The Buffalo Sabres blew this one open, rolling to a 6–1 win over the Boston Bruins and taking firm control of the series at 3–1.

Buffalo dropped four goals in the first period and never looked back, forcing Boston to chase the game the rest of the way. Peyton Krebs, Zach Benson, Bowen Byram, and Alex Tuch all found the scoresheet.

Tage Thompson, Jordan Greenway, Ryan McLeod, Jack Quinn and Owen Power all added assists for in the win.

Jeremy Swayman gave up six goals on 29 shots and never really had a chance to settle in. Boston couldn't find any structure after the early push, and once things started to spiral, they never recovered. Buffalo added two quick ones just over a minute apart midway through the third, which led to Swayman getting pulled. He was clearly frustrated on the way off, letting a few words go toward Marco Sturm and the bench.

Jeremy Swayman had some WORDS for the Bruins bench after being pulled 😳 pic.twitter.com/9lSbs9rj1d

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 26, 2026

Boston's lone goal came late from Morgan Geekie, but by that point the game was already decided.

Alex Lyon was solid in a low-drama outing at least on his end, stopping 23 shots and holding Boston off the board until the final minutes of the game.

Tempers clearly started to flare near the end of the game as the Bruins were at least trying to get something going that could potentially translate into some semblance of momentum into game five.

Buffalo is now one win away from making it to the second round.

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The Colorado Avalanche wrapped this one up in convincing fashion, taking the series sweep over the Los Angeles Kings. It was a straight-line dismantling from start to finish as Colorado dictated pace, controlled possession, and finished chances at a level LA simply couldn't keep up with across the series.

Nathan MacKinnon finished three points (2G, 1A) and Gabriel Landeskog with two assists as the only two Avalanche players to post multi-point efforts.

Cale Makar and Devon Toews also joined in on the fun with a goal each.

Colorado will now get an extend period of time to rest and recover for their next opponent in the winner between the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild.

Anton Forsberg was left under constant pressure, finishing with 27 saves on 32 shots in a game where the defensive structure never really held.

Joel Edmundson scored the lone goal for the Kings, with assists from Adrian Kempe and Alex Laferriere.

While it was a dominant night for Colorado, the emotional note came on the other side, with Kings captain Anze Kopitar playing his final game in a Los Angeles uniform, closing out an era where he remained the constant through a stage of the franchise's rise and decline.

Anze Kopitar leaves the ice for the final time in his NHL career 🩶 pic.twitter.com/6IGEe5VJg6

— NHL (@NHL) April 26, 2026

–

Brandon Hagel was the difference-maker once again, scoring two goals including the game-winner in the final five minutes. He has been on an absolute heater in this series and is quickly turning into Tampa's most consistent offensive weapon shift-to-shift. Believe it or not, Hagel is tied for points scored during the playoffs with linemate Jake Guentzel, Taylor Hall and Matt Duchene while also leading the league in playoff goals with six so far.

WHO ELSE?! 🤯

Brandon Hagel's sixth goal of the series gives the @TBLightning the lead in the third! #StanleyCup

🇺🇸: @espn
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet & @TVASports pic.twitter.com/dYnqGcCeMb

— NHL (@NHL) April 27, 2026

Jake Guentzel chipped in with a key goal, while Nikita Kucherov did his part with two assists for the win.

Andrei Vasilevskiy had a very quiet night, only making 16 saves which was enough to tie the series with the Canadiens at two a-piece.

For Montreal, this was another game where they were right there, but couldn't finish the job. Zachary Bolduc and Cole Caufield both scored for the Canadiens.

Momentum in the game seemed to swing after a heavy open-ice hit from Max Crozier on Juraj Slafkovsky, who went straight to the locker room before eventually returning in the third period.

WHAT A HIT BY CROZIER ON SLAFKOVSKY OH MY 😱💥 pic.twitter.com/Pe02g9lWDo

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 27, 2026

–

The Anaheim Ducks took a massive step in this series, grabbing a 4–3 overtime win over the Edmonton Oilers and pushing the defending Western Conference contenders to the brink with a 3–1 series lead.

This was a game Edmonton had multiple chances to close it out, but once again, late-game execution and defensive breakdowns came back to haunt them. Anaheim hung around just long enough to find the opening and deliver the final blow.

Lukas Dostal came up with a key save on Connor McDavid in the final minute of regulation, sending the game to overtime. That moment alone shifted the entire game script. He finished with a strong performance overall, holding Edmonton to three goals on 27 shots faced.

Tristan Jarry was steady enough overall facing 38 shots and allowing four including the OT winner. A shot that looked manageable ended up deciding a series swing. The overtime goal went to video review to confirm it fully crossed the line past Jarry, and once confirmed, it handed the Ducks a surprising grip on the series.

RYAN POEHLING IS YOUR @ENERGIZER OVERTIME HERO! 🦸‍♂️

ANAHEIM LEADS 3-1 IN THIS #STANLEYCUP PLAYOFFS SERIES! pic.twitter.com/zYYO1Xt4Cl

— NHL (@NHL) April 27, 2026

Kasperi Kapanen and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins both found the back of the net for the Oilers, while Evan Bouchard added a goal and assist.

Connor McDavid, as usual, did everything he could to drag Edmonton through it, finishing with two assists and driving play at a high level, but it still wasn't enough to push them over the line.

For the Ducks, Cutter Gauthier and Mikael Granlund both scored, while Jeffrey Viel provided the game-tying goal to keep Anaheim alive late.

Ryan Poehling ultimately finished it in overtime with the winner.

On the back end, John Carlson and Jackson Lacombe each picked up two assists. Lacombe continues to emerge as a real driver from the blue line, now leading the league in assists (7A) and in points (1G, 7A) in the playoffs.

