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Fantasy hockey is not above dualism. While we had a rough week in mid-November in which fantasy superstars were injured left, right and center, this past week seems to have made up for the negativity.We saw both Taylor Hall and Johnny Gaudreau return earlier than anticipated from their injuries, in addition to the return of Alexander Steen and Jack Eichel. Thats not to mention the return of less-heralded contributors Chris Kunitz and Bryan Little. Heres more on the fantasy impact of each respective players return:Hall returned to a team that had recently found a scoring line groove featuring Travis Zajac, Michael Cammalleri and Kyle Palmieri. That allowed Hall to play on a second line with Adam Henrique and P.A. Parenteau. Hall notched a goal and two assists -- including a helper on Cammalleris overtime winner -- as the Devils clawed their way back to beat the Nashville Predators on Saturday. These two line combinations look very friendly to fantasy owners and, outside of Hall and Palmieri, the four other forwards are available in 37 percent or more of ESPN leagues.Gaudreau returned with a flourish, and has given coach Glen Gulutzan plenty to think about going forward. In an effort to ease Gaudreau back into the lineup, he returned to the second line instead of the first. The result? The Flames exploded for eight goals against the Anaheim Ducks. Gaudreau looked inspired playing with Sam Bennett and Alex Chiasson. Including power-play points, the trio combined for eight points in the win. Meanwhile, Sean Monahan, Troy Brouwer and Kris Versteeg stayed involved, accounting for six points of their own. Perhaps the solution all along to the early-season doldrums of Gaudreau and Monahan was to separate them. Well have to wait to see if Gulutzan keeps them apart; if so, that changes how we view those other forwards in fantasy.Steen took off a couple of weeks with an undisclosed upper-body injury, which wed wager had something to do with his offseason shoulder surgery that originally came with a timetable for a December return. As we know, he returned in time for the start of the season -- the early end of his recovery schedule -- and struggled through the first month and a half of the campaign. Now two games back, Steen has four points and is flying on a line with Vladimir Tarasenko and Robby Fabbri. Heres hoping his return from an injury, coupled with a return to form, means hes healthy and back in business for fantasy owners.Eichel returned to the Sabres on Tuesday and had two points in his season debut. He followed it up with a two-goal performance on Thursday, before finally being silenced on Saturday against the Boston Bruins. Still, the quality performances in his return signal good times ahead for the fantasy owners. Sam Reinhart and Evander Kane are playing with Eichel at even strength, while Reinhart, Ryan OReilly and Kyle Okposo join him on the power play. That should give owners a good idea of who to consider while Eichel helps drive production for his teammates.Kunitz missed six games with a lower-body injury and was back on the ice Saturday with Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. His fantasy contributions may be muted while compared to a few seasons ago, but dont underestimate his periphery stats. Last season was far from a banner campaign for Kunitz, yet he finished among the top 100 fantasy skaters on the ESPN Player Rater. Hes available in 75 percent of ESPN leagues.Littles return gives the Winnipeg Jets a much more legitimate No. 1 and No. 2 center combination, assuming Mark Scheifeles injury is short term. When Little and Scheifele were in the lineup together briefly last week, it was Scheifele with fellow youngsters Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers, while Little was flanked by Blake Wheeler and Drew Stafford. With Scheifele out the past two games, Little is playing with Laine and Ehlers. The result has been four points in four games for Little. While he was drafted late (179.7 ADP), Little was drafted in most leagues for a reason. Hes now available in 60 percent of ESPN leagues following his extended absence.Forwards rising and fallingLeon Draisaitl, C, Edmonton Oilers (up 22 spots to No. 183): Our bad. It turns out that nobody should be declared dead to us for fantasy in an Oilers lineup that can move a player from third line to Connor McDavids side with the stroke of a pen. Draisaitl, who had quietly sunk into fantasy irrelevance for an entire months stretch from mid-October to mid-November, is back in business and racking up points next to McDavid on the top line. Weve seen a gamut of wingers move in and out of the plum spots next to McDavid, including Jordan Eberle, Milan Lucic, Patrick Maroon, Jesse