The Pittsburgh Penguins announced that defenceman Kris Letang will undergo surgery to fix a hole in his heart which will carry a recovery timeline of at least a month. Given his history with this issue, it is always a bit nerve-wracking to see he's still dealing with it, but that he's getting it fixed is a good sign. Let's hope he has a normal offseason.

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Vancouver got some great news as forward Filip Chytil was at practice in a full-contact jersey on Wednesday:

Chytil has been out of the lineup for over a month and may not play in the season finale, but that he's reached this stage is great to see. Hopefully these concussion issues can be put in the past.

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Colorado had their full complement of forwards at practice on Wednesday, including Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog. Landeskog was lining up with the scratches/spares, so he may not be in the lineup for Game 1 of the postseason, but it may be hard to keep him out of the lineup, too.

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The Montreal Canadiens punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 4-2 win at home against Carolina. That gives the Habs 91 points and the seconds Wild Card spot with a first-round series against Washington on the docket.

Kaiden Guhle had his first-ever two-goal game, Jake Evans had an empty-netter, and Nick Suzuki scored his 30^th goal of the season, which held up as the game-winner. Suzuki also assisted Guhle's first goal, totaled three shots, two blocks, and two hits along the way. The Canadiens captain finishes the season one point shy of 90.

Lane Hutson assisted on Guhle's second goal, and that put Hutson in a tie for most-ever assists in a single season from a rookie defenceman with 60. He is tied for 9^th in the league in that regard with Clayton Keller, Robert Thomas, and Quinn Hughes (though Hughes has played just 67 games).

Sam Montembeault stopped 28 of 30 shots for his 31^st win of the season in his 60^th start. That is a heavy workload and he thrived for the most part.

Carolina sat a lot of regulars in this one, including their entire top line, which made life easier on the Habs. Taylor Hall and Tyson Jost got the goals, and Bradley Nadeau assisted the Jost goal, Nadeau's first career NHL point.

Pyotr Kochetkov gave up three goals on 19 shots and will finish the season with an .897 save percentage.

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Tyler Seguin returned to the Dallas lineup on Wednesday night as the team gears up for a first-round matchup against Colorado. He skated in his usual second-line spot with Mason Marchment and Matt Duchene as Mikko Rantanen was alongside Wyatt Johnston and Mikael Granlund lined up next to Roope Hintz.

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Detroit skated out of New Jersey with a 5-2 win. For the postseason, the important part here for the Devils was that Dougie Hamilton was back in the lineup. Like Carolina, the team sat a lot of regulars, but Hamilton skated 23:42 in his return and that is a big boost to the Devils.

The Red Wings got goals from Dylan Larkin, Marco Kasper, Alex DeBrincat, JT Compher, and Jonatan Berggren, with Larkin and Berggren adding an assist to their respective fantasy nights.

Lucas Raymond had a pair of assists in the win and that gave him his first 80-point season (27 goals, 53 assists). Meanwhile, Moritz Seider had two assists, a shot, a block, and a hit in the penultimate game of Detroit's season.

Alex Lyon stopped 28 of 30 shots as he finishes his season with back-to-back wins.  

Erik Haula (PP) and Dawson Mercer had the goals for the Devils.

Nico Daws was in net and gave up four goals on 26 shots.

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Winnipeg finished their regular season with a 2-1 overtime win at home to Anaheim. Mark Scheifele scored the OT winner, his 39^th goal of the year, while Neal Pionk had the other tally. Cole Perfetti assisted on Pionk's tally and that gave Perfetti his first 50-point season. With the injury to Nikolaj Ehlers, Perfetti is one of those players that will need to step up for the team in the playoffs.

Connor Hellebuyck capped off his season with his 47^th win, stopping 30 of 31 shots. He is the first goalie with 47 wins since 2015-16 (Braden Holtby had 48) and just the fifth in NHL history. In fairness, the NHL had ties for most of its history so that skews recent seasons a bit more, but it shouldn't take away from an all-time goaltending performance.

Troy Terry scored the lone goal for the Ducks. Frank Vatrano assisted that goal and had two shots, a block, four PIMs, and four hits in a great multi-cat night. He finished the season with 45 points, a big decline from his 37-goal, 60-point season a year ago.

