Not sure David Pastrnak even knows who Christopher Columbus is, but he sure dominated on his day Monday. Pastrnak won the game for the Bruins scoring all four goals on five shots. Two of those goals were on the power play, he chipped in two penalty minutes, and finished +1. I generally don’t like to lead off posts talking about superstars, but I feel obligated to give Pasta props for a four goal game. The top seven going into the season were pretty clear for me but who was eighth was a debate. I ultimately decided on Draisaitl but went with Pastrnak in the nine spot. So far, so good. Look for the Bruins top line to dominate on a nightly basis. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Carter Hutton – 25 save shutout in the 4-0 win over the Stars. Two takeaways here. One, the Sabres have earned every bit of this 5-0-1 start and both goalies should be used for the time being in fantasy. Hutton needs to be owned everywhere. Two, the Stars look absolutely horrendous from top to bottom. Granted, they looked bad to start last season as well, but their team looked lifeless on Monday.
Victor Olofsson – Goal and an assist. Not many guys have a better shot than Goaloffson as he’s tallied five power play goals already this season. Loving every minute of it having taken him with my last pick everywhere.
Jack Eichel – Two assists. He didn’t have a good game yet still found a way to get two assists. Pretty, pretty good.
Nazem Kadri – Goal and two assists with three shots. After a slow start, Kadri is starting to get on track with the Avs. I’m still buying Kadri as a huge bounce back candidate.
Mikko Rantanen – Goal and two assists. Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog each had two points playing over 23 minutes. The Avs are on fire to open the season and as expected, it starts with these three. So good in every facet of the game.
Alex Ovechkin – Goal and an assist with six shots and two PIM. Ovechkin has been himself in the early going with 5+2 and over four shots per game. He should get to 700 career goals by the end of the season which is remarkable in the era he’s played in.
Evgeny Kuznetsov – Two assists with three shots and two PIM. Kuz has had a point in every game this season. Too bad he had to miss the first three for his suspension.
Braden Holtby – 0 saves on 3 shots in 7:54 before getting pulled. Well, we have the early front runner for worst game of the season! It’s hard to have a 0 save game but Holtby managed to do so on Monday. I was lower on him than consensus and unless someone is trying to sell him very low, I’m not that interested in acquiring him.
Adam Henrique – Goal and an assist with four shots. The shot rate has been good through six games but considering his history, I’m not buying it. Henrique is a bottom end streamer at best.
Pavel Zacha – Goal and two assists. He took some shifts with Taylor Hall (1+1, 3 SOG) in this game and was rewarded with 18 minutes of ice time. I loved him in his draft year and Zacha is still only 22 years old so there could be something here. Just worth monitoring for now.
Brett Connolly – Two goals on three shots. Connolly has looked good on the second line for Florida making him a solid streamer.
Aaron Ekblad – Two assists with two shots playing 25:30. I’m liking Ekblad a bit more than expected for this season going forward with his usage under Q. Alternatively, I’m lower on Keith Yandle, who is clearly on the third pair right now. He’ll produce plenty on the power play, but Yandle’s ceiling is much lower than I thought since he’s playing more than 5 minutes less per night.
MacKenzie Weegar – Goal and an assist with two shots. Weegar has become a nice deep league option since he moved onto the first pair with Ekblad.
Brayden Schenn – Goal and an assist with two shots. Five game goal streak for Schenn who is paying early dividends on his contract extension.
Mathew Barzal – Goal and an assist with four shots. His late goal got the Isles into OT before he set up the winner. It’s been a slow start for Barzal but I’m a firm believer that he gets back to 70+ points.
Brock Nelson – Goal and an assist with two shots. Nelson is inching closer and closer to become a hold in 12’ers.
Alex Stalock – 26 save shutout in the 2-0 win over the Sens. Good for Stalock, but I have zero interest in using him going forward.
Craig Anderson – 33 saves on 34 shots as the tough luck loser. In good matchups, he’s a decent GPP dart in DFS because he can have big games like this. However, in season long leagues, he’s an easy pass.
