Under Dominique Ducharme in 2021-22, Cole Caufield scored just one goal in 30 games. Under Martin St. Louis, Caufield has four goals in four games, including his game-tying and game-winning goals on Thursday. The obvious take would be to assume that the 5-8 St. Louis would have a soft spot for the 5-7 Caufield, but a sudden increase in Caufield's icetime did not happen right away. After averaging between 13-14 minutes in his first two games under MSL, Caufield was bumped up to 18 minutes on Sunday before logging a season-high 21 minutes on Thursday.

Cole Caufield is the 5th player in NHL history to score a game-tying goal in the final 10 seconds and OT winner, joining Mikael Granlund (Feb. 27, 2020), Marian Gaborik (May 3, 2014), Marco Sturm (Nov. 8, 2000) & Neal Broten (Nov. 26, 1983).#NHLStats: https://t.co/u4Vc1Gpcfb https://t.co/aW9Nxd5jPF

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 18, 2022

Caufield was a Calder Trophy frontrunner entering the season, thanks to impressive late-season play and the Habs' playoff run last season. Although it's probably too late to consider him a rookie of the year favorite, it's not too late to revisit adding Caufield to your fantasy team. After being drafted in practically every Yahoo league, his rostership has sunk to just 24 percent. I'd expect that number to climb over the next few days.  

Fantasy Take: Montreal Replaces Ducharme with St. Louis

(In those last two paragraphs, I really had to try hard to make sure I didn't confuse Martin St. Louis with the St. Louis Blues, the Habs' opponent on Thursday.)

David Perron was held without a point on Thursday, which leaves him with just one point in his last eight games and two points in his last 13 games. He has been sidelined with both an injury and COVID this season, although that is not unusual during these times. Perhaps reaching a point-per-game pace (58 PTS in 56 GP) for the first time as a 32-year-old last season was unusual, although he started this season by picking up where he left off (20 PTS in 23 GP). This may be a case of the player simply not being right after missing a total of 12 games. You can probably drop him in shallower leagues, although I'm willing to be more patient in deeper leagues.

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The Top 100 Roto Rankings have been updated for February! Check out the rankings here.

Although many players fell out of the rankings due to the reduction of players in COVID protocol, Patrik Laine was one addition to those rankings. Laine recorded a hat trick on Thursday, giving him an eight-game point streak in which he has 10 goals and 16 points. Laine has also scored multiple goals in four of his last seven games. Remember that scoring goals is nothing new for Laine, as he has nine career hat tricks. It seems like he's been in the league a long time (six seasons to be exact), yet he is still only 23. As far as his fantasy value plummeted last season, it has been rocketing back up recently. I wrote about Laine's comeback season in more detail in last weekend's Ramblings.

Boone Jenner scored a goal and added two assists. He has also been hot recently with seven points in his last five games. For the first time in six seasons, Jenner has reached 20 goals, no doubt benefitting from being a linemate of Laine's. Just beware of his advanced stats, which suggest regression (15.4 SH%, 8.8 5on5 SH%, 2.3 PTS/60, 1009 PDO).

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Blake Wheeler scored a goal and added an assist on Thursday, giving him 11 points in his last four games. He has scored three goals during that span, which is one more than the number he scored over his first 30 games. As I mentioned on Saturday, expect some pucks to start going in. But I'm sure those with Wheeler on their roster have been quite happy with the assists. Hopefully you didn't drop him when he was injured or slumping.  

Mark Scheifele's five-game goal streak came to an end on Thursday, as he was held off the scoresheet.

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When I write about the Capitals, I often focus on the usual names. Today it's about two lesser-known players that have been making noise.

With a power-play goal on Thursday, Joe Snively has four goals in his last four games. In his brief NHL career, he has seven points in nine games following a point-per-game pace in the AHL (38 points in 35 games) before his callup. He's already 26, so the "now or never" description of him in the Prospects Report seems applicable. Obviously, he won't keep up this goal pace with a season-long 25.0 SH%, but he's been receiving even-strength minutes with Tom Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom as well as second-unit power-play time. For more on Snively, see his Dobber Prospects profile. 

Banger extraordinaire Garnet Hathaway scored a pair of goals and added an assist with a plus-4 and four shots and… no hits? Scoring-wise, Hathaway seems to be a Tom Wilson-lite with 10 goals in 47 games. Hits-wise, he's taken over the Capitals' lead over Wilson with 162 hits (compared to Wilson's 142 hits). Only four players in the league have more hits than Hathaway, and he's already matched his career high with 19 points. Because his scoring hasn't been terrible, Hathaway (15% rostered in Yahoo, 25% in Fantrax) is worth rostering in bangers leagues.

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Morgan Rielly scored this end-to-end goal and added an assist in the Leafs' 4-1 win over Pittsburgh.

Morgan Rielly with a coast-to-coast beauty pic.twitter.com/Ibt8ejWnsi

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) February 18, 2022

Auston Matthews also scored a goal with an assist, extending his point streak to nine games. Over that span he has piled up 18 points, including eight goals. He has also posted multiple points in seven of those nine games.

