I was getting some questions in the comment section a few weeks ago about whether Mark Stone should be held or cut. Those questions can be put to bed now. Stone scored for the fourth straight game, tallying two goals and an assist with two shots. After a 64 point rookie season, Stone is now on pace to pass that. His plus-minus has plummeted compared to last year but that’s more of a product of the Senators being weak defensively. The penalty minutes are up and the power play points are increasing making him a very nice player in dynasties at 23 years old. Here’s what else I saw around the league on Monday night:
Cory Schneider – 35 saves on 37 shots in the 2-1 loss to the Rangers. He kept his team in the game, especially in the first period where he stood on his head. Nothing has changed for Schneider; he’s in the top tier of goalies and is a good bet to start the most games out of anyone in the league for the rest of the season.
Travis Zajac – Goal on two shots. He’s really bottom end outside of leagues that count faceoff wins but if you’re desperate for assists from someone who gets a lot of minutes, you could do okay with Zajac as a streamer / short term hold.
Henrik Lundqvist – 27 saves on 28 shots in the win. He was just over 2 minutes away from a shutout and he lost it on a shorthanded goal. Come on Rangers! Anyway, nice to see Hank get going again. Alain Vigneault says he wants to watch Hank’s workload down the stretch but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Derick Brassard – Assist and five shots. It’s been a career year for Brassard and there’s no reason to be pessimistic about his rest of season outlook.
Kevin Hayes – One shot and ten PIM. He received a 10 minute misconduct for shooting part of a broken stick into the crowd. Don’t see that one every day. Unless his role increases, he’s on the outside looking in in 12’ers now.
J.T. Miller – Goal on his only shot playing over 20 minutes. Hoping you jumped on Miller weeks ago because he’s paid off handsomely.
Keith Yandle – Five shots playing over 25 minutes. His role has drastically increased lately and went up even more with Ryan McDonagh out due to a concussion from that sucker punch he received over the weekend. Yandle is a great trade target right now, especially in dynasties.
John Gibson – 25 saves on 31 shots before being pulled early in the 3rd period. Yikes. The Pens are on fire right now so just chalk it up as one bad game.
Ryan Getzlaf – Goal and an assist with five shots and two PIM. This is the Getzlaf we like to see. Seeing him take five shots is almost more encouraging than registering two points. If the shots keep coming, the goals will follow.
Corey Perry – Assist and three shots. He’s on a different line than Getzlaf right now but it’s good to see both producing separately. Perry chould still get to 35 goals on the year which isn’t that disappointing with the PIM he contributes.
Marc-Andre Fleury – 36 saves on 38 shots in the win. Nice to see him bounceback after a couple duds recently.
Sidney Crosby – Two goals, two assists and three shots. Wow, people started talking about who the best player in the league is a month ago and now Crosby is on absolute fire. He’s scored in 7 straight games and has 22 points in his last 11. Just like that, Crosby is now tied for 5th in the league in points.
Carl Hagelin – Goal on three shots. Still a solid streamer as long as he’s in the top 6.
Chris Kunitz – Goal and an assist with six shots and two PIM. Well, he’s on quite the heater now and should be owned everywhere as long as Crosby is dominating souls out there.
Kris Letang – Two assists with a shot and two PIM. Well I don’t look as crazy now ranking him as the 3rd defenseman in preseason. Remember when ESPN had him ranked outside the top 100? Fail.
Craig Anderson – 31 saves on 32 shots in the 5-1 win over Tampa. You have no idea what you’re going to get from Anderson on a daily basis. That makes him a decent GPP flier in daily leagues but I still wouldn’t want him in 12’ers unless you’re desperate for starts.
Cody Ceci – Assist and five shots. I’m very excited for Ceci going forward. In 16 man leagues in deeper, I’d grab him, especially dynasties. He looks like he’s starting to understand what he can and can’t do out there. It’s all part of the process for the 22 year old and you can see why he was a first round pick. The potential is quite large, especially if he can carve out a role on the Senators first power play unit down the line.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Goal and two assists with a shot. He’s definitely on the streaming radar now as long as he’s centering the second line with Stone on his wing.
Mika Zibanejad – Assist with five shots. Despite moving down to the third line, he’s still seeing big minutes and it hasn’t hurt his production one bit. He’s right on the edge of 12’ers but I’m holding for now.
Petr Mrazek – 23 save shutout. He’s been a godsend this year and has put himself in the discussion to be a top 5 goalie in dynasties going forward. Mrazek turns 24 next weekend and despite the two big guns on Detroit (more on them next) approaching the end, they have a nice young core in place as well.
Pavel Datsyuk – Two goals on seven shots. The shots are up from recent years and with 28 points in 38 games, his owners have to be thrilled.
Henrik Zetterberg – Two assists and three shots. His game has changed a ton this year with the shots massively decreasing but he should still have 55-60 points, including a ton on the power play.
Dylan Larkin – Assist and three shots. I talked about it last week but if he starts to get power play points, he’s going to be incredible. Larkin has the chance to be a top 10 fantasy player down the line with how well he hits all of the categories outside of power play points, which should come. After all, he’s still only 19.
Justin Abdelkaeder – Assist with two shots and seven PIM. He should be owned in 12’ers because of the PIM he provides with 45ish points.
Tomas Tatar – Goal on three shots. He only played 10:41 which is a bit strange but with 16+17 in 52 games, his owners aren’t complaining.
Tuesday Streamers: Tuesday has a massive slate with 12 games on the docket. That means streaming probably won’t be necessary but for the people who have a bunch of players on the 6 teams that don’t play, here are my top 3 options:
Andre Burakovsky (25% owned) – He’s mostly here because I think Burakovsky is a must-own right now having scored a point in 6 straight games.
Anders Lee (18.2%) – Columbus is a trainwreck right now and Lee is on the first power play unit again.
Joseph Blandisi (1.5%) – I’ve talked about him a fair amount lately in posts and the comments and while I don’t think he’s worthy of a hold in 12’ers, he’s an excellent streamer tonight against the Oilers.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back tomorrow recapping all of Tuesday night’s action. As always, feel free to ask any questions or post any comments below. Take care everyone!
