In honor of Opening Day in baseball, Filip Forsberg continued an elite season with a 40/40 of his own. Nashville is in the midst of their best run in franchise history with Forsberg leading the charge. On Wednesday, they fell down 3-0 against the other wild card team in the West, the Golden Knights, before the Preds stormed back to win 5-4 in overtime. Forsberg had a goal and two assists, scoring to make the game 4-3 Vegas, then assisting on the tying and winning goals. That brings him to 40 goals and 41 assists and into being the 10th overall forward in fantasy this season. There are a few different things that have caused Forsberg’s big season that are different from two seasons ago, when he had 42+42 in 69 games. One, he’s over four shots on goal per game. His current shooting percentage is right in line with his career average, unlike two seasons ago when he was running hot. Two, his time on ice is up a bit. Three, the coaching is much better with Brunette. Four, he’s stayed healthy, the most important thing. Lastly, he’s clicked with RoR, an elite defensive center who can hold his own offensively. This is letting Forsberg crush even strength while continuing to perform on the power play. Forsberg is still only 29 years old, giving us hope that he can repeat this season for the next 1-2 years. Just stay healthy! Let’s take a look at some things that happened over the last two nights. A reminder that if you want to maximize your streaming, check out the entire Playoff Manifesto. Let’s get to it!
Pavel Zacha – Goal and two assists with six shots over two games. Zacha is locked into a quality role, but their playoff schedule sucks, so I’m most likely staying away.
Dylan Strome – Two goals on four shots. Strome is on a heater with nine points in his last five games. Quietly, he’s up to 60 points on the season. The Caps have four games next week, and with the team in the heart of the playoff race, expect a heavy workload to continue. He’s a viable streamer.
Alex Nedeljkovic – 38 saves on 39 shots in the 4-1 win over the Hurricanes. A nice revenge game for Nedeljkovic, who has had a solid season as the backup in Pittsburgh. He’s getting more run lately, but he’s a dangerous stream.
Alexis Lafreniere – Two goals on three shots. Laf has had the big breakout this season, it just hasn’t been noticed because he doesn’t get real power play time. However, their schedule is as bad as it gets for streaming, so I’m probably staying away outside of the one light day game.
Timo Meier – Goal and an assist with four shots. Meier has been fantastic over the last 6-8 weeks after a dreadful start. I’m definitely going to be bullish on him again next season as I’m treating this as a one off failure from the Devils.
Nico Hischier – Goal and two assists with three shots. Hischier has quietly pushed back towards a point per game. The problem is that the shot rate has dropped, but he’ll still be somewhere around 100th overall going into next season.
Connor McDavid – Two assists with a shot. 100 assists is firmly in play and even likely at this point.
Zach Hyman – Goal on six shots with two PIM. 51 goals. 51! What a season for Hyman even though the assists have cratered, mostly because they’re turning into goals.
Anthony Mantha – Two assists with a shot. Vegas’ schedule is amazing for streaming, which puts Mantha firmly in play. He has an assist in three straight games and is on the point for PP2.
Gustav Nyquist – Goal and an assist with two shots. He’s gone under the radar because of their superstars, but Nyquist has a whopping 65 points on the season already. He’s been the perfect third wheel on the top line and has a few great streaming spots upcoming.
Jason Dickinson – Two goals on three shots and two PIM. Dickinson has blown up this season given a big role in Chicago. He should still have a similar role next season which makes him a great deep league option.
Nathan MacKinnon – Goal on four shots. I really hope that MacKinnon gets a point in every home game. Would be an incredible record to set (Gretzky did it once, but in an 80 game season).
Eeli Tolvanen – Goal and two assists, as did Matty Beniers. It’s been a very disappointing season for Beniers, while Tolvanen has been up and down. They have a lot of good streaming spots so I would keep these two in mind.
Josh Doan – Two goals on six shots in his NHL debut. It doesn’t get better than that. The son of Shane, Jack was considered a bit of a reach when he was a second round pick in 2021. He’s flashed some good goal scoring in the AHL, and I expect him to settle in as a third liner down the line because while he has a quality shot, he doesn’t create much. He’ll definitely be useful in deep leagues. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Wyatt Johnston – Two goals and an assist with three shots. Jamie Benn had a goal and two assists, uniting with Johnston on all three goals. My fondness for Johnston’s game is well known in these parts. With an uptick in shot rate, Johnston can become a fantasy superstar. I’ll be all in on him again next season.
Shane Pinto – Goal and three assists with four shots. Pinto has cooled off a bit before this game, but I will be using him plenty down the stretch as Ottawa has a lot of games left and have a few back to backs. Long term, he clearly looks like the 2C behind Stutzle.
Jakob Chychrun – Goal and an assist with five shots and two PIM. While Chychrun went cold, his shot rate was elite and his blocks have been solid. The best thing for his fantasy value would be a trade in the offseason to a team that plays him a ton, like he did early in Arizona.
J.J. Peterka – Goal on five shots. Peterka has been playing excellent hockey. With the Sabres playing the only game on Friday against the Devils, Peterka would be my first choice to stream.
Three Point Challenge: We will do tonight’s games. You can’t select Kucherov, MacKinnon, McDavid, Panarin, Pastrnak, Rantanen, Nylander, Matthews, Draisaitl, or Miller. I’m going to go with Forsberg staying on fire against the Coyotes.
That’s all for now guys. Feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below as we approach the finish line. I’ll be back tomorrow recapping tonight’s games. Thanks for reading, take care!
