This article is part of our The Daily Puck series.
Around the Rink
Saturday was a great day of hockey that saw lots of action with playoff implications.
The Minnesota Wild, who looked almost done as recently as January, whacked the Central Division-leading St. Louis Blues 6-3 and moved closer to the third-place Blackhawks than to closest team chasing them for the wild card. Much has made of the impact Devan Dubnyk's arrival has had, but the Wild – now healthier – are deep up front and have one of the strongest defense corps in the NHL. The Wild will be a tough out for whomever they match up with in the Western Conference.
The Senators hosted the Leafs looking for their sixth straight win and hoping to catch the Bruins for the last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Anyone familiar with the history of the "Battle of Ontatio" knows that the Leafs are the last team Ottawa wants to see with something important on the line. This game was naturally a close one, going back and forth, before Ottawa prevailed 5-3. Ottawa, interestingly, has a much stronger goal differential (+19) than the Bruins for what it's worth in guessing who will ultimately make the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Florida and Boston played a tight game with big implications for both teams. Florida hoped to hang in the playoff race, while Boston hoped to hold off Ottawa. The Bruins picked up one point by getting a 1-1 game into overtime to finish the night still holding onto the final wild card. The Panthers have played a bunch of the league's best teams very tight this season and this one against Boston was no different. The Panthers won the game in a shootout to inch closer in the playoff race.
Winnipeg beat the Capitals with a sturdy 3-0 win, which kept them ahead of the Kings who were beaten 4-1 by the Canucks. The Jets, a bit like the Wild, are deep, especially on the blueline, and play the kind of tough, grinding game that can drive an opponent crazy. With the win over the Capitals, the Jets have won four in a row and added another two points onto their lead over the Kings.
The stretch run should be exciting leading into another fantastic playoff run to the Stanley Cup.
Now, onto the preview of Sunday's games.
Projected Goalie Starters (all times Eastern)
For updates on the projected goalies later in the day, check out our Projected Goalies Grid.
St. Louis Blues (Jake Allen*) at Detroit Red Wings (Jimmy Howard), 12:00 PM
Boston Bruins (Niklas Svedberg) at Tampa Bay Lightning (Ben Bishop), 5:00 PM
Anaheim Ducks (John Gibson) at New York Rangers (Cam Talbot), 7:30 PM
Vancouver Canucks (Jacob Markstrom*) at Arizona Coyotes (Mike Smith), 8:00 PM
*Confirmed Starters
Injury News For Teams Playing Wednesday
St. Louis Blues
Kevin Shattenkirk, D - Shattenkirk (abdominal surgery) will not return to the Blues' lineup during their three-game road trip beginning Saturday in Minnesota, Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. (3/20/2015)
Carl Gunnarsson, D - Gunnarsson was removed from Saturday's game against the Wild after suffering an upper-body injury, Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. (3/21/2015)
Detroit Red Wings
Pavel Datsyuk, C - Datsyuk (lower body) will be reexamined by team doctors Saturday, MLive.com's Brendan Savage reports. (3/20/2015)
Johan Franzen, RW - Franzen (concussion) skated for a little bit Friday but left the ice before practice began, Ansar Khan of MLive reports. (3/13/2015)
Boston Bruins
David Krejci, C - Krejci (knee) wasn't on the ice for pregame warmups against the Panthers on Saturday and is not expected to play as a result. (3/21/2015)
Brett Connolly, RW - Connolly, who suffered a broken right index finger March 4, has resumed skating with the Bruins, the team's official site reports. (3/17/2015)
Dougie Hamilton, D - Hamilton will not return to the ice Saturday against the Panthers after suffering an undisclosed injury. (3/21/2015)
Tampa Bay Lightning
Cedric Paquette, C - Paquette (upper body) shed his no-contact jersey during Saturday's practice. "Maybe next week," coach Jon Cooper said, regarding a potential return date for Paquette. "He's not ready yet." (3/21/2015)
Braydon Coburn, D - Coburn (lower body) was placed on injured reserve Thursday, the NHL's official media site reports. (3/12/2015)
Anaheim Ducks
Tim Jackman, RW - Jackman (lower body) is expected to begin skating on his own back in Anaheim during the Ducks' upcoming five-game road trip, Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times reports. (3/20/2015)
New York Rangers
Kevin Klein, D - The Rangers announced Thursday that Klein will miss the next three-to-four weeks with an upper-body injury, Steve Zipay of Newsday reports. (3/12/2015)
