in Ottawa and at home to Nashville on the weekend. Ideally, Kahkonen would get the Penguins and Senators, but if they go with Allen in the first games of those B2Bs, then Kahkonen will get the Rangers and Predators. Check to make sure Allen isn't gone, but Kahkonen is a viable pivot for fantasy managers looking to get a goalie with a couple starts next week. Godspeed.

The FInal Week

The last 'week' of the season is actually just four days, but one team has three games in those four days: Edmonton. It is also a pretty soft schedule with a home game against San Jose on Monday, April 15^th, and then a road back-to-back in Arizona and Colorado. Given that the game against Colorado is the final game of the season and these two teams have their eye on a Stanley Cup, a lot of key players are likely to be rested. Players like Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod, Mattias Janmark, Cody Ceci, and Brett Kulak may not only get three games in those four days, but a lot of ice time in that final matchup. Something to keep in mind.