I have a question for everyone reading this. Is two 4 point games in a week good? That’s what Nikita Kucherov has done after Tampa’s blowout of the Islanders on Tuesday. Kucherov stuffed the stat sheet with two goals, two assists, five shots and two penalty minutes in the 6-1 win. That now puts him in a tie for second in the league in points with 12 in 9 games. Yeah, this kid is really good and at 23 years old, it’s only going to get better. That’s why he was 18th overall for me in the preseason and is a borderline top 10 player in dynasties. With his time on ice and the power of the Lightning offense, it’s going to be a great year for Kucherov owners. Let’s take a look at what happened around the league on Tuesday night before we close things out with Wednesday streamers.
Henrik Lundqvist – 35 save shutout against the Blues. With the quality of the Rangers depth and the fact that he’s a workhorse, The King stay The King! As if The Wire could be wrong… Man, what a show.
Chris Kreider – Two assists and five shots in his return from injury picking up exactly where he left off. I’m still trying to not buy in after he’s teased in the past but it’s getting extremely hard not to at this point.
Ryan McDonagh – Assist and two shots. Every game he gets an assist. Pretty good.
Rick Nash – Goal on three shots with two penalty minutes. Love his chances for a bounce back this year.
Jimmy Vesey – Goal and two assists with two shots. This is obviously much better than I expected from Vesey. I’d lean towards trying to sell high but he’s someone Reid and I will talk about for Thursday’s podcast as we break down this slate even further.
Jake Allen – 16 saves on 20 shots in 33 minutes before being pulled. The Rangers are a horrible matchup right now so this doesn’t concern me long term for Allen at all. As I said on Tuesday’s podcast, you probably should avoid goalies against the Rangers right now.
Sergei Bobrovsky – 36 saves on 38 shots in the 3-2 overtime win over the Stars. Bob looked like he was about to be a tough luck loser but the Jackets tied it with 16 seconds left before they won it early in overtime.
Nick Foligno – Goal on two shots with five penalty minutes. He needs to be owned everywhere right now.
Brandon Saad – Two assists and a shot. He’s hotter than a pistol right now!
Alexander Wennberg – Assist. When you need to stream assists or if you just need them on the bottom of your roster, here’s your guy to get.
Zach Werenski – Two assists. This kid is damn good already.
Jamie Benn – Assist and two shots. It’s been a slow start but the superstar but I don’t worry that he’ll break out soon enough.
John Klingberg – Assist with two shots. See Benn, Jamie.
Tyler Seguin – Goal on four shots. He’s been producing despite Benn’s slow start with 8 points in 9 games and almost 4 shots per game. Top notch stuff as expected.
Jason Spezza – Goal on four shots in his second game back. A lot of people have asked me about in the comments so to reiterate, I still have faith in Spezza.
Ryan Callahan – Assist with three shots and seventeen penalty minutes. Big Tom Callahan’s son started a fight after Jonathan Drouin was crushed by Calvin de Haan (assist, 10 PIM). Callahan is only useful for PIM at this point and if your league counts hits. I’ll be sure to talk about this hit with Reid because on one hand, de Haan hit Drouin in the head but on the other, I’m not sure it could have been avoided with Drouin dropping lower and putting his head down.
Valtteri Filppula – Goal and an assist with three shots. It’s pretty bottom end but Filppula is a decent streamer.
Victor Hedman – Two assists with two shots and two PIM. It’s been a slow start for Hedman, especially in the shot department, which is a bit worrisome for me. Only 13 shots in 10 games isn’t going to get it done.
Slater Koekkoek – Two assists for the former first round pick who was recently recalled. He doesn’t have a big enough role for a fantasy impact at the moment but Koekkoek is an amazing last name that I wanted to type. Koekkoek!
Steven Stamkos – Goal and an assist with seven shots. Tied with Kucherov and a few others with 12 points, Stammer also looks prime from a bounce back.
