We’re down to the last two weeks (well, 1.5ish weeks) of the regular season, meaning we’re down to the nitty gritty of the NHL season. Doing a long weekend recap isn’t going to provide as much value to everyone as a look at this week’s schedule and how it affects our roster decisions. For that reason, I’m going to highlight the spots where you can gain an edge, specifically in head to head leagues, but also some advantageous spots for roto leagues as well. Let’s get to it!
A very strange quirk with this week’s schedule is that there are zero games on Friday. Very classic NHL move that is nonsensical. Sandwiched around that, there are 14 games on Thursday and 15 games on Saturday. We’ll talk about the teams that don’t play those days later, but given that you should have full lineups those days, our streaming focus turns to Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday (there are 11 games on Tuesday).
Here’s your schedule for Monday: Tampa @ Buffalo, Seattle @ Winnipeg, Chicago @ San Jose, and Nashville @ Los Angeles. On Wednesday, the Sabres visit the Rangers, the Sharks host the Oilers, and Toronto is home against the Capitals. That means that the two teams that play both of these days are the Sabres and Sharks, making them the best streaming candidates. For the Sabres, there are a ton of options. Josh Doan moved onto the first line last game and while he’s cold right now, he’s a viable option. Jason Zucker has been consistently solid all season. I think my favorite choice is Jack Quinn. Although he has struggled with teams like Tampa in the past, he’s been buzzing lately with 25 shots on goal in his last five games. With his PP1 time and his availability in over 90% of leagues, he’s a good option, especially for the Rangers game.
For San Jose, Alex Nedeljkovic has to be your goalie of choice to stream to start the week having a home game with Chicago. As far as their skaters, options are a bit more limited. Tyler Toffoli and William Eklund are available in about 50% of leagues but they probably wouldn’t be my first choices (this is assuming Sherwood is owned because of the hits). Alexander Wennberg has played extremely well lately and is getting PP1 time. Sure, the shot rate is poor, but give me the points boost early in the week. Also, for deep leagues or a high upside gamble, Igor Chernyshov has played on the first line lately. Michael Misa is also a viable gamble, although his minutes are quite low.
To go with this, the Rangers are the only team with two games this week, as everyone else has three or four. They play on this light day against the Sabres before playing the Stars on Saturday. You can cut all of your Rangers after Wednesday for players that finish the week with three games in four nights. Those teams are Calgary, Columbus, Montreal, New Jersey, the Islanders, Senators, Penguins, Mammoth, and Canucks. My favorite guy of thise group right now is Yegor Chinakhov, although Anthony Mantha is somehow available in almost 50% of leagues still despite reaching 30+30 on the season.
The teams that don’t play on Thursday are the Bruins, Oilers, Rangers, and Capitals. The Sabres and Ducks are off on Saturday. Additionally, the Sabres don’t play on Sunday either while the Ducks do. If you need to push, after Thursday’s game, you can cut any Sabre besides Thompson and Dahlin (plus UPL if you need the goalie help for the final few days).
The last four days next week have 10, 9, 6, and 6 games. The Sharks, Blues, and Jets finish the season with three games in four nights. There are a lot of teams that only have one game all week, with most of them ending on Tuesday (the Oilers actually end Monday while Ottawa ends Wednesday. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that if you have any moves left, cut all of these guys once their season is over. The Sharks are the only team that play next Wednesday and Thursday. The same streamers discussed above will get priority once again. Nedeljkovic could be a real difference maker given Askarov’s recent struggles.
If you have any other questions about your end of the season, please let me know in the comments section below. MarmosDad will have another post on Wednesday, while I will be back on Friday covering something else. So everyone knows, we both plan on writing through the end of the month. Next week, I will create a group for a bracket challenge for Razzballers to join. Once the regular season is over, I will review my bold predictions, what I got right and wrong this season and what can be learned from it, and the biggest storylines of the offseason from a fantasy hockey perspective. If you have any suggestions on things for me to cover, I’m more than willing to listen. Best of luck to everyone that is still fighting for their league title! Thanks for reading, take care!
