Dose: Johnny Magic

Your humble column-narrator is doing some low-level traveling* right now, so this Dose is being written on a Chromebook (which is sadly far more efficient than a clunky-but-powerful laptop I normally write on, albeit with a cramp-inducing keyboard) with the aid of the kind of a gaming mouse that should be packaged with a T-shirt like this.

(Underrated thing I use a crazy amount: a decent notepad on Windows. It’s probably the lowest of the low-fi “apps” out there, yet every OS has its quirks, and I’m weirdly dependent upon it. So this Dose might have a slightly different tint to it …)

Anyway, to cut through some rambly clutter, I feel a little more limited in certain ways (and honestly, I think most hockey writers are still recovering from the trade deadline to some degree), so here’s that injury and suspension blurb early again:

For a full list of injuries (including Mark Giordano's season-ending bummer) and suspensions, click here. Go to Rotoworld's NHL page for breaking hockey news and more.

Let’s cut to the chase then, OK?

FLYERS 3, BLUES 1

-- Michael Raffl is heating up with a three-game point streak (two goals, two assists). This comes after a six-game drought, however. With just 20 points in 50 games despite often getting a plum assignment with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, I’m not so sure Raffl is worthy of a ton of praise (or a reprieve from low-level lottery puns), but I totally get why he is tempting. Giroux and Voracek are just flat-out menaces when pucks are bouncing in their favor, so their passenger gets to take the H.O.V. lane to the danger zone.**

-- Honestly, it is pretty tough for me to deny what Michael Del Zotto is doing right now, at least offensively. I know he is an easy target, yet it was pretty stunning to see a young player with some solid accomplishments get zero offers for most of the summer. (Maybe he could have gotten more attention if he convinced people he was “gritty,” as NHL teams still get seduced by that siren call.)

Getting back on track, MDZ has 18 points in 28 games in 2015 after managing eight in 25 to start the season. Del Zotto seems easily worth a look in deeper formats, especially since it doesn’t seem solely based on luck (he seems pretty safe to weigh in at three-or-so SOGs per night lately).

Long story short, this isn’t a “drop a good defenseman to get him” endorsement, but if you’re really scrounging, there’s a lot to like.

-- Alexander Steen, Alex Pietrangelo, David Backes and T.J. Oshie were all -3 in this one. Ouchies.

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FLAMES 4, BRUINS 3 (SO)

-- It feels like the other shoe should drop on Calgary’s magical top line - not because they lack the skill, but really just because it all seems too good to be true - yet they seem in every way legit. Last night was impressive, too, as each one of Sean Monahan, Jiri Hudler and Johnny Gaudreau got a goal (or more).

If you have NHL Center Ice or Gamecenter Live (switch the r’s and e’s if you’re in Canada), do yourself a favor and pop on a random Flames game for long enough to catch 2-3 of their shifts. I’d be flabbergasted if you regret watching them.

-- Dennis Wideman seems like a clear beneficiary of Mark Giordano’s enormous bummer of an injury. In the past three games, he’s hovered around 30 minutes of ice time, with Thursday being his magnum opus: 33:04 TOI, four shots and two assists. As much as I like T.J. Brodie this season from a value standpoint - he has been the Andrei Markov to Giordano’s P.K. Subban, only with ages reversed - Wideman might be the guy who goes to the moon here.

-- I almost wonder if Loui Eriksson is enjoying a rebound because he doesn’t have a Tyler Seguin boxscore to look at for a while.

Either way, he has a point in four of his last five games. That won’t satisfy everyone, yet that’s the kind of production Boston was hoping to see when they gave up a rare talent entering his prime.

ISLANDERS 4, PREDATORS 3

-- Look, I think the Eastern Conference is making strides in being less of a pushover, but one of the disturbing things about Nashville’s five-game losing streak is that the last four defeats came against The Lesser Conference.

-- Finding a common thread is difficult, aside from one uncomfortably red thumb sticking out: Pekka Rinne’s play.

The towering Finn is now on a four-game losing streak and only has one win in his last seven appearances for Nashville. At first blush, it does not seem to be related to his return from injury issues, as he had a five-game winning streak early on in his return. Perhaps he did aggravate something, though?

My guess is that he was playing so out of his mind that a lull was inevitable. If nothing else, it may benefit Nashville to hit a wall now instead of in a bit more than a month. (Now, if they’re still bashing their brains into bricks in mid-April, we may have a problem.)

-- Great all-around performance for Johnny Boychuk: two assists, +1, three SOG, four hits and three blocked shots. One thing that stood out to me while pondering his hot start with the Islanders was his versatility even in less of a lucrative role with Boston. Getting some nice peripherals helps to ease the sting of droughts that affect all but the cream of the defensive crop.

WILD 2, CAPITALS 1

-- Honestly, if it were Mike Yeo, I would only split up Jason Pominville and Zach Parise long enough to make them worry about being split up over the long haul. Minnesota seems to make big moves as often as a video-game GM these days, so they should have the depth to plug up holes and keep these two together when possible.

(I’m probably off base with this, but just saying.)

-- A rare missed game for Alex Ovechkin, who’s dealing with a lower-body injury. Maybe he’s just throwing the rest of the Maurice Richard Trophy field a bone?

