Last season, Alex Lyon saved Florida by getting them into the playoffs until Bob returned from injury. While I’m not predicting a Stanley Cup run from the Red Wings, Lyon has saved somebody for the second straight season. The Red Wings were in a massive downward spiral, and Lyon has stepped in to get them back into the playoff picture. Lyon had a 30 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Flyers on Thursday. He’s won 12 of his 19 starts, and is currently sitting at a .920 save percentage. So why is he available in 70% of leagues? He’s clearly a #2 goalie in 12’ers at the very least, and I’d argue that he’s near the top end of #2’s right now. If you need goaltending help and Lyon is available, consider it your lucky day and pick him up. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Wednesday’s Games
Dylan Guenther – Goal and an assist with six shots and two PIM playing over 20 minutes. I’m very bullish on Guenther’s talent going forward. He’s a middling streamer for now, but there’s a ton of long term upside.
Carter Verhaeghe – Three assists with two shots and two PIM. On top of maintaining last season’s 40 goal pace, now Verhaeghe is going to smash his previous career high in assists. He’s been a top 25 forward.
Matthew Tkachuk – Two goals and an assist with three shots. And just like that, Tkachuk has turned his season around with 20 points in his last 10 games.
Sam Reinhart – Goal and an assist. Fun fact, Reinhart looks exactly like my brother. He easily could have pretended to be him at bars when Reinhart was a Sabre, although he’s 4 inches shorter. Anyways, Reinhart is up to 35 goals already. Just an incredible season, and I can’t wait to see his new contract, presumably with Florida.
Gustav Forsling – Two assists. I thought Forsling was going to be great when Ekblad and Montour were out to start the season, but instead, it happened later. He’s been the best defensive defenseman in the league so far, and is worth holding again in almost all formats.
Ilya Samsonov – 32 save shutout in the 1-0 OT win over Laurent Brossoit (29/30) and the Jets. Two good starts in a row for Samsonov, but he’s still a massive gamble I don’t want to take. Brossoit is worth streaming in every start.
Teuvo Teravainen – Goal and an assist with three shots. Teravainen is a solid streamer, but he’s lacking in too many categories to be held.
Sebastian Aho – Two assists. It will be interesting to see if Aho can maintain this pace. If he does, he’s easily going to set career highs in points.
Brad Marchand – Two goals on three shots with two PIM, both assisted by Trent Frederic. Frederic has some deep league value, but I’m not really interested in shallower leagues. Marchand is playing at a 40+40 pace while still hitting all the categories across the board.
Dylan Strome – Two goals on three shots. Solid streamer.
Nathan MacKinnon – Four goals and an assist with eight shots. What an animal. Mikko Rantanen had the revers, with a goal and four assists. Cale Makar had a goal and two assists. MacKinnon is the Hart favorite in my opinion, while Rantanen and Makar continue to be monsters. Nobody has an answer for these guys.
Seth Jones – Two assists with three shots and two PIM. I have zero interest unless the league includes blocks and doesn’t have plus-minus, in which case I’d consider him.
Tomas Tatar – Two goals. Tatar has been better with the Kraken, but it’s still bottom end streamer territory. This game says more about the current state of Chicaog than anything.
Robert Thomas – Two assists with a shot. It only took Thomas getting to two shots per game to be a fantasy stud. He’s hitting all of the other categories extremely well. Matchbox Twenty is one of the best playmakers in the league.
Jake Neighbours – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Neighbours looks like he could be a nice fantasy asset long term, but he has 4 assists in 46 games this season. It’s hard to use anyone doing that.
Pius Suter – Hat trick on four shots. This was Suter’s second monster game of the season, and just shows you how well everything is going for Vancouver this year. Suter went on the second line with Miller and Brock Boeser (2A) and also went on PP1, which makes him an elite streamer immediately.
Quinn Hughes – Two assists with three shots. The goals have slowed down as expected, but all your assists still belong to Hughes!
J.J. Peterka – Two goals and an assist with four shots. The Kid Line was reunited for the Sabres, and they dominated the Kings, with Jack Quinn having a goal and two assists with five shots, while Dylan Cozens had a goal and an assist with four shots. With the Sharks on deck for Buffalo on Saturday, all are great streaming options for that game. Peterka would be my preference of the three right now.
