I hope everyone had a healthy and enjoyable Christmas. I'm back for my third Ramblings since coming out of the hospital in May. Recovery has been positive, but very slow. Thank goodness for fantasy hockey. My dynasty teams are struggling, but it's been fun trying stay competitive while retooling. I might even still win one, which would be nice.

Dobbernomics has been a lot of fun, too, though I'm 54^th worldwide and second in my league. I'm trying to figure out a way that you can join this late and still compete for money – because the more people to play, the better.

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Three straight 2-point games for Jack Quinn

— Dobber (@DobberHockey) December 29, 2024

Don't look now, but the Sabres have won three straight games on the strength of 17 goals. This team was third in NHL scoring two years ago, and after an impotent 2023-24 and then a very slow start this year – they appear to be starting to find themselves. We've all been scratching our heads as to why this team hasn't been scoring, with the potent offensive players that they boast and the quality of skill in the pipeline. In the last three games, Quinn (as noted) has six points, Rasmus Dahlin has seven, Dylan Cozens has awakened with four himself (though none on Sunday). Also, rookie Jiri Kulich is starting to pop, as he has four points, while fellow youngster Zach Benson has three. I think it all starts with Quinn, though. With him producing like the star we were hoping to see this year, the Sabres add that scoring dimension that they've desperately needed. I really feel that this has had a domino effect, opening things up for the entire lineup. If Quinn is indeed back, then this just became a very interesting team to watch.

Bowen Byram, who picked up an assist and now has five points in nine games, has apparently been removed from the power play altogether. Rasmus Dahlin is of course the man there, with Owen Power manning the second unit. Byram "was" seeing a minute and a half of PP time each game, but on the season he has just one point on the power play. Perhaps that little tweak to the dynamic has helped get things going as well. I really thought Byram was just what the team needed in terms of offense, but it hasn't worked out that way.

Since being named to the four-nations Team Canada, Jordan Binnington is 2-5-1, 3.07, 0.886 with a -2.900 GSAA

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Moritz Seider has seven points in his last nine games. He has seen 9:23 of PP time over his last two games.

Alex Lyon went into the Christmas break with four Really Bad Starts (RBS) in his last six games, but he pulled off a Quality Start on Sunday, on the heels of a game in which Cam Talbot was pulled. It's only two games, but in just two games their numbers have pulled close to each other – when Talbot had been far and away the best option for Detroit. Things are definitely getting interesting, now that there is a new coach. Even Ville Husso is finding his game in Grand Rapids.

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Charlie Lindgren has played okay for Washington, but at some point Logan Thompson has to be given the reins. Here are their numbers:

Lindgren: 10-8-0, 2.64, 0.900, 0.00 GSAA, 55.6% QS

Thompson: 14-2-2, 2.38, 0.916, +8.10 GSAA, 66.7% QS

Like I said, Lindgren's numbers are decent. But Thompson has been next level.

Since not being named to the four-nations Team Canada, Thompson is 4-1-0, 2.01, 0.924 with a +3.100 GSAA

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John Carlson is pointless in seven games. He had four points in four games after getting 'snubbed' by Team USA for the four nations, but since then he's hit a wall.

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Philip Tomasino picked up two points on Sunday. He has been relegated to the four line, but is seeing time on the first PP unit and both of his points were on the power play. With Kris Letang out with an LBI, there is more PP time to go around. But for him to gain any fantasy value, we need to see him back up with Evgeni Malkin, where he was when he first joined the Penguins.

Michael Bunting, who also had two points, now has 14 points in his last 13 games. He is now clicking with Malkin, and five of those 14 points have come on the power play. He has seen a bump of about a full minute of PP time over those 13 games compared to the 24 games prior.

He doesn't start very often, but Alex Nedeljkovic has had four consecutive very good games, with three of those Quality Starts. Tristan Jarry hasn't been playing badly though, so he'll probably hold onto the current workload – which has been about four starts out of every five.

Sidney Crosby picked up his 1034th career assist, passing Mario Lemieux for most assists by a Pittsburgh Penguin.

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Anders Lee had his third two-point game in his last four. He already has 31 points, when he had just 37 all of last year. I had written him off, as I'm sure many of you did the same. But at 34, he's rediscovered his magic. He's shooting a lot more, with a shooting rate we haven't seen since 2020-21.

