Calgary has been quite a mess over the past two weeks since Mike Smith went down with a groin injury. The 7-3 loss to Vegas on Wednesday was close to rock bottom, even though they played a solid game through 45 minutes before falling apart. They started Thursday’s game with a change that was long overdue: removing Michael Ferland from the first line. Ferland has been brutal for a month now, not only in terms of scoring, but his overall play. Sam Bennett took his place and it paid immediate dividends. The 21 year old scored a goal and an assist in the first period, finishing with. We know that the upside is there so I don’t mind making a speculative add of Bennett to see how things develop. At the least, he’s an elite streamer in the short term. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Mark Stone – Two assists with a shot Wednesday, two assists with two shots on Thursday. Every time it’s the same thing with Stone, but can he get some love? He has 12 points in the last 8 games and is up to 54 points in 51 games.
Derick Brassard – Assist with three shots Wednesday, goal and an assist with two shots Thursday. With Brassard playing well, I’d own him right now, just in case he gets traded to somewhere that boosts his value e.g. Winnipeg.
Patrick Kane – Goal and an assist with five shots. With all the talk about Chicago missing the playoffs for the first time in a decade, Kane has been his usual self. His days of being a top 5 fantasy player appear to be over, but we should have a couple more years of being a top 20 forward.
Ryan Miller – 41 save shutout in the 2-0 win over the Stars. Shots were 41-17 Dallas in this game but Miller stole the show. Again, it doesn’t seem like Gibson’s injury is serious, but again, Miller is fine short term option.
Ryan Getzlaf – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. He had a brief cold stretch but Getzlaf is back to a point per game on the season. The shot rate is also around 2.3 per game, a big jump from last season when he was below 2.
Dougie Hamilton – Goal and an assist with four shots Wednesday, two assists with a shot Thursday. He’s hotter than hot, he’s hot hot!
Jon Gillies – 34 saves on 36 shots in the 5-2 win over the Coyotes. Granted, it was a much easier matchup, but Gillies fared much better than David Rittich, who was lit up by Vegas. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gillies gets the short term starts until Smith is back, for those who care.
Johnny Gaudreau – Assist Wednesday, goal and two assists with two shots and two PIM Thursday. This game gets Gaudreau back to second in the league in points. The shot rate jumping really helps Gaudreau’s fantasy value long term.
Mark Giordano – Two assists. Giordano remains solid enough everywhere that he’s a no-brainer hold, even though nothing looks particularly great.
Sean Monahan – Goal and an assist with three shots. The shot rate jumps all over the place which is frustrating for DFS, but the season long numbers are terrific.
David Perron – Two assists with a shot. Perron was fabulous in this game and could have easily had more points. I’m still not completely buying in but if you’re an owner, just hold on and enjoy.
Reilly Smith – Goal and an assist with two shots. Smith has 17 points in his last 12 games as the top line continues to steamroll everybody.
Ryan Carpenter – Goal and an assist with four shots. In deep leagues, Carpenter needs to be owned at the moment. The minutes are up quite a bit and he’s contributing enough across the board.
Alex Tuch – Gordie Howe hat trick. Tuch is up on the second line making him an elite streamer.
Alex Stalock – 38 saves on 40 shots in the 4-2 win over the Devils. The most important part was he almost scored a goal! Stalock is a solid streamer when he gets the nod.
Michael Grabner – Traded to the Devils. The first trade ever between the Rangers and the Devils, Grabner’s situation probably won’t change much barring PP time. I doubt he’s going to get it, so he remains a streamer. Much better get in real life for the Devils than a fantasy impact.
Claude Giroux – Goal and an assist with three shots. We might even see the best season of Giroux’s career, which is remarkable given where he was last season.
Shayne Gostisbehere – Two assists with three shots. Ghost Bear has 14 assists in his past 10 games getting him up to 39 on the season. Strong season across the board from Gostisbehere who has a great chance of finishing as a top 5 defenseman.
Petr Mrazek – 19 saves on 20 shots in the 2-1 win over the Blue Jackets. I opened Wednesday’s daily notes with Mrazek. Check that out here.