Puljujarvi and now Draisaitl. If theres one takeaway, it would be that none of the wingers have quite as much value as you might first perceive, but they have more value than they might otherwise deserve. In other words, ride the hot hand and dont drop any of them just because they arent playing with McDavid right now.Josh Bailey, LW/RW, New York Islanders (up 18 spots to No. 218): Already coming on strong as John Tavares settled into a groove, Bailey has maintained his recent hot play as Brock Nelson settled in as the the third member of the top line. Bailey has seven points in the past seven games, including a goal and two helpers in the past three with Nelson at his side. Bailey can keep up respectable scoring numbers as a member of the top line, a status which will not be in question this season.Defensemen rising and fallingTorey Krug, D, Boston Bruins (up 22 spots to No. 97): Patience has paid off for Krug owners, with the Bruins top rearguard getting back down to business of late. Hes peeled off just shy of two-thirds of his points this season in the past eight games alone. We knew the dam would break for Krug eventually, as he has been playing all the important minutes and driving more than enough offense at the opposing net. Although teammate Patrice Bergeron still slides a bit on our rankings this week, we expect a similar turnaround for him sooner than later.Dougie Hamilton, D, Calgary Flames (up 25 spots to No. 164): Its been a little over three weeks since Hamilton switched defense partners and started playing with Mark Giordano on a regular basis. So its no coincidence that Hamilton is the No. 2 fantasy defenseman overall in the past 15 days. Playing more minutes, taking more shots and getting enough points to make a difference has Hamilton behind only Brent Burns on the ESPN Player Rater for the past 15 days among defensemen. Hamilton has been on a see-saw in our rankings this season, as we try to cling to hopes of a breakout campaign. His play in recent weeks may be indicative that the breakout will stick.Goaltenders rising and fallingCam Ward, G, Carolina Hurricanes (up 13 spots to No. 140): This run of exceptional ratios from Ward of late came as no surprise, as the Hurricanes were playing a dominant possession game against opponents since the start of the season. A little bad luck and a bad bounce here or there led to Ward struggling out of the gates. But after posting a 3.64 goals-against average in October, Ward just closed the books on a November with a 1.74 GAA. The goal support will be lacking for his wins column at times, but overall Ward makes a nice addition to your fantasy tandem -- and hes available in 60 percent of ESPN leagues.Steve Mason, G, Philadelphia Flyers (up 31 spots to No. 190): Masons numbers while Michal Neuvirth was healthy and competing with him for starts: a 2-5-2 record, with a 3.56 goals-against average and .874 save percentage. Masons numbers since Neuvirth was injured and hes had the crease all to himself: a 7-3-1 record, with a 2.14 GAA and .927 save percentage. Some guys are better being pushed, some guys are better when they know the job is theirs to keep. Put Mason in the latter camp, and get him on your fantasy rosters while Neuvirth remains out of the picture.Quick hitsWith Corey Crawford sidelined for up to three weeks, his owners should feel comfortable leaning on backup Scott Darling. The Chicago Blackhawks two losses this past weekend likely have more to do with missing Jonathan Toews than Darlings presence in the crease.Speaking of Toews, he hit the injured reserve with his back ailment, but it doesnt sound like hes expected to miss much beyond another week. Marian Hossa owners can bench him in shallower leagues until Toews returns.Rickard Rakell is on the shelf for the Anaheim Ducks, which means Nick Ritchie gets another run on the top line with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. If we get word that Rakell will miss more than a couple games, Ritchie becomes interesting as a short-term asset.The Los Angeles Kings are giving Marian Gaborik every opportunity to succeed, placing him on the top line with Anze Kopitar and Trevor Lewis. Gaborik has a couple of assists to show for his efforts in four games, and has 14 shots in the past three of those games. His ice time has also increased every outing and was at a nice 17:25 in Sundays matchup.Top 250 rankingsHere are the updated rest-of-season, top 250 rankings of forwards, defensemen and goalies, including position ranks.Note: Sean Allens top 250 players are ranked for their expected performance in ESPN standard leagues from this point on. ESPN standard stats include goals, assists, power-play points, shots on goal, plus/minus, penalty minutes and average time on ice for skaters, and wins, goals-against average and save percentage for goalies. Nike Shoes From China . Parker had 26 points and eight assists and San Antonio beat Toronto 112-99 Monday night. "We won that game because of Tony Parkers aggressiveness," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "His juice; his aggression all night long. Discount Nike Shoes From China . -- Bobby Ryan helped the U. https://www.nikeshoeschina.us/ . Ibaka equaled a career high with 20 rebounds, adding four blocked shots and 15 points as the Thunder smothered the Milwaukee Bucks offence in a 92-79 victory Saturday night. Nike Shoes China . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. Nike Shoes From China Online .C. -- Al Jefferson joked that he feels he can score from anywhere on the court. SUNRISE, Fla. -- Shane Harper waited a long time to score his first NHL goal. He liked the feeling so much, he scored a second one.Harper scored his first two NHL goals to lift the Florida Panthers over the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 on Saturday night.A pretty incredible feeling, said the 27-year-old rookie. Im just real excited to get that win, especially with some guys being out of the lineup right now with injuries. It just makes it even more important for everybody else to pick up some slack. Thats what were trying to do. That victory makes it so much better.Harper played in the minor leagues for the past seven years and notched 340 games in the AHL and sometimes wondered if he would ever get that first NHL goal.Theres times when you think like that for sure, Harper said. Ive been pretty confident in myself that it would come. I always thought I just needed to get my shot.Vincent Trocheck and Jonathan Marchessault each had a goal and an assist and Aaron Ekblad also scored a goal for the Panthers while Roberto Luongo made 26 saves.Matt Duchene and Blake Comeau scored goals for the Avalanche. Semyon Varlamov made 33 stops.The Panthers blew the game open in the third period as they scored three of four goals in a span of 2:26.Ahead 2-1, Marchessault skated in on a breakaway and fired the puck between the pads of Varlamov at 4:30 to make the score 3-1. Harper followed with his second goal of the game on a one-timer from in front to stretch the lead to 4-1.Duchene poked in a rebound past Luongo 16 seconds later to close the gap to 4-2.Trocheck slid a loose puck into the net at 6:56 to make the score 5-2 and shared in Harpers excitement.To see him, 27-years-old, finally get his first NHL goal and pop two in the same game, its definitely exciting to see that, Trocheck said.The Panthers took 17 shots and scored two goals in the second period.Florida had a 2-1 lead on the goal by Harper with 2:58 left in the second. Greg McKegg stole the puck from Duchene in the neutral zone and brrought it down the left side.dddddddddddd. McKegg passed to Harper in front and he poked the puck over the glove of Varmalov for his first goal.He found the back of the net twice and that was real good, Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. The kid played hard, he works hard and going hard to the net and you get rewarded.Colorado played a strong first period but faded in the second and third.Crucial mistakes at crucial times cost us. (It) was not good enough, Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said.Trailing 1-0, the Panthers evened the score at 1-all on the power-play when Ekblad took a feed from Jagr low in the left circle and one-timed the puck past Varlamov at 1:30. Ekblad recorded his first point of the season.Comeaus power-play goal gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 7:38 of the first. Tyson Barrie shot from the blue line and Comeau tipped the puck past Luongo on the glove side. The goal was the first the Panthers have allowed on the power-play in nine opportunities.A little bit of a roller coaster for us, I think, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. I like the way the game started, the first period, but we werent able to sustain it.A coachs challenge by Colorado overturned a goal by Jason Demers midway through the first. His slapper got past Varlamov but the officials ruled Vincent Trocheck was offsides before the shot.Colorado is coming off a four-game road trip and wont play until they host Winnipeg on Friday.We need a little rest to get ready for next weekend, Bednar said.Game notes Avalanche C John Mitchell missed the game with a lower-body injury. ... Panthers LW Jussi Jokinen missed the game with a knee injury. ... The Panthers entered the game as the only team in the NHL yet to allow a power-play goal but the streak ended in the first period.UP NEXT:Avalanche: Host Winnipeg Jets on Friday.Panthers: Visit Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. ' ' '