-- Curtis Glencross scored his first goal and point as a member of the Capitals last night. His ice time has been pretty paltry, so unless Barry Trotz warms up to him a bit more, I’ll continue to be skeptical about how much of an impact he will make.

-- Devan Dubnyk seems to make a lot of people look bad or at least approachable. Braden Holtby (31-16-9), yet Dubnyk is even more efficient this season (26-8-3). Too bad Last Year Me didn’t realize DD would have a possibly-Vezina-finalist-caliber rebound a year after I felt really dumb being optimistic about the guy.

Jump for more recaps.

* - I think that a person’s impression of a place they’re visiting can be drastically impacted by the luck of the draw in the form of a hotel’s location … so I don’t want to totally bury the entire state of Maine just because my wife and I landed on what seems like a Vortex of Depression but … holy smokes, Maine. You made us a little sad.

(Then again, the vast majority of the shock resolved around our rare use of the phrase “It’s colder than Canada!”)

** - I don’t think this joke really works, but I have Loggins in my head. Sorry.

LIGHTNING 4, LEAFS 2

-- There was a while where it was pretty hard to make an argument that Steve Stamkos’ line was the best on Tampa Bay, even if few would deny that he was their best scorer. Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and NIkita Kucherov had been that good. As great as that trio is and has been, Stamkos, Alex Killorn and Ryan Callahan seem to be comfortable together, and now the Lightning have two functional first lines.

(Cuts to the rest of the NHL doing that “loosening the dress-shirt collar” hand motion.)

-- Vladislav Namestnikov (aka “Copy And Pastethisnamestnikov”) scored a goal after being called up today. Good for him … bad for those of us who have to sweat out that last name if he sticks around. As a first-rounder, he has the potential to haunt copy editors in the future.

-- Not sure what the timetable might be, but it sounds like Matt Carle may not be that far from getting back into the mix for the Lightning. Seems like it would be a crowded blueline for that bunch if Carle gets healthy, eh?

STARS 4, PANTHERS 3 (SO)

-- Nice to see Nick Bjugstad play last night, and get an assist for his troubles.

-- Getting 20 points in 65 games isn’t spectacular, obviously, but it’s the kind of return even many of Jason Demers’ proponents (I’m a modest backer, if you will) weren’t too confident about forecasting. He has one 34-point season and now three other 20+ points seasons at 26. Again, not the kind of numbers that would even get him a Patrik Elias-like filler All-Star bid, but respectable enough.

(I haven’t checked his possession numbers, mind you, so he could be a poor man’s MDZ for all I know …)

-- Is there something about this time of year that stokes Brandon Pirri’s fire? (His birth date reads April 10, so perhaps he just enjoys the end of winter, which may be approaching in some luckier parts of North America …) Whatever the explanation may be, he’s on a run, scoring four goals in as many contests.

-- Dan Ellis is experienced enough that I wouldn’t be shocked if he puts together a half-decent run. Then again, most teams probably have a “book” on him because he’s been around the block, too.

COYOTES 3, CANUCKS 2 (SO)

-- Woof, the tank has been strong in Arizona. The Coyotes broke a 10-game losing streak with a shootout win. They’ve now won just two of 14 and four games since February began. They may not finish last (or even second-to-last), but they’re probably more committed to not-committing-to-win than any team. Even the Buffalo Sabres have a coach who wants to prove that he deserves an NHL job, after all.

-- Bo Horvat had a nice string of performances not that long ago, yet now he hasn’t scored in five straight games. Even so, Vancouver has to be a little heartened that “The guy they drafted with the Cory Schneider pick” is already showing some flourishes of serious promise at just 19.

-- Doesn’t it feel like Mike Smith’s brief streak of competence was more recent? OK, some of his 10-straight losses were as much (or more) on the skaters in front of him, but the 32-year-old is having a truly atrocious season. Seriously, a 11-31-5 record with .891 save percentage is resoundingly awful. Those numbers don’t even seem real.

-- Even ignoring his age, it’s not that hard to sympathize with Shane Doan for being bitter about this tank-job. I think we often forget how violent and dangerous this sport can be. Imagine going through agony knowing that your front office and fans would be better off seeing you fail?

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 3 (SO)

-- The parallels between this season’s Canadiens and last year’s Avalanche are becoming a little uncomfortable. They both employ prickly French-Canadian coaches. Each team has some very nice young forwards and an elite goalie who rotate (or sometimes combine) to bail them out. They also keep winning despite some troubling possession stats.

The difference, to me, is that Montreal doesn’t come across as openly hostile to progressive ideas. Even Michel Therrien intermittently lets his best players play/etc. They seem like they can flip the “reasonable” switch on if they want.

That makes them frustrating in some ways, but I wonder if that also means that they can avoid the Avalanche’s first-round reality-check.

-- Seriously though, Los Angeles generated a 13-2 shot advantage in the first period, and some think it should have been 13-1. Montreal was fortunate to grab a standings point on Thursday.

-- Plus/minus is a garbage stat (hey, where’s the hysteria over Alex Ovechkin’s +12 mark?), but hey, a +36 is still appreciated from Max Pacioretty. The fact that he puts together a great well-rounded set of stats makes him a regularly underrated forward, though I think that “secret” will mostly be out after 2014-15.