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Alexandre Carrier continued his strong play since joining the Habs. He has four points in five games now with his new team, paired alongside Kaiden Guhle. He had six points in 28 games with Nashville.

A good cheap player I added on Dobbernomics Sunday was Jake Evans, and he rewarded me with another goal. His career high (five seasons) is 29 points, and he already has 23 this year. He's on a six-game points streak and has 11 in his last 11. He's playing with a talented rookie named Emil Heineman, and injury-prone vet Joel Armia. But the trio have really clicked and have been a productive third line. Armia can certainly contribute when he's healthy and rolling like this. Evans' shot percentage is 30.3%, which is definitely unsustainable, but I'll ride the hot hand for now. As a bonus – Evans has four short-handed points already. That's second in the entire league, one behind Sam Reinhart.

Heineman has seven points in eight games.

We've been waiting for Alex Newhook to wake up. Saturday, he finally picked up his first assist of the season. He later picked up his second. Sunday, he scored his seventh goal. He's 250 games into his NHL career and so far he's been a disappointment.

With Jake Guentzel out of the lineup (day-to-day), Nick Paul was moved up to the Nikita Kucherov line. The line did score one, but Paul wasn't in on it. Still, it's something to keep in mind if Guentzel misses more time.

It seems like no matter who Brandon Hagel plays with (Anthony Cirelli and Conor Geekie on Sunday), he still puts up a point every game. Can't wait to see how he does on Team Canada, where every player is a star.

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Robby Fabbri picked up a pair of points on Sunday, giving him five in his last four games. He's been clicking with Mason McTavish and Cutter Gauthier, and he actually led the Ducks in total ice time (21:10).

Olen Zellweger was a healthy scratch for the Ducks, and Jackson Lacombe was the PP1 QB over Pavel Mintyukov. Lacombe has been seeing steady PP time for about six games now, though he doesn't have a PPPt to show for it. At even strength, though, Lacombe has seven points in his last eight games, along with 17 SOG and 10 BLKS. The Ducks seem to be leaning on him more and more, in all situations. This is a surprising turn of events, as he was probably the underdog in the Zellweger vs. Mintyukov vs. Lacombe discussion.

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Ryan Hartman has now gone 18 games in a row without a point.

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Andrei Kuzmenko was back in the lineup and played the big 9:49 for the Flames. He joins Calgary and gets 29 points in his first 31 games with them. Since then? Just six in 27! As he did with Vancouver, he's played his way down the lineup and lately off the roster entirely.

Brett Howden has seven points in his last five games. He has 19 points on the season, matching last year's total in half the games. He's been playing with Pavel Dorofeyev this year, and usually William Karlsson as well. But with Ivan Barbashev hurt, lines were rejigged a little on Sunday and Karlsson was replaced on Howden's line by Cole Schwindt.

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With two points Sunday, Jason Robertson has 10 in his last nine games. With his preseason foot injury, you'll have to excuse his 25-game slow start (I generally give a player about that length of time if they miss training camp). More disappointing to me has been rookie Logan Stankoven, who was second on my preseason Calder Trophy ranking. He's not doing terribly, with 18 points, but frankly I thought he'd be right up there with Matvei Michkov (who had two points Sunday). Stankoven is 11 behind Michkov. There's still plenty of time, but he has just two points in his last 10 and three in his last 15.

Philipp Kurashev is now pointless in 11 games. His season has been inexplicable, as I (and many others) expected great things after his breakout 2023-24. His 5on5 S% is a very low 2.5%, among the lowest league-wide, so the puck luck is definitely not there. His PP time is way down as well. His IPP is a career-high 83.3%, which indicates that he has been better than his linemates and integral to any offense produced when he's on the ice. But only four goals have been scored at even strength when he's been out there – he's just been in on most of them. I feel like something's bound to break, here.

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The 17^th annual Midseason Fantasy Hockey Guide will be released January 16. You can pre-order it here and you can find a 'secret' (not really) coupon code for 10% off, to help battle the terrible US exchange rate. (Hint: simply move the mouse to the top of the screen and the discount code will appear)

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I'll see you on Twitter – and/or Blue Sky!