Corey Crawford – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 3-1 win over the Oilers. Nice game from Crawford after two duds to start the year. He’s in a clear timeshare and I’m not loving either side of the tandem. I simply don’t trust the Blackhawks defensively.
Andrei Vasilevskiy – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 3-1 win over the Canadiens. Back to basics from Vasilevskiy who is as safe as it comes for fantasy hockey.
Steven Stamkos – Goal and an assist. Nikita Kucherov also had two points. We’ve come to expect dominance from these two and they’ve started off the season strong.
Morgan Rielly – Four assists with six shots and two PIM. I don’t see him getting particularly close to 20 goals again, but 50 assists are a near lock. AAGNOF!
Mitch Marner – Goal and two assists with three shots. Aurelius getting a second three point challenge pick correct! Too good.
Andreas Johnsson – Goal and an assist with three shots. Elite streamer but I’m not holding.
Nick Schmaltz – Goal and two assists with two PIM. He has a goal in three straight, but it’s frustrating to see Schmaltz play only 12 minutes in this game. Tocchet doesn’t appear to trust him when the team is ahead. Schmaltz is a solid streamer but that’s it.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Two assists with a shot. Meh, still not much of a fan of OEL for this season.
Christian Dvorak – Two goals. Bottom end streamer.
Mark Scheifele – Goal and an assist with five shots and two PIM. There’s only been one game where Scheifele didn’t have a point so far. I love to see the 11 shots on goal in the past 3 games for Scheifele.
Josh Morrissey – Two assists with five shots playing nearly 27 minutes. Morrissey should be excellent as long as Big Buff isn’t there. There’s 2D upside here for sure.
David Rittich – 21 saves on 22 shots in the 3-1 win over the Flyers. Doesn’t get much easier than that for Rittich. He’s the clear #1 in Calgary right now and while it’s not all good, it should average out to being a decent #2.
Thatcher Demko – 26 saves on 27 shots in the 5-1 win over the Red Wings. Granted, it is the Red Wings, but Demko’s first start was strong. Markstrom is out for the week so Demko will get the chance to build on this performance Thursday.
Alex Edler – Goal and two assists with three shots. The first PP unit killed Detroit on Tuesday. As long as Edler keeps that role, he’s going to be damn good for fantasy.
Brock Boeser – Three assists with two shots. Props to Matt for picking Brock in the three point challenge!
Elias Pettersson – Goal and two assists with three shots. After a slow start, that’s a point in three straight for Pettersson. I’d like to see more shots but that’s my only complaint.
J.T. Miller – Two goals on four shots and two PIM. Miller needs to be owned everywhere right now, plain and simple.
Kyle Turris – Goal and an assist with two shots. He’s showing some signs of life but Turris is only a bottom end streamer.
Ryan Ellis – Two assists with two shots. Great start for Ellis who is filling in Subban’s role admirably. Ellis could be a #2 by the end of the season, but I’d lean towards top end #3.
Petr Mrazek – 31 save shutout in the 2-0 win over the Kings. Despite being 4-0 now, this was Mrazek’s first very good game. Considering the strength of the team in front of him, he has a chance to be a top 10 goalie.
Jack Campbell – 21 saves on 22 shots as the tough luck loser. Can he just be the #1 over Quick at this point? Quick has absolutely nothing left in the tank.
Three Point Challenge: For those who aren’t familiar, for each Tuesday and Thursday of the season, you can make a pick in the comments section. That player needs to get 3+ points for you to win. You cannot take a player in the top 10 in points in the league. For the first month to six weeks of the season, we will use last season’s top 10 in points. That means no McDavid, Kucherov, Kane, Draisaitl, Crosby, Marchand, Gaudreau, MacKinnon, Stamkos, or Barkov. Feel free to make your pick any time before 7 PM EST on Thursday night. Aurelius is on top with 2 correct picks, with Fungazi and Matt on the board with one each. For Thursday, I am going to take Mark Stone in a revenge game against the Senators.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Friday morning recapping the action from the next two nights. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
