Now that it's crunch time in many fantasy leagues, we're discussing the schedule more and more. Friday's schedule featured just four games, which depending on the players you own may or may not be the best day to try to make up ground. My two teams still in head-to-head playoffs featured three or four active players on Friday, while my opponents trotted out what seemed like double that number. It's not a problem that can be solved by streaming because of limited adds/drops, so I'll just have to hope for big results on a busy Saturday that has all but Winnipeg playing.

The scenario I just described shows why it's beneficial to target players scheduled to play on "off days" (Mon/Wed/Fri/Sun) as much as possible, which in this crazy season was heavily concentrated with teams in the West Division followed by the North Division. That may be a big part of the reason that my opponents this week are still playing right now. If you want to get ahead with a breakdown of the schedule, make sure you purchase your copies of the Fantasy Guide and Midseason Guide when they become available.

After Saturday's bucketload of games, a few leagues out there will come down to stats from Sunday's only game, which is between Detroit and Tampa Bay. For those of you who play fantasy football, this may feel like the Monday Night game, where you hope for a touchdown from a particular player in order to win your week. That game will be inconsequential in many leagues, though, which is why I wish the schedule was spread out a little more. Then again, getting this far in a season that has had so many twists and turns is an accomplishment in itself.  

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Seattle will finally get Kraken! If you don't appreciate Dobber's Kraken jokes on Twitter, you probably didn't like that one either. The check (cheque) has cleared on the final payment of their $650 million expansion fee, so they are officially an NHL team. Now they need to find a head coach and some players. Maybe you've scanned a few mock expansion drafts by now, including this one by Alex last week. It will remain to be seen how many of these players actually land in Seattle, but you can count on us to break down the fantasy implications once they draft their roster. That should be fun, unless you're on pins and needles about your team potentially losing a player that you like (or to make a bad problem worse by making a costly trade to avoid losing a certain player).

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Shea Weber was out of the lineup on Friday, which meant that power-play specialist Erik Gustafsson was able to draw into the lineup. And yes, those were first-unit power-play minutes that Gustafsson saw over Jeff Petry. In spite of that prime power-play time, Gustafsson didn't record a point on the two power-play goals that Montreal scored. He was a third-pairing d-man otherwise, playing just 13 minutes in total. If Weber isn't back for today's (Saturday's) game, there's a good chance Gustafsson will be back on the first-unit power play.

If you're wondering why Gustafsson can't stay in the lineup, perhaps it's because he has a tendency to be just a little too offensive-minded.

Gustafsson with the bonehead play of the year? pic.twitter.com/avyFt6sSHC

— Jason Gold (@JayGold85) May 1, 2021

Nick Suzuki was the scoring star in the Habs' 5-3 win, netting two goals while adding an assist. Suzuki is on a four-game point streak with six points, including four goals, over that span.

Trevor Lewis scored a pair of goals, which was a two-goal outburst that probably helped zero fantasy rosters. Lewis had not recorded a point in his previous six games, although he has taken at least two shots in each of his last four games.

Winnipeg has now lost six consecutive games, which means that Connor Hellebuyck hasn't posted a win in two weeks. Each of the Jets' losses has been by at least two goals while being outscored 26-9. During those six games, Neal Pionk has been held without a point. Nikolaj Ehlers is out for the regular season. The Jets have enough space between themselves and the teams below the North playoff bar to ensure a playoff spot, but they will need to figure things out soon in order to have any kind of playoff success.  

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The Avalanche were fortunate to have all of Philipp Grubauer, Mikko Rantanen, and Joonas Donskoi return on Friday night. Unfortunately, just as the injury ninja giveth, the injury ninja taketh away (stick tap Chris Wassel), as defensemen Ryan Graves and Samuel Girard both left this game with injuries. Losing two top-4 defensemen would be a big blow for the Avalanche's Stanley Cup hopes, but we'll have to wait to hear more.

Grubauer showed no rust in his first game since April 12, stopping all 21 shots he faced in a 3-0 win over San Jose. He's now tied with Semyon Varlamov with a league-leading six shutouts. The Avalanche had lost three in a row prior to Friday with the Devan Dubnyk/Jonas Johansson combo, which proves the importance of having Grubauer between the pipes for Colorado.

In his first game since April 14, Rantanen didn't have any issues either, scoring a goal while adding two assists with four shots. This isn't an official point streak because of the games missed, but Rantanen now has points in each of his last seven games, with 12 points (6 G, 6 A) over those seven games. Only six players have a higher points-per-game average than Rantanen (1.25 PTS/GP), one of which is teammate Nathan MacKinnon.

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The Arizona/Vegas game involved a shutout, but not for the team you probably expected. The Golden Knights entered this game with a 10-game winning streak with both Marc-Andre Fleury and Robin Lehner listed as hot players on Frozen Tools. Yet it was Adin Hill, starting for the first time since April 11, pitching a 25-save shutout. Starting Hill in this matchup would have taken a serious amount of courage… or desperation.

Darcy Kuemper will likely start the rematch tonight (Saturday) against a hungry Golden Knights squad. After posting his own shutout last Saturday, he has had two stinkers this week, getting pulled on Monday and allowing three goals in the first period on Wednesday. Kuemper and Hill could easily split starts as the Coyotes cling onto playoff hopes.

Michael Bunting scored again, giving him two goals in his last three games and nine goals in just 16 games. Yes, he will fall back to earth, as he's shooting a very unsustainable 30 percent. But it may not be a complete crash, as he's getting icetime with a scoring line (Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz) along with first-unit power-play time. He was also knocking on the door for a callup after scoring 19 points (7 G, 12 A) in 16 games with Tuscon of the AHL.

Jonathan Marchessault was a late scratch for this game with a lower-body injury. Vegas was forced to play with 11 forwards and six d-men, as Alex Tuch was moved up to Marchessault's usual spot beside William Karlsson and Reilly Smith. You'll probably have options on your bench to replace Marchessault on Saturday, should he remain sidelined.

By the way, Smith is ice cold with just one point (an assist) in his last seven games. Even though his deployment hasn't changed much, he's crashed to a 30-point pace after reaching the 50-point mark in each of his previous three seasons with the Golden Knights.

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The Kings forced a tie with the Ducks with just over five minutes to play in the third period. Then Anze Kopitar played the hero with just under a minute to play to win the game for LA in regulation.

Point 997 for @AnzeKopitar, and it's a game-winner. pic.twitter.com/nc0GUfba90

— LA Kings (@LAKings) May 1, 2021

By the way, why can’t those be the Kings’ regular uniforms?

Yes, Kopitar is nearing 1000 points. And he's still doing it at practically a point-per-game pace (47 points in 48 games). Picking him at 136^th overall in one draft has yielded awesome value for me.

Unfortunately, Kopitar's linemate Alex Iafallo has now been held without a point in seven games. I thought he'd be in for a bigger week playing against the Ducks all week, but it hasn't turned out that way.

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Talk to you tomorrow in what will be a busy day of hockey. Good luck to you if it’s a critical day for your fantasy team.

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