In Wednesday's article, I talked about Sam Bennett after he scored a goal in his last game. In regards to his future, I said "I still love him in dynasties and would like to trade for him if you’re out of the picture for this season. He’s still only 19 years old and should blossom sooner than later. I smell a sleeper post for him next year; I’m a sucker!" Well, apparently sooner was that night because Sam scored four goals on five shots, including a first period hat trick, in the 6-0 win over the Panthers. He was flying all over the ice and showed why he was a top pick in the draft. This is why I had him ranked so high going into the season. Now, it's only about finding consistency. It's hard to guess when that will happen but I still believe he's going to be a superstar in this league. Here's what else I saw the last two nights around the league:
It's been a while since I wrote a quick piece recapping the standings in the RCL and how things are shaping up. Now that we hit the halfway point, it's time to take another look and see how things are shaping up. Let's get right to it!
Before Tuesday night, in the past 25 Coyotes games, Max Domi had scored in exactly one game, a meeting with the Sabres on December 4th where he scored twice. I had a question in the comments in my Monday article about whether Domi was still worth holding in 12'ers and justifiably so. Well, Domi showed his upside and why he should be held in fantasy leagues scoring a hat trick on five shots in the 4-3 overtime win against the Oilers. With this one game, he's back on a 60 point pace ( ~25+35) and should be owned everywhere. In dynasty leagues, he's going to pay massive dividends going forward as the Coyotes are loaded with young talent and have a lot more coming led by Dylan Strome. Here's what else I saw the last two nights around the league:
Even by his lofty standards, Alex Ovechkin had quite the weekend. He went into the weekend with 497 career goals and managed to score two goals in both games he played to get 501. On Saturday, he scored the opening goal and then a coast to coast overtime winner to beat the Rangers 4-3 on his fifth shot of the game. On Sunday, he scored number 500 from his patented spot by the left hashmark and added 501 late to put the Capitals up 7-1. Here are the players who got to 500 goals faster than Ovechkin: Gretzky, Lemieux, Bossy, Hull. That's it. And those guys did it in an era where the game was wide open, not the dead era Ovechkin plays in now. I've said it before and people didn't agree in the comments but I still believe it; Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer in NHL history. Here's to hoping he sticks around because he has a decent shot to break Gretzky's record which would be incredible given the low goal scoring in this era plus he missed time for two lockouts. Here's what else happened around the league this weekend:
Coming into the season, I was all aboard the Dallas bandwagon. As far as their goalies went, I had Kari Lehtonen ranked behind their big free agent acquisition Antti Niemi but suggested owning both parts of the platoon since it looked be close to an even split in starts. Well, they both have been struggling lately but Lehtonen put an end to their recent run of poor form. He stopped 32 of 33 shots last night in the 2-1 shootout win over the Jets. Things can certainly change with goalies but in the short term, look for Lehtonen to start getting a higher percentage of the Dallas starts. His overall numbers aren't great outside of wins but that's mostly because of a couple horrendous starts. Here's what else I saw in a very low scoring Thursday around the league:
The biggest fantasy hockey news yesterday had nothing to do with the five games that were played. The Blue Jackets and Predators made a massive one for one swap with Ryan Johansen headed to Smashville while Seth Jones is going to Columbus. Both of these players should benefit from this trade. Jones is the easier case. He's going to play on the top pair, get more minutes (presumably including PP time) and if he's available in your league, I'd grab him for the upside that he has. Johansen makes out like a bandit here. He's been getting jerked around all over the lineup by Torts and now he gets to Nashville to center their first line. Peter Laviolette is known from playing his studs big minutes so Johansen's minutes could increase by close to 50% from where it's been under Torts. He should also get Filip Forsberg or James Neal (possibly both) on his wing to start so these guys get a bump in value as well. Look for Johansen to have a monster second half, Forsberg to keep up his current form to get close to last year's totals and for Neal to keep up his current rate. It might be tough to trade for Johansen because his owners have been hoping for this to happen but the other Predators make great trade targets as well. The departure of Jones should also benefit Ryan Ellis and he should be grabbed in all 12'ers as well. Here's what I saw in the games last night:
When you look at Zach Parise's totals for the season, they look like close to what you'd expect from him at the halfway point of the season; 14 goals and 11 assists. However, he missed 9 games so far this year so he's actually playing at a 40 goals, 30 assist pace after his second hat trick of the season Tuesday against the Blue Jackets. Parise is taking over 3.5 shots per game, has 4 GWG for those who play with that category and has been a great value where he was selected on a per game basis. Here's to hoping he stays healthy down the stretch because he's playing outstanding for the Wild. Here's what else I saw on Tuesday night:
Man, "Punch-Out!!" is an outstanding video game. I'm actually going to play it right now on my computer. Oh, alright, I'll write about Monday's hockey games for everyone and play later. I'll stick with the theme though. Tyson Barrie had a monster game on Monday night scoring two goals and two assists with five shots in the 4-1 win over the Kings. Last year, Barrie was one of 11 defenseman to have at least 50 points. Of those 11, 4 of those players have virtually no shot of getting back to 50 points; Barrie is one of the seven who can go back to back and is currently on pace to do so with 27 points in 36 games. Here are those seven names: Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns, P.K. Subban, John Carlson, Roman Josi, Kris Letang and Barrie. That's elite company and he is in line to repeat last year's stat line with a better shot rate. It's time to give him the credit he deserves. Here's a look at what else happened on a slow Monday night around the league:
To start the year, John Gibson was stuck in the AHL because the Ducks wanted to get him playing time. It took an injury to Fredrik Anderson for Gibson to start getting playing time and now Bruce Boudreau has realized that Gibson, their goalie of the future, is their present as well. On Thursday, Gibson had his second consecutive 1-0 win stopping all 21 shots against the Oilers. On Sunday, Gibson stopped 19 of 20 shots in the 4-1 win over the Jets. In 15 starts, Gibson has an absurd 1.63 GAA and a .932 save percentage. After an absolutely dreadful start, the Ducks are in a playoff spot thanks mostly to Gibson. Here's what else has happened around the league going back to the 31st of last year:
Before Wednesday, three of Cory Schneider's last four starts have been disappointing, especially factoring in for the opposition. Naturally, when he goes against one of the highest scoring teams in the league, he locks it down completely. Schneider had a 36 save shutout against the Senators on Wednesday night placing him in the top 10 in the NHL in wins, GAA and sv%. The Devils can thank Schneider for being in a playoff spot at the new year. Here's what else I saw on Wednesday night:
At the end of last season, we started to see flashes of Aleksander Barkov's potential. This season, he started to string games together until he went down with an injury. Since he's been back, he's been on a torrid pace culminating with two goals and an assist with four shots in the 3-1 win over the Canadiens Tuesday. The win extended the Panthers win streak to seven and put the Panthers in first place in the Atlantic Sasha now has four goals in the last two games and ten points in the last seven games putting him close to a point per game on the season. Not bad for somebody who can't drink in the U.S. for eight months. He's doing so much already that he's solidly in my top 20 in dynasty rankings and pushing the top 50 for the rest of the season despite the lack of penalty minutes. Here's what else I saw on a busy Tuesday night:
Going into Monday's game, Braden Holtby was 14-0-1 with a 1.85 GAA and .940 sv% in his last 16 starts. Naturally, he found a way to even improve on those on Monday as he stopped all 31 shots he faced in the 2-0 win over the Sabres, including an incredible point blank stop on Evander Kane to maintain the shutout in the final minute. At this point, he's running away with the Vezina Trophy and the only thing that will stop him from winning it is injury or himself. He's the clear cut #1 fantasy goalie and will have a shot at finishing as the #1 player in the player rater based on RCL categories. Here's what else I saw in last night's games:
