I’ve talked a lot about the Senators so far this year and rightfully so; they have scored the third most goals in the league and play a wide open style that is conducive to fantasy hockey success for both their players and their opposition. One of the players in their top 6 who is quietly having a solid season is Mike Zibanejad. The 22 year old former 6th overall pick who won the Sweden the World Junior Championship had a goal and two assists last night in the 5-3 win over the Kings bringing his point total to 20 in 30 games. The Senators changed up their lines and put Zibanejad with my man crush Mike Hoffman (more on him later) and they both had a big game. He’s owned almost everywhere already but he’s a good target to trade for in dynasties or even redraft leagues if you’re short in assists. Here’s what else I saw on Monday’s five game slate:
Cam Talbot – 47 saves on 49 shots in the 3-2 OT win over the Bruins. In his first start in almost three weeks, Talbot looked like the goalie they called “Prince Cam” in New York instead of the one massively struggling in Edmonton. Anders Nilsson appears to have a strangehold on the job but perhaps this start will get Talbot another opportunity for some more starts.
Jordan Eberle – Goal and two assists with three shots. I’ve been talking about a hot streak for Eberle and here it is. He now has 4 goals and 3 assists in his last 5 games with 18 shots on goal. He’s too talented to struggle as bad as he was.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Goal and an assist with two shots. No surprise that RNH and Eberle have connected once again offensively. The emergence of Leon Draisaitl also will make things easier for the pair as they won’t always see the opposition’s shutdown line and pair.
Brad Marchand – Goal on nine shots with two PIM. People who drafted Marchand for his penalty minutes are getting quite the bonus. The troll is up to 15 goals now on the season.
Braden Holtby – 44 saves on 45 shots in the 4-1 win over Pittsburgh. Yep, best goalie in hockey right now.
Nicklas Backstrom – Goal and two assists with a shot. The shot rate is poor but man, everything else is amazing.
T.J. Oshie – Two goals and an assist with three shots and two PIM. He’s slowed down quite a bit and perhaps this game will prevent you from capitalizing on a buy low chance but I’d try to get Oshie in a trade if possible. He’s playing too many minutes with too many elite players to not turn his season around.
John Carlson – Goal and an assist with eight shots. The shot rate is coming up and he’s still piling up the assists. Glad I had him ranked higher than most places because I have a lot of Carlson stock this year.
Evgeni Malkin – Goal on four shots with two PIM. At least one of the Penguins studs is paying off so far this year.
Ben Bishop – 25 saves on 26 shots in the 2-1 win over Columbus. So much for Andrei Vasilevskiy cutting into Bishop’s workload. Bishop has grabbed full reigns on the starting job.
Jake Muzzin – Goal on two shots. Starting to pick up the pace and the minutes are there but the upside isn’t there barring an injury to Drew Doughty.
Milan Lucic – Two assists with a shot. Another case of the shot rate being poor but everything else is very solid. He’s at 10+10, +9 and 22 PIM at this point. I expect the PIM to take a big jump up too; it’s only a matter of time until he gets 17 in one game for doing something silly.
Jeff Carter – Assist and eight shots. Played a whopping 23 minutes in this game. If he starts pushing 20 minutes on a regular basis, the sky is the limit.
Erik Karlsson – Goal and an assist with two shots. The shot rate has fallen off drastically from its former elite level but nobody can complain with him being over a point per game.
Mike Hoffman – Two goals and an assist with three shots. Well hot damn. 17+13 in 27 games is just ridiculous. He’s even surpassed my lofty preseason expectations.
Chad Johnson – 32 saves on 33 shots in the 2-1 win over Detroit. Played well to keep the Sabres in the game and played out of this world to hold on to the victory at the end. He’s super streaky and still is splitting starts so I’d be in no rush to own him but if you want to gamble on a spot start, he’s a fine option.
Ryan O’Reilly – Goal on five shots and two PIM. That’s an eight game point streak for RoR, longest of his career. I said it yesterday but worth repeating; definitely setting a new career high in points this year.
Sam Reinhart – Assist and a shot. Own him.
Rasmus Ristolainen – Assist and a shot. I love it when I’m right!
Tuesday Streamers: Tuesday has a massive 11 game slate so I don’t expect much streaming going on but if you are, here are my top options:
Sam Reinhart (11.6%) – If you’re streaming on a slate like this, I like to be somebody who I can potentially hold. I’d hold Reinhart already but for those on the fence, he’s at the least a top notch stream playing big minutes on the first line for the Sabres.
Calle Jarnkrok (2.9%) – Going back to the well again on my streams. Jarnkrok is still on the first line playing massive minutes and goes against a defensively weak Flames team at home.
Patrick Eaves (0.0%) – This is more of a long shot for deeper leagues. Eaves had stretches last year where he played well and he appears to be getting a big chance tonight. He’s playing on the second line and more importantly, he looks to be getting a shot on the Stars’ lethal first power play unit. Going against a Columbus team on the second of a back to back without their elite goalie makes this even sweeter.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back tomorrow with a recap of all of tonight’s action. Be sure to check out Matt’s latest article that should be out this afternoon. As always, feel free to ask any questions and leave any comments below. Take care everyone!
