Giving up five goals to St. Louis in the opener wasn't extremely concerning for the Penguins. But ten goals to Chicago in game two? I believe that qualifies as a mess. Obviously I'm not going to panic in regards to the Pittsburgh season outlook; I'd actually try to trade for Matt Murray if their owner is panicking. We'll have to wait a few weeks to develop a bigger sample size, especially because this spot was perfect for the Blackhawks, but maybe they're better than I gave them credit for. Let's take a look at the eight games from Thursday night and see what developed:
While the Razzball Hockey committee of one didn't love the Patrick Marleau contract, we did like Marleau for this season in fantasy. Like the majority of his teammates, his season debut went extremely well. Marleau scored twice in his first game as a Maple Leaf registering five shots on goal. His linemates were inconsistent but whether he's with Matthews or Kadri, it doesn't really matter. Marleau scored 27 goals last season and I don't see why he can't get back to that number. Despite ranking him as a top 150 player, he's still available in over 50% of ESPN leagues, so grab him now. Here's what else happened around the NHL on opening night:
It's opening night! After looking at some recent injuries, signings, and demotions, Reid and I finish our season preview by looking at the Western Conference over/unders and prop bets. Lines also came out for the Art Ross, Rocket Richard, Norris and Vezina Trophies so we look at all of the available options and pick some bets where we see fit. We close by previewing opening night along with a couple games from Thursday and Friday night. All of that and more in the latest edition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast!
One more day! One more day! This is my last writing post until the season starts besides including streamers in tomorrow's podcast. Can't wait. Let's put a bow on things by looking at the prospects from the three non-playoff teams in the Pacific Division along with the expansion Golden Knights:
It's finally opening week! The season starts Wednesday and I can not wait. I am going to set up some RCL's later today that draft tonight and Tuesday night so if you haven't joined a league yet, do so here. To wrap up my team previews, I'm going to look at the prospects in the Pacific Division. Let's get right to it!
Although this podcast isn't directly about fantasy hockey, it's one of my favorite of the year. Reid joins me as always to look at the over/under totals for every team in the Eastern Conference. We talk about each team, whether we like the over or under, and if we are confident enough to actually bet it. We also look at the division odds, Eastern Conference championship and Stanley Cup odds for the necessary teams along with prices for the Hart Trophy. All of that and more in the latest edition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast brought to you by LeagueSafe!
Use leaguesafe.com/razzhockey to get $10 added to your fantasy sports league's prize pool!
No need for an introduction here, the title says it all. For those who want commentary, use the rankings tab above. For guys who are outside of the top 200 (some are moving in), use this link. Here is my top 200 in one big list:
Hey everyone! With the season fast approaching, I'm going to put the team previews to the side and instead focus on the prospects. You can find my rankings under the banner at the top of the page and I'll have an updated top 200 on one page up on Wednesday morning. I'm going to cover the rest of the Central Division in this post and then have an entire post on Pacific Division prospects later in the week. Let's go team by team looking at their top few prospects and their fantasy potential:
Hey everyone! Instead of simply relisting all of my top 200, I'm going to go through the guys who are moving up or down my rankings in a significant fashion, be it for injury or otherwise. If people want me to post an updated top 200 list, I can do that for Monday, but it would simply be a list without details. This post is to give you details on these movements so to follow along, here are my Top 50, Top 100, Top 150, and Top 200. I will continually update this post until the start of the season to keep everything up to date. Here are the latest movers:
It's Reid's favorite episode when he gets to tear apart my rankings! We start off recapping all of the latest news, notably Anaheim and Ottawa, two Conference Finalists from a year ago, already being gutted by injuries. After that, the new rule changes are discussed and if there is any impact in fantasy. Then Reid gets his turn bringing up his biggest qualms with my rankings and I get to defend myself. At least he said I don't have anything as crazy as some of ESPN's rankings! All of that and more in the latest edition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast brought to you by League Safe!
You can get $10 added to your fantasy league's prizepool by going to leaguesafe.com/razzhockey
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Once you get outside of the top 200 overall, you're looking at the last 2-3 picks in a standard 12 man league. There are a few different ways you can go about making your last few picks. You can shoot for upside, get a couple safe players if you already have plenty of upside, fill out your last couple defensemen, grab a goalie out of desperation. I'm going to list a bunch of players in different categories that fall outside of my top 200 that you can target depending on what you're looking for. I'm not going to go into detail on these guys but I will put them in my order of preference. Here is my list:
SMASHVILLE brought itself onto the national scene making a run to the Stanley Cup Finals despite finishing 4th in the division. They were a couple questionable calls away from potentially winning a Cup in their first trip in franchise history. I'm not upset about it or anything, I only bet them to win the Cup in the preseason last year :/ Anyways, most of their team is back with a couple supplementary additions to help make another deep run. Let's take a look at what Peter Laviolette has to work with:
