Kevin Fiala‘s first two games for the Kings left a lot to be desired. He didn’t generate much in terms of chances, he took a stupid penalty in their opener against Vegas, and his ice time suffered as a result. His old team, the Wild, were coming off giving up seven goals against the Rangers and were big favorites to get their first win of the season. Instead, the Wild gave up seven goals again, with the Los Angeles top line leading the way. Fiala scored a goal and two assists with six shots in the 7-6 win, while Anze Kopitar dished three assists and Adrian Kempe scored two goals and an assist with three shots and four PIM. My biggest takeaway from this trio in the early going is that I was too low on Kempe this season. While he’s not the focal point of the power play anymore, he’s still vital to its success, and the addition of Fiala strengthened the top line. All of them are easy holds at the moment and I don’t expect that to change. Let’s take a look at what else happened on Friday and Saturday:
Before I get to the notes, I want you all to be aware that every Saturday, MarmosDad is going to be writing up a preview of the day’s games for DFS. Be sure to check out his posts whether you play DFS or not in order to get his insight into matchups.
Friday’s Games
Ville Husso – 29 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Canadiens. Not a bad way to make your team debut. Husso should be a #2 goalie, but he does have plenty of variance.
Michael Rasmussen – Goal and two assists with four shots and two PIM. While this looked great, two of Rasmussen’s points were with the empty net. I’m not buying him or Oskar Sundqvist (2A) as anything other than deep league streamers.
Jake Allen – 37 saves on 38 shots as the tough luck loser. Allen was remarkable in the first period, stopping all 25 shots he faced. He’s still a desperation play given the weakness of Montreal’s team, but Allen is capable of having some big games.
Steven Stamkos – Two goals on seven shots. He’s quietly approaching 500 goals and 1,000 points, both of which should happen this season. At 32 years old, we could see Stammer end up pushing towards 700 goals in his career.
Corey Perry – Goal and an assist. Vladislav Namestnikov had two assists while Ross Colton had a goal and an assist with three shots. The new third line in Tampa is full of decent streamers because they play on PP2 together. That makes them a decent DFS stack because of how low owned they are.
Mikhail Sergachev – Two assists with four shots and four PIM. I love seeing Sergachev in this bigger role for Tampa. He’ll be an easy hold all season.
Connor Hellebuyck – 40 saves on 41 shots in the 4-1 win over the Rangers. I was much higher on Hellebuyck than consensus. While there will be no victory laps after one game, it was great to see him playing well in the new Bowness system.
Mark Scheifele – Two goals on seven shots. I really hope we get to see Scheifele at his best. I love seeing the big shot total in game one.
Nikolaj Ehlers – Two assists with three shots. The power play assist on the first unit is a beautiful thing to see from Ehlers. I’m all in on him this season.
Antti Raanta – 18 saves on 19 shots in the 2-1 win over the Sharks. It doesn’t get much easier than that for Raanta. He’s worth streaming in almost all matchups and can be a hold depending on league format.
Saturday’s Games
Matthew Tkachuk – Goal and an assist with four shots and four PIM playing over 20 minutes. No surprise that Tkachuk has fit in seamlessly in Florida, being a pest and dominating offensively.
Aleksander Barkov – Two assists with four shots. We know what we’re getting here.
Alex Tuch – Goal and an assist with three shots. Tuch was outstanding in this game with two excellent points leading to his points. He’s right on the fringe between elite streamer and hold.
Rasmus Dahlin – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Dahlin has been terrific in both games so far. It really looks like he turned the corner and will push towards stardom.
Eric Comrie – 33 saves on 37 shots in the 4-3 loss to Florida. While the numbers don’t look great, Comrie actually saved a goal more than expected. The Buffalo special teams have been dreadful so far, which sunk them on Saturday. Anderson was great in his first game, but I’m still buying Comrie as the 1A going forward.
Travis Konecny – Goal and an assist with two shots. Two multi-point games for Konecny to kick off the Torts era. I lean more towards elite streamer, but I don’t mind holding him while Konecny is a hot schmotato.
A.J. Greer – Two goals and an assist with four shots, two PIM, six hits and a block. Not bad for 12:45 in ice time. That said, one goal was an empty netter, and it’s hard to see anything here outside of a potential hits streamer in deep leagues.
Nick Foligno – Goal and an assist with two shots. Don’t even think about it.
Charlie Coyle – Goal and an assist with two shots. The return of Krejci dropped Coyle down to a middling streamer.
Pavel Zacha – Goal and an assist with four shots. It’s sad to see Zacha under 13 minutes of ice time, as it looked like he could be on the top line getting big minutes to start the season. He is on the second line at the moment, but that’s only enough to be a middling streamer.
Dougie Hamilton – Goal and an assist with four shots. Despite the early struggles for the Devils, Hamilton looks much better than he did to close last season.
Dylan Larkin – Goal and two assists with two shots. Larkin’s contract situation is the cloud hanging over the Red Wings right now. With four points in two games, I’m sure he’ll be pointing out the Barzal contract and asking for at least that much.
Ben Chiarot – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Given that he’s on the top pair, Chiarot might stumble into enough points to be viable in blocks leagues.
Jakub Vrana – Goal and an assist with two shots. Even with Tyler Bertuzzi leaving injured, Vrana played only 11 minutes. Just something to monitor going forward.
Lucas Raymond – Two assists with three shots and two PIM. Raymond is kind of a forgotten man. There’s plenty of young players receiving tons of hype, but Raymond could be poised to take another step this year.
