Being a short fantasy week, I definitely picked the right time to be on fire with my streamer picks. In the three days this week, there’s been a ton of goals from my streamers, including a hat trick. One of my streamers had two goals tonight but that wasn’t the best call. Andrei Vasilevskiy locked it down on Wednesday night stopping all 30 Maple Leafs shots leading the Lightning to a 1-0 victory. This season has been tough for Vasilevskiy compared to last season but this is the kind of game he’s capable of having; there’s a reason why he was a first round pick in a time where goalies rarely go in the first round. In dynasties, I’m a big fan. It’s only a matter of time before Tampa decides to move him or Ben Bishop. For the rest of the season in redrafts, he’s a top end streamer but won’t get enough starts to be a hold. Here’s what else I saw on the small slate:
Steven Stamkos – Goal on three shots. He’s starting to pick things up; I expect him to end the season top 5 in goals when all is said and done.
Claude Giroux – Two assists with a shot. The big boys led the way for the Flyers tonight as they upset the Caps. That’s nine points in his last seven games as the top line and power play unit is really doing damage for Philly.
Jakub Voracek – Two goals on five shots with two PIM. Your buy low chance on Voracek is completely out the window now. Expect his season half to be closer to last year than his first half of this season.
Wayne Simmonds – Assist with three shots. Life is still great on the first line.
Shayne Gostisbehere – Two assists with two shots. Man, this kid is good. 22 points in 29 games since his recall. What a beast.
Andre Burakovsky – Two goals on three shots. Another streamer having a big game, woot! The Caps play the first day after the All-Star break so hold him for at least that game, quite possibly longer.
Alex Ovechkin – Six shots on goal with two penalty minutes. He is sitting out of the All-Star game due to a “lower body injury” a.k.a the Caps want him to get extra rest so he must miss their first game out of the break. Sucks for his owners but remember it for next Tuesday.
Carter Hutton – 26 saves on 27 shots in the 2-1 win over the Flames. He’s been better than Pekka Rinne has been this year, albeit in only 8 games played. It’s clear that Rinne is going to get the majority of starts so Hutton should be left on the waiver wire.
Mattias Ekholm – Assist with two PIM. That’s five straight games with an assist with a goal also in that span. Grab him everywhere; the blockbuster trade for the next guy has really helped his value.
Ryan Johansen – Assist with two shots and two PIM. His owners are finally reaping the benefits from RyJo and I don’t expect him to slow down.
Shea Weber – Goal on three shots playing over 29 minutes. The power play points are incredible and salvaging his fantasy season. The shots are down and the penalty minutes have completely disappeared.
Mark Giordano – Goal on three shots. Despite his dreadful start, he’s back on pace for 55 points. Pretty remarkable with how bad the Flames were the first 6 weeks of the season.
Matt Duchene – Goal and an assist with three shots. He’s now tied for 7th in the league in goals after he was useless the first month of the season.
Gabriel Landeskog – Two shots on goal, two goals. It seems like he hasn’t done much this year and the shot rate has fallen off but the Kog now has 13+22 in 48 games with 48 PIM. There’s still a ton of value here and remarkably he’s still only 23 years old.
Nathan MacKinnon – Goal on two shots. It’s been an excellent bounceback year after his sophomore slump. The 20 year old is on pace to top 65 points with well over 3 shots per game.
Carl Soderberg – Two assists with a shot. Despite my dislike for his averageness across the board, he should be owned at this point. He’s on pace for over 40 assists which has a ton of value.
Jonathan Quick – 15 saves on 19 shots in the 4-3 loss to the Avs. Yikes. Another case of being due for a dud, I guess. Still no worries here.
Drew Doughty – Goal on three shots with two PIM. His offensive resurgence continues and Doughty is probably second in the Norris running right now. Unfortunately for him, he has no shot because of Erik Karlsson.
Dwight King – Goal and an assist with two shots. He had value in stretches last year but right now the minutes are scarce. Unless he gets a boost up the depth chart, I don’t see much changing.
Vincent Lecavalier – Assist with a shot. It’s nice when a guy getting a point is only your third best streamer. He’s played surprisingly well for the Kings and while I’m not owning him in 12’ers, he could continue to be a decent stream on short slates like tonight.
That’s all for now guys. With no games until next Tuesday, there won’t be any daily notes until Wednesday. Don’t worry though, there will be plenty of hockey coverage in the meantime! On Friday, Matt’s next article in his series will come out so be sure to give it a read. On Monday and Tuesday, I’ll be posting an article looking towards the rest of the season. My tentative plan is for Monday to be 10 things I like RoS and then Tuesday to be 10 things I don’t like, be it specific players, teams, etc. As always, feel free to ask any questions or post any comments below. If you have something specific you want to me to talk about in those articles for Monday and Tuesday, please let me know. I’m definitely open to some ideas for discussion points. Take care everyone!
