Quick, who is the only team without a loss? Shockingly, it’s the New Jersey Devils. They’ve had all home games, but they have been strong in all facets of the game, winning by a total of 17-4 in those games. Outside of the Sharks game, they’ve made life easy on Keith Kinkaid and he’s taken care of business. Kinkaid shut out the powerful Stars on Tuesday stopping 24 shots faced. Do I expect the Devils to be a powerhouse? No. Should Kinkaid be owned everywhere? Absolutely. Goaltending is a mess right now after the top 20ish guys, so there’s no reason Kinkaid should be on the waiver wire, even if he’s just a hot schmotato. He’s available in over 2/3rds of leagues right now, so grab him while he’s hot. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Monday’s Games:
Andreas Athanasiou – Two goals on five shots. He’s been a streamer for extended stretches and I don’t mind using him in decent matchups now. The shots have been strong recently.
Jimmy Howard – 15 saves on 20 shots in 24:35 before being pulled in the 7-3 loss to Montreal. Just don’t use Detroit goalies, plain and simple.
Tomas Tatar – Goal and two assists with four shots and two PIM. Streamer success in this revenge game! He’s on fire right now so keep streaming Tatar.
Matthew Peca – Two assists with two shots. Don’t see much here; it’s going to take a bigger role for Peca to have any fantasy relevance.
Jonathan Drouin – Two goals on five shots with two PIM. Drouin is consistent in his inconsistency. I’m fine with streaming but he’s a way’s away from being a hold right now.
Jason Spezza – Assist with two shots. Even more streamer success in a revenge game! Spezza is a decent option to stream for PPP, that’s about it.
Matt Duchene – Two assists with two shots. He has six assists in six games but Duchene is under two shots per and doesn’t have a goal. I’m okay with holding him if you need assists, but I’d rather stream.
Maxime Lajoie – Goal on three shots with two PIM. Lajoie scored one goal in the AHL season, and all of a sudden he starts with 4+3 in his first six NHL games. Sense, it makes none. He’s at four shots per game so I’d grab him while he’s a hot schmotato and see what happens.
Craig Anderson – 37 saves on 38 shots in the 4-1 win over the Stars. I still have exactly zero faith in Anderson being anything other than a net negative come the end of the season.
Garrett Sparks – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 4-1 win over the Kings. Sparks was a disaster in his first start. You can stream him when he starts for a win, but there’s plenty of danger in it. My biggest takeaway is that streaming against the Kings seems like a good idea. They take a high volume of low quality shots.
Kasperi Kapanen – Two goals. The completion of the ultimate streamer success! All three guys for Monday had at least one point, with six points between the three. Kapanen has to stick with Matthews at this point so pick him up everywhere.
Jake Gardiner – Two assists with two shots. AAGNOF!
Mikko Koivu – Goal and an assist with two PIM. He played over 20 minutes in this one but I have a hard time using him as anything more than a middling streamer, if not bottom end. Seven shots in six games isn’t going to cut it.
Zach Parise – Two assists with four shots. Parise is off to a hot start with seven points in six games and a quality shot rate. I don’t expect him to keep it up at 34 years old (and an old 34 at that given the wear and tear plus injury history) but I’m fine with holding him while he’s hot if you’d like.
Ryan Johansen – Two assists with two PIM. He’s so good, I just wish he shot the damn puck with regularity. He pushed three shots per game in his third season and now he doesn’t get to two per. Johansen should be owned, but his ceiling is capped unless that changes, which I highly doubt at this point.
P.K. Subban – Two assists with three shots. Solid start across the board for Subban as expected.
Tuesday’s Games
Gabriel Landeskog – Goal and an assist with four shots and four PIM. The shot rate will determine whether Landeskog is merely a top 100 player or a top 50 player. He’s in the perfect position to have a big year,
Kevin Shattenkirk – Two assists with two shots. He was scratched once but that seems to be an isolated incident. That said, Shattenkirk is bottom end at this point and is far from the player he used to be.
Mats Zuccarello – Two assists with a shot. The minutes are insane right now as Zucc played almost 25 minutes in this one. It’s very assist heavy, but I would lean towards holding onto the Norwegian Hobbit. Far from automatic though.
Aleksander Barkov – Two goals on four shots. Strong start for Sasha which comes as no surprise.
Keith Yandle – Two assists with three shots. It’s rarely exciting but come the end of the season, Yandle’s numbers will be solid. I’m encouraged by the big shots through four games. He used to be a big shot producer in Phoenix so hopefully Yandle can get back to that level.
Frank Vatrano – Two goals on three shots. Vatrano has some upside but it’ll take a bigger role for him to be worth streaming.
Jared McCann – Two assists with a shot. Same deal as Vatrano except McCann has even more upside.
Claude Giroux – Two goals on eight shots. Loving the huge shot totals from Giroux in the early going. Repeating last season’s 102 points seems very unlikely, but if the shots can get back to three per game, he could still give late 2nd round value.
Jordan Weal – Goal and an assist. Weal actually received over 17 minutes in this game so monitor his workload over the next few games.
Wayne Simmonds – Two goals with 14 PIM. In the early going, I couldn’t be more wrong about Simmonds. The injury to JVR really opened things up for him. The fact that he’s scoring at even strength is the change for last season. I still have some worries, but nowhere near as many as I did in the preseason.
Tim Schaller – Two assists with seven shots. And there’s your annual Schaller update!
Brock Boeser – Goal on four shots. I would try my damnedest to try and buy low on Boeser before he gets on a heater. The goals are going to come, there is no doubt in my mind.
Tyler Johnson – Hat trick on six shots with two PIM. Johnson has huge upside, and with 3+2 in his last two games, he’s worth streaming to see if he becomes a hold again.
Dan Girardi – Two assists. I guess when you play on a team like Tampa, you stumble into points. Girardi has as much fantasy relevance as I do.
Connor McDavid – Two goals and two assists with three shots. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins dished three assists while Leon Draisaitl had two dimes. The Oilers are virtually a three man offense right now, but those three guys are damn good. Huge comeback win in Winnipeg.
Adam Lowry – Two goals on four shots. He’s a nice player in real life but I don’t expect Lowry to be scoring two goals in a game again any time soon.
Devan Dubnyk – 31 saves on 32 shots in the 2-1 win over the Coyotes. The goals against average doesn’t look good yet, but Dubnyk has been great to start the season. If he keeps it up, the wins are surely going to be coming.
William Karlsson – Goal and two assists with three shots. Jonathan Marchessault had two goals on his own while Reilly Smith tallied two assists. Vegas needs their top line more than ever with Paul Stastny out at least two months, and they delivered today. Look for the minutes to stay at 20+, as they were around there today despite the Sabres having 6 power plays.
Marc-Andre Fleury – 26 saves on 27 shots in the 4-1 win over the Sabres. He was 37 seconds away from his 50th career shutout, but no complaints about this start from the flower.
Wednesday’s Streamers
Tomas Tatar (13.8%) – He’s on fire and the Blues are a mess right now so ride with the hot hand.
Jakub Vrana (1.1%) – Vrana is averaging three shots per game on the Capitals’ second line. Add in that the Caps are at home against a Rangers team playing their second of a back-to-back and it’s a great spot for Vrana to get back on the score sheet.
Ryan Kesler (1.6%) – I’m not a fan of Kesler at this point in his career, but I was shocked to see his ownership this low. Kind of figured his name value would go farther than this. Anyways, the options are limited in a small slate and Kesler at home against the Isles is appealing.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Friday recapping the action from Wednesday and Thursday. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or make any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
