Bergeron Hits A Milestone

Patrice Bergeron became the eighth active NHL’er to reach 1,000 career points on Monday, assisting on a Marchand goal in the 5-3 win over Tampa.  The best defensive forward for the last decade, Bergeron has long since been a lock for the Hall of Fame, but being the 94th player to ever reach 1,000 points puts him in truly elite company.  It sounds crazy to say that he’s underrated, but I do feel like his career is underrated.  He’s never been a top five player in the league, but he was close for an extended period, his line was consistently one of the best in the league, and if you could pick any skater to be on the ice with one minute left up one to save the planet, he’s the guy.  Congrats to this hockey wizard.  Let’s see what else happened on Monday night:

Nico Hischier – Three assists.  His dominant season continues.  Congrats to Jason for picking Hischier in the Three Point Challenge!

Jesper Bratt – Goal and an assist with two shots.  Hischier and Jack Hughes (two assists) get most of the credit, but Bratt is right there with them.  It can’t be overstated how good of a play driver he is.

Dawson Mercer – Goal and an assist with two shots.  I like Mercer’s game, but he’s stuck on the third line and I don’t see that changing.  That leaves him a middling streamer.

Blake Coleman – Goal and two assists with three shots.  Coleman used to have decent fantasy value with the Devils, but that has not translated to the Flames.  He’s a bottom end streamer, and a bit better in hits leagues.

Jake DeBrusk – Two assists with two shots.  I talked about DeBrusk in yesterday’s post, which you can see here.

Charlie McAvoy – Two assists.  McAvoy has been piling up the assists since returning from injury.  He should get back to being a bottom end #1 fantasy defenseman.

Nick Paul – Two goals on three shots.  Paul played over 19 minutes in this game as he was playing well.  He’s a decent streamer, but I’m generally not targeting him to stream.

Pat Maroon – Two assists with three shots.  And there’s your annual Maroon update!

Noah Dobson – Goal and an assist with four shots.  Dobson’s shot rate has him around the bottom end of #2 defensemen as expected.

Sebastian Aho – Three assists with two shots and two PIM.  Insane finish in Winnipeg as the Hurricanes scored three times with the goalie pulled to tie the game.  Aho is off to the best start of his career offensively.

Andrei Svechnikov – Goal and an assist with four shots.  His shooting percentage is going to regress, but Svech has been fantastic.  The minutes are so much better than in the past, which we’ve been begging for for a few years.

Pierre-Luc Dubois – Goal and two assists.  PLD is off to a very solid start, even with his linemates much worse than last season.  Big fan of his game and very interested to see what happens with him in the offseason given his contract situation.

Blake Wheeler – Two assists with a shot.  Wheeler is a solid streamer at this point of his career.

Josh Morrissey – Two goals.  Morrissey is really thriving under Bowness, to the point where he’s a borderline #2 defenseman.  The only thing holding him back is his shot rate, which is very far down from last season.

Jordan Binnington – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 3-1 win over the Ducks.  Binnington has allowed two goals or fewer in each of his last five starts.  This after allowing 3+ in the previous five games.  Enjoy the Binnington roller coaster!

Noel Acciari – Two goals on four shots.  Acciari randomly played 19 minutes in this game, and he has five points in the past four games.  It’s been three seasons since Acciari scored 20 goals, which is almost more goals than the rest of his career combined.  I’m not streaming yet, but it’s worth monitoring.

Nick Bjugstad – Two goals and an assist with three shots.  Nothing to really see here.  It’s a shame that Bjugstad’s career was derailed by a serious injury.  Hopefully he stays healthy and can get back on track.

Roman Josi – Goal and an assist with eight shots.  Josi played over 30 minutes in this game.  His shot rate is over four per game.  Do as the Roman does!

Mikael Granlund – Goal and an assist with three shots.  Granlund is a middling streamer for assists and PPP.  He used to shoot at a decent rate in Minnesota, but it’s been abysmal in Nashville.

Jason Robertson – Two goals on seven shots.  Twelve game point streak for Robertson, who has played his way into the discussion for being in the upper echelon of players in the NHL.  If he was playing 20 minutes per game like he should, we’d be looking at him in the McDavid/Draisaitl range in terms of points this season.  Absolute superstar.

Kappo Kahkonen – 37 saves on 38 shots in the 5-1 win over the Senators.  It’s been a rough go for Kahkonen so it was nice to see him have a great game.  He’s still a desperation streamer.

Luke Kunin – Three assists.  He’s trusted defensively, but isn’t in an offensive role to be anything other than a deep league streamer for being good in enough categories.

Logan Couture – Goal and an assist with five shots.  Four game goal streak for Couture, and six of seven with a goal.  He’s an elite streamer while he’s a hot schmotato.

Matt Benning – Two assists.  No.  Just no.

Alex Pietrangelo – Goal and two assists with four shots.  He’s been an absolute monster and I didn’t see it coming.  The coaching change has completely revitalized him.

Alec Martinez – Two assists with a shot.  Great for shot blocks and plus-minus, and nothing else.

Mark Stone – Goal and an assist with three shots.  It’s great to see Stone’s shot rate back up to where it was when he first got to Vegas.  He’s been fantastic.

William Carrier – Two goals on six shots.  Great fourth liner, which you know how much good that does for fantasy.

Jack Eichel – Two assists with four shots.  This is the best Eichel has looked since COVID shut down the league in 2020.

Quinn Hughes – Two assists with two shots.  All your assists are belong to Hughes!

Andrei Kuzmenko – Goal anda n assist with four shots.  Kuzmenko is back on the fringe between elite streamer and bottom end hold.  It depends on your league settings and what your team needs.

Three Point Challenge:  We will do Wednesday’s Games with the massive slate.  You can’t select McDavid, Draisaitl, Robertson, Pastrnak, Kucherov, Karlsson, Crosby, Rantanen, MacKinnon, or M. Tkachuk.  I’ll go with Panarin against the Ducks.

That’s all for now guys.  To be honest with you, with Thanksgiving on Thursday, I’m not sure when I’m going to be back posting.  I may have one post later in the week, but it might not be until Monday.  There will be a DFS piece on Saturday from MarmosDad so be on the lookout for that!  I’m going to be traveling on Wednesday and returning home Saturday, but as always, I’ll be sure to answer any questions below.  Thanks for reading, take care!