Adrian Kempe – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Kempe has already tied a career high in assists. The drop is goals is directly because of his shooting percentage going back to a normal level. That said, he should easily set a new career high in points.
Thursday’s Games
Clayton Keller – Goal and an assist with three shots. While Keller is struggling at even strength more than usual this season, he’s still putting up his usual amount of points and shots. Easy hold everywhere.
Nikita Kucherov – Goal and two assists with six shots. It feels like every game, Kucherov gets three points. It’s absurd. Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point each had a goal and an assist as well, as the top guys on Tampa remain unstoppable.
Mitchell Chaffee – Goal and an assist in his fourth career NHL game. Chaffee played under 10 minutes in this game and is organization depth. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Charlie Coyle – Two assists with a shot and two PIM. Coyle is on the fringe, although I lean hold as long as he’s centering David Pastrnak (1+1, 2 SOG, 4 PIM).
Thomas Chabot – Goal and an assist with seven shots. Chabot has been decent, but he’s been unlucky to this point. I’m bullish on a good finish. I have him as a bottom end #2.
Noah Dobson – Three assists with three shots playing over 30 minutes. Safe to say that Roy loves Dobson as much as Lambert did. He’s a bottom end #1.
Kyle Palmieri – Goal and an assist with eleven shots and two PIM. The Isles went down 3-0 right away in this game, and a lot of the crazy numbers are influenced by eight power plays. That said, Palmieri has 32 shots in his last five games. He’s back to an elite streamer.
Mathew Barzal – Goal and an assist with nine shots. Bo Horvat also had a goal and an assist with five shots. Both played over 26 minutes. Safe to say that Roy is in the “ride your stars hard” camp which is great for all of their values. Nelson also played 21+ minutes.
Sean Monahan – Two goals and an assist with five shots. The top line and power play also crushed for Montreal, with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield each having 1+1. Monahan is a solid streamer, but the one downside is that his quality play lately makes it more likely he’s moved. A trade more than likely will hurt his value.
Lucas Raymond – Two assists with four shots. Still in the solid streamer range.
Kirill Kaprizov – Two assists with two shots and two PIM. Kirill the Thrill is back in form.
Ryan O’Reilly – Two assists with two shots. RoR has been fantastic in Smashville. It’s not an exciting stat line, but he’s a hold everywhere.
Roman Josi – Goal and an assist with three shots. It feels like Josi is underperforming, and then I see he’s the #7 overall defensemen and it just shows you how high his floor is.
Jakob Silfverberg – Goal and an assist with two shots. A nice run of play for Silfverberg, but he’s washed up, plain and simple.
Isac Lundestrom – Two assists with a shot. I though Lundestrom could develop into something a couple years ago, but it hasn’t panned out. Maybe he’s a second team guy if he’s moved? For now, I have zero interest.
Thomas Harley – Goal and an assist with five shots. Even with Heiskanen back, Harley was a factor. I’m still holding Harley even though I wasn’t expecting to when Heiskanen came back. He’s been that good for the Stars.
Connor McDavid – Two goals and an assist with seven shots and two PIM. Leon Draisaitl had three assists. Safe to say that Chicago had no prayer against them.
Calvin Pickard – 27 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Blackhawks. Pickard isn’t going to play much, but with how Edmonton is playing right now, I’d be streaming him in all starts.
Damon Severson – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Nothing to see here fantasy wise with Severson in Columbus.
Yegor Chinakhov – Goal and an assist with three shots. Chinakhov is a middling streamer.
Adam Fantilli – Goal and an assist with three shots. We’re seeing the flashes from Fantilli, and I have no doubt that he’ll be a fantasy superstar. For now, he’s a solid streamer.
That’s all for now guys. With the NHL schedule greatly reduced next week due to the All-Star break, I’m not exactly what I’ll be doing. I’ll probably have my usual Monday recap of the weekend, but there are only six games all of next week. If anyone has any suggestions for posts, I’ll definitely entertain those ideas. As of now, I’m leaning towards looking at my bold predictions and then maybe a quick look at every team to see who could get traded and whose value could change the most based on what their team does. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted regardless. As always, feel free to ask any questions or give any comments below. Thanks for reading, take care!
