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What’s poppin’, Razzpimples?

If you’re new to this column or have no idea what the Friday/Sunday split is, it’s a simple yet effective way to maximize your weekly output no matter the format of your league. Typically — and it’s not always the case — heavy game loads are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, whereas Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays are lighter. Streaming players on those lighter days is almost a necessity to ensure you’re getting the most of each week, but this column focuses on just Fridays and Sundays. Reason being is that you get more bang for your waiver add buck in picking up a guy who will play those two days and will almost always be able to slot into your starting lineup without having to sacrifice someone else to the bench.

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My bullishness of Wyatt Johnston as a hockey player is well known in these parts.  The 20 year old has the makings of a future stud in both regular hockey and for fantasy.  Right now, he’s been given the best opportunity early in his career, and he’s taking full advantage of it.  Johnston was bumped onto the first line with Dallas’ two best forwards, Robertson and Hintz, and Johnston has been excellent since the change.  Robertson totaled three assists, four shots and two PIM in the 5-4 win over the Red Wings on Tuesday.  Johnston has seven points in his last five games while averaging over three shots per game.  The new change is enough to put Johnston on the fringe, and with Dallas closing the week with Anaheim and Washington, I would definitely be targeting Johnston for the bottom of my roster.  Let’s take a look at what else happened on Tuesday night:

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It’s not too often that an NHL record that’s stood for over one hundred years gets broken.  That happened on Wednesday night.  Despite his role shrinking, Kris Letang had the period of a lifetime.  Letang dished five assists in the second period in a seven minute span, becoming the first defenseman in NHL history to record five assists in a period.  He finished the game with six assists, all at even strength to give him a +6 rating in the 7-0 win over the Islanders.  Even with this game, Letang is far from the defenseman he used to be, partially due to age, and partially due to the arrival of Karlsson.  He’s under two shots per game, and has only three goals as a result.  However, the assists are still very good, the hits and blocks are solid, and the PIM are much higher than they’ve been.  He’s the perfect #3/4 defenseman on most teams since he’s hitting most of the categories and piling up assists.

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Hello everyone. Welcome to the seventh edition of JOT This Down!

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback in volume six. I appreciate it.  Keep the questions, comments, and concerns coming. I’ll be here all week to answer any and everything you may have.

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Hello everyone. Welcome to the fifth edition of JOT This Down!

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback in volume four. I appreciate it.  Keep the questions, comments, and concerns coming. I’ll be here all week to answer any and everything you may have.

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Hello everyone. Welcome to the second edition of JOT This Down!

It was so nice to have hockey back on the screens after so long without it. The NHL is in a really good place in terms of the level of talent in the league right now. In almost every game, you will see a jaw-dropping play or an unbelievable stat line, sometimes from someone you would have never expected it from. Take Brock Boeser for example (add him if he is somehow available), nobody could have predicted that on opening night, but you never know what will happen in the NHL. That’s why in a sport with a lot of luck and volatility, never get too upset if things don’t go your way. It’s a long season, and there’s always next week to bounce back. Treat it as a hobby and have some fun. 

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You guys know I like to start my posts about players who could be available in a large percentage of leagues that you can target on the waiver wire.  After all, being aggressive at the bottom of your roster is a huge factor in fantasy hockey.  However, sometimes a player has a weekend so good that you have to give him his due.  This time, that player is Auston Matthews.  Matthews scored three goals on Saturday, recording his second hat trick in as many games.  Look, everybody knows the upside.  We’re talking about a guy who scored 60 goals two seasons ago on his way to the Hart trophy.  He’s obviously in that tier right behind McDavid, and the only reason I had him towards the bottom of the tier is that he tends to miss 10-15 games a season.  If Matthews can play 75+ games, a repeat of 60 goals is well within reason.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the weekend:

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The rich keep getting richer.  The Boston Bruins acquired Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway from the Capitals on Thursday, sending draft picks and Craig Smith to Washington, and a pick to the Wild for retaining salary.  I think this trade is far more interesting from the Washington perspective.  They couldn’t agree to a contract with Orlov, with the dispute being over the term of his next deal.  Until a few days ago, it seemed farfetched that they would weaken their team for this season, but I actually think it’s a smart move.  Even if they snuck into the playoffs, they weren’t going anywhere.  They gained some additional ammo that they can flip in the offseason to make a push again next season.  They have a lot of additional pending UFA’s that could be on the way out, so it’s hard to figure out who will be there in a week to benefit from this move.  My guess is Trevor van Riemsdyk takes Orlov’s spot on PP2, but he’s also a UFA making 950k so he’s a logical target for a lot of teams at that price, so he could be on the move too.  Smith should crack the lineup, but I’m not expecting much at all.  He’s off the radar until we see him play.  As for Boston, Orlov won’t be getting PP time there with Lindholm holding down PP2, so he takes a slight hit to his value.  The Bruins are so good that Orlov should stumble into enough points to be valuable in deeper leagues, but we’re talking 14+ teams.  Hathaway should do what he usually does, and that is pile up a bunch of hits and PIM with an okay goal rate for a fourth liner.  All in all, this trade impacts real life more than fantasy.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:

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Another star player has made his way to the Eastern Conference well ahead of the trade deadline.  We already had Horvat and Tarasenko move, and now we have a former Conn Smythe winner.  Ryan O’Reilly was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, along with Noel Acciari, for a bevy of draft picks.  The Wild also acquired a pick for retaining salary, and there were prospects involved, but none of them are particularly relevant.  For fantasy, we care about RoR and Acciari.  Let’s start with Acciari because it’s easier.  Acciari moved right onto Toronto’s fourth line.  He scored a goal against the Blackhawks on Sunday, and is piling up hits.  He’ll be a deep league value for his hits and decent goal rate.  O’Reilly is an interesting debate.  He’s easily having the worst offensive season in the last decade.  On the other hand, RoR has been playing much better lately, and he went right onto the second line with Tavares and Marner.  He dished an assist in his debut on Saturday playing just over 16 minutes in the 5-1 blowout against Montreal.  He also won 12 of 14 draws, which is notable that he bumped Tavares from the faceoff circle most of the time.  I’m not rushing to pick up RoR, mostly because we know that he’s not cracking Toronto’s first power play unit.  That said, there’s upside in Toronto that he couldn’t touch in St. Louis again.  If you want to stream him on Tuesday against the Sabres and see where it goes, I can get behind that.  

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Carolina’s offense has been a bit disappointing overall, with only Aho sitting around a point per game.  The injury to Patches really put a hole in their lineup that I assume they’re going to address before the trade deadline.  On the bright side, their most recent high draft pick just had the game of his early career.  Seth Jarvis scored a hat trick in the 6-2 win over Montreal on Thursday.  Overall, Jarvis has taken a step back offensively this season which is disappointing.  His points are down despite playing 2 minutes more per game on average.  It’s dropped him down to being a middling streamer, but it hasn’t really changed my long term opinion of him.  He has great speed, solid hands, and an elite compete level.  Jarvis just turned 21 years old so the best is yet to come.  If you owned him in a dynasty, I wouldn’t panic.  He’s going to be a top six winger for a long time.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:

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At least once a season, Nick Schmaltz has a monster game for the Desert Dogs.  One of those games came on Thursday.  The Coyotes buried the Blues 5-0, with Schmaltz recording a hat trick and adding a power play assist.  The minutes are through the roof right now, playing over 18 minutes in every game in 2023, and averaging over 20 per game.  That’s enough to put him in the elite streamer range, if not on the fringe.  I can’t quite get to hold with poor PIM/hits and a below average shot rate, but I can see holding him for stretches while he’s playing this well.  The first line looks really good for Arizona (more on the other two later) and the Coyotes are actually above real .500 at home, plus their schedule is super home heavy the rest of the way.  Schmaltz should at least be near the top of your streaming priority list.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:

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