One of the best coaches of the past two decades finally received another chance. Bruce Boudreau was hired by the Canucks and promptly won his first game 4-0. Thatcher Demko had a 31 save shutout and looks to be the biggest beneficiary of the coaching change. Boudreau has always had a great defensive system that inflated the numbers of his goaltenders. Dubnyk was never that good of a goalie, but he was great in fantasy. Same goes with the Washington guys earlier, or the other Wild goaltenders. Demko has the chance to be a bottom end #1 now. I’d also expect the stars on the Canucks to start turning things around. I still think the roster is incredibly flawed, but this is a huge win for the Canucks in real life and for us in fantasy. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Monday’s Games
Devon Toews – Two assists with three shots. Toews is over a point per game and is a whopping +15 in 15 games. He looks like he’ll be a #2 for fantasy.
Mikko Rantanen – Two assists with three shots. On a night the Avs scored seven goals, very few guys had multiple points. Rantanen was the one star that did and should continue to be a top ten player going forward.
Claude Giroux – Two goals on three shots and two PIM. The coaching change didn’t help Philly defensively, but the offense was there. Giroux has been a pleasant surprise this season with close to a point per game and three shots per game.
Kevin Hayes – Two assists with a shot. The minutes weren’t there, but I expect them to ramp up for Hayes soonerthan later.
Drake Batherson – Goal and an assist, as did Brady Tkachuk. The Senators have been playing better hockey of late, and it starts with their first line. They’re all solid holds.
Sonny Milano – Goal and an assist with five shots playing over 22 minutes. Trevor Zegras dished two assists with three shots. Milano is an elite streamer at this point, and I don’t even mind holding him while he’s on fire. This top line is cruising, and their goal on Tuesday against Buffalo was absolutely ridiculous.
Alex Ovechkin – Two assists with seven shots. This is the best start to a season that Ovechkin has had in over a decade. Just remarkable that he’s playing this well at age 36 as nobody has played this well before at that age.
Braden Holtby – 18 saves on 19 shots in the 4-1 win over the Coyotes. Doesn’t get much easier than that. It’s hard to know who is going to start for the Stars on a regular basis, but Holtby is definitely worth owning.
Jamie Benn – Two goals and an assist with four shots. Obviously this kind of game is encouraging, but I can’t buy in until he does something against a non-Arizona team. Bottom end streamer.
Alex Radulov – Two assists. Same as Benn.
J.T. Miller – Goal and an assist, as did Brock Boeser. They’re together on the second line and second power play unit right now which makes them for a nice two man DFS stack. Miller is a slam dunk hold while Boeser is a bit on the fringe. I don’t mind holding / picking up Boeser on the hope that Boudreau sparks him.
Casey DeSmith – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 6-1 win over the Kraken. This was DeSmith’s first good start of the season, and he’s only played five times. He should be ignored as of now.
Jake Guentzel – Two goals and an assist. Guentzel is hotter than any player in the league right now. Absolute tear.
Danton Heinen – Goal and two assists with three shots. Heinen moved onto the second line with Jeff Carter (two goals on four shots) and Zucker, which bumps Heinen up to a solid streamer.
Tuesday’s Games
Anthony Stolarz – 25 save shutout in the 2-0 win over the Sabres. It’s crazy how many shutouts Stolarz gets. He’s a DFS option every time he starts and is a reasonable streamer as well.
Roman Josi – Goal and two assists with three shots. Josi is back to his Norris Trophy form crushing across the board.
Ryan Johansen – Goal and two assists with three shots. I have a hard time buying into Johansen, but he has 22 points in 25 games now. That alone puts him on the fringe despite a horrible shot rate.
Dante Fabbro – Goal and two assists with three shots. Fabbro hasn’t been great offensively to this point in his career, but Ekholm missed the game due to illness which gave him a boost. He could be a very short term option.
Nick Suzuki – Goal and an assist with two PIM. Montreal is decimated with injuries right now which gives Suzuki a lot of minutes. He’s still only fringe because he hasn’t played at last season’s level yet.
Anders Lee – Two goals. Lee has been very disappointing to this point in the season, but he’s still on the first line. I have him as an elite streamer that can end up a hold.
Scott Mayfield – Two assists with two shots and four PIM. Mayfield had two points the entire season before this game. Nothing to see here.