After a mid-to-late January slide, Jack Campbell has posted back-to-back quality starts. He stopped 45 of 46 shots to backstop the Leafs to the victory.

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Since the coaching change from Dave Tippett to Jay Woodcroft, the Oilers are 4-0. As long as teams improve in the short term (and even win Stanley Cups in the same season), general managers will fire coaches when their teams slump.

Although he was signed before the coaching change, Evander Kane has eight points in nine games as an Oiler. More recently, Kane has a goal and an assist with a plus-2 and three shots in back-to-back games. Kane is also averaging over four hits per game, so it's fair to say that those that waited it out with him have not received a reduced version of the controversial power forward.

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Line combinations for Jack Eichel's Vegas debut on Wednesday:

MAX PACIORETTY – EVGENII DADONOV – JACK EICHEL

JONATHAN MARCHESSAULT – CHANDLER STEPHENSON – NICOLAS ROY

REILLY SMITH – WILLIAM KARLSSON – MATTIAS JANMARK

Eichel finished without a point in 17:32 of icetime as the Golden Knights were shut out by Colorado.

I've read more than one take poo-pooing adding Evgenii Dadonov just because he is on this top line. To be clear, Dadonov is mired in a major slump, having failed to record a point in his past eight games. There are some advanced stats that suggest he will come around, most notably an 18.2 Sec Asst%. Dadonov might appear to be the third wheel on this top line and you can certainly question his ability, but the points will come if he stays on this line. Mark Stone will also be out for a while (that in itself is a discussion for another day), which makes Dadonov an appealing pickup at just 15 percent rostership on Yahoo and 34 percent on Fantrax. So yes, I like him short-term more than some of you do.

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I know it's only two games, and the red-hot Flames had significant leads in both games, but 12 minutes in icetime with little power-play time seems quite low for Tyler Toffoli. Perhaps it's the time needed for Toffoli to acclimatize himself to the Flames' system, or the downside of being traded to a deeper team. It may take games that are closer or that the Flames are behind in for his icetime to increase. Yet Calgary may have added Toffoli to be more of a supporting piece than a top-line piece. In other words, if Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, or Elias Lindholm are on your fantasy roster, there doesn't seem much reason to worry about the Toffoli acquisition.

As Dobber said in his Fantasy Impact, the secondary pieces like Sean Monahan and Blake Coleman are the most impacted. However, it's worth mentioning that Monahan – not Toffoli – was on the first-unit power play over the past two games. Even if he's not a true play driver, I like Toffoli as a solid potential first-unit power-play option. It will be interesting to see if Calgary eventually uses him that way.

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Timo Meier filled the statsheet on Thursday, scoring a pair of power-play goals with an assist and eight shots on goal and a pair of hits. He also finished the game with a minus-2… hey, that's a Draisaitl Hat Trick! And a whopper of one at that with the multiple goals and the multiple negative minus! Meier entered the game with no points in his last four games.

A big part of Meier's bounceback this season is the fact that his icetime is up because Bob Boughner is trusting him more, as pointed out by John Garrett on the Canucks broadcast. Meier's overall icetime is up nearly three minutes per game (16:04 to 18:47), while his power-play time has increased nearly a minute (1:44 to 2:27). Meier has certainly earned that increase in responsibility, and he's done everything possible to retain it. 

Alexander Barabanov broke a 10-game goal drought with a buzzer beater (0.6 seconds left in regulation) to send the game into overtime. He also assisted on both of Meier's goals while playing on the first-unit power play. Something to keep an eye on, since he's only 2 percent rostered in Yahoo leagues and 29 percent rostered in Fantrax leagues. Barabanov also finished with a minus-1, meaning that he also earned a Draisaitl Hat Trick. (There were three more DHTs on Thursday… I'll send you on a little scavenger hunt to Frozen Tools to see if you can find them. If you can’t find them, I’ll post the answer to my Twitter account later.)

BUZZER BEATER TO SEND THIS ONE TO OT. 😱🚨 pic.twitter.com/F51MQSCAr4

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 18, 2022

That goal resulted in a mind-blowing stat for the Canucks:

Feb 17, 1992
Canucks allow the game-tying goal with :01 left in the 3rd vs the Rangers

Feb 17, 2022
Canucks allow the game-tying goal with :01 left in the 3rd vs the Sharks

It didn't happen to the Canucks at any point between these dates

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) February 18, 2022

One more fun fact from Sportsnet Stats, and why I am big on Thatcher Demko as a potential top-tier fantasy option in net (stat from before Thursday's game):

Since Bruce Boudreau took over as head coach, #Canucks have the fewest goals against per game (2.21) and the best Team SV% (.930) in the NHL

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) February 17, 2022

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Thursday was a busy night, so if I missed anything significant, I'll pick it up tomorrow with only four games on the schedule for Friday. In the meantime, for more fantasy hockey discussion, follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding