Dallas was in a mini slump having lost three of their last four games going into Monday night. Safe to say that they took their anger out on the Penguins. Dallas scored six goals in the first period, eventually winning the game 7-1. Mason Marchment led the charge, tying the franchise record for points in a period with four, before tallying a fifth in the third. Marchment’s goal and four assists brought him up to a point per game on the season. The minutes lead Marchment to being quite streaky, which is a reason why I see him more as an elite streamer than hold. That said, you can make the case for holding Marchment on the bottom of your roster. The PIM are excellent, the hits are also very good, and his play at even strength leads to a top plus-minus. If you can stomach low shots and streaks, you can use Marchment for other team needs. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Nick Suzuki – Two goals and two assists with four shots and two PIM. The game was a masterclass in horrendous goaltending from both teams. The top Montreal players took advantage with Juraj Slafkovsky dishing three assists, while Cole Caufield scored two goals, giving him the league lead. Kirby Dach moved onto the first line and dished two assists. Dach bumps to a solid streamer, with Slafkovsky on the fringe. The other two are clear holds.
Tage Thompson – Left the game with an LBI after scoring, no update yet. Fingers crossed that he’s okay because the Sabres are dead without him.
Alex Tuch – Two assists with a shot. Tuch is pushing a point per game again. He’s on the fringe, but he’s a clear hold in blocks leagues since he adds a ton for a forward.
Rasmus Dahlin – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. This was one of the worst games of Dahlin’s career, but thankfully that doesn’t matter for fantasy. Overall, Dahlin is looking like a fantasy #1 in 12’ers again.
Dylan Cozens – Goal and an assist with two shots. He’s showing signs of breaking out, but it’s telling that he still only played 15:49 with Tage missing two periods. Middling streamer for now.
Owen Power – Two assists. Power was also a disaster defensively in this game. The points are good enough right now to be held everywhere.
Jake Oettinger – 20 saves on 21 shots in the 7-1 win over the Penguins. Nice to see Oettinger back as a top five goalie again.
Matt Duchene – Goal and two assists. Duchene is a very good player, but I did not have him easily lead the Stars in points thus far. That said, I would look to sell if possible. He’s shooting an absurd 36%, taking just over 1.5 shots per game.
Brendan Smith – Two assists with a shot and two PIM. And there’s your annual Smith update!
Esa Lindell – Two assists with a shot. Lindell has deep league value, but I don’t see him as more than a streaming for blocks and low end assists.
Miro Heiskanen – Two goals on seven shots. It’s been a rough start to the season for Heiskanen, but we’ve seen him play at too high of a level in the past to be worried.
Mikael Granlund – Goal and an assist with five shots and two PIM playing over 24 minutes. The workload for Granlund is insane, and makes him a clear as day hold. The worst thing that can happen for his fantasy value is a trade.
William Eklund – Two assists with a shot. Eklund is starting to show signs of why he was a top ten pick. He’s a solid streamer.
Matvei Michkov – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. The Flyers have nothing going for them this season, so of course Torts needs to sit Michkov for two games. Just nonsense. Anyways, I’m still holding Michkov in my 10’er, so he really should be held everywhere.
Dustin Wolf – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 3-1 win over the Kings. Wolf has been solid, as he looks to be in an even split with Vladar. He’s on the fringe depending on your league format.
Mikael Backlund – Goal and an assist with three shots. Middling streamer.
Samuel Girard – Goal and an assist. The Deputy scored the overtime winner, and the assists are coming back to levels we used to see 4-5 years ago. The problem is his shot rate is atrocious. I can see deep league value, but I don’t see more.
Jordan Staal – Goal and an assist. Three game point streak for Staal, but I have zero interest.
Jaccob Slavin – Two assists with a shot. Meh, not really interested in this current version of Slavin. He’s not getting any power play time, and his shots are barely over one per game.
Eric Robinson – Goal and an assist with four shots. Robinson having nine points already is nothing short of a miracle, but Carolina tends to this for random guys. Maybe I’d consider him in a super deep league, but this is fools gold.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Goal and an assist with six shots. This is the best stretch of hockey that Kotkaniemi has played. Somehow, he’s still only 24 years old. Middling to solid streamer.
Jack Eichel – Goal and an assist with four shots. The shot rate is down significantly, but Eichel is also playing at nearly a 100 assist pace. He’s playing out of his mind.
Kyle Connor – Two goals and an assist with seven shots and two PIM. Connor has been the third best forward in fantasy so far behind MacKinnon and Kaprizov. Seems decent.
Neal Pionk – Three assists. Does this run from Pionk make any sense? Not really, but enjoy it while it lasts.
Mark Scheifele – Two goals on three shots. Scheifele has been around a point per game for close to a decade, but this arguably the best all-around hockey he’s played, at least post-COVID.
Nikolaj Ehlers – Two assists with a shot. He’s well over a point per game, making my long term love affair justified. Finally a coaching staff that’s giving him PP1 time!
Will Cuylle – Goal and an assist with four shots and two PIM. Cuylle has been excellent in a third line role for the rangers. The problem is that his minutes are so low. He’s a solid streamer, but a borderline hold in hits leagues.
Braden Schneider – Two assists with two shots. I can make a pretty good case that Schneider is their second best defensemen, or that Jones should be on the top pair, but they’re both stuck on the third pair behind Lindgren, Trouba, and Miller. The last two especially look awful. For now, Schneider is a deep league guy with decent long term upside in dynasties.
Linus Ullmark – 27 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Maple Leafs. It hasn’t been the best start for Ullmark, but I still expect him to settle in as a top end #2 in 12’ers.
Artem Zub – Two assists with two shots. These were Zub’s first two points of the season. Pass.
Jacob Markstrom – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 4-1 win over the Panthers. Great performance from Markstrom against a red hot Florida team. He won’t get the crazy workload we saw in Calgary at times, but Markstrom should be a bottom end #1 in 12’ers with upside depending on the PIM.
Dougie Hamilton – Two assists with two shots. He’s having horrible shooting luck, but Hamilton is piling up the assists in the meantime. I’m very bullish on him for the rest of the season.
Jesper Bratt – Two assists with two shots. Bratt has quietly been a top ten forward so far, and that’s with Hughes on his line playing far from his best hockey.
David Pastrnak – Goal and an assist with ten shots and two PIM playing over 24 minutes. While the points are lagging a bit, Pasta is still at a point per game and almost five shots per game. There’s plenty of reason to expect better going forward.
Charlie McAvoy – Goal and an assist with three shots. Really ugly start for McAvoy, but I don’t really see any reason to panic.
Kyle Palmieri – Goal and an assist with two shots. Shockingly good start for Palmieri, who has 7+7 in 16 games. He’s up to the fringe.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Two assists with two shots. Bottom end streamer.
Anders Lee – Two goals. Pretty big resurgence from Lee, who looked washed at the end of last year. Top end streamer while the shot rate is this good.
Connor McDavid – Goal and three assists with eight shots. Edmonton wins 4-3 in overtime, McDavid with points. This is what we’ve become accustomed to.
Evan Bouchard – Goal and two assists with eight shots. Bouchard has been good with three shots per game and 10 points in 16 games, but it’s not what we’re hoping for. Most of that can be attributed to the Edmonton power play not being what it was. I still like Bouchard plenty, but it might be more bottom of the top ten than the top five we saw last year.
Leon Draisaitl – Two goals. The absurd shooting percentage at 30% will inevitably regress, but I’m sure the assists are going to surge sooner than later.
Sean Kuraly – Goal and an assist with two shots. Zach Aston-Reese had the same stat line, with Kevin Labanc assisting on both goals, as the fourth line from Columbus did the damage 22 seconds apart in the first period. There’s nothing here for any of the three in fantasy and it’s hard to imagine that changing.
Jordan Eberle – Two assists with two shots. Better start to the season than I expected from Eberle, but the shot rate is rough. That said, he’s still a middling streamer.
Jared McCann – Goal and an assist with six shots. Six shots is great to see, as the shot rate was lagging quite a bit. That said, nobody can have any complaints with McCann, who has a whopping 19 points in 16 games.
J.T. Miller – Two assists with five shots. Not his best work so far, but Miller is still hovering around a point per game.
Elias Pettersson – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. It’s been really rough for Pettersson, but with three goals in the last four games, it looks like he’s turning the corner.
Erik Brannstrom – Goal and an assist with four shots. There’s no denying the talent, but Brannstrom has failed to put it together to this point. For now, he’s a fantasy afterthought.
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, Saints has three, and a couple people have one. I’ll go with Stutzle against the Flyers.
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!
