Colin Wilson was dialed in last night as he scored twice and added two assists to help the Nashville Predators knock off the Colorado Avalanche 6-4. Colorado got stopped in its effort to become the first 13-1 team in league history.
But I’m not buying Wilson and it’s easy to see why when you look at his season. It had been 11 games since his last goal in a 3-2 win over Minnesota on October 8. He had also gone five games without a point until this outburst. He’s barely owned in ESPN leagues so availability is there but I want him to be more consistent before I pick him up.
For some reason, Wilson reminds me a little of Jiri Tlusty of Carolina from last season. Tlusty would have these hot streaks and then go cold for six or seven games. I think Wilson is going to go this way but you have no idea if he’ll be hot for a while or this was a one-game aberration. The last time Wilson had a 2-2–4 night was against Edmonton last season…and he wound up getting hurt the next night against Minnesota and was done for the season.
Matt Duchene looks solid with his 10th goal of the season and a pair of assists in the loss while PA Parenteau, Paul Stasny and Ryan O’Reilly each bagged their fifth goals of the season.
Carter Hutton is still filling nicely for Pekka Rinne between the pipes for Nashville. He picked up the win in this game and is 4-1-1 this season. Keep an eye on how many goals he’s allowed 11 goals in his last three starts. At some point the Nashville offense will regress back to its usual ones and twos. When it does, Hutton’s going to be picking up losses quickly if he keeps playing like he has. They’re at Winnipeg Friday so Hutton should be a safe start.
Speaking of the Jets, they were shot down by Chicago 4-1. Chicago built a 4-0 lead on backup goaltender Al Montoya and Devin Setoguchi’s third-period goal broke up Corey Crawford‘s shutout bid. Winnipeg played without Evander Kane who was scratched with a lower body injury. The nature of the injury is unknown but it has cost him two games. Consider him day-to-day for now. Johnathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp all scored for Chicago so the usual suspects got the job done.
Adam Pardy of the Jets was put through the glass in the game. See it here. It has no relevance in fantasy, just fun to watch.
The Rangers bumped off the Penguins 5-1. Henrik Lundqvist‘s play of late has restored my confidence in him. He’s allowed just four goals in his last three starts and is 2-1 in those games. Use him with confidence now. Three weeks ago, I would have benched him but getting on home ice may have been the cure to those ills. The Rangers started the season with nine in a row on the road due to renovations at MSG. He’s 5-6 now but should start gaining more momentum and wins any time now.
Ryan Callahan scored and has points in consecutive games after missing time with a broken thumb. It looks encouraging for him and I’d be putting him in my lineup nightly.
For the Penguins, Evgeni Malkin picked up an assist on the Chris Kunitz goal. The assist is nice but, Geno, man, find the back of the net already! He’s got four assists in the last three games but has just three goals this season. He hasn’t found the net since October 17 against the Flyers. Nine games is more than long enough for a guy widely regarded as a top-five fantasy player. His three goals came in less than a week’s time. Geno, we need you to be streaky in the good way, not this way.
The Ducks stayed perfect at home with a 5-2 win over Phoenix. The Coyotes had a 2-1 lead before allowing the Ducks to score the final four goals of the game. Anaheim scored two power play goals which is significant after going 1-for-28 on their eight-game east coast road trip.
Nearly all of Anaheim’s offense has come from the forwards this season. Keep that in mind when setting lineups. Guys like Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf are going to light the lamp as they both did in the win but the blue liners have just been good for assists so far.
The Coyotes continue to be a nice surprise early on at 11-4-2 but they lost Radim Vrbata, the team’s leading scorer to a lower-body injury in the second period. Consider him day to day for now. It won’t slow down the Coyotes much since they have very balanced scoring. Which also makes it tough for us in fantasy to figure out which ones to play. Mike Smith and Jonas Hiller each made 24 saves in the game.
It’s a heavy night Thursday (all times ET all teams abbreviated)
FLA-BOS 7
MTL-OTT 7
NJ-PHI 7
MIN-WSH 7
NYI-CAR 7
NYR-CBJ 7
DAL-DET 730
EDM-TB 730
CGY-STL 8
BUF-LA 1030
VAN-SJ 1030
