LOGIN
There are a couple teams making surprising runs to get back into the playoff race.  The most surprising to me, by far, is the Flyers.  In a huge showdown with Detroit on Saturday, the Flyers stomped them early and held on for the win.  Owen Tippett stole the show with a hat trick and an assist with seven shots.  He had two shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Stars, putting Philly two points out of the playoffs, albeit losing the tiebreaker to every team in front of them.  Philly has a bunch of games this week against their direct competition, so expect Tocchet to lean on their studs.  There are only two games on Friday, so Tippett has a real case to be held.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
The Anaheim Ducks have taken a big step forward this season.  Lucky for them, they're geographically located in the right place.  In the Eastern Conference, they'd be on the outside looking in for the playoffs.  In the West, specifically the Pacific Division, they're close to a lock.  The Ducks won their fourth straight game on Thursday, with Mikael Granlund scoring all three goals in a 3-2 OT win.  Granlund now has seven goals in his last four games and continues to get big minutes.  We've reached the point of the season where most of the fringe are streamers because we need to make a push in the fantasy playoffs, but with Anaheim having four games next week, Granlund is making a real case to be held while he's on fire.  Let's take a look at what else happened on Thursday night:
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! Well, fantasy baseball drafts are in full swing (pun relatively unintended), and I’m knee deep in preparations and writing for those. And I’ve been sick for three days. But…HOCKEY IS BACK! And I’m pretty excited to have an 11-game schedule of matchups to run down for y’all on the last Tuesday night of games before the Friday afternoon trade deadline. As for more names on the trade block? Well, I can guarantee this guy isn't going anywhere.
After missing the playoffs for fourteen straight seasons, I keep waiting for the Sabres to slump, but instead, they keep getting better.  On Friday, they had a big 3-2 regulation win in Florida.  If that wasn't enough, on the second of a back to back, they absolutely destroyed Tampa 6-2, including a 5-0 lead less than two minutes into the second period.  Only the Colorado Avalanche have more regulation wins this season than the Sabres.  What's been different this week is that Josh Norris has actually been in the lineup.  Norris had an assist with three shots against the Panthers, before scoring two goals against the Lightning.  As has been the case for Norris for four straight seasons, he's been hampered with injuries.  The good news is that he's dominated when he's played this season, sitting with 8+12 in 22 games.  The shot rate is poor so I wouldn't necessarily hold, but he's an elite streamer who probably belongs on the fringe.  Ride the production while you can.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
"Boldy is the type of player that I love to have on my team.  Boldy’s extremely safe across the board with plenty of upside."  And that's me quoting me from my preseason rankings copying what Grey does!  Nothing like a career high in goals for Boldy before the Olympic break.  Boldy was outstanding on Wednesday, scoring a hat trick in the first period against the Predators, later adding an assist in the victory.  While the shots are slightly down, Boldy is still over three per game, and already has 32+30 in 54 games.  That's a borderline top 10 forward.  I had Boldy in my top 25 overall going into the season, slightly ahead of his ADP.  Granted, when it's this early in drafts, slightly ahead put him on a bunch of my teams.  He should only continue to get better going forward and has the chance to be reach superstardom during the Olympics.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
It hasn't been a good year for Columbus, but they seem to have solved their goaltending issue going forward.  Jet Greaves stole the show on Thursday night, shutting out the juggernaut Stars in the 1-0 win, making 28 saves.  After that performance, Greaves is the #11 goalie for the season.  One of my ten bold predictions from the preseason was that Greaves would finish as a top 12 goalie.  There's no guarantee it holds, and some of my predictions were truly awful (I'll take a look at them during the break), but this one has a good chance of hitting.  Hopefully you all drafted Greaves as your third goalie and you're reaping the benefits.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
We're very accustomed to Vegas making a big trade every season at this point.  Surprisingly, we got their big move on Sunday already.  Since they were willing to acquire Rasmus Andersson without a contract extension, the Flames sent him to the desert, acquiring Zach Whitecloud, a first round pick, a second round pick (turns to another first if Vegas wins the Cup), and a prospect that projects to be an AHL'er.  It's a good return for Calgary, taking advantage of Andersson bouncing back from a dreadful 24-25 season.  For Vegas, the fit is kind of weird to me.  It's a team that doesn't even play a forward on their top power play unit, so are they really going to jam Andersson with Theodore on the second unit?  Probably to make him happy, at least with their current injuries, but I don't see a lot of gain there.  Scoring goals hasn't been a problem, and Andersson has still been bad defensively.  He should play with Hanifin which maybe helps a bit?  Overall, I think this is a net negative for Andersson's fantasy value, but I'm still holding him for the time being to see how it looks for the next couple weeks.  For Calgary, Weegar takes over the top power play unit by default.  He's on the fringe.  Whitecloud could gain some deep league value.  My assumption is he gets a top four role, and with that, some quality hits and blocks.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
It's not that often that you see a team score 10 goals in a game.  In fact, it didn't happen all of last season.  It did on Saturday, with the Bruins smashing the Rangers 10-2 in the afternoon.  It's no surprise that the two highest game scores of the season were Bruins in this game.  It's definitely not a surprise that one was David Pastrnak, who dished a whopping six assists in the game, adding five shots on goal.  The huge surprise was Marat Khusnutdinov, who scored four goals and an assist, finishing +6.  While he didn't record any stats in Boston's game on Sunday, Khusnutdinov did have three assists in his previous four games.  He's currently on the first line with Pasta, so he's worth bumping into the middling streamer range.  There's some upside here, but he only had seven shots in his previous eight games combined, so that will need to drastically change for anything more.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Patrick Kane hit the next milestone in his illustrious career on Thursday night, scoring two goals to reach the 500 goal mark for his career.  He became the fifth American and 50th player ever to score 500 goals.  Kane has been very good for the surprising Red Wings, totaling 8+18 in 30 games with an above average shot rate.  He's firmly on the fringe, meaning whether or not you hold him comes down to team needs.  If anything, he's been a bit unlucky with his shooting percentage, so there's a bit more upside here.  Just don't expect any more empty net goals, as the only reason he was on the ice with one in this game was to get him to 500.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
I celebrated the end of 2025 in the best way imaginable: watching hockey for the entire day.  There were a lot of highlights, starting with my Sabres winning their tenth game in a row.  Yes, Billy Bob, 10!  More on that later.  The most incredible performance though was another Avalanche beatdown.  Not that it was surprising at all against the Blues, but that they scored four goals (and have a fifth disallowed) before the Blues even had a shot on goal!  What a powerhouse. Nathan MacKinnon had his usual 2+2 with seven shots, but the notable performance for a non-superstar was Valeri Nichushkin.  Big Val had a hat trick on six shots in the 6-1 win.  He now has 11+15 in 31 games with a very good shot rate.  He's still available in almost two-thirds of leagues, and that simply needs to change.  Nichushkin is back on PP1 so if there was any doubt, he's must own everywhere.  Sure, he could get injured again, but you have to ride him until that happens.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
I liked the acquisition of Mason Marchment by the Kraken in the summer, but for whatever reason, it just wasn't working out.  They shipped him to Columbus, and Marchment looks like the player we are used to from his time with Dallas.  Marchment scored two power play goals on Monday, putting four shots on goal.  He has three goals in two games with Columbus now, and he's gone right onto the top line with Fantilli and Marchenko.  I don't expect him to get to hold status, but Marchment is an elite streamer while he's on fire.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights.  Also, apologies for not having my usual Monday post, but I am back home now and will be on my usual schedule going forward.
First off, I just wanted to apologize to everyone for not having the usual Monday morning post this week, but after traveling this weekend, I wasn't able to carve out the time to do a proper summary of things around the NHL.  The good news is I'm here now, and it's time to heap some more praise on the #1 goalie in fantasy right now, Logan Thompson.  Thompson recorded his 100th win on Sunday, getting a 39 save shutout in the 2-0 win over Columbus.  Thompson is sitting with an outrageous 1.96/.925 on the season, proving last season wasn't a fluke.  There's just no way Hockey Canada keeps him off the Olympic team now, right?  No matter how much politicking kept him off the Four Nations team because McPhee was butthurt about Thompson being mad he had to backup for Hill, he's clearly one of the three best Canadian goalies.  Do I think he'll finish as the #1 overall goalie?  Probably not, but I'd be stunned if he's not in the top 5.  He's in elite form and the team in front of him is playing very well.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last couple of nights: