On a Thursday night that lacked in big performances in comparison to recent weeks, Tyler Toffoli's night was probably the best. In the dominating 4-1 win over the Red Wings, Toffoli found the back of the net twice on three shots and added an assist with two penalty minutes. That brings Toffoli's totals to 7 goals and 12 assists in 29 games with almost three shots per game and an elite +14. It's a significant decrease in goals for a 23 year old who buried 31 last year. Toffoli was one of the most polarizing players in preseason, at least to me because I had him ranked much lower than other experts (97th overall, highest rank was 29th, nobody else lower than 69th). It's nice to see the assist rate and shot rate up and apparently he'll be able to post a +20 or better every season of his career but Toffoli will need more games like this where he finds the back of the net to come anywhere near his 59th overall ADP. Can it happen? With the minutes his line is getting and with how much the Kings depend on his line for offense, definitely. I'd be a bit surprised if it happened though because the goals will probably come at the expense of assists and the penalty minutes are non-existent. Toffoli is a great example of a player who is better in real life than fantasy. That's not to say he's a dud in fantasy, he's a top 100 player, but Toffoli should be mentioned among the best young snipers in the game more frequently than he is. Let's take a look at what else happened around the NHL on Wednesday and Thursday night:
Reid joins me once again to discuss the last few nights of hockey. We open things up with a big Razzball announcement; a meeting at spring training of the writers and readers! I give the current details to that; I'll be sure to update when I have then. Then we thoroughly recap all of the games on Monday and Tuesday. Highlights include the Penguins massacre of the Coyotes, the amazing story of Derek Ryan and the wild 8-6 affair in Carolina. From there, we preview all of the games on Thursday including some bargain basement plays for DFS and our Three Point Challenge Picks. All of that and more on the latest edition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast brought to you by Seatgeek, No Halftime and FanPicks!
Kyle Okposo is a player that tends to get overlooked despite becoming an elite scorer in the NHL. In his last 3 seasons with the Islanders, Okposo played well over a 60 point pace per 82 games including 2013-14 when he had 69 points in 71 games. Even now that he's in Buffalo, Okposo is still looked at as a complimentary piece even though he's a bonafide first liner. In Tuesday night's 6-3 win over the Kings, Okposo moved onto Jack Eichel's wing and immediately delivered with three assists and a shot. That gives Okposo 21 points in 27 games with elite power play points and strong shots. Yes, the penalty minutes have dried up for now, but with how well he possesses the puck plus his scoring prowess, Okposo is on his way to another 60+ point season. Even if the penalty minutes don't come back, he's looking at another top 100 overall fantasy season. Pretty, pretty good . Here's what else happened around the league the last two nights:
Hey everyone! Reid and I rundown the latest news around the NHL over the last 5 days. That includes some injuries (thankfully less than there has been), Montreal's thrashing of the Avalanche, Jakub Voracek's back to back four points, Brayden Schenn's hat trick, the potential revival of Evgeny Kuznetsov and much more! Then we do an extensive breakdown on goaltending. We look at the red hot Antti Raanta before we rank the top 10 goalies for the rest of the season. From there, we each give goalies that we are looking to buy low on and others that are sell high candidates. As always, we wrap things up with the Three Point Challenge. All of that and more on the newest edition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast!
Hey everyone! There hasn't been an RCL update since the NHL season has started so I thought it was necessary to fill everyone in on how the different RCL's are shaping up in the early going. We are looking at 5 different leagues, 4 of which are in the correct format and 1 that is a roto league because Reid messed up setting the league up! No worries though, that league will still be in the battle for the overall prize. Let's take a look at all of the action to this point:
I think most fantasy hockey players would agree that Antti Raanta is worth streaming every time he gets the start. The problem has been that Raanta rarely plays because he's behind one of the best goalies in the world, Henrik Lundqvist. A healthy Lundqvist never sat three games in a row while healthy. Until this weekend. After a game on Thursday, Vigneault turned to Raanta again and he posted a 26 save shutout in the 1-0 win over his former team in Chicago. To the surprise of everyone, Raanta started again on Sunday and posted another shutout, this time an easy 5-0 win over the Devils in which Raanta posted 19 saves. If you streamed Raanta on Sunday, hold him until Tuesday to see if he gets another game. This certainly isn't going to last, this is Lundqvist's team, but ride the hot wave while you can. At the least, Raanta is a must-stream every time he gets the nod. Let's take a look at everything else that happened over the weekend:
At this point in the season, we've seen a ton of players bounce back from poor years in 2015-16. There are a couple guys in the forefront and one of them is Jakub Voracek. He went from 81 points to 55 (only 11 goals) in part to a dreadful first 20 games. Well, the people that bet on a return to his previous status are reaping massive dividends in the early going. In the 6-5 win over the Oilers Tuesday night, Voracek scored a goal and three assists with five shots. He's now sitting on 28 points in 29 games; add in a 90 PIM and ~300 shot pace and Voracek looks like he's on the verge of being a top 25 player again. Given the quality of the Flyers power play unit and his linemates, I don't see Voracek slowing down. Shoutout to Veritas for picking him to get 3 points! Here's what else happened over the last two nights:
And we're back! As always, Reid joins me to take a look at what's developed around the league the last couple nights. We start off with a talk about the Thursday games we are looking forward, focusing mostly on the Jets, before doing our usual injury rundown. After that, we get to recaps of the last two nights with Pittsburgh's crazy 8-5 win over the Senators on Monday getting the focus before we touch on every game on Tuesday night. We conclude with more discussion of Thursday night's games including our Three Point Challenge picks. All of that and more in the latest edition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast!
There have been plenty of defensemen this season who have frustrated their owners due to lack of performance. A player who looked on the verge of a breakout after last season was Rasmus Ristolainen. The Sabres agreed with that take giving him a 5 year deal and early dividends were not there. Risto was accumulating assists but not much else. However, things are starting to change and it's no coincidence that it has occurred when Jack Eichel returned to the lineup. On Tuesday night, Ristolainen scored his first goal of the season, an amazing slapshot in overtime, and added two assists and three shots in the 4-3 OT win against the Oilers. That gives Ristolainen 1 goal and 6 assists in the 5 games with Eichel in the lineup. He played almost 30 minutes in each of the last two games showing how important he is to the Sabres depleted blue line and with how the top power play unit moves the puck, I expect Ristolainen to be a #2 defenseman the rest of the way with the upside to be a #1. Let's take a look at what else developed over the last two nights.
Reid and I are back and as always, we open by starting with the newest injuries around the league. Sadly, there were a bunch of them, including to Corey Crawford and Alex Galchenyuk. Johnny Gaudreau and Taylor Hall returned over the weekend so we break down the impact for both the Flames and the Devils respectively. Next, goalies become the focal point with Steve Mason, Mike Smith and Chad Johnson all on fire. After that, we both rank a set of players who have played their way into must-own status. Things wrap up with Reid and I picking players for both No Halftime and The Three Point Challenge. Be sure to join No Halftime with our promo code and to post your Three Point Challenge pick in the Razzball comments section. All of that and more on the latest edition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast!
When Johnny Gaudreau underwent surgery for his finger injury, the expectation was that he was going to miss six weeks. Flames fans and fantasy owners had to be thrilled when he came back on Sunday in less than three weeks. The team did surprisingly well in the 10 games Gaudreau missed, mostly due to Chad Johnson between the pipes, but they didn't score than 3 goals in any game during that stretch. That changed in a big way Sunday night against a strong Ducks team. The Flames scored a whopping 8 goals beating the Ducks 8-3 with Gaudreau scoring the opener and adding an assist later on. He was finally playing well before his injury so hopefully this is a sign of things to come. We know that he's a top end player but the impact of his return will be felt throughout the lineup. More on those guys later in the Sunday section, let's get to the games!
The general rule of thumb in these parts is when you score a hat trick, you're getting the lede. Vladimir Tarasenko was a clear first round pick this season (at least for me) and that's because of his consistency plus upside. Before Thursday night, Tarasenko was sitting at a point per game with elite shots. The penalty minutes have disappeared but overall, his owners had to be happy. Thursday night he showed his game to game upside scoring a hat trick and adding an assist in the 5-4 win over Tampa. After tonight, Tarasenko sits third in the league in goals and points. The scary thing is that he doesn't turn 25 for a couple weeks; we haven't seen his prime yet. Let's take a look at what else happened around the league the last two nights:
