Happy Super Bowl Sunday! (as well as Utah/Washington and Tampa Bay/Montreal). Saturday was also the last busy night before the 4 Nations, so hopefully you were able to make it count.

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Igor Shesterkin will be out for 1-2 weeks with an upper-body injury. Normally that would be of concern, but he will use the 4 Nations break to rest and could be back in the lineup against Buffalo on February 22, the day that games resume.

With Jonathan Quick between the pipes for the second of back-to-back games, the Rangers took a 4-3 decision over Columbus. With a goal and an assist, Mika Zibanejad has eight points over his last five games.

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Mathew Barzal had a minor knee procedure done on Thursday with a normal recovery time of six weeks, according to Pierre LeBrun. That means Barzal would be out until mid- to late-March. With Noah Dobson expected to be out for a while, the Islanders will be missing two key players for the foreseeable future.

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Seth Jarvis did some damage to the Utah Hockey Club, scoring a pair of goals while adding two assists in a 7-3 win for the Hurricanes. Jarvis also finished the game with a plus-4 and five shots on goal. One of his goals was on the power play, while one of his assists was shorthanded. He will now join Team Canada for the 4 Nations Faceoff.

Jarvis's linemate Sebastian Aho scored the shorthanded goal, finishing with two goals and an assist in total. Aho has two shorthanded goals and four shorthanded points this season. The last time he did not register a shorthanded point in a season was 2017-18. Aho will join Finland for the 4 Nations.

Mikko Rantanen missed Saturday's game with a lower-body injury. Rantanen has a goal and an assist in six games with Carolina, and he has not registered a point in his past three games. Without Rantanen in the lineup, the Canes had their best offensive game since acquiring Rantanen two weeks ago. It's still early, but so far, the trade hasn't paid dividends for Carolina. Rantanen's participation for the 4 Nations is uncertain.

In a losing cause for Utah, Clayton Keller scored a pair of goals, one of which was on the power play.  

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Like Jarvis, Brandon Hagel is also playing for Canada at the 4 Nations. And like Jarvis, Hagel also scored two goals and two assists on Saturday. Hagel has been hot recently with six points over his last three games. With Hagel scoring goals 25 and 26 of the season in this game, the Lightning now have four 25-goal scorers: Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel, Hagel, and Nikita Kucherov. Only three other players on their roster have reached 10 goals: Anthony Cirelli, Nick Paul, and Mitchell Chaffee, demonstrating how top-heavy their roster is.

Kucherov chipped in three assists, giving him nine points over his last six games.

Erik Cernak has been a surprising scoring star for the Lightning recently as well. With a goal and two assists, Cernak has five points over his last four games. No power-play time or especially high icetime, so he shouldn't suddenly be a hot waiver-wire pickup.

Alex DeBrincat was in on all three Detroit goals in their 6-3 loss to Tampa Bay. The Cat scored a power-play goals while adding two assists. He's on a heater with seven points over his last four games, averaging four shots per game over that span.

Vladimir Tarasenko scored one of the Red Wings' other goals. He has four shots on goal in each of his last two games. However, Tarasenko is on a 34-point pace with just seven goals and 22 points in 53 games – far below what we've come to expect from him. As a result, the Wings are reportedly considering trading him. Tarasenko is signed through next season with a cap hit of $4.75 million, so the Wings should be expecting more bang for their buck.

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Jake Allen shut out his former team on Saturday, stopping all 34 Montreal shots that he faced. As the fill-in starter for the Devils while Jacob Markstrom is injured, Allen has four quality starts over his last six games. Expect Markstrom to take over as starter again once he's ready to return, though.

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With a goal on Saturday, Brad Marchand has seven points over his last seven games. He has also now reached 20 goals for the 12^th consecutive season. That streak could have been even longer if not for the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season.

Victor Olofsson left Saturday's game with what was listed as an upper-body injury after taking a puck up high.

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Sidney Crosby did not play on Saturday, with coach Mike Sullivan saying that the decision of whether to play in the 4 Nations rests with the player. Crosby's injury seems day-to-day, so there's still a decent chance he is able to play. Canada's first game is on Wednesday against Sweden. Mark Scheifele has been told to be on standby in case Crosby can't go. Scheifele, who is tied for third in goals with 31, seems like more than an adequate replacement.

Bryan Rust was also placed on injured reserve, which meant the Penguins were without all of Crosby, Rust, and Evgeni Malkin on Saturday. The Pens featured a top power play of Rickard Rakell, Kevin Hayes, and Michael Bunting, and they went old school with Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang both on the point. They lost to the Flyers 3-2.

Jesse Puljujarvi has been placed on unconditional waivers to terminate his contract. I wonder if this is the end of the NHL road for Pool Party, a one-time high first-round pick.

Andrei Kuzmenko made his Flyers debut, recording an assist in 18:53 of icetime. Kuzmenko skated on a line with Travis Konecny and Noah Cates while also playing on the top power play. I'm not buying, but he has the upside for some short-term value if he can stay out of John Tortorella's doghouse.

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Quinn Hughes missed Saturday's game, which was his fourth consecutive game missed with an oblique injury. His status for the 4 Nations is still unknown. Oblique injuries are painful, and Hughes looked like he was in a lot of pain when he was injured, so I wouldn't be surprised if he sits out at least the first game of the tournament.

Without Hughes, the Canucks are a somewhat surprising 3-0-1, winning their last three games. Filip Hronek has four points over his last three games, including a goal and an assist in the 2-1 win over Toronto. Hronek has really stepped up his overall game, and as expected he is on the top power play. With two power-play points over his last three games, Hronek has doubled his power-play output for the season.

It wasn't all good for the Canucks, though. Thatcher Demko left the game midway through the first period. He appeared to be in pain after making a few saves in warmup, but he started the game anyway. After the game, Rick Tocchet said that the injury doesn't seem serious and is not the knee. The good news is that Demko will have nearly two weeks to rest, so we'll find out how serious the injury is once teams return to action on February 22. The Canucks play in Vegas that day.

Elias Pettersson's first point in four games was a beauty – maybe a sign that something is still there.

The @Canucks have the icebreaker thanks to a fantastic pass from Elias Pettersson! 👀

📺: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/cDEaSbrGZh

— NHL (@NHL) February 9, 2025

Pettersson is still without a goal in nine games, but he also demonstrated his underrated defensive skill in blocking three shots.

It's been a trying season for Morgan Rielly, who is on pace to finish at just under 40 points. However, Rielly scored his first goal in 14 games on Saturday, giving him four points over his last four games. A staple of Rielly's scoring has been power-play production, which is also projected to finish below last season's total of 20 PPP. The Leafs using five forwards on their power play doesn't help Rielly, but three of his recent four points have come on the man advantage. Rielly is the odd man out in this week's Looking Ahead.

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Matthew Tkachuk has picked up at least three points in four of his last eight games, including a goal and two assists on Saturday against brother Brady and the Ottawa Senators. Tkachuk also has 13 points over his last six games, and he has also fired 15 shots over his last two games. You could say he's on a heater.

The Panthers took 48 shots on Linus Ullmark in their 5-1 win over the Senators. That's why Ullmark was credited with a quality start despite allowing four goals. Both of Ullmark's starts since returning from injury have been quality start losses. Dating back before the injury, Ullmark has 11 consecutive quality starts in games that he has started and finished, so he should be in your starting lineup no matter what state the Senators are in.

In terms of the Florida shot breakdown, Tkachuk took eight shots, while Carter Verhaeghe took seven shots. With an assist on Saturday, Verhaeghe has eight points over his last five games. He's back on a scoring line and the top power play after being pushed down the lineup for a time earlier this season.  

Brady Tkachuk finished this game with a goal with 11 shots on goal. He couldn't lead the Senators to a win and he could not out-point his older brother, but at least he took more shots.

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In the Wild's 6-3 win over the Islanders, Matt Boldy scored a pair of goals along with an assist. This is much-needed output for Boldy, who entered this game with no points in his previous five games. The Wild as a team had been having trouble scoring prior to Saturday's game. Kirill Kaprizov can't return soon enough.

Joel Eriksson Ek missed Saturday's game with a lower-body injury.

If you are a Canucks fan of at least a certain age, you call this the Lars Lindgren play.

Tony Deangelo fires the puck CLEAN into his own net 😬 pic.twitter.com/9br5EROeIC

— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) February 9, 2025

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With a goal and two assists in Saturday's win over Buffalo, Jonathan Marchessault now has five points in his last three games. Marchessault needed some time to get used to his new Nashville surroundings, starting the season slowly with 12 points over his first 23 games. He has turned it up since then, scoring at a point-per-game pace of 32 points over his last 31 games.

Ryan O'Reilly picked up four assists, while Filip Forsberg and Brady Skjei each scored a pair of goals.

Nashville also brought the peripherals on Saturday. Luke Schenn was credited with 11 hits and three blocked shots.

Rasmus Dahlin scored his first goal since November 23, which is a span of 24 games without a goal. Despite that, Dahlin has been a strong source of assists recently. He has a five-game point streak with eight points over those five games. Dahlin also added an assist on Saturday.

With a goal and two assists on Saturday, Alex Tuch has back-to-back three-point games and eight points over his last four games.

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In the Blackhawks' 6-5 shootout win over St. Louis, Ilya Mikheyev scored a goal and added two assists. That gives him five points over his last five games. Mikheyev was on a decent line with Teuvo Teravainen and Frank Nazar in this game, but he doesn't receive any power-play time. You can probably ignore him.

Ryan Donato scored again on Saturday, giving him goals in three consecutive games and eight points over his last four games. Donato also took six shots on goal, meaning that he has taken at least four shots in each of his last three games. As long as he's on a line with Connor Bedard, he's worth a look.

Jordan Binnington, Team Canada starter? Binnington allowed five goals on 20 shots in the Blues' shootout loss. I won't debate Canada's goaltending choices here, but this is not the best way to enter the tournament.

Ryan Suter played in his 1500^th career NHL game on Saturday. He's the only active player to reach 1500 games and the 22^nd player in NHL history to reach that milestone.

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Andre Burakovsky and Shane Wright each scored a goal and added an assist in the Kraken's 3-2 overtime win in Calgary. Burakovsky entered this game with just a single point in his last six games. He also broke a 13-game goal drought on Saturday.

Brandon Montour left Saturday's game with an upper-body injury. If he misses any time, he will be a key loss for Seattle, as he leads Kraken in icetime (23:13). With a nearly two-week break for the 4 Nations, Montour may not miss any time if the injury is not serious.

Jared McCann has just one goal in his last 19 games, dating back to the start of January. McCann is keeping his fantasy value afloat with 13 assists over those 19 games.

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The Stars laid an 8-spot on the Sharks on Saturday. Matt Duchene scored two goals along with an assist, which is exactly the statline he had on Friday night as well. Quite the weekend if you rostered Duchene, who leads the Stars in scoring and is scoring at exactly a point-per-game pace (55 PTS in 55 GP).

It was truly a group effort for the Stars on Saturday, as only three skaters did not pick up at least one point: Cody Ceci, Brendan Smith, and Logan Stankoven.

Mikael Granlund picked up two assists in a quick reunion with his former team. Since being traded to Dallas from San Jose, Granlund has four assists in four games.

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Drew Doughty will replace Alex Pietrangelo on Team Canada at the 4 Nations. Team Canada's braintrust obviously feels good about where Doughty's game is after playing just six games. The Kings do too, as Doughty logged 31:09 in a game that went to a shootout. Doughty also blocked four shots, but he still has just a single point in six games.

Lukas Dostal has had to stand on his head a few times this season. Saturday was no exception, as he stopped 43 of 44 shots he faced in the Ducks' 2-1 shootout win over the Kings. Dostal now has back-to-back quality starts, as well as 19 quality starts on the season compared to just four really bad starts.

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