Rare shutouts for Anderson and Lehtonen, the Canucks slumping second line, Fleury may have the mumps and more…

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Craig Anderson with the 34-save shutout win to help bail his team out from a subpar performance. This ends a 10-game string of middling performances from Anderson in which he had allowed three goals or more in every start but one since November 11^th.

Anderson damn near had an empty-netter last night. I'm a big fan of points for goalies in fantasy leagues. As long as it's not a separate category but instead counts just like goals and assists by skaters then it's legit. Why not, right? Mostly, I hate the idea that there are points being scored but somehow they don't count even though your player clearly scored them.

You could, however, sell me on not counting goalie PIM. Since the goalies don't actually sit in the box for their PIM, I'm not sure they should also get credit for those in fantasy leagues.

JG Pageau made his regular season debut but skated just 10 minutes. It seems like forever ago but Pageau was a hot commodity prior to last season. I'd be intrigued if Pageau would get a top-six opportunity but until then leave him on the waiver wire.

Kyle Turris seems to be enjoying the Dave Cameron era. He has points in all four since Cameron took over. Including last night's two-goal game, Turris has five points in the last four.

Nothing has really changed under Cameron from a minutes perspective as far as Turris is concerned so it's hard to say that this is anything more than the immediate jolt that teams sometimes experience when a new coach arrives. Considering how poorly the Senators played last night (Anderson notwithstanding) you might even just chalk this up to coincidence. I have a tough time believing that Turris will score much more than 55 points he is on pace for.

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Patrik Elias made his return to the Devils lineup skating over 20 minutes. Unfortunately, Elias' star crossed season continued with nothing to show for all those minutes and five SOG. Between some nagging injuries and some terrible luck Elias simply has been unable to string together some scoring. I remain a believer in Elias' ability but it's getting harder and harder to sell.

Damon Severson was a late scratch due to a lower-body injury. No word on his timetable. Not sure the Devils really missed him as Severson has been slumping with just four points in the last 21 games. But really, the whole team has been slumping as the injuries have piled up so it's hard to blame Severson entirely.

One thing worth noting on that front; Severson's shot rate the past 21 games is 2.0, while during the first 11 games it was 2.9. He's lost an entire SOG per game. Add in some teammate injuries and some regression and poof, big slump. Look at this as an opportunity. If the Devils can get healthy and gain some puck luck, Severson would be in for a nice second half.

I know Severson got dumped in a couple of my one-year pools. Probably not the time to snag him yet but he's a Watch List guy for the second half.

With Severson out Eric Gelinas and Marek Zidlicky piled up the minutes combining for over 15 on the power play alone.

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Welcome back David Krejci! He returned to 18 minutes of ice time, reunited with Milan Lucic and Seth Griffith. No points for any of those three.

I want to encourage Griffith as a pickup here but I just don't have enough faith that he's the solution on that line. Frankly, I'm still waiting for the inevitable Chris Stewart trade to fill this void. Lucic and Krejci are certainly missing Jarome Iginla and it hasn't helped that Krejci's been banged up all year.

Another wrinkle with Krejci returning was Lucic, not Brad Marchand, getting help off the power play. This isn't entirely surprising as Lucic had already been held off the power play for much of the previous three games, skating a combined 37 seconds total with the man advantage. I have a tough time seeing this trend continue but it must be troubling for already antsy Lucic owners.

Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson were teamed up with Chris Kelly once again. I have to admit, I had my concerns about Soderberg-Eriksson as a tandem early in the year but they've really grown on me. Two points apiece last night, including the overtime winner by Eriksson.

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Another start for Niklas Backstrom with Darcy Kuemper out sick. Not that Kuemper has been much better but Backstrom has now allowed 14 goals in the last four games. I never had much time for Backstrom but prior to this stretch his numbers were looking really good. Now he's at .901 for save percentage.

That doesn't necessarily mean Backstrom has played poorly. I haven't watched these past few games. I'm just presuming based on my recent experiences with Backstrom. He actually had a really nice stop on Torey Krug last night:

Jason Pominville finally got some puck luck as a random flail of a shot deflected off his skate to tie things up and push the game to overtime. He has really struggled to find the twine shooting just 6.6% this season. Maybe he was due some bad fortune after having scored on 14.0% of his shots with the Wild prior to this season.

More likely, this lowered shooting percentage is at least partly due to an increase in volume of shots from Pominville as the forward is on pace for a career high 289. That increase in volume isn't enough for me to explain a 50% drop in shooting percentage from one year to the next. Goals are coming for Pominville. Try to align yourself with him before they start to pour in.

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