Johnathan Toews and Marian Hossa each scored twice as the Chicago Blackhawks nuked the Dallas Stars 8-1. Nuked is an understatement. Chicago led 3-0 after the first and 6-0 after the second. Patrick Kane had a goal and two assists for the Hawks. Trevor Daley’s power play goal was the lone goal for Dallas.
SPIN: Dallas might be called “The Big D” but the Stars played something like a Q minus in this game. Chicago’s back, in case you didn’t know it. Dallas is in a stretch where they play nine of 11 at home and they 0-3-0 in the start of that stretch. Even worse they are 2-5-1 in their last eight in Dallas so it’s time to bench them when they wear black.
Boston beat Washington 4-1 behind Nathan Horton’s goal and two assists. Milan Lucic had three assists in the win and Anton Khudobin stopped 32 of 33 shots in the win.
SPIN: Boston is 8-0-1 against the Southeast Division so they should be in the lineup when that matchup presents itself. The Bruins will be battling Montreal and Pittsburgh for the top spot in the East so use them with confidence. Washington is four games out of a playoff spot with 20 to play. It’s not unrealistic for the Caps to have a chance of making the playoffs, but the team is pretty much sunk. I’m benching all of my Caps skaters except for Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.
Pittsburgh blanked the NY Rangers 3-0 for their eighth straight win. Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves for the shutout while Tyler Kennedy had a goal and an assist. Dustin Jeffrey picked up two assists.
SPIN: Pittsburgh is 21-8-0 and continues to stay on fire. They’re getting offense from more than their stars and that makes them scary. The Rangers have dropped three straight and need to right the ship quickly before they drop further behind the eighth spot in the East.
Ottawa took down Buffalo 4-3 in overtime on Kyle Turris’ second goal of the game and third point of the night. Drew Stafford scored twice for Buffalo in the loss.
SPIN: Turris has started to come on strong after going more than a month without a goal. Grab him now if you can since he might be on Ottawa’s top line for the rest of the season. Patrick Wiercioch has four goals in his last six games. He could be worth an add for depth. Ottawa has been involved in 11 consecutive one-goal games. Stafford’s goals are his third and fourth of the season and he’s not very relevant in fantasy. Ryan Miller of Buffalo is putting up decent numbers but not getting enough consistent offensive support to take that next step up in fantasy.
Tampa Bay knocked off Carolina 4-1 behind Mathieu Garon’s 21-save effort. Eric Staal scored the only goal for Carolina and Tampa Bay had a pair of rookies score their first goal in the NHL in the win. Tyler Johnson (even with an assist) and Ondrej Palat are not relevant in fantasy.
SPIN: Tampa continues to struggle and doesn’t have much to offer past it’s top-tier star players. Carolina has dropped two in a row and might be in danger of losing the top spot in the Southeast if Winnipeg were to win over Toronto.
The Jets took on Toronto and posted a 5-4 win in the shootout. Blake Wheeler scored twice for the Jets while Joffrey Lupul picked up his first two goals of the season for Toronto. Phil Kessel scored his 10th goal of the season in the loss.
SPIN: The Jets are now on top of the Southeast Division. That is not a typo. Lupul made his way back from a broken arm that cost him 25 games. Check your waiver wire and see if he was still sitting out there, claim him if he is. We don’t mention shootouts at all since they’re barely relevant in fantasy but this was 10-round affair which you don’t see everyday. The Jets scored four times in a 10-minute span of the second period but couldn’t hold the lead. They gave up two goals 25 seconds apart at the end of the second period to give Toronto some hope. That won’t cut it in the playoffs.
The Islanders continued to make the Florida Panthers’ season miserable as they won 4-3. Brad Boyes got his eighth goal of the season and no other player who scored racked up more than his fourth goal of the season.
SPIN: The Islanders were up 3-0 in the first minute of the second period before Florida scored three times in 1:43 to tie the game. Florida has given up the first goal in each of its last six games and is 1-14-4 when that happens. Ed Jovanovski came back on the blue line for Florida after missing 22 games with a lower-body injury. Don’t rush to add him since he let in the second period with another injury. His status is unknown but not likely positive. Panthers, ugh.
St. Louis knocked off Anaheim 2-1 in overtime on Chris Stewart’s 14th goal of the season 45 seconds into overtime. Kris Russell had the other goal for the Blues while Saku Koivu scored for the Ducks.
SPIN: Jake Allen does it again in goal for the Blues with a 27-save effort and should be on your roster if you have a faltering goaltender. Corey Perry sat out the second of his four-game suspension for the Ducks.
Detroit took down Vancouver 5-2. That was the same score Los Angeles took care of San Jose by.
SPIN: The Red Wings’ offense woke up as Pavel Datsyuk had three assists and Henrik Zetterberg scored twice, his first goals in 11 games and second game with a goal in his last 20. Alexander Burrows’ two-goal night for the Canucks was Vancouver’s only offense. Burrows scored just six seconds into the game, the second-fastest game-opening goal in league history.
SPIN: The Kings led 2-0 after a period and 5-1 after two so this game was in little doubt. Kyle Clifford scored twice for the Kings and San Jose went 11 minutes without a shot to open the game. Joe Thornton has gone ice cold for the Sharks with 2 goals in his last 22 games. Ugh. Back to the pine you go, Jumbo Joe.
Columbus continues to pickup points as they posted a 1-0 win over Phoenix in the shootout.
SPIN: Sergei Bobrovsky continues to be a sleeper in the spotlight with his 39-save effort. Mike Smith made 23 saves and will be credited with a shutout as well. Phoenix has been blanked in its last two games which is surprising as they have fallen to the fifth-best offense in the West (albeit tied with Vancouver) at 77 goals scored this season. Columbus is 6-0-4 in its last 10 and is just two points out of the last playoff spot. (That felt really weird to type.)
Minnesota outran the Avalanche 6-4. The Wild burst out of the gate and picked up four goals in the first period to hold a lead they wouldn’t give up.
SPIN: Devin Setoguchi scored twice for Minnesota as they wrestled the Northwest Division lead away from Vancouver for the time being. It’s time to get the Wild players in your lineup and consider picking up some of them off the waiver wire. Minnesota is 5-3 this month with losses to Chicago and Anaheim (twice) and have scored 21 goals in their five wins. The Wild has scored a power play in six of eight games this March. Their penalty kill is also picking it up as of late having stopped 16 of 18 penalties this month.
PA Parenteau has been one of the few bright spots for Colorado and he picked up his 12th goal of the season in the loss.
Multiple Goal Scorers
Setoguchi-MIN, Turris-OTT, Wheeler-WPG, Lupul-TOR, Hossa-CHI, Toews-CHI, Zetterberg-DET, Justin Abdelkader-DET, Clifford-LA, Burrows-VAN, Stafford-BUF
Stat of the Night–Crazy Eights
The last time Chicago scored eight goals was a wild 8-6 season-opening win over Nashville on October 5, 2006.
Stat of the Night II–That Was Quick
Burrows first goal came six seconds into the game and was the fastest in Canucks’ history besting Trevor Linden’s 9-second score against Anaheim in January of 1994.
Three Stars of the Night
1 The Chicago Blackhawks…the whole team
2 Bobrovsky
3 Turris
Sunday’s Games (all times ET)
Boston at Pittsburgh 1230pm
Winnipeg at Ottawa 5pm
Buffalo at Washington 7pm
Nashville at Edmonton 8pm
