Mark Stone has been a favorite of Razzball Hockey (aka me) for a few years now. One of the most underrated players in hockey, Stone is an above average first liner, no doubt about it. Somebody is going to pay him a ton in the offseason as an unrestricted free agent and he’ll be worth every penny. Stone had an incredible game on Tuesday scoring two goals on seven shots while adding in three assists as well. That brings him to 6+12 in 15 games. He’s somehow available in 25% of leagues on ESPN, which is crazy. Stone should be owned everywhere, and while I’ve been clamoring for him to be traded so he’s even better, it’s become abundantly clear that he’ll produce just fine in Ottawa this season. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Monday’s Games
Tuukka Rask – 24 saves on 25 shots in the 2-1 OT win over Dallas. I’ve gotten plenty of questions about Rask and Halak to this point. Look, Rask is the #1, that’s not going to change. If you can buy low on Rask, I would be all over it. I assume you can’t get a lot for Halak, so if I owned him, I’d probably hold tight for now.
Jonathan Drouin – Goal and an assist with six shots. Drouin has been playing a lot better lately. I am not holding yet, but he’s getting close.
Max Domi – Goal and an assist. The trade has done wonders for Domi’s career. Domi is up to 8+7 in 14 games. Sure, the shot rate isn’t great, but the PIM are there. He’s a clear hold right now.
Noah Juulsen – Two assists with a shot. There is nothing here offensively. However, Juulsen has 40 hits and 26 blocks in 12 games, making him an elite streamer in deep leagues come the end of the week.
Casey Cizikas – Two goals. Cizikas somehow has 5+4 in 13 games, but there is no reason to believe he can come anywhere close to keeping this up.
Brian Boyle – Hat trick on four shots with two PIM and eight hits. Thrilled for Boyle to have six goals after his cancer issues. He’s playing on PP1 which makes him a solid streamer. Boyle only played 13:30 in this one, and he has one assist on the year. so he’s nowhere near a hold.
Will Butcher – Goal and two assists with two shots. The shot rate still sucks and he doesn’t commit penalties so he’s an easy pass. If you want to stream him at the end of the week because you need PPP, that’s okay. Otherwise, no thanks.
Keith Kinkaid – 35 saves on 36 shots in the 5-1 win over the Pens. I appear to be much higher than consensus on Kinkaid’s outlook. Schneider wasn’t good last year, plain and simple. Kinkaid could easily keep the #1 job and I would be shocked if he gets less than half the starts. Plan accordingly.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Two assists with five shots. RNH has been spectacular with 16 points in 14 games and over three shots per game. Hopefully you got a piece of him since I moved him up a ton in my rankings once it was clear he would play with McDavid.
John Carlson – Two assists with five shots. Great start from Carlson, no surprise.
Devante Smith-Pelly – Goal and an assist with two PIM. Travis Boyd had two assists with a shot. Both are irrelevant in the fantasy world.
Claude Giroux – Two goals and an assist with three shots. Giroux has picked up right where he left off last season with 6+11 in 15 games.
Sean Couturier – Goal and an assist with five shots. On the other hand, Couts has started very slow. I’d be looking to buy low if I could. The minutes and role are there for Couturier to get back on track.
Shayne Gostisbehere – Goal and an assist with six shots. Same story as Couturier for Gostisbehere.
Tuesday’s Games:
Tomas Tatar – Two goals on six shots with two PIM. They were his first goals in weeks, but Tatar now has 5+8 in 15 games with over three shots per game. He’s either an elite streamer or a bottom end hold. Montreal plays every other day for the next three weeks, so it’s your call.
Jeff Petry – Two assists with a shot, -3 in 28 minutes. This game sums up Petry fairly well. The assists are great, and it’s enough for you to hold if you want to. He’s also under two shots per game and is generally a minus player, so there’s some real downside as well. Either way, it shouldn’t last past Weber’s return.
Brendan Gallagher – Two assists with six shots. I love me some Gallagher. The assists won’t be great, but everything else could be.
Kevin Hayes – Three assists with five shots playing almost 22 minutes. Hayes is a decent streamer right now, but there’s a chance he could become a bottom end hold if he gets traded into the right situation (he’s a UFA after the season).
Chris Kreider – Goal and an assist as did his linemate Mika Zibanejad. The top line for the Rangers has been rolling for a while now. Zibenejad is a clear hold while Kreider certainly looks like one at the moment given the PIM boost.
Erik Haula – Left the game with what appeared to be a devastating knee injury. Here’s to hoping it’s not season ending, but odds are it is. You can safely cut Haula even if you have IR spots.
Connor Brown – Goal and an assist with three shots. Brown has not done much this year so I wouldn’t even consider him a bottom end streamer.
Frederik Andersen – 36 saves on 37 shots in the 3-1 win over Toronto. The Leafs were quite poor in this game, but the combination of Andersen and the posts let them steal a victory. Toronto is playing a tighter game with Matthews out which helps Andersen out quite a bit.
Sergei Bobrovsky – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 4-1 win over the Stars. The buy low opportunity for Bob appears to be closing rather quickly.
Jimmy Howard – 40 saves on 42 shots in the 3-2 SO win over the Canucks. It helped that Brock Boeser missed this game due to injury (it doesn’t appear serious), but I still have a tough time using Howard in any matchup. He’s not the worst GPP DFS option given the shot volume he faces in the hope that he stands on his head, but it’s a big gamble.
Nico Hischier – Two assists with four shots. He’s really coming into his own at 19 years old. Hischier is already pushing a point per game, and with five multi-point games in his past nine, we’re starting to see the upside on a more consistent basis. It might not be this season, but he’s going to put it all together soon and be a point per game player.
Matt Duchene – Three assists with a shot and two PIM. I’m not going to list every Sens player who had a big game in their seven goal explosion. Duchene is worth mentioning because of the hidden camera video that came out the other day. It’s ridiculous that it became publicly available, and it’s a really bad look for Duchene. He’s an elite streamer or bottom end hold, but I have to think this increases the chances that he’s traded which will boost his fantasy value.
Thomas Chabot – Goal and two assists with nine shots. This kid is taking the league by storm and it’s only going to get better. He’s so good that he should even avoid a bad plus-minus. I loved him as a prospect, but Chabot is showing that he could turn out even better than I projected. He’s a future #1 fantasy D in the making; hell he’s close right now.
Nikita Kucherov – Two goals and an assist with six shots. His linemate, Steven Stamkos, had a goal and two assists with five shots. As expected, these two are getting on a massive heater.
Yanni Gourde – Goal and an assist with three shots. Congrats to Gourde on the big contract extension. The shot rate has taken a huge jump this season which gives Gourde a good chance at being a top 50 player.
Brayden Point – Goal and an assist with two PIM. Point has killed it across the board and there’s no reason to expect him to fall off.
Chad Johnson – 38 saves on 39 shots in the 4-1 win over the Hurricanes. Johnson sucks, plain and simple. Don’t let this game fool you, he’s completely unusable.
Ryan O’Reilly – Hat trick on five shots. First career hat trick for RoR who has been spectacular in St. Louis. As I’ve said for a couple months, I expect a career high in points from him, and now it’s looking like he could blow his previous career high out of the water,
Tyler Bozak – Two assists. Couldn’t care less.
Vladimir Tarasenko – Two assists with a shot. The plus-minus is rough, but I expect it to fix itself. Tarasenko is at a point per game with over four shots per game, so things are going extremely well.
Mikko Koivu – Two assists playing 21 minutes. I prefer to stream Koivu at this point of his career.
Marcus Sorensen – Goal and two assists with a shot. He had never registered two points in a game before this three point outburst. It’ll take more than this one game to get Sorensen in consideration of fantasy use. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Brent Burns – Two assists with a shot. The shot rate is down but Burns remains among the league’s elite.
Barclay Goodrow – Goal and an assist with two shots, +4. That’s more points than he had all season before today, so yeah, Goodrow is irrelevant.
Ilya Kovalchuk – Goal and two assists. He’s really rounding into form on the Kings second line. The offensive zone starts are doing Kovy wonders. Expect him to keep piling up points.
Alec Martinez – Two assists. The days of caring about Martinez in fantasy are long gone.
Tyler Toffoli – Goal and an assist. The new second line for the Kings looks pretty good, but I’ve never been a Toffoli fan. He’s a decent streamer, but that’s it.
Jack Campbell – 30 saves on 31 shots in the 4-1 win over the Ducks. I think this says more about the spot than Campbell. Campbell has plenty of upside and downside, but using any goalie at home against the Ducks looks to be a good play right now.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Friday recapping all of the action from Wednesday and Thursday. As always, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments below. Thanks for reading, take care!
