The Calgary Flames cancelled their morning skate due to a positive COVID test, resulting in concerns that their game with Montreal would be cancelled. Fortunately, this did not affect Friday's game, as only Josh Leivo was moved to the COVID protocol list. In a game with North Division playoff implications, the Flames came out on top with a 4-2 win.

Darryl Sutter made a point to separate long-time linemates Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau recently. Yet it happened to be a pass from Gaudreau that set up Monahan's game-winning goal. Monahan also chipped in two assists for his first three-point game of the season. The goal was Monahan's 10^th of the season, meaning that he has hit double-digits in goals in each of his eight NHL seasons.

If your league still happens to count game-winning goals, this might be of interest to you.

Most game-winning goals since start of 2014-15 season

Alex Ovechkin 47
Brad Marchand 45
Sean Monahan 43
Max Pacioretty 43#CofRed
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) April 24, 2021

With an empty-net goal, Elias Lindholm extended his point streak to seven games. Over that span Lindholm has nine points (5 G, 4 A). Lindholm also has goals in three consecutive games and five of his last six games. Over each of those six games, Lindholm has also taken at least three shots.

Erik Gustafsson made his Canadiens debut on Friday. Gustafsson skated just 7:12 as a seventh defenseman, but he was used on one of the power-play units (I can't tell which one because there was only one power-play, and the two units had similar icetimes). I doubt he is jumping over Jeff Petry or Shea Weber, who are 1-2 among all Habs skaters in power-play points, but I could see him receiving second-unit power-play time if he is able to get back into the lineup. He's a feast-or-famine option who has been mostly famine this season.

Fantasy Take: Habs Trade for Gustafsson

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Dylan Larkin will miss the rest of the regular season with an upper-body injury. It's possible that the Red Wings are shutting him down because they are out of the playoff race, although that's not meant to minimize what could be more than a day-to-day injury. Larkin finishes the season with a disappointing 0.52 PTS/GP (23 PTS in 44 GP), his lowest output over the past four seasons. The Red Wings used a revolving door of linemates with Larkin all season, so it was difficult for him to generate any traction. Larkin is a potential rebound candidate who could provide strong ADP value in next season's drafts.

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Sam Reinhart, who I had the good fortune of adding to my lineup a week ago*, played fantasy hero for a few owners out there. Reinhart posted a hat trick (2 PPG) on seven shots in a 6-4 Sabres win over Boston. In what has been a forgettable season in Buffalo, Reinhart is far and away the team's goal leader, reaching 20 goals for the fifth time in the last six seasons. To put it in context, only one other Sabre (Victor Olofsson) has a double-digit goal total (12 G).

*It's not all good for me, though. I'll get to my worst drop of the season later on.

You may be even more surprised to learn that only 12 players have more goals than Reinhart this season. And he's rostered in less than half of Yahoo leagues. I have a feeling that will change, although Reinhart's comparatively low assist total (13) and minus-25 cut into his value.

This game was also notable from a Sabres perspective because Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made his NHL debut. The rookie goalie made 36 saves in posting a win, a result that you probably thought was unlikely given the matchup. One of Luukkonen's goals against was a perfect deflection off the stick of Rasmus Ristolainen.

Taylor Hall (Rasmus Ristolainen?) makes it a one-goal game. pic.twitter.com/ywvdWGCyG8
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) April 24, 2021

For more on Luukkonen, see his Dobber Prospects profile. The Sabres might be playing out the string with a Luukkonen – Dustin Tokarski tandem. Buffalo is 7-5-2 since breaking the 18-game winless streak, so they might have a better chance of winning games down the stretch than you think.

Patrice Bergeron was a late scratch for Friday's game against Buffalo. As a result, the Bruins forward lines were as follows:

1 BRAD MARCHAND – CHARLIE COYLE – DAVID PASTRNAK

2 DAVID KREJCI – TAYLOR HALL – CRAIG SMITH

3 SEAN KURALY – NICK RITCHIE – JAKE DEBRUSK

4 CURTIS LAZAR – CHRIS WAGNER – ANTON BLIDH

Most notable is Charlie Coyle replacing Bergeron on the top line. Coyle could not take advantage, as he was held without a point and was a minus-2 for the game. If Bergeron can't go on Sunday, keep Coyle in mind as a potential end-of-week streaming option.

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Two Rangers picked up 20 goals on Friday: Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich. On a team with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, it may surprise you that Kreider and Buchnevich are the first two Rangers to reach that mark.

Panarin picked up another two helpers in that game. Only Connor McDavid has a higher PTS/GP average than Panarin (1.49 PTS/GP). Since McDavid is 22 points clear of Panarin with only eight more games played, it's unlikely Panarin would be pushing for the scoring lead had he not taken the leave of absence earlier this season. That shouldn't take anything away from the kind of season Panarin is having.

