Filip Chytil was skating again for the New York Rangers at their morning skate. We don't try to update these types of things on a near day-by-day basis, but given Chytil's recent history, it seems prudent. Hopefully he can just stay healthy, whether he returns to the lineup for playoff or not.

The Rangers clinched the Presidents' Trophy with a 4-0 shutout over the Ottawa Senators. Igor Shesterkin held the Senators without a goal on 26 shots faced while both Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox had a goal and an assist. Panarin had seven shots while Fox had two with three blocks. They will face whichever team takes the second Wild Card and we'll know that answer on Wednesday night.

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A very important health update for both Carter Verhaeghe and Aaron Ekblad:

Aaron Ekblad and Carter Verhaeghe are both taking part in today's Florida Panthers practice in full-contact jerseys. pic.twitter.com/TsdnjYIDx4

— Colby Guy (@ColbyDGuy) April 15, 2024

Being in contact jerseys with 4-5 days until their postseason starts is a very good sign. Nothing is a guarantee, but it sure seems as if both are lining up to be ready for Game 1 of the playoffs.

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Adam Fantilli was at practice for Columbus on Monday:

#CBJ Adam Fantilli back at practice today, wearing an orange practice sweater. Has not joined the team for practice since suffering a lacerated calf in late January.

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) April 15, 2024

He will not play in the regular season but could be on Team Canada at the World Championships.

Boone Jenner was also on the ice for the Blue Jackets following an extended absence for personal reasons.

The team also announced that prospect Gavin Brindley has signed his three-year entry-level contract and could play as soon as Tuesday night.

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It appears as though Winnipeg Jets winger Nino Niederreiter is on the verge of a return:

#NHLJets Niederreiter says his Achilles sustained a 2-mm cut, needing 8 stitches to close. At the time of the accident he said his ankle felt warm due to blood flowing out of the wound.

Bowness says if NN feels as good tomorrow as he did today, then he'll play Tuesday.@TSN_Edge

— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNWpg) April 15, 2024

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Connor McDavid was back in the lineup on Monday night against San Jose. He had missed a few games with a nagging injury, but he looks ready to go. Edmonton has a back-to-back on Wednesday and Thursday so it seems a safe bet he'll play at least one of those two as well.

Edmonton laid an absolute beatdown on San Jose 9-2 on Monday night. McDavid reached his 100^th assist of the season but it didn't happen until the ninth goal, which is kind of funny. Both Adam Henrique had a goal and two assists, Darnell Nurse had three helpers, Warren Foegele scored twice, while all of McDavid, Zach Hyman, Corey Perry, and Evan Bouchard had a goal and an assist.

That was the 10^th time this season the Sharks allowed at least seven goals against.

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The New York Islanders punched their playoff ticket with a 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils. Both Kyle Palmieri and Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist (each with one power play point) with Palmieri having three total shots, two blocks, and three hits. That leaves Palmieri one short of a 30-goal season, which would be the second of his career and first since 2016.

Semyon Varlamov held down the net by saving 23 of 24 shots. He certainly looks like he'll be the starter for Game 1 against the Carolina Hurricanes, whenever that happens.

New Jersey's season ends in disappointment and there'll be lots of time to break down what went wrong. Besides goaltending, I'd venture to say getting just 20 games from Dougie Hamilton is something not discussed nearly enough.

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Buffalo finished their season on a high note with a 4-2 win in Tampa Bay. Dylan Cozens had his best offensive performance since January with two goals, one assist, and eight total shots. He took a big step back production-wise this season, but so did basically the whole team, so how much is on him is up for debate.

Zach Benson also scored for the Sabres, and that made it a 30-point season for him. A very good effort for the true freshman.  

Eric Comrie stopped 30 of 32 shots for the win.

Tage Thompson left the game due to injury but with their season finished, it may be a while before we find out if it's serious or not.

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In what was pretty much a must-win game, Washington held Boston to just 16 shots and the Capitals skated away with a 2-0 win. John Carlson had the game-winning goal, his 10^th tally of the season, with four total shots, a block, and a hit. He has 14 points in his last 15 games and has come up big for the team when they (and fantasy owners) needed him most.

Charlie Lindgren stopped all 16 shots for the shutout, his sixth of the season. If Carlson has been one of the engines of late, Lindgren is the only reason this team is in the position they're in anyway.

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In a must-win game of their own, Pittsburgh beat Nashville 4-2. As has been the case a lot this season, Sidney Crosby was a difference-maker with a goal, an assist, and seven shots while Erik Karlsson had the same stat line but with a block and a hit on top. The big players came up big when the team's collective back was against the wall.

Alex Nedeljkovic allowed just two goals on 30 shots to keep Pittsburgh's hopes alive.

Filip Forsberg and Gustav Nyquist replied for the Predators. That was Forsberg's 48^th goal of the year and he has an absurd 23 goals in his last 28 games.

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Montreal Canadiens prospect Lane Hutson made his NHL debut after finishing his college career over the weekend. It didn't take him long to make an impact as he registered the primary assist on Brendan Gallagher's first goal of the game, and in Hutson's second shift. He showed what we would expect of a rookie defenceman of this ilk: lots of upside flashed offensively with a few defensive miscues. It is all part of the growing pains.

The game was an absolute wild one as Montreal had a 4-1 lead with 4:30 left in the second period before goals from JT Compher (his second of the game), Alex DeBrincat, and Lucas Raymond forced overtime. A rebound off Alex Lyon's pads in the extra frame sent Detroit the other way on a 2-on-1 and Raymond finished the game, giving Detroit a much-needed two points to keep the playoff hunt going.

