To say the injuries are piling up on Washington is an understatement. They have six players on IR plus Orlov missed Monday’s game. The salaries of these players combines to over $40 million. Washington pulled off the upset over the Oilers on Monday on the back of their power play. Four of the five Capital goals came on the power play, with Evgeny Kuznetsov leading the charge with two goals, two assists, four shots and two PIM playing over 20 minutes. It hasn’t been the best start to the season for Kuz, but this will certainly help. It’s also encouraging that he has 3+ shots in five of his last seven games. If I owned Kuz in fantasy, I would be patient. With the lack of depth Washington is dealing with, the minutes should get back up towards the 20:17 he averaged last season. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Monday’s Games
Erik Gustafsson – Three assists with a shot and two PIM playing over 24 minutes. With Carlson out, Gustafsson is running PP1. That alone puts him on the fantasy radar. If I needed help in the short term, I would grab him.
Dylan Strome – Two goals and an assist with four shots. Strome has produced in Washington with 12 points in 14 games. He’s in the solid streamer category for me, bordering on elite streamer. The shot rate knocks him down a notch.
Alex Ovechkin – Goal and an assist with five shots. Congrats to Ovechkin for setting the record for scoring the most goals with one NHL franchise at 788.
Connor McDavid – Goal and an assist, as did Leon Draisaitl. They’re both averaging about two points per game and nobody blinks an eye at it.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Two goals on four shots. RNH has solidified himself as must own again. He’s back on McDavid’s wing and tearing it up on the power play.
Zach Hyman – Two assists with a shot and two PIM. Hyman is dominating across the board, producing as I hoped he would last season when he moved to Edmonton.
Mikael Backlund – Two goals on five shots. The shot rate has been excellent for Backlund, but he’s still only a middling streamer.
Mathew Barzal – Three assists with five shots. Somehow, Barzal has zero goals on the season when he’s near three shots per game, but has 15 assists in 14 games. Bizarre stat line, but he looks excellent.
Brad Marchand – Two assists with three shots. Zero surprise that Marchand has been excellent since returning from his hip surgery.
Linus Ullmark – 25 saves on 26 shots in the 3-1 win over the Blues. Ullmark’s started the season as well as any goalie in the league. I would not be trying to sell high with Montgomery content on making him the #1, even before Swayman was injured.
Tuesday’s Games
Karel Vejmelka – 32 saves on 33 shots in the 4-1 win over the Sabres. He’s still in the desperation tier, although as noted in the past, he does have a high ceiling in any individual game compared to others in that tier. The floor is just incredibly low.
Clayton Keller – Goal and an assist. Keller didn’t do much, getting his points on an empty netter and a pass that a Sabre deflected into his own net. That said, it still counts the same, and the points have been quite good. It all depends if you can eat the plus-minus.
Liam O’Brien – Goal and an assist with two shots. And there’s your annual O’Brien update!
Matias Maccelli – Goal and an assist with two shots. His goal was an attempted pass that got put into the Buffalo net by its own player. Maccelli’s shot rate is so poor that he’s only a bottom end streamer despite a good role.
Mike Hoffman – Two goals on five shots. Both were assisted by Brendan Gallagher, who also had five shots. Both players, formerly very good fantasy players, are firmly in the bottom end streamer bin now.
Rasmus Andersson – Two assists with two shots. The Flames are a mess right now, but Andersson’s production has even been better than last season to this point.
Tomas Tatar – Two assists. Middling streamer while in the top six.
Dougie Hamilton – Goal and an assist with six shots. Dougie isn’t quite back to Carolina level, but it isn’t far off. He looks excellent once again, especially in terms of shot rate.
Nico Hischier – Goal and an assist with three shots. The Hischier breakout season is upon us. He’s been an absolute monster in real life and turned into a top 100 fantasy player.
Zach Parise – Two assists with a shot. Parise is pretty clearly a bottom end streamer.
Kyle Palmieri – Goal and an assist with two shots. Palmieri has been fine this season. He’s stuck in the middling streamer range after a couple years of being a hold in New Jersey.
Vincent Trocheck – Goal and an assist with eight shots. Despite Artemi Panarin (2A, 4 SOG) moving off his wing, Trocheck wasn’t hurt because of the PP and his usual 20 minutes. He’s been very good so far for New York and is firmly a hold.
Bo Horvat – Two goals on four shots. Dr. Bo! Back up the Brinks truck for Horvat, who already has 12 goals this season. Absolutely incredible stuff.
Elias Pettersson – Goal and an assist with six shots. It looks like the monster Pettersson season that I predicted is happening. He looks great with the Russians on his wing.
Conor Garland – Two assists with a shot. Garland has dropped off a bit from last season’s level. He could easily get back to it, and the return of Brock Boeser (goal) should help that. Garland is a middling streamer for now, but it could get better.
Alex DeBrincat – Two assists with three shots. The goals haven’t come yet, but DeBrincat is piling up the assists. Now if Smith would put him on PP1 like he should be…
Tim Stutzle – Goal and an assist with three shots. Stutzle has been fine, but it feels like there is better to come.
Felix Sandstrom – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 5-1 win over the Blues. The Blues have been such a mess offensively that I don’t know how much credit to give Sandstrom. Carter Hart missed the game due to illness. Sandstrom has been fine so you can stream him in good matchups. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Travis Konecny – Goal and an assist with four shots. Konecny has been a revelation under Torts. Incredible bounce back to be an easy hold in all formats.
Owen Tippett – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Tippett played on the first line which makes him a decent streamer. I wish the minutes were higher, but it’s worth monitoring.
Noah Cates – Goal and an assist with two shots. No thank you.
Reilly Smith – Two goals on four shots, both assisted by William Karlsson. Smith is right on the fringe depending on your team needs, while Karlsson is one tier below that.
Timothy Liljegren – Two goals. I like Liljegren’s game, but his role isn’t big enough to warrant consideration in most leagues.
Mitch Marner – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Seven game point streak for Marner has him on his normal pace. His shot rate still needs an uptick if he wants to be a top 20 player again.
Evander Kane – Suffered a severe cut to his wrist. It was a terrifying injury that resulted in a lot of blood on the ice. Thankfully, Kane is in stable condition and had surgery on Tuesday night. There’s no timeline yet, but I can’t imagine he’s back any time soon. Best wishes in his recovery.
Brayden Point – Two assists with four shots. Point has had multiple points in six of his last nine games. He’s been buzzing again which is great to see.
Connor Hellebuyck – 21 saves on 22 shots in the 5-1 win over the Jets. I’m not surprised that the Jets won, but I’m surprised that they were this dominant. My bold prediction of Hellebuyck winning the Vezina has some early legs.
Kyle Connor – Three assists with a shot and two PIM. Somehow, Connor has only two goals so far, but it’s only a matter of time. The top line is clicking right now, with Mark Scheifele scoring two goals on five shots, while Mason Appleton had a goal and two assists with two shots. Appleton is a solid streamer while in this spot.
Martin Jones – 24 saves on 25 shots in the 5-1 win over the Predators. Easy win for Jones, who was backed to a 4-0 in the first period. Jones is piling up wins, and has had four great starts in a row. Somehow, Jones is potentially worth owning again.
Andre Burakovsky – Goal and two assists with three shots. Burakovsky has looked excellent for the Kraken. He’s played well enough to be a bottom end hold.
Jordan Eberle – Two goals. Eberle is down to a bottom end streamer since his shot rate has dropped up quite a bit.
Jonathan Quick – 21 save shutout in the 1-0 win over the Wild, making Marc-Andre Fleury a tough luck loser. I would hold Quick, but it’s not exciting at all. He was even fighting it during this shutout. MAF’s buy low window is closing, but the Wild are really tightening up defensively after a dreadful start.
Three Point Challenge: There’s a big tie for the top 10 in points, which eliminates some extra players. For Thursday’s games, we can’t select McDavid, Draisaitl, Kucherov, Pastrnak, MacKinnon, Robertson, Panarin, E. Karlsson, Bratt, Necas, M. Tkachuk, Pettersson, Terry, or Hintz. I’ll take Rantanen against the Predators.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Friday with an updated Hold/Stream list for the first time this season. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
