Across Philadelphia's first nine games, the only forward to have more ice time per game than Matvei Michkov was Travis Konecny. However, in his next four games, Michkov failed to reach 16 minutes in any of them, and averaged 14:41. This team is still coached by John Tortorella, so the writing was on the wall, and Michkov was healthy scratched on Thursday night.

This really isn't a big deal. It is hard to be a rookie in the NHL and there are a plethora of examples of young players being healthy scratched, or even sent to the AHL, only to turn into the stars they were likely to be (Seth Jarvis, Quinton Byfield, and Cole Caufield come to mind). He gets a rest, hopefully picks something up while observing a game, and is back in the lineup Saturday night in Florida.

Anthony Richard took Michkov's spot in the lineup, as well as the top PP unit.

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Tyler Johnson was moved to the top line with Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak for Boston's home game against Calgary. Safe to say they need him to turn the clock back a bit.

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After that scary incident where he took a puck to the net in St. Louis's game on Tuesday, Dylan Holloway was back in the lineup and on the top line on Thursday. For something that looked like it could have gone very wrong, very quickly, it was great to see.

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Cale Makar was in the lineup for Colorado on Thursday after missing half the game on Tuesday due to an undisclosed injury. Great news for the Avs and fantasy managers alike, given the injuries the team has already (and continues to) endure.

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Carolina kept their torrid start going with a 5-1 win at home to Pittsburgh. On the topic of torrid start, Jack Roslovic kept his going with two goals, an assist, and three shots. He now has nine goals on the season in just 12 games played, equaling his total from the 2023-24 season in 59 games played. He is shooting 27.3%, so that's obviously going to crash, but he has been a tremendous pickup thus far.

Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson, and Jaccob Slavin had the other tallies. Slavin finished the game with that goal, three blocks, and a hit in a very good multi-cat night.

Jalen Chatfield had a trio of helpers with a pair of blocks. He had just one point in 11 games heading into Thursday night, so a very nice boost to his season's production.

Sebastian Aho had two assists and three shots. It does bring him up to a point-per-game status, but he still has just three goals on 40 shots. He won't keep shooting 7.5%, obviously, so it's a wonder how high his season can go once that regression kicks in.

Pyotr Kochetkov had a great game with 36 saves, allowing just the one goal. He is up to seven wins in eight starts, though the .896 save percentage could stand to improve. Nonetheless, he has been solid enough for fantasy managers that took the plunge in drafts.

Blake Lizotte scored the lone goal for the Penguins as Alex Nedeljkovic was in net for all five goals on just 19 shots.

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Buffalo went into New York and absolutely pasted the Rangers by a 6-1 margin. Igor Shesterkin was pulled after the fifth goal against, making just seven saves. That is definitely a performance that can sink a fantasy week, though people that drafted him don't really have much reason to argue with what he's done for most of this season.

Zach Benson (PP), Dylan Cozens, Jordan Greenway, Tage Thompson, Sam Lafferty, and Rasmus Dahlin all scored. Benson and Jack Quinn (two assists, one on the PP) were the only players with multi-point games, which seems kind of wild given the six goals and all the high-end talent on the roster.

Benson had a great across-the-board performance with two shots, two PIMs, and two hits. The Sabres really did miss him in the lineup.

Dahlin finished the game with that goal, three total shots, and five blocks. After his slow start to the season, he has two goals, six assists, 23 shots, 14 blocks, and three hits in his last six games. He is starting to round into fantasy form and that's a great development for people that drafted him a lot back in September (me).

Will Cuylle had the lone goal for the Rangers, managing four shots, a block, and four hits. He has four goals, five assists, 24 shots, 48 hits, and seven blocks in 12 games. That is fantastic fantasy coverage.

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Montreal tried to make a game of it against the New Jersey Devils but Jesper Bratt tallied an empty-net goal to seal a 5-3 win. It was Bratt's second goal of the game, and he had an assist, five shots, two PIMs, and a hit in the contest. He is up to five goals and 18 points in 16 games on the season, but he also has 43 shots, 23 hits, and seven blocks, so there are peripherals to go with that good production.

Jack Hughes had a goal and two assists with five shots in 20:43 of ice time. He has 10 points in his last eight games to go with 29 shots. That is a lot more like what we expected from him this season as he, like Dahlin mentioned earlier, is rounding into form after a slow start.

Ondrej Palat and Jonas Siegenthaler had the other goals for the Devils.

Alex Newhook scored twice on three shots for Montreal, doubling his season total to four goals. He is still without an assist, though, which probably speaks more to Montreal's depth scoring problems than anything.

Brendan Gallagher also scored for Montreal, his sixth goal of the season. Last season, Gallagher didn't score his sixth goal until his 39^th game, and that took place in early January. I suppose he has provided some depth scoring for the team, which is nice to see after the injury issues he had.

Jacob Markstrom stopped 21 of 24 shots for the win while counterpart Sam Montembeault allowed four goals on 26 shots in the loss.

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Coming off a loss on Wednesday night, Nashville had the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers waiting for them on Thursday night. Things went about how we'd expect as Florida cruised to a 6-2 win in their first game since returning from Europe. The loss moves Nashville to 4-9-1 on the season as things are playoffs are sliding further and further from their grasp.

Florida's top six did almost all of the damage as Carter Verhaeghe had two goals (one on the PP) with an assist, Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, Sam Reinhart scored his 11^th goal of the season, Evan Rodrigues had his fourth tally of the campaign, and Aleksander Barkov had a trio of helpers (one on the PP).

Tomas Nosek had the other goal for the Panthers. Uvis Balinskis had a pair of assists (one on the PP), four shots, two PIMs, and couple of hits. It was his first multi-point game of the season and he skated a season-high 19:57. It sure seems as if he's locked down the top PP role for the Panthers now, and he's even getting acceptable levels of ice time to help with that peripheral production.

For the second game (and loss) in a row, Nashville's two goals were from Juuso Parssinen and Steven Stamkos (PP). Roman Josi had an assist (PP), a shot, a block, two PIMs, and two hits.

Scott Wedgewood allowed all six goals, saving 28 shots in the loss.

Sergei Bobrovsky had an easy night, facing just 18 shots and stopping 16 of them for the win.

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Anders Lee, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and Bo Horvat (EN) all scored for the Islanders on Thursday night as the took a 4-2 win in Ottawa. Oliver Wahlstrom had the other goal for New York as they have now won three of their last four games while scoring 14 goals total. That is a nice turnaround for the team after a very rough October.

Horvat had that goal, two assists, three shots, and three hits in a very good multi-cat night. Lee finished with his goal and an assist, three shots, and a hit. Pageau had his goal on three shots, a block, and a hit.

Semyon Varlamov was solid in net, stopping 28 of 30 shots in the win.

Nick Jensen and Drake Batherson (PP) had the goals for the Senators. Tim Stutzle assisted on both goals, adding a shot and a block in the loss. He now has six goals and 13 assists in 13 games to start the season.

Thomas Chabot had an excellent multi-cat night by assisting on Jensen's goal, adding three shots, four blocks, and a hit. He now has seven points, 33 shots, 28 blocks, and 10 hits in 13 games.

Anton Forsberg got the start for Ottawa and allowed three goals on 24 shots in the loss.

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Calgary scored a pair of third-period goals to tie their game in Boston 3-3, but the Bruins pulled out an overtime win thanks to Brad Marchand. Boston has now won three of their last four games as they are looking to right the ship.

Pavel Zacha had a goal, an assist, and three shots in the win. Line mate David Pastrnak had two assists, four shots, and a hit for a solid fantasy night.

Cole Koepke and Hampus Lindholm had the other goals for Boston. Lindholm managed five total shots and a block in 25:07 of ice time. He now has three goals in 15 games on the season, equaling his total from last year in 73 games.

Joonas Korpisalo stopped 34 of 37 shots in the win.

Nazem Kadri, Yegor Sharangovich (PP), and Tyson Barrie had the goals for Calgary. MacKenzie Weegar assisted on the Sharangovich PP goal, had four shots, three blocks, and a hit in the game.

Dustin Wolf allowed four goals on 38 shots in the loss.

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Philadelphia managed a 2-1 shootout win in Tampa Bay on Thursday night. With Samuel Ersson already out, and Alexei Kolosov being injured at morning skate, the Flyers' goaltending duties fell to Ivan Fedotov, and he stopped 22 of 23 shots, plus both of his shootout shots, to earn his first win of his NHL career.

Owen Tippett scored for the Flyers, just his third of the season but his second in as many games. Nikita Kucherov replied for the Lightning, totaling four shots, two PIMs, and a hit.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves through regulation and overtime but took the shootout loss. He is now up to a .910 save percentage on the season but has just six wins in 12 starts. He had 30 wins in 52 starts last year with a .900 save percentage.

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Dylan Guenther had a goal and an assist as Utah went into St. Louis and came away with the two points. Guenther finished with three shots and a hit, and is now up to seven goals, five assists, and 38 shots in his 14 appearances.

