It’s not often that a four point game goes to waste, but it happened on Tuesday night. Travis Konecny rallied the Flyers back to a 4-4 score, scoring two goals and dishing two assists, only for the Canes to score with 31 seconds left to win the game. Konecny already has 7+7 in 13 games, totals that nobody can complain with. He’s playing over 20 minutes a night, giving him a great chance to set career high in goals and assists. The one concern is that he’s getting destroyed at even strength, currently sitting at -9 despite all of his points. His shot rate is also fine, but not what we are accustomed to. For years, Konecny was around two shots per game, until the last three where he approached three and went well past it. Konecny has the chance to be a top 50 player this season, especially in PIM leagues, but he’s going to have to get that shot rate back up. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Jake Allen – 31 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Oilers. Allen has had three great starts allowing one goal combined, one bad game, and then an all-time bad game allowing eight goals. It’s Markstrom’s job, but I’m streaming Allen in all but the worst matchups.
Jesper Bratt – Goal and an assist with three shots. The goals are down significantly, but the assists are fantastic. I expect both to even out a bit.
Darcy Kuemper – 16 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Predators. Masterclass defensively from the Kings. Kuemper has had a couple subpar games, but it’s really one start that’s really dragging him down. Overall, I have no reason to change my preseason bullishness.
Adrian Kempe – Goal and an assist with three shots against the Predators. The shots are marginally down, but the rest of Kempe’s numbers are where we expect.
David Rittich – 23 saves on 24 shots in the 5-1 win over the Wild. I thought Rittich would be a bit better like Kuemper has done. I’d stream him in good matchups, but otherwise, I’m passing for the time being.
Anthony Stolarz – 29 save shutout in the 4-0 win over the Bruins. Stolarz has been excellent so far. It’s mostly a matter of staying healthy and sustaining this level of play over a workload he hasn’t had before.
Morgan Rielly – Goal and two assists with two shots. It hasn’t been the best start for Rielly, but he’ll end up as a #3 by the end of the season.
William Nylander – Goal and an assist with three shots. Ten goals already for Willie which isn’t a huge surprise. He’s elevated his game to that top level.
Matthew Knies – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Mitch Marner dished two assists, with both playing well despite Auston Matthews missing the game. Knies is up to a solid streamer.
Matt Coronato – Two goals on three shots. The upside is there for Coronato, but will he get the minutes to be a consistent factor? For now, he’s a deep league guy with obvious dynasty value, but I’m not running to stream him yet.
Joel Armia – Goal and an assist. Don’t see Armia sustaining this level of play, as mediocre as it is for fantasy.
Sean Couturier – Two assists with a shot and two PIM. All of his points are coming in bunches. That makes Couts a nice GPP target in DFS, but it’s hard to get him past a middling streamer in season long.
Owen Tippett – Goal and an assist with six shots. It’s been a rough start for Tippett, but he did go back with Konecny in this game, which would help him a ton. For now, he’s an elite streamer you can hold for upside.
Martin Necas – Goal and an assist with five shots. This is one of the craziest runs I’ve ever seen. Necas has 17 points in his last seven games! Enjoy it while it lasts.
Brent Burns – Two assists with four shots. Burns is probably a bottom end hold at this point, although it’s kind of fringy.
Evgeni Malkin – Goal and an assist with three shots. Malkin playing on the wing with Crosby is doing them wonders. After dropping off last season, Malkin is above a point per game.
Rickard Rakell – Two assists with two shots. Rakell is the lucky third wheel with Crosby and Malkin, making him an elite streamer bare minimum.
Kyle Palmieri – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Palmieri has played his way onto the fringe, playing way better than anticipated.
Bo Horvat – Two assists with two shots. The shot rate is elite for Horvat, which makes me lean towards holding still, but it’s marginal.
Connor Hellebuyck – 21 save shutout in the 3-0 win over Utah. I think he’s eliminated any doubt that he’s the best goalie in the league right now.
Nino Niederreiter – Two goals on three shots, both assisted by Adam Lowry. I have to bump Nino up to a solid streamer despite the low ice time. He’s up to 12 points in 13 games. Lowry is a middling streamer because while the points are good, the shot rate is dreadful.