Nikita Kucherov – Two assists with four shots. Slow start for Tampa, but the main guys have been just fine.
Sidney Crosby – Goal and two assists with two shots. Is back to back three point games to start the season good? Let’s see if he can have an encore performance on Monday against Montreal.
Jake Guentzel – Goal and an assist with six shots. Guentzel looks fantastic and remains a superstar that doesn’t get the credit he deserves for becoming an annual 40 goal scorer.
Jeff Carter – Goal and an assist with five shots. Carter has settled into being a solid streamer.
Claude Giroux – Goal and an assist with four shots. I’d like to see the minutes a little higher for Giroux, especially in a game where Ottawa took only two penalties, but Giroux is an easy hold regardless.
Darcy Kuemper – 21 saves on 22 shots in the 3-1 win over Montreal. Nice to see Kuemper bounce back after a difficult opener against the Bruins.
T.J. Oshie – Goal and an assist with five shots. I see Oshie as more of a streamer than a hold at this point in his career, but there’s still potential to get back to hold status.
Ilya Sorokin – 22 saves on 23 shots in the 7-1 win over the Ducks. He’s every bit of a #1 goalie in fantasy.
Anders Lee – Three assists with a shot. The shots have trended in the wrong direction for a few years now which is enough to keep Lee as a streamer for me.
Scott Mayfield – Two goals on four shots and two PIM. And there’s your biannual Mayfield update!
Robin Salo – Two goals on three shots. I like Salo’s game, but he doesn’t have a big opportunity with the Isles right now. I can see him carving out a role for deep leagues, but I can’t see it in a 12’er. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Oliver Wahlstrom – Goal and an assist with two shots. I’d love to see what Wahlstrom could do with regular minutes. Instead, he played under 10 in this game, and that’s just unusable in fantasy.
Jake Oettinger – 29 saves on 30 shots in the 5-1 win over the Predators. Back-to-back elite starts from Oettinger to open the season. There’s a chance he plays his way into the elite tier.
Roope Hintz – Two goals and an assist. Jason Robertson had a goal and two assists with four shots, while Joe Pavelski had two assists with a shot. The Predators had no answer for their top line, with all three goals coming at even strength.
Miro Heiskanen – Goal and an assist with three shots. As noted in my rankings, I am very bullish on Heiskanen having an offensive breakout this year.
Vladimir Tarasenko – Two goals on four shots. His situation with the Blues is fascinating, as they have some key upcoming UFA’s.
Pavel Buchnevich – Goal and an assist with four shots, +3. Buch isn’t quite a superstar, but he’s pretty damn close. He’s one of the best across the board fantasy contributors.
Brayden Schenn – Two assists with a shot. Schenn is a solid streamer, but I’m not really considering him for holding in 12’ers.
Gabe Vilardi – Goal and an assist with two shots. The big thing is Vilardi played over 17 minutes in this game. Plenty of other Los Angeles players have been the focus this offseason, but if Vilardi stays healthy, he could be the big breakout candidate. He’s a solid streamer for now, but he’s definitely worth monitoring.
Mats Zuccarello – Goal and two assists with three shots and two PIM. The Wild top unit was fantastic, scoring three times, with Zucc having a point in each goal. Despite the rough start, I still believe the Wild top line will be among the best in the league at even strength.
Matt Boldy – Two assists with three shots. Boldy having that PP role makes him an easy hold.
Michael Stone – Goal and two assists with three shots and four blocks. Stone always manages to produce when he’s in the lineup. When Calgary is healthy, Stone isn’t in their top six, but when he’s in the lineup, he’s a great deep league option.
Nazem Kadri – Goal and an assist with five shots. Kadri has fit in seamlessly in Calgary. The only surprise is he didn’t get any penalty minutes given the hostility.
Leon Draisaitl – Two assists with three shots playing over 25 minutes. Absolute monster.
Erik Karlsson – Goal and an assist with two shots. The plus-minus could be rough as the Sharks are off to a dreadful start, but Karlsson has looked decent to open the year.
Jason Dickinson – Goal and two assists with two shots. The two assists came on two shorthanded goals from Sam Lafferty. I have no interest in either of them.
Taylor Raddysh – Goal and an assist. I like Raddysh’s game, but he doesn’t have the minutes right now to be anything besides a bottom end streamer.
Andre Burakovsky – Two assists with two shots. Burakovsky has registered a point in every game so far this season. I actually lean towards holding, but it is on the fringe.
Jonathan Marchessault – Two goals on three shots. He’s not the most exciting fantasy player, but Marchessault is an easy hold in all formats.
Shea Theodore – Goal and an assist with two shots. I’d like to see Theodore shooting the puck at the level he normally does, but he’s stood out in all three games so it should come back.
Jack Eichel – Two assists with two shots. Solid start to the season for Eichel. I’m very excited to see Vegas against the Flames on Tuesday.
Three Point Challenge: We will bring back the Three Point Challenge for Tuesday’s games. For those that are new, you pick a player that is going to score 3+ points on Tuesday. You can’t pick anyone in the top 10 in points in the league, and can’t repeat a pick in a two week span. Early in the season, we use the top 10 points from last season, so you can’t select McDavid, Gaudreau, Huberdeau, Draisaitl, Kaprizov, Matthews, Stamkos, M. Tkachuk, Miller, or Marner. I’ll go with Pettersson againt the Blue Jackets.
That’s all for now guys. I may be back on Tuesday since the Monday slate is bigger than usual, but if not, I definitely will be on Wednesday. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
