New Jersey Devils employees aren't having the best April Fool's Day.
The Devils mascot pulled off a cruel and unusual prank Saturday morning, setting up a net in the office elevator and then peppering unsuspecting co-workers with slap shots when they reached their destination.
Nylander led all members of the class with 14 points in 14 games last month, notching four goals in that span.
All of those points came during a 12-game streak that was the longest by a rookie in the club's 100-year history. It also tied for the longest point streak by anyone in the NHL in 2016-17.
The 20-year-old ranks second on the Leafs and third among rookies with 58 points. His 21 goals rank fourth both in the rookie class and on his team.
Kucherov earned first-star honors for leading the NHL with 22 points in 14 games.
Bobrovsky was named second star after going 9-1-1 with a 1.09 GAA, a .967 save percentage, and four shutouts in March, while Kane racked up 10 goals and 22 points of his own to secure the third star.
John Tavares is week to week with what the Islanders are calling a lower-body injury, the club announced Saturday.
He suffered the apparent leg injury in Friday's win over the New Jersey Devils when he went down behind the Devils' net and had to be helped off the ice late in the third period.
The Islanders captain played in every game this season before leaving Friday's contest, ranking second on the team with 28 goals and leading the squad with 66 points.
New York sits four points back of the Boston Bruins for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot, but both the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes are ahead of New York by virtue of points and games in hand.
Jarome Iginla is on fire for the Los Angeles Kings, but his rejuvenation likely won't be enough to get his new club into the playoffs.
The 39-year-old found the back of the net in his third straight game Friday night in a win over the Vancouver Canucks, but Iginla's longest scoring streak of the season can't do much to improve his new team's slim postseason hopes.
While the Kings - who acquired Iginla from the Colorado Avalanche on deadline day - have now won consecutive contests, they are eight points behind the Nashville Predators for the second Western Conference wild-card spot, and both clubs have five games left.
The Kings have a 0.4 percent chance to qualify for the postseason, according to Sports Club Stats.
Los Angeles' dwindling playoff aspirations haven't deterred Iginla, who has nearly equaled the goal-scoring output he produced in more than 60 games with the league-worst Avalanche before the deal.
2016-17
GP
G
A
P
Goals/Game
Shots/Game
S%
COL
61
8
10
18
0.13
1.97
6.7
LA
14
6
2
8
0.43
1.93
22.2
When the Kings landed Iginla on March 1, they were only a single point behind the St. Louis Blues for the second Western Conference wild-card spot.
But Los Angeles is 7-6-1 since the deadline, and some of their division and conference rivals have simply left them in the dust. The Anaheim Ducks went 10-2-2 in March, the Edmonton Oilers were 9-3-1, and the Blues have gone an NHL-best 11-2-2 since the calendar flipped on deadline day.
Iginla has had his share of memorable moments in his brief Kings tenure. He now has game-winning goals in back-to-back games, and he posted a Gordie Howe hat trick in what was possibly his final game in Calgary on Thursday.
The veteran winger was nominated for the Masterton Trophy last week (for enduring nearly three-quarters of a season with the Avalanche), and he capped a two-goal night with the overtime winner to beat the Predators earlier this month.
One man can't do it all, though, and despite his unexpected renaissance, the Kings clearly needed to do more than adding Iginla and goaltender Ben Bishop at the deadline.
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Here is a look at the Squad Up daily NHL fantasy picture for Saturday, April 1 (all advanced statistics courtesy of Corsica.Hockeyand apply to 5v5 situations):
Dynamic Duos
C Bryan Little (41K) and RW Patrik Laine (47K), Jets (vs. Senators): Playing together both on the power play and on Winnipeg's second line, Little and Laine have combined for just one point (a goal) in their last six games. Laine has pumped in 20 shots in that span, though, so he's unlucky to have scored just once. Both players are affordably-priced and should be aided by facing an Ottawa team without superstar defenseman Erik Karlsson.
LW Brad Marchand (68K) and D Torey Krug (42K), Bruins (vs. Panthers): The day's earliest game pits Marchand, the NHL's second-leading goal scorer, against third-string Panthers netminder Reto Berra, who has a 3.38 GAA in five appearances. C Patrice Bergeron (62K) doesn't offer great value, so power play specialist Krug gets the nod as Marchand's partner. Krug, perhaps coincidentally, has nine points in 10 day games this season.
C Elias Lindholm (47K) and Sebastian Aho (54K), Hurricanes (vs. Stars): Despite some better recent defensive efforts, Dallas still allows the third-most expected goals per 60 minutes and holds the fourth-worst GAA. Lindholm has been a reliable point producer, with at least an assist in 11 of his last 13 games. Linemate Aho managed 12 points in that stretch and is more of a threat to find the back of the net.
Goalie Breakdown
TARGET - Frederik Andersen (104K), Maple Leafs (at Red Wings): It can be a gamble to trust the occasionally erratic Maple Leafs, but they're on a roll, having won five of their last six games. Back from injury, Andersen has allowed more than two goals in just one of his last 11 appearances. He's a perfect 3-0-0 with a 1.96 GAA against Detroit this season.