Nikita Kucherov – Two assists with three shots. Somehow, Kucherov is playing at a better pace than last season’s 144 points. I feel like he’s still underappreciated for how good he is.
Cale Makar – Two assists with three shots before leaving the game due to injury. Fingers crossed that it’s not serious as Colorado has taken enough of a beating already.
Nathan MacKinnon – Five assists with four shots. Like Kucherov, MacKinnon is managing to do the impossible and blow last season’s 140 point pace out of the water. He’s the best player in the league right now.
Artturi Lehkonen – Goal and an assist with three shots, playing over 22 minutes in his return. I said twice in the last week that you need to activate Lehkonen and get him in your lineup immediately. If you had any doubt, that should be gone now.
Mikko Rantanen – Two goals on three shots. With as good as Makar and MacKinnon have been, Rantanen was lagging a bit. The secondary assists were boosting his numbers, so it’s good to see him get a pair of goals.
Nikolai Kovalenko – Goal and an assist. His role is going to continually diminish as the Avs get healthier. Kovalenko is only a deep league option.
Jared McCann – Goal and an assist with two shots. McCann is thriving so far under Blysma, with 6+10 in 14 games.
Matty Beniers – Goal and an assist with two shots. He just turned 22 today, but we haven’t seen that offensive burst yet from Beniers. He’s a middling streamer, although the upside is undeniable.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen – 37 saves on 38 shots in the 5-1 win over the Senators. He hasn’t been at last season’s level yet, but I’m not worried about UPL. This game shows what he’s capable of.
J.J. Peterka – Two goals and an assist with six shots and two PIM. The Sabres top line is playing at an elite level, and Peterka is a part of it with 11 points in 11 games. He’s a bottom end hold.
Tage Thompson – Goal and an assist with eleven shots. He couldn’t get me one more point for the Three Point Challenge? Tage was firing at will, so of course his goal was a shot off his shoulder while he was laying in the crease.
Rasmus Dahlin – Two assists with four shots. Dahlin’s shot rate is through the roof right now. It hasn’t been his best start, but the shooting regression will show up sooner than later.
Ryan McLeod – Two assists. McLeod has fit in extremely well for the Sabres. That said, the value is in real life and not fantasy. I don’t see the fantasy value except potentially in super deep leagues with faceoffs.
Bowen Byram – Two goals. Byram is back on the radar with five points in his last five games. He’s playing with Dahlin right now and it’s elevating Byram’s play.
Kevin Lankinen – 21 saves on 22 shots in the 5-1 win over the Ducks. Lankinen has filled in admirably for the Canucks. He’s a clear hold everywhere, although it’s going to get murky when Demko returns.
Quinn Hughes – Three assists with three shots. We had four seasons of Hughes taking below two shots per game, so of course he’s pushing four now. His jump in shot rate is completely unprecedented. No surprise, he’s floating right around a point per game.
Danton Heinen – Goal and an assist, as did Kiefer Sherwood. Easy pass on both.
Brock Boeser – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Everything with Boeser is in line with last season, which is great to see.
Fabian Zetterlund – Two assists with a shot. Solid streamer bordering on elite.
Vitek Vanecek – 49 saves on 50 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Blue Jackets. Talk about stealing a game. Much like his teammate Blackwood, Vanecek is capable of having monster games, but it’s going to be ugly overall because of the current state of the Sharks.
Three Point Challenge: We will do the Three Point Challenge with this Thursday’s games. For those of you that are new here, you pick a player to get three points in one of the games on Thursday. You can’t pick somebody who is Top 10 in the league in points. For the first 4-6 weeks, we will use last season’s top ten, so you can’t pick Kucherov, MacKinnon, McDavid, Panarin, Pastrnak, Matthews, Draisaitl, Rantanen, Miller, or Nylander. I have two correct picks, as does Saints. I’ll go with M. Tkachuk against the Predators.
That’s all for now guys. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. I’ll be back on Friday recapping the action from the previous two nights. Thanks for reading, take care!
