A vacation to New York City obliged me to write this week’s edition of Changing on the Fly Thursday instead of my customary Sunday. Planning on my normal Monday publication means I can’t make many solid recommendations so early in the week so here is something a little different. There are about eight weeks left until fantasy hockey playoffs (March 23 to April 11 for most), so I’ve decided to take a look ahead to the season end schedule and make some observations and recommendations.

These are mostly geared towards teams that are on a safe path to the playoffs; if you are battling it out for one of the last playoffs spots, you’ll probably have to look more for short-term solutions. We'll get back to those next week. To make things easy, we’ll use Yahoo!’s standard playoff schedule: Quarterfinals=Week 23 (March 23-29), Semifinals=Week 24 (March 30-April 5) and, Finals=Week 25 (April 6-11).

Finally, in case you are new here and missed quadruple take, heck, even Patrick Kane has 16 hits, and he’ll probably win the Lady Byng Trophy. Nevertheless, Keith and the Blackhawks play 11 games during the fantasy playoffs, and Keith should be a good source of production from the blueline.

With 7 goals and 23 assists so far this year, Keith is on a decent 0.61 points-per-game pace and should add 6-7 points over the course of the final three weeks. If you fail to acquire Keith, look no further than teammate Brent Seabrook for Plan B. Owning any Blackhawk would benefits any fantasy team.

Sell Nicklas Backstrom, C – Washington Capitals (3-4-2)

He might help you get there, but don’t expect a lot of help from Nicklas Backstrom in the final week of the season. The Capitals center has had yet another marvelous season to this point, producing 15 goals and 35 assists for 1.04 points per game.

Since the Caps have an extra game in the final week, the math is a little different than with Getzlaf, but the basic principle is the same.

1.04 points/game x 9 games / 11 potential games for a player on a team with a “good” schedule=0.85

Package Backstrom away and pick up a player that averages more than 0.85 points-per-game (and has 11 games) and you should come out ahead. Combine that with other pieces you could add in that type of deal and you’ve given yourself a boost.

Buy Bobby Ryan, LW/RW – Ottawa Senators (4-4-3)

Perhaps Bobby Ryan can’t spell “intense,” but we aren’t creating the US Olympic team here. Ryan has been somewhat of a disappointment since Brian Burke and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim drafted him second overall in the 2005 Entry Draft. Being a career 0.75 point-per-game player isn’t awful, but it isn’t first-round value in fantasy hockey or what a team would hope from a second-overall pick.

Ryan is actually right on his career track with 0.77 points per game this year, and as I mentioned earlier, mathematically would be equal to a Ryan Getzlaf or Claude Giroux in the final three weeks of the season because the Senators play 11 games (to just eight for the Ducks and Flyers). Ryan shouldn’t cost you the world to acquire but could help lead a fantasy team to victory late in the season.