One of the goaltending performances of the season came in the marquee showdown on Tuesday. Toronto sure didn’t make it easy on Matt Murray, taking seven penalties, but Murray stood up to the challenge and then some. Murray had a 44 save shutout, leading Toronto to a 4-0 victory. I thought the Toronto goaltending would be rough this season, but Murray has been very good when on the ice. Same goes with Ilya Samsonov. It could fall apart just like it did for Campbell last season, but the reason I liked these guys as #2 goalies is their floor is so high because of wins. When Toronto gets this level of goaltending, it’s extremely hard to beat them. Here’s to hoping Murray can stay healthy because he could be a big difference maker in fantasy. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Monday’s Games
Paul Cotter – Two goals on three shots. Cotter has made a nice impression this season and is starting to carve out a bigger role. He’s becoming a deep league streamer for hits. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Shea Theodore – Two assists with four shots. Theodore has been one of the best defenseman in the league so far. In fantasy, it’s not quite that good, but he’s thriving in the short term with Pietrangelo out for personal reasons.
Brad Marchand – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Marchand has been his usual self crushing all of the categories across the board.
Jordan Kyrou – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Kyrou has been extremely productive, but his plus-minus is a complete disaster. I’m still holding, but it really needs to improve.
Vincent Trocheck – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Trocheck has cooled off quite a bit, but I’m still holding. He’s down to the fringe in general, but the shots/PIM/PPP/hits combo is enough to hold.
Artemi Panarin – Two assists. Even a disappointing season from Panarin has him over a point per game. The Rangers as a team are definitely on edge at the moment though.
Alexis Lafreniere – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Laf moved onto the top line during the game and delivered. He’s expected to start there tonight against Vegas as well. We’ll see what happens, but it’s definitely worth monitoring.
Alex Newhook – Two goals. Newhook is in line for a massive role now with Nathan MacKinnon out for about a month. I’ve never seen a team with worse injury luck than the Avalanche. Bednar doesn’t really have a choice besides playing Newhook with Rantanen. You can see the role for yourself against Boston tonight, but if you want to make a spec add, I don’t hate it.
Kevin Hayes – Two assists with seven shots and two PIM. Hayes is awfully close to matching last season’s point total in 22 less games. The plus-minus is rough, but it’s very good everywhere else, so make that decision based on your format and team needs.
Scott Laughton – Two assists with two shots. He’s getting huge minutes, but Laughton is only a bottom end streamer.
Travis Sanheim – Goal and an assist. Sanheim is on a nice run with a point in six of his last seven games. In leagues with blocks, he gets a big boost. Otherwise, I’d use him in 14’ers or deeper and 12’ers depending on your format.
Shayne Gostisbehere – Goal and an assist with two shots. Gostisbehere has found his offensive game in Arizona and the return of Jakob Chychrun (1+1, 2 PIM) hasn’t hurt him. As long as the plus-minus isn’t hurting you too badly, he’s an easy hold.
Nazem Kadri – Goal and two assists with two shots. Nice to see a big game from Kadri after a long cold streak. I expect him to get back on track along with most of the other Flames.
Jonathan Huberdeau – Two assists with two PIM. It’s been kind of a nightmare start in Alberta for Huberdeau, but I’d still be a bit tempted to buy low if possible. He has six points in the last five games and he’s too talented to stay below a point per game.
Nick Suzuki – Goal and an assist with two shots. Suzuki can’t shoot 27% forever. The goal rate is obviously unsustainable with this shot rate, but the assists are for real. I doubt you can sell that high, but I would consider it.
Jordan Harris – Two assists with a shot. Nothing to see here.
Elias Pettersson – Goal and two assists. The season we were hoping for from Pettersson is here.
Riley Stillman – Two assists with two shots. And there’s your annual Stillman update!
Ilya Mikheyev – Two goals on four shots. I was expecting a bit better from Mikheyev in Vancouver. He’s a solid streamer, but I don’t see him pushing past that unless there’s an injury or a trade or two.
Andrei Kuzmenko – Goal and an assist. Kuzmenko has proven to be very good offensively in his rookie season. He’s firmly on the fringe. If you need PPP, he’s nice for the bottom of your roster.
Tuesday’s Games
Vitek Vanecek – 24 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Blackhawks. Chicago really pressured Vanecek in the first before he was able to coast the last two periods. I didn’t see him being a #1 fantasy goalie this season, but here we are.
Dougie Hamilton – Goal and two assists with seven shots. As the President of the Dougie Hamilton fan club, it’s nice to see him back to the level we were accustomed to in Carolina. He’s a top 5 defenseman again.
Jack Hughes – Two assists with a shot. Hughes is already looking like a bargain on his contract extension. He’s coming into his own and he’s still only 21 years old. One of the most aesthetically pleasing players to watch in the league.
Anze Kopitar – Three assists with a shot. It’s on the fringe unless your league has faceoffs as a category. I would hold at the moment with Kopitar having ten points in the last seven games.
Kevin Fiala – Goal and an assist. Fiala is thriving once again back on the first line. I’d like to see an uptick in his shot rate, but the points are fantastic.
Viktor Arvidsson – Two goals on four shots. Arvidsson is a solid streamer, but it’s hard to see him topping that on the Kings.
Sean Durzi – Two assists. Durzi has a point in his last six games. He is a solid hold now, even though his plus-minus is worse than you’d expect.
Thomas Chabot – Goal and an assist. The Senators are a big disappointment, but their power play remains very good. Chabot is rolling again and should continue to do so.
Tim Stutzle – Two assists with five shots and two PIM. The plus-minus is getting kind of ugly, but it’s hard to complain when Stutzle is over a point per game.
Tristan Jarry – 38 saves on 39 shots in the 4-1 win over the Blue Jackets. Columbus scored exactly one minute into the game, but Jarry was fantastic after that. His GAA is much higher than last year despite almost an identical save percentage. Pitt is giving up a lot more chances, but I do think it will come down a bit. I like Jarry a lot going forward.
Sidney Crosby – Two goals on four shots. Crosby continues to dominate at 35 years old. Somehow, he’s getting overshadowed by the young guns, but Crosby remains in the top tier of the sport.
Bryan Rust – Goal and an assist. I’m fine with holding Rust or having him as an elite streamer. He’s starting to show signs of life so I lean towards holding.
Jake Guentzel – Two assists with five shots and two PIM. Guentzel might be the most unheralded superstar in the league. His playmaking is even up a notch this season while maintaining his 40+ goal pace.
Andrew Copp – Two assists with two shots. Copp is coming around offensively with nine points in his last nine games, but it’s still only a middling streamer for me. The shot rate is very poor after it was an asset last season.
Filip Hronek – Two assists. Hronek just won’t slow down. He has multiple points in six of his last eight games. I don’t expect this to continue, but just ride with it since I can’t see anyone buying high on Hronek.
Justin Faulk – Two assists. Faulk has been fine, but we could see an uptick in production with Torey Krug out for an unspecified amount of time.
Josh Leivo – Goal and an assist with five shots. Leivo bumped back up the lineup with Pavel Buchenvich out, who is also out for an unspecified amount of time. Leivo has had decent runs in the past but I want to see it again before I put him back on my streaming radar.
Noel Acciari – Two goals on three shots. We could be looking at another random year where Acciari scores a bunch of goals, but I still can’t bring myself to use him in fantasy.
Zach Parise – Goal and an assist with four shots. Parise has been better than I expected, but it’s still bottom end streamer territory.
Noah Dobson – Goal and an assist with five shots. The shot rate is elite for a defenseman and the points are slightly better than last season. Dobson remains a #2 in 12’ers.
Kyle Connor – Two goals and an assist with six shots. It’s no surprise that Connor is back on track. Expect him to play at his usual level, which is a borderline top 20 guy.
Pierre-Luc Dubois -Three assists with two shots. Dubois is having the best season of his career. PLD and Connor being reunited is great to see. Winnipeg is one of the most fascinating teams for me both for this season and in the offseason.
Auston Matthews – Goal and an assist with three shots. Matthews’ shooting percentage is getting back towards its usual level. Crazy to think that a 40 goal pace is unlucky, but that’s the level Matthews is at now.
Shane Wright – Goal on three shots. Fitting that Wright’s first career goal came against the team that passed on him at #1 overall. Wright was on fire in the AHL, and will be on his way to the WJC soon. I’m a big fan long term, but for redrafts, he’s not really on my radar at the moment.
Three Point Challenge: It’s a very strange NHL schedule this week with seven games tomorrow and five on Thursday. I’m going to allow people to pick a player on either Wednesday or Thursday. Nobody plays on both days, so you don’t need to specify which day you want to count for your player. You can’t select McDavid, Draisaitl, Robertson, Kucherov, M. Tkachuk, Pastrnak, Crosby, MacKinnon, Thompson, or Karlsson. I’ll go with Connor against the Blues.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Friday recapping the action of the next two nights. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
By Connor, I assume you mean Kyle. He plays the Blues not Ottawa.
I go Marchand for 3 vs the Avs.
Yes, sorry, editing. Was going to take Hintz and pivoted and forgot to change the last part. Sounds good on Marchand.
Petterson for 3 pnt!
Sounds good!
Viz, Demko was dropped in my league. Do I grab him and drop Lindgren, while Kuemper is only day to day?
I have the free IR spot and have to think Kuemper is coming back soon
Yeah, I think I’d do that. There’s a chance Demko gets moved if Vancouver pivots to a rebuild which could boost his value immediately, and either way, he can get back on track when he returns from injury.
Would you drop DeBrusk, Tatar, or Lehkonen for Newhook?
Tatar vs Newhook is tricky, you can go either way there. If you can hold off, I’d wait to see how many minutes Newhook plays tonight against Boston before making a swap, but the upside is much higher than Tatar’s for the next month so if you want to go for it now, that’s fine too.
What about Kunin?
Sorry moo point. I’m dropping Kunin when Barkov returns
Would have Kunin below them anyways unless you really need PIM
Thanks I appreciate it
3PC = Timo Meier
Sounds good!
Could you rank these players for me Viz,
Buchnevich (injury notwithstanding), Boldy, Chychrun, Montour, Kochetkov, Vladar
Thanks!
two questions today if that’s alright!
Ask however many you want! It’s extremely difficult to rank guys at different positions because your team needs are the main focus there. I would say Buch > Boldy, Chychrun> Montour (close though) and Kochetkov >>> Vladar. That said, Kochetkov could end up going back to the AHL when Andersen returns, which makes him useless for redrafts. I’d rank the 4 skaters in the order you have them in, possibly putting Chychrun ahead of Boldy. Vladar is last as a pure streamer, with Kochetkov sliding in somewhere depending on what you need, short term or long term.
Thanks Viz !
and if my league has +/-, does Montour get a bump while Chychrun loses a little ? A lot of the Arizona guys are on the wire due to that reason in my league
Of course! It does marginally so. Chychrun is actually plus right now and he’s probably going to traded sooner than later so I wouldn’t put too much stock into it.
hi Viz,
Pettersson for 3
shame he could’ve have gotten 1 more point in the last 4 minutes for us 3 picking him today. a rare event that VAN had 4 goals already with him having zero points prior to his first one.
Hintz for 3
Sounds good!
nov 29th: ovi @ VAN
dec 1st: stamkos @ PHI
dec 6th: aho (CAR) @ ANA
dec 7th or 8th (7th here): e.pettersson @ SJ for 3 pt wed (hmm, weird, all road picks this 2 week cycle, probably rare)
in dynasties i could see people buying hronek, D men take a long time to matriculate and he was a tippy top D man prospect. not saying waiting till right when he’s at his so far career peak is the best time to trade for somebody obviously.
Yeah, that’s a fair point. I really do like his game in general, I’d be worried about in dynasties though about Edvinsson stepping in next year. Despite Chiarot doing his best to drag down Seider, you still have to have him first long term, and Hronek could get knocked to three there. That’s assuming he’s even in Detroit long term.
all 3 of hronek/edvinsson/seider on same team is pretty sick even if that’s say 4 years from now when they all really hit.
with how often t.thompson and those around him just str up blow people up kinda surprised some goon known for injuring players (marchand, t.wilson (once he’s back), kadri, others) hasn’t gone after him yet. probably helpful that he’s a big guy. people go crazy when they get completely owned, all it takes is somebody already near that edge often like these guys to go off. but of course CLB’s D is so uttterly awful (esp now with their injuries, but they were bad before that) 6 goal periods against really aren’t that crazy. wonder how long those CLB fans thought getting a defensive sieve albeit scoring winger allowed them to believe they’d suddenly be competitive.
holy crap, krebs just NOW got his FIRST goal of the damn year. dude’s so far this year so useless i even dropped in a 16 teamer dynasty where he couldn’t be stashed anymore (hits/blocks, real life sized rosters). he’s at least supposed to be good at assists/PPP even those are awful, along with the obv bad shot rate.
kuraly went a bit nuts there tonight, but don’t know if any of it was outright dirty.
I was going to say, Kuraly was running around like an asshole all night. I agree that it wasn’t dirty, but he should have had a misconduct far before he did. Can’t take the Boston out of him.
He definitely has had a brutal season. I still like him long term to be a very good playmaker, and they’ve made it a point to make sure he’s at center now. Krebs is terrible on the wing. It doesn’t help that he’s played with Mittelstadt and especially Olofsson for most of the season. Olofsson is a complete dumpster fire right now. But even if Krebs pans out, he’s going to be much better in real life than fantasy because of that dreadful shot rate.
well at least he’s keeping the center (most of these leagues, including the one i had him in mentioned have faceoffs too), plus it would align with his playmaker not shooter skills anyway.
i completely forgot kuraly could’ve learned that shit from marchand first hand.
Anotha big deal !
Eichel and Oettinger or Jack Hughes and Logan Thompson ?
Do you have a side preference ? League is Rotisserie
No preference, the skaters and goalies are virtually equal.
Hey Viz,
So M.Reilly was dropped. I am pretty deep on D with Burns. Ekblad. McAvoy and Morrissey. But you can never have too much D. Who would you drop out of Point, Trochek, Rakell, Marchessault, Bennett to pick him up? Hard to drop any of those but Reilly seems too good to pass up. I’m set at RW. I also have J.Hughes(C) and Forsberg(LW).But not considering dropping them. The rest of the guys are a revolving door depending on hot streaks/matchups.
What do you think?
Rielly is still going to be out for a couple weeks at least so I don’t see a big rush to grab him, especially when he’d be your fifth defenseman. Your league settings would depend who you drop if you really wanted him. Sorry, I know you’ve said them before but I’m blanking at the moment, tough to remember all the commentor’s different setups.
I would be pretty
Impressed if you did memorize everyone’s settings. Lol. It’s a standard yahoo Roto league. So g,a, +/-, ppp, sog, hits.
Haha, sometimes it sticks. Makes it harder to cut Bennett and Trocheck then including hits. It’s still probably one of those two though now that Rakell is PP1. I guess I’d lean Bennett since Trocheck is getting the PPP
With Letang practicing today in a regular jersey, is it time to grab him where he was dropped ? I have two Roto leagues where he’s on the wire, and he’s a big upgrade over Sandin and Spurgeon, both I’d drop for him.
No timeline or anything but he’s so good when he plays.
Also, Andersen finally had a normal practice today. Is Kochektov worth holding even after he’s back ? Raanta has been quite bad since Fred went down.
def grab letang, over spurgeon or either. unless you normally hold backup goalies kochetkov and easy drop when andersen’s back.
Agree with this, get Letang for sure. I assume Kochetkov will get sent down just because he can be sent down and it will allow him to continue to get games, so no, I wouldn’t hold past that.
Yahoo gave Jack Hughes LW! Do you think there’s a chance Tage gets RW now ? That would wake him even more valuable
I mean, I can’t guess on what these sites are going to do with position eligibility. It would make zero sense for Tage to be anything but a center, but that hasn’t stopped them from making horrible decisions on position eligibility in the past.
tage over the last month averages just under 6 faceoffs a game, so i doubt he’s playing much wing.
sorry just under 6 faceoff wins, so far more attempts per game.
Viz – what Tage is doing is unreal. How legit is this and what ranking do you see for next year? A pure centre is crazy deep in my league but would you move Makar or other top guys to get Tage? Really sucks as I had him and dropped him during his slow start.
My cats are G, A, P, +/-, SOG, PPP and hits.
Thanks,
LG
Honestly, as someone I watch every night, nothing Tage is doing looks fluky. He takes a ton of shots (he’s at five per game) and his shot is lethal. Sure, his shooting percentage is a little high, but he might be a true 15% guy. If he’s going to take five per game, that’s 410 shots a season. A reasonable shooting percentage gets him to 50 goals. He probably comes in just outside the top 10 because of the lack of hits? It could sneak into the top 10. He’s in the same ballpark as Makar now, I wouldn’t be in a rush to move Makar to get Tage but I really think it’s legit.
Morrissey and Chabot ROs, do you think they put up similar production Viz ?
I would say so. I guess I’d give a slight lean to Morrissey even expecting some dropoff, but they’re in the same ballpark depending on what you’re looking for.