Kieffer Bellows – Goal and an assist. Bellows is barely receiving any minutes (he played 8 in this one.) No thanks.
Oliver Wahlstrom – Goal and an assist with three shots. I wish Wahlstrom was playing more, but he’s stuck as a middling streamer. At least he finally got his first assist of the season!
Alex Formenton – Goal and an assist. Formenton is standing out right now in his limited role. It makes me a bit excited about his future, but there’s nothing for now.
Oliver Bjorkstrand – Two goals on seven shots with two PIM. He had been ice cold, but Bjorkstrand’s season has been great so far. A Razzball favorite, Bjorkstrand is pushing towards a point per game and three shots per game.
Morgan Rielly – Four assists with four shots and two PIM. The shot rate is quite good, but Rielly has only three goals still. He could be due for some positive regression, and the assist rate is excellent.
Auston Matthews – Two goals and an assist with five shots. Fungazi does it again! Matthews has scored in seven straight now as he finds his form.
Carter Verhaeghe – Two assists with two shots. With Aleksander Barkov (goal, three shots) back, Verhaeghe moved back to his wing with Maxim Mamin (two assists and a shot). Verhaeghe is probably worth holding again, while Mamin is a middling streamer. Welcome to the Razzball Database Mamin!
Vladimir Tarasenko – Goal and an assist with four shots. Tarasenko has slowed down a bit lately, but he’s still a slam dunk hold because of his shot rate.
Pavel Buchnevich – Goal and an assist with five shots. Buch has been a godsend for the Blues this season. He’s absolutely crushing across the board for fantasy.
Ivan Barbashev – Two assists with two PIM. Barbashev has been much better than expected, but he’s only a middling streamer.
Jordan Kyrou – Two assists with two shots and two PIM. The shot rate has dropped off a bit, but Kyrou is still at a point per game. His speed makes an impact every game and the future is incredibly bright.
Nino Niederreiter – Two assists with a shot. While Nino is on the first line, he’s an elite streamer.
Jaccob Slavin – Goal and an assist with three shots. He’s getting top PP time right now even though he’s pretty bad as a PPQB. Slavin is a reasonable hold until TDA comes back.
Sebastian Aho – Goal and an assist with seven shots and two PIM. Aho is crushing across the board to solidify himself as a top 20 fantasy player.
Artemi Panarin – Two goals and two assists with four shots and two PIM. Panarin had seven points in the two games against the Blackhawks over the past four days. Revenge is a dish best served cold!
Ryan Reaves – Two assists with two shots. The Blackhawks should get an extra loss for letting Reaves get two points.
Cam Talbot – 38 saves on 39 shots in the 4-1 win over the Oilers. Another revenge game! Talbot has been very good so far this season. There’s no debate, he’s a solid #2 fantasy goalie.
Mats Zuccarello – Two assists with three shots. Godzuki is shooting the puck more and is over a point per game. Just amazing stuff. Simple hold.
Joel Eriksson Ek – Goal and an assist with four shots. JEE is right on the fringe; it comes down to team needs. He’s steady across the board so if you need balance, he’s your guy.
Tomas Hertl – Hat trick on five shots. Hertl has struggled for the most part this season, but after this game, he’s at 12+5 in 26 games. The goal rate is excellent, but obviously the assists are rough. He’s on the fringe coming down to team needs.
Logan Couture – Goal and two assists with three shots. Couture isn’t far off a point per game now. He’s back to being an easy hold, at least for now.
Brent Burns – Two assists with two shots. Burns cooled off quite a bit after a hot start, but I still think there’s enough here to be a bottom end hold.
Erik Karlsson – Goal and an assist with four shots and two PIM. I didn’t think Karlsson would get back to being a quality defenseman, but here we are. He’s also back on the top PP unit which puts him in bottom end #2 territory.
Alexander Barabanov – Two assists with a shot. He’s on the second line, but Barabanov hasn’t done much. He’s under a shot per game which makes him a bottom end streamer at best.
Three Point Challenge: Fungazi opens up a lead with two correct picks. We will do Thursday’s games, and the new top ten is Draisaitl, McDavid, Ovechkin, Kadri, Panarin, Huberdeau, Kaprizov, Stamkos, Matthews, Gaudreau, and Kuznetsov. Give me Marchand against the Oilers.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Friday recapping the action from the last two nights. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
