The first home game for the Vegas Golden Knights couldn’t have started any better. After an amazing pre-game ceremony, Vegas stormed out to four goals in the first period en route to winning 5-2 against the Coyotes. Here we are with Vegas sitting at 3-0. So do we have to change our expectations for the team? I’ll talk about it extensively with Reid tomorrow but I still believe they’ll be at the bottom of the league come April. That said, what an amazing start for a team in the wake of tragedy. For fantasy, I think there’s three guys I would own right now in standard 12’ers: Marc-Andre Fleury, James Neal and Nate Schmidt. There is still some downside for all of them but in the moment, just enjoy the ride. I can’t wait to be there next week to see a game in Vegas. Let’s take a look at what else happened on Tuesday night:
Sergei Bobrovsky – 37 saves on 38 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Hurricanes. Excellent start for Bob once again.
Sonny Milano – Two goals on three shots. That’s four goals in three games for the former first round pick. The minutes aren’t high enough for him to be a must-add but I’m not opposed to somebody grabbing him. At the least, Milano has played his way onto the streaming radar.
Scott Darling – 25 saves on 27 shots taking the loss. Tough break for Darling as Milano scored in overtime on a breakaway with 22 seconds left. Otherwise, we’d be looking at a great start. I still like him a ton for this year.
Carter Hutton – 32 saves on 33 shots in the 3-1 win over the Rangers. Man, the Blues deserve major props for starting 4-0 with all of the injuries they have. Hutton played very well tonight but in general, he’s worthy of streaming in quality matchups only.
Jaden Schwartz – Goal and an assist with three shots and two penalty minutes. Add in a +2 rating, 2 hits, 2 blocks and 2 faceoff wins and Schwartz stuffed the stat sheet tonight. The second line has been outstanding with Schwartz at the forefront. Keep using the man.
Mika Zibanejad – Goal on five shots. What a start to the year for Zibanejad who could be emerging into a true #1 center in real life and a top 100 fantasy player. He’s still available in over one-third of leagues so if you’re in one of those, grab him now with a lot of FAAB or top waiver priority.
Corey Crawford – 41 saves on 42 shots in the 3-1 win over the Canadiens. Crawford has been absolutely incredible in the first week of the season allowing only one goal in each of his first three starts. I still have some concern given how poor the defense is in front of him but Crawford is still a #1G.
Alex DeBrincat – Goal and an assist with two shots. Love him long term but the minutes are low right now (12 tonight, 11 on Monday in an OT game) so I’m only streaming DeBrincat in 12’ers.
Valtteri Filppula – Two goals on four shots. The minutes are solid but the was the first game Filppula did anything. The shots are quite poor in general so I leave Filppula for 16’ers and deeper only.
Shayne Gostisbehere – Two assists with three shots playing over 24 minutes. Ghost Bear has tallied five assists in the first four games making me look not so crazy for having him in my top 100 off a dreadful season.
Jakub Voracek – Two assists with five shots. Voracek just goes about his business hitting all of the categories. So much to like from a fantasy perspective.
Filip Forsberg – Two goals and an assist with four shots. Crazy game with Nashville going up 3-0, then Philly scoring 5 in a row only for the Predators to score three goals, two in the last 1:17, to win 6-5. Forsberg had a hand in all three third period goals including a beautiful power play goal with 36 seconds left. As I wrote in the preseason, I think Forsberg can take a step forward this year even past his normal 30+30.
P.K. Subban – Three assists with a shot and two PIM playing over 24 minutes. With Roman Josi missing the game last minute, Subban and Mattias Ekholm (2A, 2SOG) played massive minutes in all facets of the game. Ekholm can be a short term add and nice DFS play for cheap with Josi out while Subban should be a monster.
Scott Hartnell – Two goals on six shots and two PIM. He already has 3 goals and 18 PIM in 3 games so if you have any need for PIM and hits, Hartnell should be added. The minutes aren’t great but perhaps that allows him to play an even more physical game than usual.
Kevin Fiala – Two assists with a shot. Solid streamer and should be more eventually but at 21 years old off a serious injury, Fiala shouldn’t be owned outside of the deepest of leagues.
Mike Green – Two assists with three shots playing almost 26 minutes. He’s available in almost 50% of leagues and should be added immediately.
Anthony Mantha – Goal on four shots. He’s also available in almost 50% of leagues which is absolutely insane to me. Mantha is admittedly my man crush but I don’t think my top 100 ranking was a reach. Grab him now even in 10 man leagues.
John Klingberg – Goal and an assist with two shots. Like Gostisbehere, the bounce back seems real for Klingberg. He looked great like Dallas has despite starting 1-2.
Mattias Janmark – Goal and an assist with four shots. Janmark has played his way into being a solid streamer going forward.
Tyler Seguin – Goal on five shots with four penalty minutes. Boy, Seguin looks terrific. He is generating so much offensively right now that it feels extremely unlucky that he has 2 goals and 0 assists in the first three games.
Ben Bishop – 23 saves on 25 shots in the 4-2 win over Detroit. I’m glad the injury wasn’t serious because he’s positioned to carry Dallas and fantasy teams this year.
Henrik Sedin – Two assists with a shot. The minutes are way down compared to the past so I’m even less inclined to use him which I didn’t think was possible.
Jacob Markstrom – 40 saves on 42 shots in the 3-2 shootout loss to Ottawa. Two strong starts to open the year for Markstrom. There’s going to be plenty of ups and downs with this Canucks team so I’d be hesitant to use him outside of average or better matchups. For instance, playing him Thursday against Winnipeg would scare the hell out of me.
Craig Anderson – 26 saves on 28 shots earning the win. I’d be a bit scared to play him either at Calgary or at Edmonton later in the week depending on which game he starts. Until Karlsson gets back, I’d be scared to play Anderson. He’s been solid against two bottom end teams and gave up 5 to Washington so either Alberta team could potentially give Ottawa fits.
Antti Raanta – 2 saves on 5 shots in 6:15 before getting pulled. And we have an early leader in the clubhouse for worst start of the year! Honestly, this game was perfectly setup for Vegas to blitz the Coyotes and they did just that. I’m not overly concerned about Raanta going forward.
James Neal – Two goals on three shots. All of the goals belong to James Neal, apparently. He’s rolling right now and the only unfortunate thing is that Vegas has only one game in the next six days.
Marc-Andre Fleury – 31 saves on 33 shots. I doubt it’s possible but in standard leagues, I’d be looking to sell high on Fleury. His value is never going to be higher than it is right now. That said, Fleury should be owned everywhere while he’s a hot schmotato, I just think he remains in the “desperate for starts” category.
Wednesday Streamers:
Zach Hyman (5.1%) – He’s still on the first line so I’ll keep going back to the well if Hyman sticks there.
Riley Nash (0.2%) – This is contingent on Bergeron being out but Nash finished last game on the top line. He also received over 3 minutes of power play time so a matchup for Colorado should see Nash get his first point of the season.
Jesper Bratt (0.5%) – Bratt has started his career with two monster games. Toronto is playing wide open right now so I’m willing to take a shot on Bratt extending his point streak
That’s all for now guys. With a smaller slate, I will hold off on daily notes until Friday morning. That said, there will be content tomorrow as I’m recording a podcast with Reid later today. Look for that tomorrow morning; I’ll be sure to include streamers in that post as well. As always, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments below. Thanks for reading, take care!
