Dan Carcillo and Cal Clutterbuck exchanged goals just six seconds apart in the second period, before the Islanders took over in the final frame – ultimately winning on a pair of goals from Kyle Okposo and Lubomir Visnovsky mid-way through the third period.

Visnovsky’s a tough fantasy asset to gauge, for me. He’s logging a good deal of time on the power-play, but it’s tough to know if he’ll continue to do so when the Islanders are healthy (he’s generally been ahead of Nick Leddy on the power-play pecking order, for whatever that’s worth). He’s also managed to be reasonably productive, with eight points in 20 games. The problem is that he’s unlikely to remain in the lineup due to persistent durability issues, so you’ll just have to deal with and expect recurrent injuries here and there. 

If you’re in a deeper league and need a defenseman, he’s worth owning. He comes with head aches though. 

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Brock Nelson’s breakout campaign has been built on ridiculous percentages, but every now and then he’ll put together a seven or eight shot contest, in which he really seems to be driving things offensively. Last night he flashed the sort of game that makes me stop and think: damn, this guy could be a beast!

I really liked that tertiary line with Nelson, Michael Grabner and Anders Lee that the Islanders had rolling last night, but if Nelson can string together a few games in a row like the one he had on Saturday, I’d be tempted to put him on the Okposo/Tavares line…

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I’ll be curious to see if Joel Quenneville sticks with Patrick Sharp on the third-line following Saturday night’s loss. Sharp has been playing with Bryan Bickell and Andrew Shaw on Chicago’s third forward group since returning from injury earlier this week, and was pretty good on Saturday despite finishing the contest with a minus-two rating. I’ll be curious to see if Quenneville gets trigger happy following the loss. Personally, I’d like to see Sharp given some more time to fit in there, partly because the idea of Sharp just wreaking havoc against the bottom-end of opponent’s rosters is all kinds of fun.

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Nicklas Backstrom scored his first career regular season hat-trick in Washington’s 4-2 victory over Tampa Bay on Saturday. Alex Ovechkin picked up a couple of assists on Backstrom’s goals, to go along with five hits, seven shots, and a +3 rating; as the sniper and his most usual set up man enjoyed a tonne of success in a role reversal kind of game.

Tom Wilson continued to fill the boxscore hilariously, and is particularly valuable these days if you’re in a PIM league. Two assists, no shots on goal, five penalties minutes and one hit is pretty much the Tom Wilson-est boxscore line of all time.

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A situation worth keeping an eye on: four Capitals defenders logged more minutes than Mike Green did on Saturday night. Say what you will about Green’s defensive play, but his track record suggests that he’s a well above average top-pair defender. Limiting his minutes to that extent is massively wasteful. If it continues for long enough that “but he just returned from injury” is no longer a semi-convincing excuse, that would be a pretty clear signal that Green’s time with the Capitals is at an end.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Crosby-less Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3, a victory that the depleted Ohioans surely needed – just for local morale.

Kerby Rychel got into the lineup for the Blue Jackets in place on Scott Hartnell, and threw four hits while doing nothing else really. Rychel is enormously skilled, and his production bears watching closely here. I suspect that if he gets the right opportunity and a bounce or two, he could go off.

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Patric Hornqvist and Kris Letang have now returned from injury and they looked like their old fantasy-stud selves on Saturday, even without Crosby’s all-world playmaking ability floating all boats. Hornqvist managed to take five shots and throw a few hits, though he finished without a point. Letang meanwhile was just a power-play goal short of the Mario Lemieux hat-trick, as he scored a goal at evens and short-handed, while also contributing four shots on goal, three hits and finishing the contest with a +3 rating…

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The Winnipeg Jets have been one of the best teams in hockey and Michael Hutchinson has been hot enough to steal seven starts from Ondrej Pavelec in the Jets’ last 15 games. Considering that Hutchinson started two games in Winnipeg’s first 16, it’s clear that he’s turned some heads…

Hutchinson came back to earth somewhat on Saturday, though allowing three goals against on 30 shots as he was outduelled by Frederik Andersen and the Ducks. 

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Jets swingman Dustin Byfuglien, who is back on defense, logged a tonne of minutes and finished with a -3 rating. Every time this occurs Byfuglien fantasy owners (and also fans of seeing the best players play the position they’re best suited to) have to get nervous…

Byfuglien by the way is the sixth most valuable player in a relatively simple Yahoo league that counts G, A, PPP, SOG, hits, and +/- over the past 14 days.

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Antoine Vermette managed a goal and an assist in a shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night. With the Arizona Coyotes’ ownership situation still in doubt, it remains unclear whether or not the club will be able to make Vermette an extension offer. If he hits the open market, in a world where realistically one of the next best centremen available could be Mike Santorelli (who is a winger), he’s going to get all the money.

Are you prepared to live in a world where Vermette’s contract has a $7 million AAV?

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The NHL’s leading scorer Tyler Seguin managed a goal, an assist and seven shots on goal in a ho-hum 4-3 Devils victory over the New Jersey Devils.

The Devils are probably the team I pegged the worst before the season. I was sure they’d be decent, but yeah, no, they’re awful.

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Erik Johnson scored two goals and had himself a big fantasy day as the Colorado Avalanche dropped a 3-2 decision to the St. Louis Blues in overtime. Gabriel Landeskog added a couple of assists for good measure. For the Blues Vladimir Tarasenko was unable to score, but managed an assist and five shots on goal. 

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Finally in Vancouver, the Rangers and Alain Vigneault kicked out the Canucks’ teeth, building an early 3-0 lead and pouring additional salt on the wound over the balance in a 5-1 win. Vancouver’s defense wasn’t good, in fact it was atrocious, but Ryan Miller’s continued struggles are the bigger story.

It’s funny how everyone is ignoring just how putrid Miller has been this year because, y’know, he’s stolen a couple games, and also count the wins. On the whole though Miller’s body of work has been lacking, and then some.

So far this season 28 NHL goaltenders have logged at least 800 even-strength minutes in the crease, so it’s a good proxy that we can use to define a “starting goaltender.” Of those 28 goaltenders Ryan Miller ranks 27th in even-strength save percentage, ahead of only Mike Smith. 

The only goalies in the same stratosphere of bad as Miller this year are guys like Ben Scrivens, Darcy Kuemper, Cam Ward, and Smith – all of whom are sharing their crease with a backup way more regularly than Miller is, especially of late.

Simply put: Miller hasn’t played well enough to be given the benefit of the doubt in games when he lets in five goals on 23 shots. He also hasn’t played well enough to continue to be given a workhorse starter’s workload. Finally, if you’re still evaluating goaltenders based on their win/loss record I’d like to welcome you to 2014. We all have smart phones now.

Thomas Drance is a news editor at theScore.