BARGAIN - Carey Price (76K), Canadiens (at Lightning): Price enjoyed a stellar month of March, going 9-2-0 in 11 starts with a 1.81 GAA and a .941 save percentage. Even on the road against the high-powered Lightning, Price is hard to resist at a salary just above the minimum.
FADE - Reto Berra (94K), Panthers (at Bruins): The aforementioned Berra is priced higher than Bruins counterpart Tuukka Rask (89K) despite having allowed 10 goals over his two starts this season. The injury-riddled Panthers have lost three straight games and seven of their last eight road contests.
CONTRARIAN - Connor Hellebuyck (96K), Jets (vs. Senators): Ottawa lost 5-1 in Minnesota on Thursday, generating just 19 shots in goal without the injured Karlsson around to drive play. Karlsson is set to miss out again on Saturday. Hellebuyck has fared better at home this season, holding a 13-10-1 record through 27 starts, and goal support shouldn't be an issue.
Bargain Plays
C Rickard Rakell (34K), Ducks (at Oilers): Despite a team-leading 32 goals, Rakell isn't priced all that far above the minimum level. He's recorded at least one point in three of four previous meetings with Edmonton this season, and just completed a strong month of March in which he notched eight goals, five assists and 43 shots in 14 games.
D Radko Gudas (25K), Flyers (vs. Devils): It's a bonus that Gudas has scored a goal in two of his last three games, as his style of play is perfectly suited to Squad Up's scoring system. Gudas averages approximately eight combined hits, blocks and shots per game, providing a solid floor when he can't find the score sheet.
LW Philip Danault (25K), Canadiens (at Lightning): Despite his classification in Squad Up, Danault centers Montreal's first line of Max Pacioretty and Alexander Radulov. The role hasn't resulted in a windfall of offensive impact, but Danault did record seven points in 13 March games, and enters Saturday with a goal, an assist and seven shots in his last two outings.
Top Fades
C Claude Giroux (67K), Flyers (vs. Devils): Giroux rarely proved worthy of his premium price tag during Philadelphia's busy March, recording 11 points in 15 games and recording more than two shots on goal on just three occasions. A line shuffle in the wake of an injury to LW Matt Read may not ultimately benefit Giroux, as the pair had been playing together on the top line.
RW Nikita Kucherov (80K), Lightning (vs. Canadiens): Before sitting out Tampa Bay's last game due to illness, Kucherov had been scorching hot, recording five straight multi-point efforts. It's unclear whether he'll be healthy enough to return to the lineup, but at a salary only matched by Oilers C Connor McDavid, he's arguably too much of a risk at less than 100 percent against the strong form of the above-mentioned Price.
LW Thomas Vanek (41K), Panthers (at Bruins): Aside from a four-assist outburst in the middle of March, Vanek hasn't been much of a factor since being acquired at the trade deadline. The Austrian winger has found the score sheet in just five of his 15 games as a Panther, and has recorded no more than a single shot on goal in eight of his last nine contests.
Contrarian Options
LW Mike Cammalleri (36K), Devils (at Flyers): After missing nearly all of March with a shoulder injury, Cammalleri returned to the Devils' lineup on Friday, playing 13:38 and recording a shot on goal in a loss to the Islanders. For what it's worth, he has recorded three assists over two earlier meetings with Philadelphia, and the Flyers' goaltending has the fifth-worst 5-on-5 save percentage, increasing low-scoring New Jersey's hopes.
D Dion Phaneuf (28K), Senators (at Jets): Karlsson's injury is bad news for the Senators as a whole, but it's a positive for Phaneuf's potential fantasy impact. Phaneuf played over five minutes of power play time in Ottawa's last game, and while his best offensive days are behind him, 16 of his 30 points this season have come with the man advantage.
C Jason Spezza (38K), Stars (at Hurricanes): Spezza's even strength role fluctuates, but he maintains a steady presence on the power play. He hasn't recorded a point in three straight games, but was explosive in March, with four separate multi-point efforts. A matchup between two of the top 10 teams with the most expected goals allowed per 60 minutes looms as a high-scoring affair.
Some teams will try anything to get out of a slump, and the San Jose Sharks' late-season slide has Brent Burns pondering atypical healing methods.
"We know we're a great team. We gotta get back there. Who knows, we've gotta see a witch doctor or something," the star blue-liner told reporters after a 5-2 loss to the Calgary Flames on Friday night. "I don't know. We'll see."
The Sharks have lost eight of their last nine games, and Friday's defeat was San Jose's second in as many nights in Alberta following Thursday's 3-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
While this isn't the way last year's Western Conference champions want to play down the stretch, Burns doesn't think it's irreversible.
"Everything's fixable, I mean, we're a great team," he said. "We know it. We played like it for 68, 69 games, and (in) some of these games, we were playing well, too."
The Sharks have clinched a playoff berth, but they've also slipped to third place in the Pacific Division, with both the first-place Anaheim Ducks and the second-place Oilers now holding a game in hand.
San Jose plays the lowly Vancouver Canucks on Sunday and then again on Tuesday before closing out the regular season with rematches against the Oilers and Flames.