Mathew Barzal – Goal and two assists with four shots and two PIM. What was once a terrific Calder race has now turned into a landslide. So damn good.
Anthony Beauvillier – Two assists with two shots. His big heater has ended relegating Beauvillier back to a middling streamer.
Johan Larsson – Two assists, two shots, two PIM. I could see him being a useful streamer on a Saturday or Sunday in super deep leagues for PIM, hits and blocks. That’s about it.
Rasmus Ristolainen – Goal and an assist with three shots. Risto now has 20 points in his last 24 games erasing his dreadful start. The plus-minus is bad but everything else is solid or better.
Robin Lehner – 35 saves on 37 shots in the 3-2 OT win over Detroit. While I’m bailing on him for this season outside of good matchups (barring a trade), I remain bullish on Lehner going forward.
Tomas Plekanec – Goal and an assist with two shots. His days of fantasy relevance are beyond him, regardless of whether or not he is traded at the deadline.
Antti Niemi – 31 saves on 32 shots in the 3-1 win over the Rangers. Carey Price is out indefinitely with a concussion, but I have zero interest in using Niemi. He’s been okay in Montreal to this point, but it’s a small sample and he hasn’t been good in 4 years.
Vladislav Namestnikov – Goal and an assist with three shots. Cooper keeps shuffling lines, but Names is back with Kuch and Stammer. He’s been a hold regardless, but playing with those two alleviates any doubt.
Nikita Kucherov – Two assists with two shots. He’s already up to 80 points. Silliness.
Yanni Gourde – Two assists with two PIM. Coming off the radar at 26 years old, Gourde needs to be owned for the points and plus-minus despite the poor shot rate. I generally hate low shot rate guys, but Gourde has been so good everywhere else that you have to suck it up.
Andre Burakovsky – Goal and an assist with three shots. He still has a ways to go in order to get back to streamer level.
Roberto Luongo – 33 saves on 35 shots in the 3-2 win over the Capitals. Go check out his pregame speech if you haven’t seen it. Amazing stuff from Strombone. As mentioned in Wednesday’s recap, Boughner said Luongo will be the workhorse for the rest of the way, so grab him if he’s randomly available in your league.
Pekka Rinne – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 4-1 win over the Sharks. Win #300 in Rinne’s career as he continues the best fantasy season of his life.
P.K. Subban – Two assists with four shots. Love Subban when he’s rolling like this. True stud in all categories.
Nick Bonino – Goal and an assist with two shots. Fine in real life, useless in fantasy.
Roman Josi – Two assists with two shots. Three straight multi-point games for Josi. He’s a step behind Subban, but it isn’t much.
Calle Jarnkrok – Goal and an assist. He’ll have his stretches of being a decent streamer but now is not one of them for Jarnkrok.
Viktor Arvidsson – Goal and an assist with six shots and four PIM. Arvidsson is coming on strong in the second half giving him a chance to top last season’s 31+30. Not bad for a guy who had 8+8 in 56 games two seasons ago as a 5th round pick rookie.
Connor McDavid – Goal and an assist with eight shots. Add superlative here.
Leon Draisaitl – Goal and an assist with five shots. This was easily the goal of the night:
.@Drat_29 just became mayor of Danglestown. pic.twitter.com/pxMCKnr02a
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) February 23, 2018
And probably the assist of the night:
Unreal moves from @Drat_29 to set up @cmcdavid97's OT winner! pic.twitter.com/sWqRYKTO30
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) February 23, 2018
Waste to be wasting these two seasons, Edmonton.
Kari Lehtonen – 18 save shutout in the 2-0 win over the Kings. He’s been surprisingly very good this season after a few poor years in a row. Dallas is playing excellent hockey so I’d stream Lehtonen every time out until he slows down.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Monday recapping all of the weekend’s action. I will also have a live post going on Monday for the trade deadline, and a podcast to follow with Reid, so be sure to check that all out. Also take a look at LDOM’s piece on goaltenders. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Enjoy your weekend, take care!