Thomas Greiss – 8 saves on 11 shots before being pulled in the first period. Yes, I told everyone to pick up Greiss and this game was a disaster but I’m still confident going forward. Greiss was pulled because the team in front of him was atrocious. They were taking dumb penalties which led to two of the goals and the Lightning thoroughly dominated. Jaroslav Halak didn’t do particularly well in relief either.
John Tavares – Assist and six shots. At least he was a bright spot in defeat.
Nazem Kadri – Two goals on six shots with 2 PIM. In the battle of #1 picks and other young superstars, it was the veteran Kadri who stole the show. That’s 5 points in the last 5 games with solid PIM for Kadri who I’m still a big fan of, especially in fantasy.
Frederik Andersen – 44 saves on 46 shots in the 3-2 OT win over Edmonton. That’s three strong starts in a row from Andersen after he struggled to make a save in the first few weeks. I’m still not a fan; he looks to be another guy to add to the high variance list.
Craig Anderson – 32 saves on 33 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Hurricanes. Anderson gave up a goal on his first shot before locking things down again. Ride the hot streak while you can.
Erik Karlsson – Assist with five shots. You needed to get me three points Erik! Still have to like what Karlsson has done in the first few weeks of the season.
Dion Phaneuf – Goal on four shots with two PIM. Nothing has changed with Dion, he’s a big PIM guy with solid shots, that’s about it.
Kyle Turris – Goal. Reid’s boy is looking better by the day. The minutes are excellent, I’d just like to see him shoot the puck more to get to top 100 status. Obviously he’s a clear hold though.
Cam Ward – 30 saves on 32 shots in the loss. Meh, his save percentage is still well under .900 and GAA well above 3. Pass.
Tuukka Rask – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 2-1 win over the Panthers. Is 6 goals against in 5 games good? Rask is looking like a bonafide #1 goalie again in the early going.
Brad Marchand – Goal with two PIM. The troll keeps chugging along.
Keith Yandle – Assist and four shots. I firmly believe that the breakout is coming soon.
Robin Lehner – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 2-1 win in Minnesota. Great win for the Sabres starting with Lehner in net. The team is heating up as is Lehner and he should be a decent #2 for the foreseeable future.
Ryan O’Reilly – Goal on five shots playing 23:27. Dude is a machine.
Johan Larsson – Goal on two shots; still a fan for him in deep leagues that count faceoffs.
Devan Dubnyk – 22 saves on 24 shots. He didn’t get four straight shutouts!? Bum!
Braden Holtby – 43 saves on 45 shots in the 3-2 win over the Jets. The Jets were outstanding this one but Holtby shut things down. Clear top 2 fantasy goalie.
John Carlson – Assist with three shots. Just like Yandle, I’m expecting the breakout sooner than later.
Marcus Johansson – 1+1 with 3 SOG. That’s three straight multi-point games for the red hot Johansson who needs to be owned everywhere.
Evgeny Kuznetsov – Two assists with a shot. It’s been a slow start for Kuznetsov, including in the non-points categories. He feels like a buy low to me if possible.
Joel Armia – Assist with four shots. Playing his way into a streamer and should be owned in any league with 16+ people, possibly 14.
Mark Scheifele – Goal on four shots with two PIM. His partner in crime, Blake Wheeler, had an assist with four shots. Each of them played over 22 minutes as well. I love the top six players for the Jets.
Brian Elliott – 17 saves on 21 shots in the 5-1 loss to the Blackhawks. Just as he starts to turn the corner, Elliott gets destroyed. Yes, it was a rough matchup, but these are the next 6 games for the Flames: @SJS, @LAK, @ANA, DAL, NYR, @MIN. It’s probably not getting better any time soon.
Artem Anisimov – Goal and an assist with four shots. Is leading the league in goals and points good? Because that’s what Anisimov is doing on the back of his 8 game point streak.
Artemi Panarin – Same line as Anisimov. Really starting to heat up as the Blackhawks top line is cruising.
Patrick Kane – Goal and two assists with four shots. Beast is going to beast from time to time. Nice call by Vic in the Three Point Challenge!
Tyler Motte – Goal on two shots. Motte is looking like a solid streamer right now.
