A five-point night by Mike Richards on Thursday has capped an impressive nine-game run for the Philadelphia Flyers captain, and he's taking his linemates and their fantasy owners on a joyride.

But first, a recap of the frustration. From Dec. 18 to Jan. 15, Richards and Mike Knuble played in all of the team's 14 games. Richards had just seven points over that time, and was a minus-2. Knuble registered only five points and was also a minus-2. Simon Gagne also had a mere five points during that time and was a minus-3 while playing in 11 games.

Since then, Richards has gone on quite a tear, even before Thursday's career-best effort in a 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres. In his past nine games, starting with a Jan. 16 win against the Florida Panthers, Richards has 13 points, including two shorthanded goals, and a plus-9 rating. Knuble and Gagne, who apparently didn't catch the flu bug that knocked Richards and others out during the first week of February, have also improved during this time. Gagne has nearly doubled his productivity, registering 10 points in 12 games since Jan. 16 while also improving his plus-minus by seven. Knuble is right behind, with nine points and a three-point improvement in plus-minus.

Speaking to the Associated Press after Thursday's outburst, Richards was quick to lend support to the theory that personality does matter when developing lineups. "It's always nice to have that chemistry. I pretty much know where Gagne is going to be, and I think everyone in the building knows where Knuble is going to be."

Philly's four remaining games in February present disparate scoring opportunities, if you believe in using past matchups to project the future. On Saturday, the team will host the Pittsburgh Penguins in what will surely be a physical game. The teams have played four times this season, and twice the Pens have held the Flyers to just two goals while exploding for 10 goals combined in the other two. Tuesday, the team will travel to play the Washington Capitals, and they've scored eight goals combined in two games against Alex Ovechkin's crew. Next on the docket is a game against the Los Angeles Kings and Jonathan Quick, who held the Flyers to just one goal during an early January shootout loss. The Montreal Canadiens will be the final opponent of February, and the Flyers have solved the Habs' goalies just seven times over the course of three games.

While the top trio will continue to press forward and help to earn back the trust of their fantasy ownership, the return of Daniel Briere could also spark some offense for other Philly lines. Briere is still on track to resume his 2008-09 campaign Tuesday against the Caps, and likely will push either Claude Giroux or Darroll Powe to the press box. Briere's ownership in ESPN leagues dropped to around 60 percent while he was sitting out with a groin injury, and he will be a difference-maker for fantasy owners down the stretch if he can stay on the ice.

Ice Chips

Finally some good news out of Colorado: Center Paul Stastny should make his return sometime during the six-game road trip the team begins Friday night with a game against the Caps in Washington, according to the Denver Post. Stastny had 31 points in 34 games before breaking his forearm in December, and finished 2007-08 with 71 points in 66 games. … Kevin Weekes continue to help Lou Lamoriello out. With Martin Brodeur set to return to the ice within the next week, and Scott Clemmensen proving to be a quite capable backup, Lamoriello has probably begun shopping Weekes in the hopes of getting something in return for the veteran before the trade deadline. On Thursday, Weekes won his fifth straight game, and has surrendered only seven goals in that time. While Weekes' value goes away entirely if he remains in New Jersey, he could be a nice pickup for the stretch run depending on the amount of starts he gets wherever he lands. … A quintet of Carolina Hurricanes put pucks past Joey MacDonald as the visitors thumped the host New York Islanders 6-2. Eric Staal continues to pester his fantasy owners, scoring twice after playing a pointless game Tuesday against the Boston Bruins. He's been very hit-and-miss this season, and has five goose eggs in the points column over his past 10 games. There's no reason to think this will change, so Staal will continue to be a gamble on nights when you have other options. … Sergei Gonchar recorded his first goal of the season and skated nearly 23 minutes as the Penguins bested the Canadiens 5-4. Gonchar is still available in 19.4 percent of ESPN leagues, so quickly check your waiver wire. Whether or not the whole team gets itself back on track, Gonchar will be a top scoring defenseman from this point forward and will help the ice time category as well. … Tomas Plekanec seems to have responded to the punishment laid out to Alexei Kovalev. Plekanec had two goals and one assist against Pittsburgh, and going back to before Kovalev's demotion, he has seven points in the past four games. Maybe Kovalev's scapegoating has lit a fire under the rest of the team, and maybe owners in the 39.1 percent of ESPN leagues in which Plekanec is a free agent should take notice. … The newly-appointed top line for the Vancouver Canucks of Alexandre Burrows, Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin continues to impress. The trio accounted for nine points in Thursday's rout of the Ottawa Senators, and while the Sedin twins have been locked up since day one of the fantasy season, Burrows is still widely available. Burrows has six points in the five games he's played with the twins, and hasn't dropped off his penalty minutes either, with eight through that span. … Trade bait Nik Antropov had two goals Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets as he continues to aid Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke in his efforts to move the Khazak forward. Antropov has been historically streaky as a scorer, but his minus-12 rating will almost certainly improve if he is traded. … Cristobal Huet has made the most of Nikolai Khabibulin's lower body injury, going 3-1 in his past four starts, including a 31-save blanking of the Florida Panthers on Thursday. With the Bulin Wall's health a concern going forward, the Daily Herald's Tim Sassone thinks the team might be shopping him prior to the trade deadline, which would cement Huet's role as starter for Chicago, and help to push him back to the ranks of the elite fantasy goaltenders. … Andy McDonald is back and scoring at better than a point-per-game rate, folks. He shouldn't be owned in just more than one-third of leagues. … Atlanta Thrashers head coach John Anderson revamped the Little-White-Russian line -- all credit due to Sean Allen's Open Ice column for that moniker -- and put Ilya Kovalchuk alongside Bryan Little and Todd White. While the team lost in a shootout to the Phoenix Coyotes, the trio combined for five points, and if the line combo sticks, it provides a nice boost to Little's and White's fantasy values, both of which were in the gutter after a recent drop-off in production.