For players that aren’t superstars, Cam Atkinson is among the best for having games that he completely dominates. He did that on Tuesday night, scoring a hat trick on seven shots and adding an assist in the 6-1 Flyers win over the Devils. Atkinson is pushing three shots per game with 12+7 in 27 games. He has eight points in the last seven games and is receiving more ice time since Yeo took over as the coach. That’s enough to make him a hold in all formats. Let’s take a look at what else happened on Tuesday night:
Rasmus Dahlin – Two goals on three shots. Dahlin was outstanding from the onset of the game. He’s on pace for around 15+35 and I can easily see him beating that in his current form. Could he finally be turning the player everyone expected when he was the top pick? As a Sabres fan, I certainly hope so.
Victor Olofsson – Two assists. I have Olofsson as an elite streamer because the shots have been down, but it’s close.
Tage Thompson – Two assists with five shots. Where I have Thompson, I’ve been stubborn as the chances have been there lately but it hasn’t turned into goals. It should turn eventually.
Pierre-Luc Dubois – Goal and an assist with three shots. Last season’s debacle is clearly a thing of the past. While I don’t expect Dubois to maintain a 40 goal pace, a new career high in points seems likely.
Valeri Nichushkin – Two goals on three shots. Big Val has managed to play his way into being a hold which I did not see coming.
Nazem Kadri – Two assists with a shot playing 20 minutes in his return to the lineup. If you didn’t realize he was coming off IR, make the move now and get him back in your lineup.
Nathan MacKinnon – Two assists with five shots. He’s been dominate lately but Mac hasn’t had the massive game. Sooner or later, he’s going to have a massive 4-5 point game.
Robin Lehner – 23 saves on 24 shots in the 4-1 win over the Bruins. Lehner has been good, but it hasn’t turned into quality stats because Vegas hasn’t been as good defensively as usual. I would try to buy low if possible.
Chandler Stephenson – Three assists with a shot. Mark Stone had two assists while Max Pacioretty had two goals on three shots. Stephenson has piled up the assists as he’s stuck on the first line. Stone is rounding into form while Patches has been the best player in the league on a per-game basis this season. Needless to say, this line is tearing up the competiton.
Carter Hart – 26 saves on 27 shots in the win. It’s been rough lately as the team transitions, but Hart’s save percentage is still solid. I’m bullish going forward.
Rasmus Ristolainen – Two assists with three shots and two PIM. It’ll take him getting power play time for Risto to be useful. That’s assuming your league doesn’t have hits; if it is does, you know he’s an animal.
Travis Sanheim – Goal and an assist with two shots. Like Risto, he’ll need PP time for him to be valuable in most formats.
Oskar Lindblom – Goal and an assist. He had two points in the previous 25 games. Pass.
Jonathan Drouin – Goal and an assist with three shots. Drouin has been decent, but right now, I don’t want anything to do with a single Canadien.
Evan Rodrigues – Goal and two assists playing over 22 minutes. It is remarkable that Rodrigues is doing this well in Pittsburgh. I saw him play terrible hockey in Buffalo for years. As long as he’s with Sidney Crosby (two assists, six shots), he’s an easy hold, and he can stay a hold even on the second line.
Drake Batherson – Goal and three assists with five shots. As games far as bizarre go, 8-2 Ottawa over Florida will probably be the weirdest outcome of the season. Sorry, Spencer Knight owners. Batherson is well above a point per game on the season as Ottawa’s first line continues to crush.
Josh Norris – Two goals and an assist with five shots and two PIM. I saw Norris as a player who would end up a second line center, and maybe that’s the case, but he looks fully capable as a first liner right now at 22 years old.
Connor Brown – Three assists with a shot. Decent streamer whose shot rate caps his ceiling.
Thomas Chabot – Two assists with three shots. He’s still piling up the assists and I’m still buying that the goals are going to start to come in if he keeps shooting this much.
Sam Reinhart – Goal and an assist. It took a while, but Reinhart is delivering on the lofty ranking I gave him. He has 5+5 in the last seven games.
Alex Nedeljkovic – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 2-1 win over the Islanders. It still bothers me that Detroit was able to get him for a third round pick. He’s won over half of his starts and while the GAA is high, the save percentage is solid. He looks like a middling #2 and long term, there’s a #1 here as Detroit continues to improve.
Vladimir Tarasenko – Goal and an assist with four shots. Pavel Buchnevich had two assists with two shots as the Russian trio with Barbashev is doing a lot of damage for the Blues. Great to see Tarasenko healthy while Buch has found another level.
Charlie Lindgren – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 4-1 win over the Stars. As I said Sunday night, Lindgren is better than the usual AHL goalie. He’s worth using until Binnington is back, which should be this weekend.
Jack Campbell – 35 saves on 36 shots in the 5-1 win over the Oilers. Nice to see Campbell bounce back after a rough stretch. They caught Edmonton at the right time.
Morgan Rielly – Goal and an assist with three shots. Rielly has been an easy hold all season, but he’s been in the best form of his past two seasons lately, which is great to see.
Ondrej Kase – Two assists with two shots. As long as he’s with Auston Matthews (two goals on four shots) and on the top PP unit, Kase is an elite streamer, if not a bottom end hold.
Eric Robinson – Two goals on three shots. Robinson’s speed is a consistent factor, but it’s hard to see him as anything more than a bottom end streamer, if even that.
Alexandre Texier – Two assists. I like Texier quite a bit, but he’s stuck on the fourth line right now. Even with that, he’s a middling streamer, but I really hope he gets an expanded role again soon.
Quinn Hughes – Three assists with three shots playing over 27 minutes. All your assists are belong to Hughes!
Tyler Myers – Two assists with six shots, three hits, and three blocks playing over 29 minutes. Yes, Poolman left the game entering COVID protocol, but Myers’ workload is insane since Bruce took over. He’s a must own in blocks leagues and otherwise is on the fringe.
Bo Horvat – Two goals on three shots. Dr. Bo is cutting up the competition once again! I feel pretty good about holding Horvat in all formats.
Chris Driedger – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 3-1 win over the Sharks. The Kraken goalies have both been horrible, but we’ve seen them be great before with the Panthers and Avalanche respectively. I want to believe that both will turn it around, but it’s obviously quite risky.
Calle Jarnkrok – Goal and an assist. Jarnkrok’s offense has apparently been left in Nashville. No thanks.
Three Point Challenge: We’ll be doing Thursday’s Games. You cannot select McDavid, Draisaitl, Ovechkin, Kadri, Matthews, Stamkos, Panarin, Aho, Huberedau, Connor, Kapirzov, and Tavares. I’ll go with Stone against the Devils.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Friday recapping the action from the last two nights. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
Perron was placed on ltir. Looks like another concussion. He missed 24 games the last time he had one. Are you still holding him or is it time to move on? This is a cap league and his salary at $4m was pretty economical vs the production. It was back dated so he eligible to return after missing a couple more games. No IR spot to work with so it makes it hard. Replacement value at that salary is a downgrade. The puzzling thing is that I thought he was close because stl didn’t place him on ltir earlier and played short players due to the no cap relief for covid rule. Thanks
more scary for him is that once he missed (like crosby did) over a year once with one of his concussions, and said after that 24 missed games that he “didn’t know how many more times he’d be able to deal with that”
There hasn’t been a timeline for his return, right? I know he was skating with the team four days ago, and I didn’t read anything about a setback. Obviously he’s out another week now, but I haven’t seen anything about when he could be back. My inclination would be to hold him through the XMas break on the hope of a better timeline on his return because he has to be quite valuable in that league format and cutting him would be rough. Let me know if I missed a timeline, but my cursory search on the internet didn’t show anything.
Hedman for the points
Sounds good Jeff!
Oh wow you couldn’t have been more right when you said you could do a lot worse then Lindgren right now! My streaming options last night for goalie was him/swayman and knight and I went with Lind. Good call homie! With the flames out I’m streaming goalies this week. My next target is Stolarz vs the Kraken and hopefully Arizona!
Thanks and I hope today is the best day of ur life! Haha
Hahaha thanks for that! Stolarz seems like a pretty good option whenever he gets the start… I loved the under in that Blues game yesterday, seemed lucky to even get to 5 goals. Thank god you faded Knight giving up 8!
Hey Viz how you feeeling ? i heard you were sick last week
I’m in the clear now Gerald thankfully. Had COVID and it sucked for a few days, but back to normal now / out of my 10 day quarantine. Appreciate you asking!
Viz, would you drop Marchessault, Oshie, or Pavelski for Atkinson?
Hmm, probably Oshie, but it’s close between him, Pavelski and Atkinson. Marchessault is the only slam dunk hold of that group with his shot rate plus goal, plus unlucky in assists.
Thanks, Viz! I’ll take Pasta vs NYI for the 3.
Sounds good!
Hey Viz,
Been busy with work lately. Didn’t hear about the covid. But happy to hear that you’re on the upswing.
Curious if you think that couturier is still a must hold? I really expected the usual solid numbers. Point per game or close to it. He’s been disappointing to say the least. Could drop him for Marchessault, Couture or R.Strome
Also considering dropping couturier so I can activate DeAngelo from the IL without dropping Faulk. Faulk has been so solid and I’m behind in games played with my dmen. At this point, I’m not sure if Couturier would even be picked up.
Thanks Gerald, appreciate it. Couturier and marchessault are close, depends what you’re looking for. I still prefer him to couture and Strome fairly easily. If you’re behind in D starts, it’s okay to let him go
Well I might just put my whole team on covid-ir and check back in 2 weeks..
Pacioretty for 3 pnt!
Yeah this is getting really brutal…. Sounds good!
Hey, Viz! What are your thoughts on COL @ NAS? I have both goalies (Kuemper and Saros) and need to choose one for tonight (my other starting goalie is Lehner @ NJ).
Thanks!
Depends what you’re looking for. I’d probably go Kuemper just because he’s likely to win, I just don’t want to play goalies against Colorado right now.
Thanks, Viz!
mackinnon @ NAS for 3 pt thurs.
at least i picked the right game here (forsberg)
Hi Viz, season’s greetings.
Best guess on what happens to the EDM goalies, for ROS, once Smith is activated?
Would you drop Koskenin now for either Francouz or Quick?
12 tm H2H pts
Always big THANKS!!
Hey Surfer Dude! My guess is Smith gets more of the starts, but they don’t push him too much unless they really have to. I think I’d cut him and grab Quick. Can’t believe I’m saying that, but Quick has played well enough that I’d make that swap.