Richard Panik – Assist and a shot. Still holding Panik at this point.
Corey Crawford – 33 saves on 34 shots earning the win. Crawford has fixed his overall numbers very quickly and as I said on Monday, your buy low window is gone.
Pekka Rinne – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 5-1 win over the Avalanche. The goal against was in the early going and it was laughably bad but Rinne locked things down afterwards. As I’ve said repeatedly, we don’t know what we are going to get from Rinne in any game. High variance doesn’t do it justice.
Filip Forsberg – Two assists. This game was incredibly encouraging to me from a Preds point of view; hopefully it’s not just because they played the Avs. Laviolette reunited the top line from last year which I think will go a long way. Anyways, I think really any of the Preds minus Rinne are quality buy low candidates.
Ryan Johansen – Goal and an assist with three shots. I might as well add the third wheel, James Neal, who had two assists and five shots on goal. I won’t repeat myself so apply what I said to Forsberg to these two.
Craig Smith – Two goals on four shots with two penalty minutes. He’s a decent streamer for goals but I don’t think anything more than that.
Mikkel Boedker – Goal on two shots. Despite the goal, I think you can safely drop Boedker in 12’ers at this point if you haven’t done so. He only has 2 goals in 10 games, 0 assists and the shots suck.
Brent Burns – Eleven shots on goal. Is 11 SOG good? Asking for a friend. Chewbacca is a machine who just repeatedly shoots at the goalie. It’s like he’s a pitching machine but for hockey.
Tomas Hertl – Two assists with three shots. He’s really heating up right now and if for some reason he’s available in your league, grab him.
Patrick Marleau – Goal on four shots with two PIM. He’s a decent option at the bottom of your roster if you need shots but I’d rather look elsewhere right now.
Louis Domingue – 39 saves on 41 shots in the 3-2 win over the Sharks. He’s another one of these goalies that takes you on a roller coaster. I’d rather look elsewhere but Domingue showed last season that he can get on hot streaks.
John Gibson – 30 save shutout in the 4-0 win over the Kings. Gets lit up against the Blue Jackets, shuts out the Kings. I really can’t make sense of the Ducks in the early going.
Ryan Getzlaf – Assist with five penalty minutes. Tons of fights in this game as things got out of hand. Despite only 1 goal, it’s been a very strong start to the season for Getzlaf.
Ryan Kesler – Goal and an assist with three shots. He’s been decent in the early going but it’s still nothing special.
Corey Perry – Two assists and two penalty minutes. No shots but he’s still well over 3 per game and with 8 points and solid PIM, Perry looks like his spot in the top 50 is on lock down.
Rickard Rakell – Goal and two assists with two shots. I think that was an above average first game of the season for Rakell. Just my opinion. He’s not a must own but I’d probably grab him where he’s available if the bottom of my roster was weak. If you don’t want to do that, Rakell is an elite streamer.
Antoine Vermette – Goal, assist and two shots. Meh, there’s not enough here at this point of Vermette’s career.
Peter Budaj – 12 saves on 16 shots through two periods before being pulled. Ughhhh, all of these goalies I’ve been saying to pick up had horrible Tuesdays! Despite this dud, I still like Budaj, at least in the short term.
Wednesday Streamers – There are only three games on the slate so streaming will be prevalent with limited options. Here’s what I’m looking at for tonight:
Travis Konecny (20%) – He’s stuck in the top 6 and the matchup with Detroit is a pretty good one on a night with poor matchups.
Scott Wilson (3.1%) – Wilson is on the first line right now with Sidney Crosby along with the second power play unit. With a point in 4 of the last 5 games, I like Wilson quite a bit against the Ducks tonight.
Andrew Shaw (12.5%) – I hate recommending this scumbag but he’s in the top six right now and Shaw can contribute in penalty minutes.
That’s all for now guys. I know I mentioned it before but Matt’s article is finally set to go up on the website. It’ll be up in the afternoon today so be sure to check that out! I’ll be back on Thursday with the latest podcast with my next set of daily notes coming on Friday. As always, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments below. Take care!
