Hi all, and welcome to week 8 of the NHL season. This week has a really weird and not at all fantasy-conducive schedule due to the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. I will as usual do my best to give you some streamers to pickup as well as teams to target and/or avoid for this week but be aware that the schedule is tight. You may need to stream players specifically for the two off-nights this week and not necessarily for their entire weekly schedule.
- As is customary each year there are NO games played on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday).
- The only two off-nights this week are Tuesday and Sunday.
- The teams playing the league high of four games as well as those with at least one or more games on an off-night are listed in the table below.
- There are three other teams which also have one game on an off-night but who only play three games this week: Columbus, Utah, and Chicago.
- The two teams playing the league low of two games (all of which are on busy nights in the league) are Toronto and Edmonton.
Top Streaming Team Schedules for the Week:
| Team | Total | Off-Nights | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| VAN | 4 | 2 | @BOS | @PIT | @BUF | @DET | |||
| MTL | 4 | 2 | UTA | @CBJ | @NYR | @BOS | |||
| WPG | 4 | 1 | @MIN | @LA | @VGK | @DAL | |||
| BOS | 4 | 2 | VAN | @NYI | PIT | MTL | |||
| DAL | 4 | 1 | @CAR | @CHI | COL | WPG | |||
| ANA | 4 | 1 | SEA | @SEA | LA | OTT | |||
| OTT | 4 | 1 | CGY | @SJ | @L.A. | @ANA | |||
| DET | 4 | 1 | @NYI | CGY | NJ | VAN |
*Bolded days/matchups are on off-nights*
Top Streaming Targets for the Week:
- Vancouver and Boston are my personal top streaming teams for the week. Both play 4 games with 2 off-nights and just one back to back game night. Furthermore we have some decent options to choose from on both squads at the moment. With JT Miller headed to IR earlier this week and Brock Boeser still out indefinitely, lots of ice time has opened up on the Vancouver top line and powerplay. Elias Petterson has moved up to center the top line and both Kiefer Sherwood – LW (22.3% rostered on ESPN) and former Bruin Jake DeBrusk – RW (26.1% rostered) have joined him in the wings. Both are seeing not only significantly increased ice time and top line usage but also PP1 deployment as well. This should continue for both players at least until the return of Boeser which could potentially still be a ways off. Alternatively, Conor Garland – RW is our deeper pickup here if neither Sherwood nor DeBrusk are available in your league. He’s also been bumped up to the second line, as well as PP1, and is slightly less rostered at 19% currently on ESPN.
- As for Boston, the recent firing of coach Jim Montgomery has for better or for worse lit a fire under the asses of many of the Bruins’ forwards. The overall sentiment coming out of players, at least that I’ve seen through media interviews, has basically tbeen “this was our fault due to our poor and uninspired play and we need to be better.” And possibly a little better since the firing they have been, winning both of their matchups since, vs. Utah HC and Detroit back to back. Offense has certainly been hard to come by for this squad past the first few games of the season but I’m intrigued by the recent deployment of a couple of their young up-and-coming players. I think they’re worth a look if your roster’s schedule allows it this week. Morgan Geekie – LW is a very low rostered player (1% currently on ESPN) that I’m interested in for this week. He was recently moved up to the top line with David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha and the 2nd PP as the Bruins continue to shake things up in search of more reliable offensive production. Since his line promotion he’s averaging 15 mins of ice time per game and has a goal and an assist. Not a ton of production over 6 games but I do like to see that he’s shooting the puck, averaging 2-3 shots on goal per game over this span is encouraging plus he’s good for a few hits per game as well. Justin Brazeau – RW (<1% rostered) is another young player who’s seeing some additional run lately for Boston. Playing on the second line and second powerplay, he’s become a solid net-front presence for the Bruins with 3 goals and 3 assists spread over his past 11 games. He also seems to be having increasingly solid rapport with Bruin’s captain Brad Marchand which was on full display with a beautiful goal/assist between the two on Saturday vs. Detroit.
- My final stream of the week is going to be a defenseman and another very deep cut on this awkwardly scheduled week. Ottawa has one of the better schedules this week in that despite only playing on one off-night they do play on Monday and Saturday which, of the busier nights, are probably the two potential days you may have some room in your lineup to slot a streamer in. So this is a very “your roster” dependent pickup but I do like Artem Zub this week, especially if you’re in a banger type league where hits and blocked shots count for extra. Since returning to the Ottowa lineup (in a first defensive pairing and first PK roll) after missing all of October and the first week of November Zub has quietly been a hits and blocked shots machine over the past 8 games. He’s only 1.3% rostered on ESPN and has only tallied two points through those 8 games but due to his schedule, averaging 18:18 TOI per game, and his particular statistical speciality I do think he’s worth a look this week.
*I did this last week too, but so as to not keep repeating the same names ad-nauseam in the weekly streams section I’ll just quickly mention that I do also love not only Winnipeg’s but also Dallas’ schedule this week as well. All the usual names that I’ve touched on in past posts once again apply this week for pickups – i.e. Marchment, Lindell, Dadonov, Vilardi, Perfetti, Namestnikov, Niederreiter, etc…*
That’s all for this week. As always, please leave any specifc team schedule, streaming, etc… questions in the comments below! Good luck and happy Thanksgiving!