–

This week I wanted to take a closer look at a few players who I followed closely in my fantasy hockey leagues. Some have been around the league for a while and already have a decent sample of NHL games under their belt and others are still relatively new but have already put up encouraging point totals with room to grow.

All of them are hovering around that 60-point range, with a shot at pushing past it but still sitting just under that 70-point tier. That's usually the sweet spot in fantasy where managers are quietly hoping for a step forward next season, while still having a chance to grab you player a bit later in drafts before anyone does.

Adam Fantilli

Fantilli looked primed for taking the next step this season but instead delivered a partial step forward that didn't fully translate in the box score. This season he posted 59 points in 82 games, showing modest growth year-over-year, but the underlying data paints a much stronger picture of a player who is already trending toward a true offensive breakout. At 5v5, Fantilli took a clear step in terms of play-driving and chance creation and more importantly, his xGF/60 jumped to 2.98, a significant increase from previous seasons and a strong indicator that he's no longer just contributing within a line, he's actively driving offense.

So why didn't the production spike? The first limiting factor is finishing regression. Despite increasing his shot volume from 192 to 213, his S% dropped sharply from 16.7% to 11.3% naturally resulting in fewer goals (32 down to 24). At 5v5, his on-ice S% percentage sat at just 8.6%, which is low relative to the quality of chances generated. This could result anywhere from bad luck or a poor finishing environment rather than a flaw in his individual process. The second major factor is PP usage. While Fantilli saw an increase in PP time to 2:36 per game, he did only finish with just 13 power play points and a 48.1% PPIPP, which is relatively low for a player expected to be a focal offensive piece. The power play units were effective in terms of puck control and shot generation, but Fantilli was more of a participant than a driver within those setups, taking a back seat to  players like Zack Werenski and Kirill Marchenko would effectively dominate a lot of puck touches. Without being the primary puck distributor or finisher, his ceiling was naturally capped.

The offensive foundation is already in place and as it stands, players with his draft pedigree often make their biggest leap between years 3–4. If one thing breaks right (PP role or linemate stability), his current production represents more of a floor than a ceiling, making him a strong candidate to take that next step with even slight improvements in role and conversion.

Pavel Zacha

This was clearly the most productive season of Pavel Zacha's career finishing with 65 points in 78 games, putting him right on the doorstep of 70. However, once you break it down, the path to repeating or building on that number isn't nearly as stable as it looks.

The biggest swing factor is the shooting. Zacha finished with a 23.1% conversion rate, which is well above anything he's shown historically and almost guaranteed to regress. That becomes even more important when you factor in volume. He's only generating 1.7 shots per game, which doesn't give him much margin for error. It's tough to maintain a 30-goal pace when the shot profile is that light, so if he's going to push toward 70 points again, it likely has to come through assists rather than finishing.

Where the profile holds up is on the power play. Zacha continues to see strong usage there, producing 22 points with the man advantage, and a lot of that is tied directly to playing alongside David Pastrňák. That connection is doing a significant amount of the heavy lifting in his overall production. As long as that role sticks, it gives him a relatively stable offensive floor, even if the even-strength numbers fluctuate.

At 5v5, the environment is a bit more neutral. Zacha spent most of his time with Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson, which is a solid secondary scoring unit but not one that drives high-end offensive output. It's a line that can contribute, but it's not consistently pushing play or creating the kind of volume you would expect from a top-six setup. That doesn't mean the production isn't real, but it does make it more sensitive to changes around him.

The goal of 70 points is still within reach, but it requires a pretty specific set of conditions. The power play role needs to remain intact, and there needs to be at least some uptick in high-end usage at even strength which in a nutshell means he needs to be next to David Pastrnak. Without that, the more likely outcome is some shooting regression pulling the goal total back into the low-20s, with the overall production settling in that 60-point range.

Ivan Demidov

With Ivan Demidov, things are a little more interesting because he has only had one year under his belt and the sample size is fairly small however given his pedigree and putting up 62 points as a rookie right out of the gate is already a strong baseline, but what stands out more is how he got there. He wasn't heavily sheltered offensively in terms of results, despite getting favorable zone starts, and still managed to drive nearly 0.76 points per game. The shot volume is modest at 1.5 shots/game, this isn't a volume-driven profile, but the playmaking foundation is clearly there with 43 assists and strong involvement rates.

The most important factor here is deployment direction. At even strength, a significant portion of his production came away from the true top-end talent, spending most of his time with Oliver Kapanen and Juraj Slafkovský rather than being stapled to Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. The limited minutes he did get with that top unit were extremely efficient, with strong shot share and goal results in a small sample. The power play usage already supports that kind of leap. He's sitting at over 60% share with three minutes per game, and most of that time is coming on a highly productive unit alongside Suzuki, Caufield, and Slafkovský. That group drove the majority of his 20 power play points, and there's nothing in the profile that suggests that role is at risk. If anything, it should only become more central as he develops. There are still some underlying flags, mainly around possession and expected goals, so there is some mild regression risk, but it's also pretty common for high-skill young players early in their careers, especially ones adjusting to NHL pace and usage.

Demidov is one of the cleaner bets so far to actually push into the 70-point range. Unlike some of the others, he doesn't need everything to break perfectly. A modest increase in even-strength role within the top-six, occasionally in the top three, combined with stable power play usage, is likely enough to bridge that gap. Even with some efficiency pullback, the volume of opportunity should rise.

Thanks for reading! See you next week! For more fantasy hockey content and analysis, follow me on X @Punters_hockey. If you have any questions about your team or a trade? My DMs are always open, happy to help!