In case you missed it, Dave Betten from the Keeping Karlsson Stream Scheme Podcast filled in for Chris Kane on Frozen Tools Forensics this week. Using Frozen Tools, Dave takes you through the process of picking up a fantasy goalie for the weekend, settling in on Alexandar Georgiev. This turned out to be a solid recommendation, as Georgiev stopped 26 of 27 shots in earning the W over Philly.

📢 advertisement:

With many head-to-head leagues in fantasy playoff mode, the term "streamer" is appearing with more regularity. So I'll share mine, and please don't snicker or shake your head: Shayne Gostisbehere. My only empty roster spot on Thursday was for a defenseman, so I searched for teams that play three times over the next four days (Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun). Ghost fit perfectly, not only with the Flyers schedule (Thu/Fri/Sun), but also because I needed to catch up on assists and power-play points. It's really not about picking up the best player available at this point, but the one that fits immediate positional and categorical needs for your roster. Especially when you don't know whether there's going to be a next week for your team.

Ghost helped me with an assist on Thursday, but he could not come through with much notable on Friday (minus-1, 1 SOG, 3 BLK). He is receiving first-unit power-play minutes, so I'll contend that he is still a Sunday streaming option worth considering.

Apropos of nothing, here's a comparison between two d-men who have seen better days: Gostisbehere and Erik Karlsson. One defenseman is 64% rostered in Yahoo leagues; the other, 9%. Full comparison here.

Name	GP	G	A	PTS	PTS/G	Pace	PPP	SOG
SHAYNE GOSTISBEHERE	37	8	8	16	0.43	31	8	81
ERIK KARLSSON	42	5	13	18	0.43	33	6	89

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Speaking of streaming, if you're looking for "off day" streaming options, strike Jakob Silfverberg off your list. The Ducks forward will need 4-6 months of recovery time after undergoing hip surgery. He finishes the season with 0.34 PTS/GP (16 PTS in 47 games), which is the lowest per-game point output of his nine-season career. I wouldn't rank him high for next season given the Ducks' limited scoring options, but it sounds like the injury contributed to his declined production.

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I'm ready to bring up my worst drop of the season. It is Juuse Saros, who I let go of in one league on February 21. Not only that, but what are the chances – I'm facing the owner that picked him up this week in the fantasy playoffs.

Jan 14-Feb 18: 3-5-0, 3.47 GAA, .882 SV%

Since: 14-4-1, 1.75 GAA, .945 SV

Saros didn't embarrass me completely, as the Blackhawks broke his shutout bid with just under four minutes to play. Still, we all have those "what if" drops. Saros has posted quality starts in 16 of those 20 games, with 14 of them coming in mid-March or after, which is around the time that the Predators season took a sharp turn for the better. So although Saros didn't pay immediate dividends for the new owner, he's been money in the goaltending bank for over a month. Those 14 quality starts are the most among any goalie since March 15.

Luke Kunin scored again on Friday, giving him goals in three consecutive games. Kunin has taken ten shots over that span, which is certainly helping his cause. Since returning from injury in late March, Kunin has 11 points over his last 15 games.

Matt Duchene hasn't been so lucky. The Predators' $56 million man has just one point (a goal) over his last 12 games. Because Duchene has also missed time due to injury, that's only one point since mid-February.

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It was the Kirill Kaprizov show again on Friday. The dynamic rookie scored his 20^th and 21^st goals of the season on six shots to lead the Wild to a 4-2 win over LA. Whenever Minnesota is playing and I'm writing the Ramblings, I seem to be posting a Kaprizov highlight. Here he makes an NHL defenseman look like a rec hockey participant.

Good lord what Kaprizov just did to Mikey Anderson 😳 pic.twitter.com/ovnIPwkbP9
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) April 24, 2021

Kaprizov might seem like a shoo-in for the Calder Trophy with his regular highlight reel goals, but he and fellow rookie Jason Robertson share similar points-per-game numbers. The Athletic had a detailed comparison of the two players, but remember that you can create your own using the Frozen Tools Compare Players. A summary:

Name	GP	G	A	PTS	SH%	PTS/G	Pace	PPP	SOG
KIRILL KAPRIZOV	46	21	19	40	17.1	0.87	71	10	123
JASON ROBERTSON	41	14	22	36	14.0	0.88	68	4	100

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Want more streaming options? Head over to the Schedule Planner over at Frozen Tools. Here's the Saturday/Sunday schedule for those of you trying to maximize your games played for your head-to-head playoff matchups. Quick summary: New Jersey and Pittsburgh are the only two teams to play two games. Over on the Frozen Tools home page, I can find two players from those teams that are hot and are rostered in fewer than 5% of Yahoo leagues.

Yegor Sharangovich: 5 PTS in last 4 GP, 20+ min in 3 of those last 4 GP

Teddy Blueger: 5 PTS in last 4 GP, goals in 3 consecutive GP

Good luck!

For more fantasy hockey discussion, or to reach out to me, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding