A personal favorite, Filip Forsberg, took over the game on Tuesday night, scoring four goals in the 6-0 win over the Blue Jackets. That gives Forsberg 10 goals and 5 assists in 13 games. Not bad, not bad. The story is the same for Forsberg as it has been over the last five years. When he’s on the ice, he’s one of the best offensive players in the league. The problem is that he always seems to have an injury that causes him to miss a month. He’s already missed eight games so fingers crossed that he stays healthy the rest of the way. His linemates (more on them later) have found their form as well giving Nashville a potent first line for the first time since Johansen was playing his best hockey and Arvidsson was at his peak goal scoring ability. He has a tough matchup with Boston on Thursday, but after that, Nashville has some easy opponents which could let Forsberg continue this goal scoring run. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Brandon Tanev – Goal and two assists with two shots. If you’re in a hits league, there’s value here, but otherwise I’m not buying it.
Yanni Gourde – Two assists. Gourde has been very good so far with 14 points in 18 games. The PP time is lower than I would hope, but with some injuries at the moment, he’s at least getting some now. He’s right on the fringe and depends on team needs.
Jared McCann – Two goals on four shots. While he can’t keep up this goal scoring rate, I expect the assists to go up sooner than later. I’m still holding.
Mason Appleton – Two goals. I had relatively high hopes for Appleton to become a solid streamer in Seattle, but he had only one point before this game. Pass for now.
Morgan Geekie – Two assists. Nothing to see here at the moment.
Jeff Skinner – Two goals on four shots. Skinner is pushing three shots per game and on pace for close to 30+25. That puts him on the fringe depending on team needs.
Kyle Okposo – Two assists with three shots. Okposo has been surprisingly good this season, including nine points in the last nine games. He’s a decent streamer with some deep league value.
Brett Murray – Goal and an assist. Murray has looked like he’s belonged in the NHL in this callup so I wouldn’t be surprised if he sticks. I wouldn’t stream him now, even in deep leagues, but it’s something to keep an eye on. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Thatcher Demko – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 2-1 win over the Canadiens. The Canucks just leave Demko out to dry virtually every game. I believe in the talent, but he’s probably only a bottom end #2 because there’s no path to an even average GAA.
Karel Vejmelka – 46 save shutout in the 1-0 win over the Jets. Goaltending performance of the year as Vejmelka completely stole the game for Arizona. That said, I still want nothing to do with him because the downside is massive.
Jacob Markstrom – 21 saves on 22 shots in the 2-1 SO win over the Penguins, making Tristan Jarry (31/32) a tough luck loser. Both of these goalies have been on fire and it continued here. Both are surefire #1 goalies at the moment.
Alex Nedeljkovic – 41 saves on 42 shots in the 2-1 win over the Bruins. To keep up with the goaltender stealing games run, Nedeljkovic did just that on Tuesday. His numbers are actually quite strong now with only one bad game in his last ten appearances. He’s won over half his starts and his GAA isn’t so bad. Nedeljkovic is an easy hold again.
Timo Meier – Two goals on six shots. The Meier breakout into superstardom continues.
Noah Gregor – Goal and an assist with four shots. Gregor is still only 23, but he’s shown little offensive ability in his career to this point. Nothing to see for now.
Alexander Barabanov – Two assists with a shot. Barbanov is getting second line time, but he’s under a shot per game. It’s hard to consider him for anything more than a bottom end streamer.
Dmitry Orlov – Two assists. Orlov is on fire at the moment and is worth holding, especially if your league includes plus-minus.
Nick Jensen – Goal and an assist with three shots. In deep leagues that include all the categories, Jensen is a decent option for hits, blocks, and plus-minus. That’s about it.
Jonathan Huberdeau – Three assists with three shots and two PIM. Huberdeau’s shot rate has taken a nice jump up and with this game, he’s back over a point per game. The most unheralded superstar.
Aaron Ekblad – Three assists with five shots. Ekblad has been as good as expected, if not better. He’s an easy #1.
Ryan Lomberg – Goal and an assist with five shots. Lomberg will pile up penalty minutes, but don’t expect much else even though he has some wheels. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Eetu Luostarinen – Goal and an assist with two shots. Luostarinen actually has seven goals so far, but this was his first assist, he doesn’t get PP time, and he’s barely over a shot per game. Pass.
Anthony Cirelli – Goal and an assist with three shots. With Steven Stamkos leaving last minute for the birth of his child, Cirelli played over 25 minutes. Easy hold in the interim with Tampa missing a bunch of guys.
Taylor Raddysh – Two assists with two shots. There’s some talent here, but not opportunity. Raddysh had more points in this game than he had in his previous 19. Moving on…
Mikael Granlund – Four primary assists on Forsberg’s four goals. Yes, the shot rate is bad, but Granlund now has 5+20 in 22 games. He has to be held, plain and simple.
Matt Duchene – Two assists with six shots. To say Duchene is bouncing back doesn’t do it justice. He’s back to peak form and them some right now.
Juuse Saros – 27 save shutout in the 6-0 win over the Blue Jackets. Slam dunk #1, no questions asked, thank you very much for your time.
Clayton Keller – Goal and an assist with seven shots on Tuesday. Keller was noticeable throughout the game. I wish Keller was surrounded by more talent as he’s making strides this season, but very few will be able to tell with how bad Arizona is. I still have him as an elite streamer despite the situation.
Jordan Greenway – Goal and two assists with two shots. There were a lot of picks from Wild players to get three points in the comments, so naturally a Wild player does it and it’s Greenway. Greenway was great last season, but he had only three points in 17 games before this. He’s been marginalized and has little fantasy value.
Jonas Brodin – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Brodin is currently running the top power play unit which is enough to make him a hold.
Ryan Hartman – Two assists with five shots. He’s centering Kirill Kaprizov (1+1, 3 SOG) right now and Hartman has earned it. He’s an easy hold right now.
Braden Holtby – 39 saves on 40 shots in the 4-1 win over the Hurricanes. Holtby was amazing in this game. Here’s one of the best three save sequences ever:
Holtby showing off 🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/SQOSL9Xas9
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) December 1, 2021
Roope Hintz – Hat trick on four shots. Joe Pavelski had a goal and two assists with three shots while Jason Robertson had two assists with two PIM. Yeah, safe to say that these guys are back. They’re all easy holds and look to have found last year’s form again. They open December with Columbus and Arizona as well. Juicy.
Kevin Shattenkirk – Goal and an assist with two shots. A hot start is a thing of the past as Shattenkirk has lost PP1 to Drysdale. He’s firmly on the fringe now in 12’ers because of it. Ryan Getzlaf left the game with an injury. Maybe Shattenkirk gets that spot, but he didn’t during the game on Tuesday after the injury so I’m skeptical.
Three Point Challenge: We’re going to do Thursday’s Games. Now that we’re in December, we’re going to use the current top 10 in points. There is a big tie at the bottom, which rules out some extra guys, although some don’t play and there’s a suspension. You can’t take Draisaitl, McDavid, Ovechkin, Kadri, Kuznetsov, Granlund, Gaudreau, Kaprizov, Marchand, Stamkos, Duchene, Connor, or Terry. Fungazi is still the only one on the board. There are plenty of obvious picks here, but it’s fair to everybody. I’ll go with Aho against the Senators.
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!
