Happy Monday y'all! We have made it into February, already a full calendar month off the new year. As a new parent, I keep asking myself, where does the time go? And here we are, the regular season is already 65% complete and we are at the Olympic break. 

While the Games are going on, Mike and I will have some fun breakdowns on players that are headed to Italy so make sure you stay on top of the content at DobberHockey even when your leagues aren't going on. Every organization has at least one player heading over to Europe for the tournament, with the Tampa Bay Lightning sending the most skaters (10) for seven different countries. 

For those keeping track, the gold medal game will be taking place on Sunday, February 22nd. The NHL resumes on Wednesday the 25th, so anyone who is partaking in the final game could potentially miss their first game back as the league scheduled eight games for their return to play.

—

Anze Kopitar returned for the LA Kings on Saturday in Philadelphia. He stepped back into his role on the first line, but started on the second powerplay for Los Angeles. Their top powerplay unit had scored in two straight games so they did not want to disturb a good thing. His one 90-point campaign was an outlier as he has consistently been around the 70 point mark each season, but that comes with high powerplay usage as he has scored at least 20 powerplay points in 14 of his 19 seasons (the lowest output he has had is 16, but that was in the lockout shortened 2012-13 season). At this stage of the captain's career, he could be considered droppable if he only receives secondary opportunities because he typically scores 30% of his points in a season on special teams.

Another droppable player on the Kings is defenseman Drew Doughty. Ian Gooding went into it during his Ramblings over the weekend, but I echo his sentiments. I know he's going to Milano Cortina as a veteran defender for Team Canada, but in terms of fantasy, he is almost irrelevant now. He's been passed by Brandt Clarke for powerplay time and doesn't offer much in terms of peripherals anymore. If you still own him, I think the best we can hope for is a point-per-game Olympic pace and then sell high the following week. If that doesn't happen, it might be time to let him go.

—

One of the great rivalries in the game, the Colorado Avalanche versus the Detroit Red Wings, was revived on Saturday. It is such a shame these teams are in different conferences now and they don't meet as often, but Colorado came out of the gate shooting and won 5-0.

This is something the Avalanche needed as they had lost four of their previous five and had been outscored 22-13 in that same span. In fact, they are now 4-4-2 in their last 10 and have not looked the same ever since their captain, Gabe Landeskog, went out with a brutal upper body injury. This slide coincidently came after the Swedish winger got hurt as they are 4-6-2 (or 4-7-2 if you want to count the game Landy was hurt in) without him on the bench.

Obviously being their captain, he means a great deal to this team, but he provides so much more than leadership. He is a gnat on the ice, goes hard into the corners, and battles for pucks. Without him, they rely on a lot of skill, but as the saying goes, "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." So obviously Landeskog's presence means a lot to this squad. 

Luckily, they have built a comfortable lead in the standings so maybe they are in coast mode, but if he is not able to make a return, the Avs should look to add a rugged winger (potentially Evander Kane?) to replace the sandpaper that Landy brought. No one is going to replace the leadership, but if they can add a blue collar forward to their middle six, it would go a long way in keeping their top skill guys accountable.

—

The Pacific Division is bonkers this season. As of Sunday night, the Vegas Golden Knights lead the division with 64 points, but have 14 overtime losses (and 16 in regulation). The Edmonton Oilers, Seattle Kraken, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks all have more wins than Vegas, the Golden Knights just have more loser points than those four teams. 

Everyone wants to talk about re-aligning the playoff format, but I think the first thing that needs to be addressed is the point system. The Golden Knights sit at the top of the division with a losing record at 25-30. I'm not sure if a 3-2-1 point system would work or maybe getting rid of the loser point altogether would be better. Hit me up on Twitter (@LAM1926) and we can talk about it.

Good luck to your teams and I hope everyone has a great week!