Ville Husso was great in net for the Ducks, stopping 42 of 44 shots, but took the loss in the finale.

Winnipeg starts their playoff journey on Saturday at home to St. Louis with a 6 PM ET start time.

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Dallas went into Nashville for each team's season finale and the Predators wrecked the Stars by a 5-1 margin. The star was Ryan O'Reilly with a goal and two assists while both Jonathan Marchessault and Jordan Oesterle posted a goal and an assist. The other goals went to Jakub Vrana and Justin Barron.

Juuse Saros stopped 29 of 30 shots to win his last start of the campaign. It was a down year from him, but it was a down year from the entire roster, so no shade thrown.

Mason Marchment scored Dallas' lone goal and Jake Oettinger was pulled after the second period, allowing five goals on 22 shots. Tyler Seguin got on the scoresheet in his return, assisting the Marchment goal and adding three shots, two PIMs, and a hit.

Jason Robertson was injured early in the second period and left the game. We will update his status when we know more.

Dallas is one of the two games kicking off the postseason on Saturday, hosting Colorado at 8:30 PM ET.

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Both Jack Eichel and Alex Pietrangelo were in the lineup for Vegas, even as they sat guys like Noah Hanifin and Mark Stone, and the Golden Knights finished their season with a 4-1 win in Vancouver. The goals came from Eichel, Pavel Dorofeyev, Victor Olofsson, and Cole Schwindt. Dorofeyev might have the quietest 35-goal effort of the season with shout outs to Alex Tuch and Rickard Rakell.

Shea Theodore managed a pair of assists, two shots, and a block. He finishes the season with a career-high 57 points and that was with 15 games missed.

Akira Schmid took the win by allowing just one puck to get past him on 17 shots faced.

Pius Suter scored his 25^th goal of the season to break Schmid's shutout. Suter had career-highs in goals (25), points (46), hits (59), and blocks (43) in a solid fantasy season.

Kevin Lankinen was pulled after the second period, allowing just one goal on 20 shots. Rookie Nikita Tolopilo finished the game.

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Connor McDavid was in the lineup for Edmonton's season finale as the Oilers shut out the San Jose Sharks 3-0. Stuart Skinner finished the season strong with an 18-save shutout, his third of the season (a career-high).

Ty Emberson had a goal and an assist for the Oilers while Corey Perry and Max Jones had the other tallies.

Alexandar Georgiev gave up two goals on 27 shots in the loss.

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This is going to be my last Ramblings before the Stanley Cup playoffs start and my intention was to preview the remaining six playoff series that I hadn't covered yet but that will take far too long. How about we save a bit of time and just look at specific skaters to keep an eye on for playoff pools? Data will be from Natural Stat Trick and Frozen Tools, and as of the afternoon of April 16^th.

Mackie Samoskevich (Florida Panthers)

On the defending Stanley Cup champions, a rookie is one of the keys to the offence. Though 15 goals and 31 points in 72 games isn't eye-popping, Samoskevich played a bottom-6 role for the first half of the season, skating 11:04 per game. Then, on January 14^th, he was moved alongside Sam Bennett and the rest is history: 8 goals, 11 assists, 9 power-play points, 80 shots, 87 hits, and 24 blocks in 33 games while skating 16 minutes a game. He has also been skating some top power-play time and is virtually assured a middle-6 role.

The two issues are the pending return of Matthew Tkachuk (still TBD) and getting Tampa Bay in the first round, which is a brutal matchup. Regardless, Samoskevich has found his legs in the second half and if Florida makes another deep run, he will have to provide some offence.

Dylan Cozens (Ottawa Senators)

We are set for our first Battle of Ontario in over 20 years and Cozens, acquired at the Deadline, should figure in heavily. Though he has just 13 points in 20 games since getting to Ottawa, six of those 13 points have come from the power play. His 6.86 points/60 minutes at 5-on-4 since the trade is in the 80^th percentile of regular PP forwards in the league, further bolstering is PP credentials in a Sens uniform.

That PP production is important for Ottawa's matchup against Toronto. The Maple Leafs have had great goaltending for most of the season, but the penalty kill has been a big problem. Toronto sits 24^th by PP goals against per game, and 19^th by PP goals against per 60 minutes of 4-on-5 time, this season. Those rates are 26^th since the Four Nations break, so things have gotten even worse recently. If Ottawa is going to get past the Leafs, they need to exploit their penalty kill, and that would mean production from Cozens and co.  

William Karlsson (Vegas Golden Knights)

Assuming the Vegas lineup is completely healthy for Game 1, then Karlsson will almost certainly be moved off the top power play. That hurts his fantasy value, but he has also found good chemistry with new (old) line mate Reilly Smith: With those two on the ice, Vegas is controlling 61% of the expected goals and over 80% of the actual goals at 5-on-5. It isn't a big sample, but Karlsson has been able to drive successful lines for years, so it's not a big surprise. He also has 10 points in 14 games since returning from injury.

The important note here is that Vegas will get Minnesota in the first round, and if they win that matchup, they get the winner of Edmonton-Los Angeles. Nothing is easy in the NHL playoffs, but that is the preferable path over having to play St. Louis then the winner of Colorado-Dallas. Vegas seems ready to make another deep playoff run and if they do, their forward depth will have a lot to do with it, Karlsson included.

Zach Bolduc (St. Louis Blues)

Over Bolduc's last 82 regular season games, he has 23 goals, 19 assists, 139 shots, 12 PP points, 112 hits, and 43 blocks. Not bad work for a guy averaging under 13 minutes a game in that span. He and Oskar Sundqvist have formed a very good third-line duo for the Blues, controlling 56.1% of the expected goals and 63% of the actual goals this season. Bolduc has been more productive when skating in the top-6 (big surprise), but that the line is playing so well assures them a spot in the lineup and role in each game. That is important.

What is also important is a first-round matchup with Winnipeg. To be clear: Winnipeg is one of the top defensive teams in the league and has Connor Hellebuyck in net, a goalie on his way to his third Vezina Trophy in six years. Their issue is missing Nikolaj Ehlers and potentially Gabriel Vilardi due to injury. Those are two key pieces of the offence so while the Jets are a great defensive team, the offence will likely suffer, and St. Louis has been excellent defensively themselves under new coach Jim Montgomery. The Blues have a tough path to making a deep Cup run, but they have a roster capable of doing it, and the middle of the lineup (Bolduc included) will figure in heavily if they do. For those in deep playoff pools, this is a potential upset (and player) to circle.

Jake Walman (Edmonton Oilers)

With the news that Mattias Ekholm is going to miss a lot (if not all) of the NHL postseason, much of the blue line burden will fall to Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse, Brett Kulak, and Walman. Though Walman will not skate on the team's top PP unit, which is where a lot of points come from, he has been productive since getting to Edmonton with 8 points, 39 shots, 9 hits, and 34 blocks in 15 games.

The key for Walman is the team has found some offensive success with him on the ice at 5-on-5, even without Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl: When Walman is on the ice without those two superstars, the Oilers are generating 31.5 shots, 2.9 expected goals, and 2.4 actual goals per 60 minutes. With all three of them off the ice, all those numbers are considerably worse, so Walman is helping elevate the offence of the depth forwards, and thus his own. Walman has missed some games over the last week or so, so he needs to be healthy himself, but if Edmonton can win a couple of rounds, his offence from the blue line should factor in.

Shayne Gostisbehere (Carolina Hurricanes)

Carolina gets New Jersey in the first round and since February 1^st, the Devils are 22^nd in the league by goal share and have just 13 wins in 28 games. Since March 1^st, the Devils are 24^th by goal share and have just 10 wins in 21 games. It normally wouldn't be a huge deal given how strong the team started, but both Jack Hughes and Jonas Siegenthaler are injured and Dougie Hamilton is still working his way back. The Devils of April 16^th are not the Devils of December 16^th. That gives Carolina a very winnable first-round matchup.

Gostisbehere had a very good year with 44 points in 68 games, a 53-point pace over a full season. The key for him is that since the Hurricanes added Taylor Hall to the top PP unit, the team is generating 61.7 shots and 12.1 goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-4. For reference, Tampa Bay's top PP unit is at 59.6 shots and 11.3 goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-4. As long as the key guys are healthy, the Hurricanes have a great power play and should get at least two rounds. Their special teams will need to be difference-makers for a deep playoff run, and that means points from Ghost.