Wednesday night saw the first showdown between the first two picks of the 2016 NHL draft, Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine. It looked like Matthews was going to have the best of it when the Leafs were up 4-0 in the second period but then the Jets, led by Laine, turned things around to win 5-4 in overtime. Laine stole the show with his first career hat trick on five shots, including the tying goal with 55 seconds left and the overtime winner. He was moved up to the first line a couple games ago solidifying his minutes and has delivered ever since. I picked him as the better rookie for fantasy over Matthews (assist, seven shots) and still feel strongly about that. Laine is easily a top 100 player for this season and by next year, he's going to be a top 50 player and eventually a top 20 player. Every time he's on the ice, you can see the potential as an Ovechkin-lite. Let's take a look at everything that happened in the Wednesday and Thursday night games:
Hey everyone! Reid and I are back looking at the first week of the season with a focus on the last few days. We start by looking at the high scoring around the league and the teams that will keep playing in wide open games, the dire situation in Los Angeles, Connor McDavid going pointless for two games (bum!) and the ceilings for Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski. After that, we breakdown Thursday and Friday night's games looking at a few different things, namely whether they'll be high or low scoring, what players are worth targeting for streaming and who the best daily fantasy candidates are. All of that and more in the newest addition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast!
Everyone who reads this space knows my love for Brent Burns. His beard brings about a magisterial power that guides him on the ice. The Sharks played on Monday and Tuesday to open the week and their all-world defenseman delivered. In Monday's loss to the Rangers, Burns scored two goals and an assist with seven shots. He followed it up with 2 assists and three shots against the Islanders putting him in the early league lead for points. Burns and Erik Karlsson are in a class of their own right now among defensemen and should battle each other season for top dog status on the blue line. Here's what else I've seen around the league the last two nights:
We're back! After my damn computer froze almost an hour into our talk, Reid and I run through things a second time but a first for everyone else. We start off by taking a look at what has happened around the NHL in the first five days of the season. We talk about Auston Matthews' four goal debut, Richard Panik and Joe Colborne getting hat tricks, some other guys who have started strong and how goals have been plentiful in the early going. After recapping that and more, we take a look at the big picture in regards to streaming (Today's streamers below). Thanks to a commenter's suggestion (Thanks Man Of Steel and everyone, please keep the comments coming), we look at what teams we are looking to take players on, what teams we are looking to target players against and what teams we want to avoid streaming against. All of that and more in this week's addition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast:
In my season preview for the Chicago Blackhawks, I projected that Richard Panik would be the new player that slides into the Blackhawks' top 6. "Panik should get a chance in the top 6 because quite frankly, the Blackhawks don’t have anybody else. He could be a decent streamer but I can’t expect anything more from the 25 year old." And that's me quoting me doing what Grey does! In the long term for the season, I still think that'll be the case, but for now, Panik is must-own. After scoring in the season opener, Panik had an assist on Friday and came back with a hat trick on four shots on Saturday, both against the Predators. He's getting power play time right now and with 5 points in 3 games, Panik should be held for the time being as he rides the hot streak. Here's what else I saw this weekend around the NHL:
When players get interviewed before their first game, they always give the same boring mundane answers. "I'm focused on keeping things simple out there." "I'm just going to play my game," etc. They dream of scoring a goal in their first game. Well, Auston Matthews did just that in his first game. And then he did it again. And again, and again. The first overall pick from this year's draft became the first player in NHL history to score 4 goals in his debut, doing so on 6 shots playing 17:37 against the Senators. And the Leafs still lost! Man, they are horrible. Everyone is going to overreact to this game so I'll be the one to say that you need to lower expectations. Yes, there will be flashes from Matthews but like any rookie, consistency will come and go. He also won't get to play a team as hopeless defensively as the Senators are again any time soon. There's no doubting that Matthews will be a superstar but in the fantasy realm that we live in, don't think he's going to be a top 50 player this season or anything outlandish after one game. Here's what else happened around the league in the first two nights of the season:
Reid and I are back with our latest edition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast! This was recorded on Wednesday afternoon so we won't be talking about last night's game, that'll come early next week. Instead, we look at the latest injury news focusing on Jack Eichel. We even get an update mid-recording! We look at our favorite streamers for tonight's games, then look big picture around the league. We talk about what teams are the most confusing and difficult to peg in the NHL. Then we spend 5-10 minutes at the end talking about random things that either gave us a laugh or made us disgusted. We've ran out of things to talk about, thank God the season has started! All of that and more below:
The hockey season has finally started! With four games in the books, I'll wait until tomorrow night to recap them all instead of doing a very short post today that would mainly consist of gushing over Auston Matthews' debut. Instead, there is a podcast that will be posted in the afternoon (I'm editing it this morning) and then this post, something I've been excited to do for a while. I've mentioned repeatedly how poor the rankings are for the "big" websites so I'm going to review ESPN's final staff rankings. You can find them here to follow along. Yes, their rankings include time on ice but there is still a pile of things that are unexplainable. At the end of this post, I'll list the players who I am much higher or lower than consensus on plus some streamers for Thursday. Let's get to it!
We’ve made it! There’s four games on the slate tonight, all of which are rivalry games. And I don’t mean fake rivalries that NBCSN uses every Wednesday! I’m going to look at a few different things in this post. Please, blog, may I have some more?
Yes, this is still a hockey podcast despite the title! Reid joins me once again to discuss the latest news as we are on the eve of the season. Right as we are about to start the podcast, Sidney Crosby is diagnosed with a concussion so you get our analysis on the spot! We also look at Jonathan Huberdeau's injury and some other players who recently went down. We discuss all of the players holding out again (before Johnny Gaudreau and Nikita Kucherov signed), some rookies that made their respective teams and look at the impact of it all. Following last podcast, we look at our favorite over / under point totals for individual players and wrap it up with 10 minutes of random discussion. From the debate on Sunday night, the aftermath (all hail Kenneth Bone!) and the recent success of the Bills, I promise you'll get a laugh. All of that and more in the final episode before the NHL season begins!
Hey everyone! We are only two days away from the season starting and the preseason is in the books. Today, I'm going to take a quick look at all 30 teams in regards to lines, injuries and surprise players who may make the team. Players officially have to go down by Tuesday so there will be a little guess work on my part for the last couple guys to make the roster but at least for standard leagues, nearly everything is clear at this point. Let's get right to it!
Oh baby! Reid joins me once again for a monster of a podcast. First off, we open up by tying up some loose ends around the league from a fantasy perspective. We look at holdouts, recent injuries and then some young players who look to be cracking the NHL roster for the first time. After that, we take a look at the big picture for this coming season. We breakdown all 30 teams by predicting whether they go over or under their projected point total from Vegas and to what degree of confidence we have in our pick. Add in some bets for players to win individual trophies or teams to win the Stanley Cup and you have an excellent breakdown for you gamblers out there, or anyone who simply wants a team by team season preview. We even mention Obama talking about Phil Kessel and a moment I can't wait to happen at the White House, I promise you'll laugh! All of that and more in this episode of the Razzball Hockey Podcast:
