The best line in hockey from last season is at it again. Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron each had five points in the two Boston wins over the last two nights. Marchand started off with a goal and an assist with three shots in the 4-1 win over Montreal, then bettered that with a goal and two assists with three shots against the Islanders. Bergeron dished two assists on Wednesday before getting his second hat trick in the last two weeks on Thursday. Bergeron is now one point short of being at a point per game while Marchand is well over that, sitting at 1.28 ppg, third in the league. Marchand has provided slam dunk first down value, just exactly what you hoped for when you selected him this year. Bergeron has managed to surpass expectations on a per-game basis. If he didn’t miss time, he’d be a top ten forward on the season. These guys are the main reason why the Bruins are one of the best teams in the league and a major Stanley Cup threat if they can manage to upset the Lightning. For our purposes, keep rolling them in seasonal formats, and if you’re someone who fires multiple DFS lineups every night, I would make sure to have a Bruins stack on at least one team every night. The upside is simply too high to ignore. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Tuukka Rask – 21 saves on 22 shots in the win over the Canadiens. Doesn’t get much easier than playing Montreal these days. He got the night off on Thursday as expected, but as I mentioned in my predictions post, I’m a little worried that Boston doesn’t give Rask true #1 goalie volume the rest of the way.
David Krejci – Goal and three assists with six shots over the two games. I’d grab Krejci to stream over these games and it sure did pay off. He’s a solid streamer going forward, but the Bruins have 3 games before the All-Star break and they’re all on super busy gamedays so you won’t get much value there.
Ryan Spooner – Two goals and an assist with five shots. Feel the rhythm with your hands, steal the rhythm while you can, Spoonman! God, Chris Cornell was amazing, RIP. Anyways, Spooner is up on the second line with Krejci and getting solid power play time making him a solid streamer.
Anton Khudobin – 22 saves on 24 shots in the 5-2 win over the Islanders. Stream him whenever he gets a start.
Sidney Crosby – Two assists with two shots Wednesday, assist and a shot on Thursday. Six game point streak has Crosby above a point per game again.
Phil Kessel – Goal and an assist with four shots and two PIM Wednesday, one shot Thursday. Phil is still rolling on that Primanti Bros. diet.
Patric Hornqvist – Two goals on four shots. He’s not going to light the world on fire in the points department but he’s solid enough in the other categories to be held.
Casey DeSmith – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 3-1 win over the Kings. Despite it being a back-to-back, I did not expect DeSmith to get a start. So of course he comes in and shuts down the Kings. I wouldn’t be adding him though, I would be surprised if we see him more than once again before Murray returns.
Ondrej Kase – Goal and an assist with three shots. Kase has 9 points in his last 9 games (6+3) with at least two shots in every game (30 total). While he’s a hot schmotato, Kase is definitely worth streaming. There’s a decent chance he turns into a valuable dynasty option in deep leagues given his age (22) and speed (very fast).
Brett Connolly – Two goals on four shots. He’s shooting over 30% on the season; I’ll go on a limb and say that doesn’t last. Given that Connolly has only 3 assists in 37 games, I’m going to pass.
Sami Vatanen – Three assists with two shots and two PIM. Vatanen is starting to come around in New Jersey having 9 assists in 19 games (with a goal). He’s probably worth owning in 12’ers.
Taylor Hall – Goal and an assist with four shots. Six game point streak for Hall who hasn’t slowed down at any point all season. Nothing fluky about Hall being over a point per game.
Michal Neuvirth – 29 saves on 31 shots in the 3-2 OT win over Toronto. As talked about on Thursday’s podcast, there’s no doubt in my mind that Neuvirth is the better goaltender in Philadelphia. Whether he gets the opportunity he deserves is another question, but if you need goaltending help, I don’t mind spec adding Neuvirth hoping that he takes over like he should.
Ben Bishop – 25 saves on 26 shots in the 2-1 SO loss to Columbus. The first of many incredible saves I’m going to embed into this post, Bishop saved his team a point with this one:
OH MY, BEN BISHOP!! pic.twitter.com/Us6f5gp5uH
— Dylan Nadwodny (@dnadders) January 19, 2018
The overall numbers are sitting right around where we hoped. Bishop isn’t going to get back to the level he once was, that is the #1 player in fantasy, but he looks to be a #1G again as expected.
Joonas Korpisalo – 35 saves on 36 shots earning the win. He was a goal away (with Dallas having the goalie pulled) from getting a shutout. He’s a middling streamer depending on matchup. He has 6 good to great games this season with 3 duds. The duds were at Chicago in the first week of the season, at St. Louis, and against Tampa. In other words, use him solely based on the opposition.
