For the majority of the public, T.J. Oshie broke onto the scene during the Olympics when Dan Blysma had him shoot every time in the shootout against Russia. He had played well for years on the Blues and now is continuing that run in the nation’s capital. In two games over the weekend, Oshie had three goals, two assists and four shots. I’ve talked about in recent weeks while he was cold being someone to buy if possible. Playing on the top line for the Capitals along with their first power play unit will give Oshie his best chance of producing elite point totals in his career. The numbers are solid down the line but there’s plenty of potential for them to improve. Here’s what else I saw this weekend:
Frank Vatrano – Hat trick on Friday, five total shots in two games. Frank the Tank has been a common streamer for me and he will continue to be so. Unless the minutes increase, it’s too hard to call him a hold.
Patrice Bergeron – Two goals on ten shots with two PIM. His offensive game has been as good as his defensive game which is saying a ton.
Ryan Spooner – Four assists with three shots and two PIM. Definitely must own now in 12’ers.
Loui Eriksson – Two goals on six shots. Minutes are still very strong and he’s shown no signs of slowing down.
Sidney Crosby – Three assists with seven shots and six PIM. However, he’s day to day after an injury on Saturday night. He’s been incredibly disappointing on the season but he was starting to get rolling. If he misses time with this injury, it’d be a big blow.
Trevor Daley – Goal and an assist with six shots and two PIM. Must own while Kris Letang is out; he’s getting great opportunity immediately in Pittsburgh.
Steven Stamkos – Three goals on twelve shots and two PIM in two games. Finally; he’s another guy who’s been a big disappointment but he could easily have a big second half in him.
Alex Killorn – Two goals and an assist with six shots. Getting a prime opportunity right now so he’s worth grabbing if you have the roster spot.
Nikita Kucherov – Three assists with four shots and four PIM. He’s really heating up right now and, like the rest of the Lightning, has huge upside for the second half.
Alex Ovechkin – Three goals, two assists, fourteen shots and four PIM in two games. He’s now over five shots per game and almost at a point per game with 17 goals. Great stuff.
Marcus Johansson – Two goals and two assists with four shots. He’s a solid streamer but I’m not sure I’d want to hold him in a 12’er. He’s not good at any specific category and he doesn’t get PIM.
Nicklas Backstrom – Four assists and four shots. Pretty standard Nick Backstrom line there in a weekend when the Caps score 12 goals.
Justin Williams – Two goals and two assists with four shots and four PIM. He’s absolutely must-own everywhere now with above average contribution in all categories besides PIM.
Roberto Luongo – 24 save shutout Friday, then stopped 30 of 34 shots on Sunday in the 5-4 win over the Canucks. The swings have been pretty big for Luongo lately and the weekend was a prime example of it. Don’t hesitate to keep rolling him out there, the overall numbers are still great.
Aleksander Barkov – Two assists with seven shots. He’s really coming into his own in his third year. The penalty minutes are very low end but come next year, he’ll probably be in the 50-75 range predraft.
Jonathan Huberdeau – Three assists with four shots. The overall numbers are starting to round into form although it does suck he only has 4 goals on the season. One even strength goal in 34 games is a major disappointment.
Cam Ward – 16 saves on 17 shots in the loss to Florida, 37 saves on 38 shots in the win over Pittsburgh. I still don’t want anything to do with him. Fundamentally, he’s a poor goalie and there’s a good chance down the stretch that either the Hurricanes sell off and become worse, they play Eddie Lack more to see what they have in him or both.
Brent Burns – Goal and an assist with ten shots in two games over the weekend. Amazingly for a defenseman this is almost right in line with what we should expect from Burns at this point. Incredible season so far.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Two assists with five shots and two PIM. He’s pretty low end but as your last defenseman in a 12’er, you could do worse.
Joe Thornton – Goal and an assist with six shots. He’s starting to slow down a bit but he’s still on a 55-60 point pace.
Erik Karlsson – Two goals on ten shots. He played 36:34 on Sunday in a game that didn’t go to overtime. That is one of the craziest things that will happen all season. How the hell is he able to play that much, especially with his style of play? And he doesn’t even have his flow’s magical powers anymore since he cut the hair!
Mike Hoffman – Two assists with four shots. Man crush is still strong.
Jannik Hansen – Goal and two assists with four shots and two PIM. He’s stuck on the first line longer than expected and his season long numbers are really good considering his lack of power play time. If you can stomach no special teams points, Hansen is a great own at this point.
Sven Baertschi – Two goals and an assist with six shots. He has a ton of talent but the minutes haven’t been there because of his inconsistency. In deep leagues, I’d grab him and take the shot. In 12’ers, I’d be looking to stream in the short term to see if something is building there.
Pavel Datsyuk – Goal and an assist with five shots. Starting to round into form and only has one power play point through 18 games. That will surely rise.
Henrik Zetterberg – Goal and an assist with eight shots. It’s encouraging to see eight shots in two games. That used to be his regular shot rate and now he’s barely over two per game on the season. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come to really get his value up into the top 50 or so.
Henrik Lundqvist – 31 saves on 35 shots in the loss to Winnipeg, 19 saves on 24 shots in the loss to Washington. Yikes. The King has been horrible for the last couple weeks but I’d be looking to buy low if at all possible. He didn’t just stop being an incredible goalie and his numbers are the season are still great even with this stretch.
Dan Boyle – Two goals on six shots. With the injuries the Rangers have, Boyle’s minutes have been much higher recently so he’s a great add in the short term.
Keith Yandle – Two assists with two shots and two PIM. Still only has one goal this year which is bizarre. Everything else is solid, including his 72 SOG so goals should be coming.
Blake Wheeler – Four assists with a shot in the win over the Rangers. I still don’t understand how ESPN had him ranked in the 70s in the preseason; hopefully you have him on a bunch of teams since I had him in the 30’s!
Bryan Little – Two goals and an assist with four shots. Still has my vote for most underrated player in hockey.
Andrew Ladd – Goal and an assist with three shots and four PIM. Still the third member on the most underrated line in hockey.
Patrick Kane – Two goals and an assist with eleven shots and two PIM. It was a strange atmosphere in his return to Buffalo with him being consistently booed when he had the puck only for the Blackhawks fans in attendance to erupt when he tied the game in the last minute of play. His amazing season continues.
Duncan Keith – Three assists with two shots. This season is a perfect example of why I had Keith ranked lower than everywhere else. He doesn’t contribute in PIM and his shot rate has continued to decline. The assists are top end and the special teams points are close to it but you can’t be a top 10 defenseman failing in two categories.
Jack Eichel – Assist with three shots. He looked much better with Tyler Ennis returning to the lineup on his wing so hopefully this sparks him.
Sam Reinhart – Assist and four shots. I still believe he’s must own but if he’s available in your league, leave him on the wire until after Tuesday’s games before the three day holiday break. The Sabres don’t play again until Saturday.
Mark Giordano – Goal and two assists with seven shots. If he can get going on the power play, he has a chance to turn his season around. The points are coming now at even strength but he can’t get back over 50 points unless he improves on the power play, where he has two points on the season.
Vladimir Tarasenko – Goal and two assists with four shots. His top 10 ranking is paying off at this point. He’s sticking right there in the race to lead the league in goals.
Jonathan Bernier – 26 save shutout against his old team. Revenge game! He’s been absolutely atrocious this season only to shutout one of the best teams in the league. Makes sense.
Michael Grabner – Two goals and two assists with four shots. This game literally doubled Grabner’s goals and assists on the season. Hard to do that in game 29!
Nazem Kadri – Two assists with a shot. He’s still well behind the mean when it goes to shooting percentage and the power play points are poor. I’d buy low on the chance that both of those things get fixed.
Leo Komarov – Two goals and an assist with two shots. Uncle Leo has been a great story this year. He’s taken full advantage of his opportunity getting first line minutes with 13 goals and 8 assists. If you’re in a hits league, he’s been bonkers.
Fredrik Andersen – 21 saves on 22 shots in the 2-1 win over the Devils. It was his first start in weeks and he delivered. All it did was make the goaltending situation in Anaheim even more messy.
Cory Schneider – 38 saves on 39 shots in the 2-1 SO loss to Boston. The Devils offense is starting to slow down quite a bit outside of the top line. Schneider will still be great because of the other numbers but expect the wins to start coming down a little.
Joonas Korpisalo– 30 saves on 32 shots in the 3-2 SO win over the Flyers. A new name for the database! Sergei Bobrovsky looks to be ahead of schedule and will return soon so I wouldn’t own another Blue Jackets goalie. That said, if you’re desperate for this short week for a start, I think they will go back to Korpisalo tonight and he could do well against a struggling Pens team.
Mike Condon – 17 saves on 23 shots against Dallas getting pulled early in the third. Yikes. The fairy dust is falling off of Condon and the Canadiens are struggling big time now. They need Carey Price back and soon.
Jamie Benn – Two goals and an assist with four shots. In 33 games, Benn now has 22 goals, 22 assists, +15, 104 SOG, 29 PIM and 14 STP. That’s how you become the number 1 skater in the player rater, even ahead of Kane.
Tyler Seguin – Goal and an assist with four shots. Insert statement about Seguin being great here.
Patrick Sharp – Goal and an assist with two shots. He’s back on the first line so look for a little run here from Sharp. Hopefully he sticks on the first line for the sake of his owners.
Jason Spezza – Goal and two assists with two shots. He just keeps chugging along putting up solid numbers.
Zach Parise – Goal on four shots. Too bad he had the injury or he could have made a run at another 40 goal season.
Shea Weber – Two assists with three shots. The shot rate has come down, the penalty minutes have fallen off drastically and he’s -6 yet he could set a career high in points this year because of his power play prowess. Strange year for Weber to this point.
Mike Ribeiro – Goal and an assist with a shot. If he took two shots a game, Ribiero would be extremely value. Now, being under one shot per game, he’s a two category beast (assists and PIM) but he’s so bad elsewhere that it’s hard to stomach.
James Neal – Goal on four shots. He’s slowed down quite a bit after his torrid start but the numbers through 33 games are still looking very good. He’s on pace for a 30 goal and 100 PIM season.
Louis Domingue – 25 save shutout against the Islanders. He should run away with the Coyotes job for the next couple months since Anders Lindback is horrible but I still wouldn’t want Domingue unless I’m that desperate for goaltending. The Coyotes are a mess defensively and that’s not going to change.
Semyon Varlamov – 39 saves on 40 shots in the 5-1 win over the Oilers. This is quite the incredible run for Varlamov but I’m still not buying it. If there was ever a time to sell high…
Tyson Barrie – Goal and an assist with two shots. Barrie has quietly been going about his business and is on pace for another 50 point season.
Monday Streamers: With no games being played Wednesday through Friday, there’s an eight game slate on Monday which is huge by Monday’s standards. Here are my top three streams for the day:
Leo Komarov (37.7% owned) – He’s much more highly owned than my normal stream calls but I don’t understand why he’s available in over 60% of leagues. The Leafs should control the game against the Avs (everyone does against the Avs) so Uncle Leo should get some chances.
Calle Jarnkrok (1.1%) – He’s still on the first line getting big minutes, he’s coming off a late game winning assist in the win over the Wild and the Canadiens goaltending is atrocious right now.
Conor Sheary (0.3%) – He’s been getting a shot in the top 6 after his recent callup and has looked better than pretty much anyone else has in his first couple games in that role. The only reason he isn’t a higher preferred stream is that Crosby could get the night off to give him extra time to rest his nagging lower body injury.
That’s all for now guys; hope everyone had a great weekend! I’ll be back on Tuesday recapping all of Monday night’s action. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out the newest Marv vs Pesos article. As always, feel free to ask any questions or post any comments below. Take care everyone!