Utah got goals from Matias Maccelli, Michael Kesselring, and Jack McBain (EN) to push themselves past the Blues. Maccelli is currently sporting a career-high by shots per minute, but his minutes have fallen considerably from last season so it'll be hard to have really good raw fantasy numbers, but he's someone to keep an eye on in case his role can increase consistently.

Mikhail Sergachev had a good multi-cat night with an assist, a shot, four blocks, and three hits. He is up to 10 points, 25 shots, 24 blocks, and 9 hits in 14 games.

Connor Ingram had a low-event night, but stopped 13 of 15 shots in the win.

Jordan Kyrou and Colton Parayko replied for the Blues. Kyrou now has goals in three straight games, and is even up to 12 points in 14 outings. He will be in tough to have a high-end season with a struggling (and injured) Blues roster, but there is still good offence here.

Maveric Lamoureux was ejected for a kneeing major on Pierre-Olivier Joseph, so we'll see if there's supplemental discipline waiting for him. Joseph missed a handful of shifts but did return to the game.

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Sam Steel and Logan Stankoven (EN) both had a goal and an assist, and Tyler Seguin scored his sixth goal in eight games as Dallas skated to a 3-1 win over Chicago. With those two points, Stankoven now has 12 points in 12 games, sitting second in team scoring behind Matt Duchene (15). In fact, Stankoven has only one fewer point than Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston combined, which speaks either to how good Stankoven has been or how bad Robertson and Johnston have been.

Jake Oettinger allowed just one goal on 26 shots for the win. He is up to a .922 save percentage with six wins in eight starts as his rebound season is going very well.

Tyler Bertuzzi (PP) scored the lone goal for the Blackhawks as Arvid Soderblom took the loss despite saving 37 of 39 shots.

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Connor Hellebuyck stopped all 35 shots he faced in Winnipeg's 1-0 win over Colorado. That was Hellebuyck's third shutout of the season, along with his 10^th win. He now leads the NHL in wins (10), shutouts (3), save percentage (.932), and goals against average (1.91). Is that good? It seems good.

Gabriel Vilardi scored Winnipeg's lone goal, his sixth of the season. After a slow start, Vilardi now has six goals and nine points in his last eight games. Importantly, he also has 24 shots in those eight games, so there is good volume here.

Alexandar Georgiev played well in net for the Avalanche, but still took the loss by allowing that one goal on 28 shots.

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Vancouver went into Los Angeles and took a 4-2 win over the Kings. Quinn Hughes was excellent against for the Canucks, managing a goal, an assist, two shots, two blocks, two PIMs, and a hit. He has 14 points and 45 shots in 12 games, which is great, but he also has 15 blocks, which is a new wrinkle for his fantasy profile. Being able to just have a block per game would be a big deal for his fantasy value.

J.T. Miller, Conor Garland, and Jake DeBrusk had the other goals for the Canucks. DeBrusk had five shots, two PIMs, and a hit to go with that tally for a solid multi-cat night. After his own tough start, DeBrusk has goals in three straight games and seven points in 12 contests overall.

Kevin Lankinen stopped 26 of 28 shots for his seventh win of the season. There have been rumours that Thatcher Demko may be able to get into games sometime in December, but if Lankinen keeps posting a .920+ save percentage, it'll be interesting to see how they handle their goalie situation.

Quinton Byfield and Vladislav Gavrikov had the goals for the Kings. Byfield had three shots, a block, and two hits in the loss.

Brock Boeser took a blindside hit from Tanner Jeannot halfway through the first period and Jeannot was ejected for it. Boeser was down for a while and left the game, and did not return. Another supplemental discipline issue awaits.

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Minnesota skated out of San Jose with a 5-2 win thanks to another great night from Kirill Kaprizov. The superstar winger had three assists, one on the power play, to go with three shots and a block. Kaprizov sits second in the NHL with 24 points (Nathan MacKinnon has 25) but leads the league by points per game. Just an unbelievable month for him.

Matt Boldy scored twice (once on the PP), Mats Zuccarello managed a goal, and both Jonas Brodin and Zach Bogosian tallied as well. Boldy is now up to eight goals, seven assists, and 49 shots in 13 games, adding 10 blocks and 10 hits along the way. He has been outstanding both in real life and in fantasy.

Marc-Andre Fleury managed the win, saving 24 of 26 shots.

Macklin Celebrini scored twice for the Sharks, totaling seven shots in 19:23 of ice time. Mikael Granlund and Henry Thrun assisted on both goals.

Jake Walman was a scratch again, though the Sharks are saying this was due to injury.

Vitek Vanecek stopped 26 of 30 shots for the loss.