Those were goals 30 and 31 on the season for Raymond and he has 14 goals in his last 17 games as Detroit hopes to return to the postseason. He finished the game with six shots, two blocks, and two hits.

Shayne Gostisbehere had a trio of helpers, a shot, and two blocks in a very good fantasy night.

Gallagher scored twice while Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Justin Barron tallied the others for the Habs.

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There was an interesting Frozen Tool Forensics last week from Chris Kane where he talked about searching for playoff heroes. It was the inspiration for today's research section of my Ramblings.

I looked at the 2022 and 2023 Playoffs and to check for anything that stuck out for players that produced points. We'll start with forwards and then move to defencemen on Thursday.

There were 441 forwards (including double-counts from players that appeared twice) that played at least one game in either of the two prior postseasons. Here are some numbers to consider:

• There were 2238 points accumulated in 4207 combined games by the 441 forwards. That means the average forward registered 0.53 points per game.
• Those 441 forwards averaged 9.5 games played per postseason. At 0.53 points per game, that means the average forward should manage about five points per playoff appearance.
• In reality, of the 185 forwards that managed at least five points in either prior postseason, the average number of games played was 13.3.
• Of the 250 forwards to skate in seven or fewer games, those that produced at least five points had an average ice time was 19.4 minutes per game.
• There were 114 forwards that played 14 games or fewer but had at least five points. Those 114 forwards averaged over 18 minutes a game.
• Of those 114 forwards that played 14 or fewer games, just 27 reached double-digit points. None of those 27 double-digit performances came from players that skated under 16 minutes a game, an additional two were under 17 minutes, and the average ice time was 19.9. Just 6 of those 27 forwards played seven games or fewer and reached double-digit points.
• The last two postseasons saw 86 instances of a forward playing at least 15 games. Of those 86 forwards, the average points per game rate was 0.62. To no one's surprise, there are more points per game for players that go deep than those who lose.
• Among those 86 forwards were 45 attackers that managed at least 10 points. That group of 45 forwards averaged 18:30 per game in ice time.  
• Of the 86 forwards who managed least 15 games played, the median forward skated about 16.8 minutes per game. Of the forwards that skated less than that, the average points per game was 0.37. They averaged 6.8 points per playoff run.

That is a lot of numbers to throw out in a list, and two full playoffs isn't a big sample, but there are some trends that stick out. Here is what is gleaned from all this:

Forwards from teams that go deep in the postseason tend to have a higher points per game rate, which makes sense because if teams don't score, they usually don't advance. Even middle-6 forwards from teams that make it at least to the Conference Final tend to produce more points per playoff run than superstars from teams eliminated in the first round, though there are plenty of exceptions. Top forwards from teams that go deep are the most likely to produce a lot of points (duh) but top forwards from teams eliminated in the second round can still vastly out-produce depth players from teams that go deeper.

Hope this helps to clarify things a bit. With all this said, let's look at some forward options for fantasy playoff pools. We are going to focus on points-only formats and move past the clear top teams with top options like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Artemi Panarin, Sebastian Aho, and the like.

**Speaking of playoff pools, Ian Gooding has done a lot of yeoman's work on the 2024 Dobber Hockey Playoff Draft List, which was released yesterday! Help support what we do here at Dobber Hockey and grab your copy of the list, which will be updated until the playoffs begin this weekend**

The Dallas Stars

It is tough to focus on any single Stars forward because they spread the ice time around so much: Since Logan Stankoven's call up in late February, Frozen Tools has 12 of 13 regular forwards earning between 20-30% of the team's even strength ice time. They don't have a heavily-used top PP unit like Colorado, Vancouver, or Edmonton. If I were to draft from Dallas, the approach would be just to stack the team; all-or-nothing, boom-or-bust, first or last. Just drafting a couple forwards (say, Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston) feels like an even riskier proposition given the opportunity for Jason Robertson, Jamie Benn, or Matt Duchene to have big postseason performances.   

Filip Forsberg

Over the last half-season (January 12^th), Nashville is eighth in the league by both goal share and expected goal share at all strengths, and fifth by points percentage. In that span, they are 1-1 against Dallas, 2-0 against Los Angeles, 1-1 against Winnipeg, 1-1 against Colorado, 0-1 against Edmonton, and 2-1 against Vegas. That is a 7-5 record against six of the seven Western Conference playoff teams (they haven't played Vancouver since mid-December).

All that is to say that Nashville has been one of the top teams for half the season now, have performed well against fellow playoff teams from their Conference, and they will have amongst the worst odds in any playoff matchup. The public will avoid Nashville like the plague, and they probably just need to win one round for Forsberg to out-produce secondary options from 'top' teams like Edmonton and Colorado.  

Pavel Zacha

Zacha did not have a monster season with 20 goals and 58 points in 76 games (that excludes Monday night's games). However, his points per 60 minutes in his 5-on-5 time with David Pastrňák was 2.83. That rate would, quite literally, land him inside the top-10 of the league's forwards this season. He has been stapled next to the star winger for weeks now, and if Boston wins a couple rounds, Zacha could easily push past 10 points.

Jack Eichel

There is a lot of hubbub around Tomáš Hertl's appearance in a Vegas uniform as well as Mark Stone's return to the lineup. It is a wonder if it overshadows Eichel, who led the Golden Knights in points during their playoff run with 26 in 22 games. Probably not that much, but if the Vegas Voltron is finally assembled for Game 1, they're as dangerous as any team in the West.