Petr Mrazek was the goalie waiting in the wings, for the Wings, for a couple years until the end of last season. He took over the job and played well through the playoffs until they lost to the Lightning in 7 games. Now, he’s on the better side of the Wings platoon in net and he showed why he should get the majority of the starts on Tuesday, stopping all 38 shots against Washington in the 1-0 win, including a whopping 15 shots from Alex Ovechkin. Ideally, you would still own Jimmy Howard with Mrazek but Mrazek looks to be on the better side of the split right now.
Here’s what else I saw on the massive slate on Tuesday:
Jake Allen – 24 save shutout in the 2-0 win over the Devils. That’s back to back shutouts for Allen. He has firm control of the job in St. Louis and finally is showing why he was the best goaltending prospect in hockey a few years ago.
Henrik Lundqvist – 33 save shutout in the 3-0 win over Carolina. He’s the favorite for the Vezina again. I’m shocked by this #notshocked
Rick Nash – Goal and an assist with four shots and two PIM in his return from injury. Perhaps the injury will cause an offensive burst like it did for Ryan Getzlaf. He’s taking a ton of shots so the goals should be coming.
Reto Berra – 25 save shutout in the 4-0 win over Philly. His numbers are outstanding this year so he might work his way into a platoon situation with Semyon Varlamov. Granted he was playing the struggling Flyers but still, you can only stop the team you’re going against.
Matt Duchene – Two goals and an assist with four shots. Finally, the big game we have been waiting for. Coincidentally, he was playing with Gabriel Landeskog (assist and four shots) and Nathan MacKinnon (assist and five shots) on Tuesday. Kidding, it’s not a coincidence at all. Hopefully this line sticks together because it can take the league by storm.
Nick Holden – Two assists and two shots. He looks to be a decent source of assists and hits but he doesn’t contribute anything else.
Carl Soderberg – Two assists and three shots. Still not a fan going forward, especially with the Avs big 3 all together on one line.
Jannik Hansen – Goal and three assists with a shot. He was bumped up to the top line with the Sedins (more on them next) and promptly delivered. He brings explosiveness to the top line with his speed but without power play time, he’s best left as a streamer, especially since he probably won’t stick on the top line.
Daniel Sedin – Goal and three assists with a shot. Imagine that somebody else on his line has the same stats as Daniel and it wasn’t Henrik! That’s a surprise. The Canucks were absolutely dominated in this game outside of the top line who stole the game for them.
Henrik Sedin – Two goals and an assist with three shots. He actually took three shots! Much more stunning that him having three points.
Cam Atkinson – Shorthanded goal on seven shots. Love his game, just wish he had more of an opportunity. At this point, I’m not owning in 12’ers.
Boone Jenner – Goal and an assist with four shots. He’s up on the top line right now so I’d own him everywhere.
Ryan Johansen – Two assists with two shots and two PIM. Still only has one goal on the season which is shocking. I don’t see him reaching last year’s totals but I would buy low if I could.
Jack Johnson – Goal on six shots and four PIM. Playing big minutes under Torts but it’s only the third point of the season for JMFJ. I’ve always found him to be overrated based on his name factor so I don’t own him anywhere but I wouldn’t own him outside of 16’ers or deeper.
Chad Johnson – 30 saves on 31 shots in the 4-1 win over Tampa Bay, including a save that should be a top play on Sportscenter. The Sabres goalies have been playing great which is exciting to see as a Sabres fan. I still expect the goalies to split time for now.
Jack Eichel – Goal and an assist with seven shots. It was his first game on national TV and he delivered. He was the best player on the ice in a game featuring stars like Steven Stamkos. It’s amazing what he’s doing after turning 19 years old two weeks ago. He’s up to 9 points in 15 games and closing in on four shots a game. Beautiful stuff.
Cody Franson – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. I’ve been bullish on Franson all year for people and he’s starting to deliver. Seven points in 15 games with 10 PIM, 4 STP and a decent shot total has some value. Things are looking up after a slow start.
Rasmus Ristolainen – Goal on three shots. I’m repeating myself but here it goes again; having him ranked preseason where I did was one of my best calls and is paying dividends for people who drafted him late this year and I plan to have him in as many leagues as possible next year. The kid is outstanding.
Steven Stamkos – Goal on four shots with two PIM. Very slow start but his standards but he’s too good to be kept down.
David Jones – Two goals on three shots. He’s a decent player but he doesn’t have a big role and he doesn’t have an assist this season. Maybe he’ll be this year’s Brandon Pirri?
Aaron Ekblad – Goal on five shots. He’s had a horrible start to the season but the Panthers are playing well so I expect a rebound soon.
Jaromir Jagr – Goal and an assist with two shots. Legend.
Jussi Jokinen – Two assists with two shots. He’s up to ten points in 15 games but I’m not adding barring an injury to someone in the Florida top 6. He’s on my radar from streaming though.
Craig Anderson – 31 saves on 38 shots in the 7-5 loss to Nashville. I have no idea what the hell happened in this game but both goalies were horrible. 12 goals against on 64 shots is an epic disaster. At least Pekka Rinne (21 saves on 26 shots) got a win out of it.
Erik Karlsson – Goal and an assist with five shots. How the hell was this Karlsson’s first goal of the year? That might be the biggest surprise of the season so far. That said, he has 14 points in 15 games and the shot rate is starting to return to normal so things should be great going forward.
Bobby Ryan – Two assists with a shot. Maybe I was too quick to dismiss Ryan. Maybe he’ll start to regress back to what he’s been every other year in Ottawa. I still lean towards the latter but time will tell.
Zack Smith – Two goals on his two shots. Not really fantasy relevant stuck on the fourth line but I feel obligated to mention somebody when they score two goals.
Mattias Ekholm – Goal and an assist with four shots. Big fan of Ekholm’s game but he isn’t fantasy relevant until a Predators defenseman gets injured and probably two for him to be relevant in 12’ers.
Ryan Ellis – Two assists with two shots. He has some relevance now but he’ll have real value if one of the Predators big 3 on defense get injured.
Seth Jones – Two assists with five shots and two PIM. I wish he was playing more minutes and he’s still goalless but I’m a huge fan in dynasty leagues.
Roman Josi – Goal on three shots. He’s a beast <Juicy J voice> .
Austin Watson – Goal and two assists, +4 and two shots. He was a former first round pick but he’s stuck on the fourth line in Smashville. There’s upside here but he probably won’t be fantasy relevant until next season.
Shea Weber – Goal on six shots. Pretty much on pace with what I had him projected for preseason; right around 50 points with a quality shot rate.
Ondrej Pavelec – 8 goals on 12 shots in 30 minutes before getting pulled in the 5-3 loss to the Wild. Yuck. I still like him going forward so chuck this up to a bad night that the non-elite goalies have from time to time.
Bryan Little – Two goals and an assist with six shots. The Jets got killed but their top line was bonkers with Andrew Ladd (two assists with two shots) and Blake Wheeler (goal and assist with nine shots) also contributing big time. I called them the most underrated line in hockey a few times and I still think they aren’t getting the credit that they deserve.
James Reimer – 36 saves on 38 shots in the 3-2 win over Dallas. Reimer has played fairly well as the starting goalie; I still wouldn’t touch him since the Leafs are a horrible team.
Jake Gardiner – Goal and an assist with one shot. He’s a prime example of a player who’s better in real life than fantasy. I wouldn’t own him outside of the deepest of leagues.
Jason Demers – Two assists with two shots. He’s worked himself into a must-own having 10 points in 15 games.
Patrick Sharp – Goal on three shots. Absolutely shocking he was the only Stars stud to get a point against Toronto of all teams. Tuesday’s games were weird.
Martin Hanzal – Two goals on three shots. He’s on the board in the goal department! Amazingly he’s over a point a game. Health has been an issue in recent years but given the young talent on the Arizona roster, a career year can be in the cards.
Thomas Greiss – 34 saves on 36 saves in the 4-2 win over the Sharks. Revenge game! Solid backup and quality streamer but not ownable barring an injury to Jaroslav Halak.
Mikhail Grabovski – Goal and an assist with two shots. Another case of a player being much better in real life than fantasy.
John Tavares – Two goals on his two shots. It seems like he hasn’t done much this year but he’s at a point per game. It’s weird to explain but to me, it’s something you commonly see in basketball. You watch a game and it feels like a guy isn’t doing much and then all of a sudden he has 18 and 8 in the third quarter. A few weeks go by and it seems like Tavares is cold but he’s still churning out points.
Wednesday Streamers: There are only two games so there should be lots of streaming. It’s the Ducks hosting the Oilers and the Penguins hosting the Canadiens so there will be some repeats here considering these teams have been playing on short slates regularly. Here are my top choices:
Patrick Maroon (2.3% owned) – Still on the top line in what should be an open game against the Oilers.
Oscar Klefbom (10.5%) – Settled in on the top power play unit and has points in two straight games.
David Perron (19.4%) – He’s struggled this year but he’s still playing with Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel and the options are slim on a two game slate.
That’s all for now guys. Be sure to check out our new commenter Matt’s article that came out Tuesday afternoon on goalies. He did an excellent job for his first piece and I look forward to his future articles on different positions that should come out every Monday going forward. Also, Marv and Pesos’ new article on the waiver wire will be out this afternoon which is great per usual. There’s some good stuff being pumped out on Razzball Hockey right now so I hope everyone enjoys it! As always, post any questions or comments below and I’ll be sure to answer you. Take care everyone!