Henrik Lundqvist, G - Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said he is unsure whether the birth of Lundqvist's child will affect the goaltender's timetable to return from a neck injury, Pat Leonard of the NY Daily News reports. (3/20/2015)
Martin St. Louis, RW - St. Louis will miss 10-14 days with a lower-body injury that he sustained Sunday against the Panthers. (3/16/2015)
Vancouver Canucks
Ryan Miller, G - Coach Willie Desjardins said Thursday that Miller (knee) has resumed skating without gear. (3/19/2015)
Brad Richardson, C - Richardson (ankle) has been ruled out for the Canucks' two-game road trip over the weekend. (3/20/2015)
Zack Kassian, RW - Kassian (back) has been ruled out for the Canucks' two-game road trip over the weekend. (3/20/2015)
Arizona Coyotes
Martin Erat, RW - Erat (upper body) will not play against the Penguins on Saturday, Sarah McLellan of The Arizona Republic reports. (3/21/2015)
Hot
Evgeny Kuznetsov, C – The young Russian arrived in the NHL last year to much fanfare as a top prospect. He acquitted himself reasonably well with nine points in 17 games down the stretch last year. For most of this season, the 22-year-old has struggled, although if you watched his play there were signs that he wasn't far away from making a bigger impact. His last seven games are a good example as he has three goals and six points while taking 22 shots. Kuznetsov seems entrenched as the Caps second line center, although his ice time and linemates remain somewhat limited. If you're looking for a flyer with really high upside, Kuznetsov is an interesting option.
Sean Monahan, C – When Monahan scored 22 goals as a rookie last year, there was a lot of speculation that he may not repeat that success since he posted a 15.7% shooting percentage on just 140 shots. This year Monahan has done a better job creating shots with 164 in 71 games, but surprisingly has had even more success finding the back of the net with 28 goals (a 17.1% shooting percentage). He has been on a tear recently with 10 points in nine games, including seven goals in that span. It's not clear that Monahan can keep up such high shooting percentages over multiple seasons, but he is still just 19-years-old so his production should be trending up over the coming years.
Cold
Keith Yandle, D – It must suck to be Keith Yandle sometimes. For years while he played in Arizona, despite being a top scoring defenseman, he was ripped for his defensive deficiencies and, in particular, for his plus/minus. Now I'm going to point out how little offense he has contributed since arriving to the Rangers in New York. Poor Keith Yandle. Nevertheless, it's a fact that he has registered just a lone goal in eight games with the Blueshirts, despite a plus-1 rating. Of greater concern to his fantasy owners, Yandle is coming up short in opportunities to contribute offensively – he is down more than four minutes of ice time overall, almost a minute of power play time, and his shots per game have been halved since the trade. There was an expectation that the move to New York would be a big boost to Yandle, but so far other than in plus/minus that hasn't been the case.
Pekka Rinne, G – Rinne appeared in this portion of the Sunday Daily Puck two weeks ago and in the intervening period he had three consecutive strong starts in which he allowed just one goal in each. Then he put up back-to-back stinkers with three goals allowed against Anaheim and four to Minnesota. You wonder if the Predators are riding the 32-year-old too hard considering that his save percentage is just .902 since February 24 and he came back very quickly from a knee injury earlier this season. For example, he started Saturday against Buffalo, which seemed like a game where he could have rested even though the Preds need to win as many games as they can right now to keep apace in the Central division. As good as he has been all year, his workload bears monitoring since he only played 24 games due to injury last year and his performance seems to be suffering.
Recommended Pickup
Ryan Spooner, C – Spooner was called up from AHL Providence a month ago to help the Bruins while David Krejci was hurt and has established himself as someone the Bruins need if they are going to hang onto a playoff spot. Heading into Saturday, the 23-year-old has 11 points in 18 games on the season and 11 points in 13 games since the call up. He had 26 points in 33 games for Providence, so he clearly has some offensive ability. In his time in the NHL, Spooner has managed 42 shots; good for 2.3 shots per game, which is a respectable rate and suggests his 11.9% shooting percentage isn't wildly optimistic. Bruins head coach Claude Julien said recently that Spooner would stay in the line up even after Krejci returns, so his ownership percentage (still in the single digits on some sites) should go up as you hit your fantasy stretch run.