Kyle Okposo – Goal and an assist playing over 19 minutes. For the last month, Okposo has looked much like the player he was before last season’s illness. He’s absolutely on fire right now with 7 points in his last 3 games and 11 in his last 9. I’m not declaring him must own like he used to be but definitely stream Okposo on Saturday against Dallas. The Sabres power play, which was dead last in the league this season after being best last year, looks much better again too. Which leads us to…
Sam Reinhart – Two assists, two shots, two PIM. It feels a bit unlucky that Reinhart had only two points in this game. His offensive game was strong in all facets, particularly in front of the net at both even strength and the power play. I feel better about streaming him again.
Jack Eichel – Two assists with six shots. Jack play hockey good.
Rick Nash – Two goals and an assist with three shots. Nash was overdue to score some goals and now he has four in his last two games. It’ll be extremely interesting to see whether or not the Rangers move him before the deadline. Either way, I really like the way the revamped Rangers first line looks so I’d be looking to stream Nash right now, along with…
Pavel Buchnevich – Goal and an assist. The minutes still aren’t great but that was partially due to the Rangers taking six penalties. He’s fitting in well with Nash and Mika Zibanejad (A, 3 SOG, +3) so I feel comfortable streaming Butcher again.
Carter Hutton – 20 saves on 21 shots in the 4-1 win over the Senators. If you haven’t grabbed Hutton by now, well, what are you waiting for!?
Alex Steen – Goal and an assist with four shots as did his linemate Brayden Schenn. Steen is a solid streamer while Schenn is obviously a hold. Schenn has slowed down after his otherworldly start but he’s still a 6 category beast.
Marc-Andre Fleury – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 4-1 win over Tampa. That now makes MAF the #1 goalie in the league in save percentage since he’s made enough starts to be qualified. He’s been the best goalie in the league when he’s played; just stay healthy!
Deryk Engelland – Two assists. No fantasy relevance here but props to him for the contract extension.
David Perron – Goal and an assist. Look at this beauty:
DAVID PERRON YOU FILTHY ANIMAL pic.twitter.com/qIKjzBAWnM
— Ryan Quigley (@ryanquigz) January 19, 2018
As Reid would say, a nice casual toe drag. And RIP Anton Stralman looking that silly. Perron remains a solid source of penalty minutes with elite assists so he should be owned everywhere.
Richard Panik – Two assists with two shots. He’s getting plenty of opportunity in Arizona so far but he’s a bottom end streamer at best given the plus-minus concerns.
Ryan Ellis – Goal and an assist with four shots. Welcome back, power ginger beard. He’s been picked up in most leagues already but if you’re fortunate enough to be in a league where Ellis is still on the waiver wire, grab him immediately.
Roman Josi – Two assists with five shots. Do as the Roman does!
Jonathan Bernier – 45 saves on 48 shots in the 5-3 win over the Sharks. He was covered on the podcast linked above, but here are some ridiculous saves on Hertl:
JONATHAN BERNIER ROBS JOE THORNTON BLIND TO KEEP IT 4-3! pic.twitter.com/z8CPQPCeep
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) January 19, 2018
Martin Jones – 17 saves on 22 shots getting the loss. He does not look good at all right now outside of the Kings game the other day. I would not be surprised if Aaron Dell gets some more starts in the short term if you’d like to make a speculative add.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Goal and an assist. Vlasic has been solid in fantasy in some years in the past but this is not one of them.
Kevin Labanc – Two assists with seven shots. Bottom end streamer until the minutes and shot rate stabilize.
Nathan MacKinnon – Two goals and an assist with five shots. The Hart Trophy going to MacKinnon is increasing probability by the day.
Mikko Rantanen – Goal and two assists with three shots. I keep forgetting to mention Rantanen as a waiver wire pickup of the year candidate. He was drafted in some leagues but definitely not all of them, yet here he sits at exactly a point per game in January. Incredible stuff from the 21 year old.
Blake Comeau – Two assists. And there’s your biannual Comeau update!
Matt Nieto – Goal and an assist with two shots. I know some of you came here for some in-depth analysis on the Matt Nieto revenge game, but let’s just say he’s turned into a nice player in real life who still isn’t worth a damn in fantasy.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Monday recapping all of the weekend’s action. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. I would appreciate some feedback as to whether or not you would like more GIF’s included in the posts as well. Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend, take care!
