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We've reached the final week of the regular season, which means the end of the fantasy season.  Here's to hoping that you're still playing for your championship.  As I've been doing on most Mondays recently, I'm going to give a quick rundown of the week ahead, recent injuries, and general strategy advice.  Let's get to it! The first thing you should do is check whether your league includes the two games on Friday or not.  On Yahoo!, the game is included, while on ESPN, leagues end on Thursday.  Most other places do include the Friday game, so I'm going to treat this post as if the Friday games are going to count in your league.  Colorado, Nashville, Columbus, and Buffalo play on Friday, so obviously drop the value of their players if you're on ESPN.
What better way to become the third player ever to 800 goals than to score a hat trick?  Alex Ovechkin did just that on Tuesday, scoring three times and adding an assist against the Chicago Blackhawks.  He's only one goal behind Gordie Howe for second all-time, and then the real chase towards Gretzky starts.  Ovechkin already has 20 goals this season in 31 games, a mere 53 goal pace for the 37 year old.  He's over four shots per game, and while the plus-minus is disappointing, it's starting to turn around a bit.  My love for Ovechkin is well known in these parts, so I don't need to belabor the point, but I can't wait for the greatest goal scorer ever to push towards 895.  Here's to hoping he keeps battling father time and gives hockey fans a great chase.  Let's see what else happened over the last two nights:
With Tyler Bertuzzi injured and Jakub Vrana in the league's assistance program (best wishes to him), the Red Wings needed somebody to step up on left winger.  Dominik Kubalik, come on down!  Kubalik wasn't given a qualifying offer by the Blackhawks after last season, leaving him to sign in Detroit as a free agent.  The first two weeks couldn't have gone better, especially the last weekend.  Kubalik had a goal and an assist with 4 shots against the Blackhawks on Friday, before having a goal and two assists with six shots against the Ducks on Sunday.  With eight points in his last four games, Kubalik is in must-own territory right now.  There's no guarantee it lasts, but he's shown he can thrive next to Larkin and Kubalik has been a 30 goal scorer before, so we know he has the upside.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
One of the highest variance players for fantasy hockey this season is Logan Thompson.  You can't ask for much of a better start.  Thompson had a 27 save shutout on Thursday, and the Golden Knights needed every bit of it in the 1-0 win over the Blackhawks.  He also had 27 saves on 30 shots in the first Vegas win, 4-3 over the Kings.  I liked Thompson as a #2 this year, and this start makes me feel better about it.  It's not going to be smooth, but that happens for only a few goalies in the entire league.  Outside of the worst matchups, I feel good about rolling Thompson against everybody for the time being.  Let's see what else happened on Thursday: 
Remember when the Kraken took Vitek Vanecek in the expansion draft and then traded him right back to Washington?  Imagine where Washington would be if they only had Samsonov.  Vanecek had a 36 save shutout in the 4-0 win over the Hurricanes.  He missed some time recently, but Vanecek is approaching a 2.30/.920 line.  He's been miles better than Samsonov despite Samsonov winning at a much higher clip.  Amazingly, Vanecek is still available in over 70% of leagues at the time of this writing.  I'm not saying that he's going to be a workhorse, but Vanecek will be splitting at the very least, and his numbers are clearly good enough to hold.  This season has been quite encouraging for Vanecek's long term prospects as well.  He's not a lock to be the Washington goalie of the future, but it's certainly in play now.  At the least, he looks the part of a capable tandem.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Those of you that have been patient holding Evander Kane for almost four months were rewarded on Saturday night.  Kane played his first game of the season with the Oilers and went right on McDavid's wing.  Kane scored in the first period and finished with three shots in the 7-2 win over the Canadiens.  He's still available in 50% of ESPN leagues and very close to that on other sites.  Kane is a must own immediately, and if you use FAAB, you should bid a large amount of your budget.  Yes, he could do something stupid and be banished, but the upside is too high for him to be on waivers.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
There was plenty of craziness on Thursday night, but the Detroit-Tampa game takes the cake.  The Red Wings took the lead 6-3 in the third on the back of four, count them four, Tyler Bertuzzi goals, only to blow the game and lose in overtime 7-6.  Bertuzzi looks to be a solid streamer, but it's going to take a lot more to hold him.  He's been inconsistent in the past, and he's unvaccinated.  That means he won't be able to play any games in Canada.  The Red Wings already have a one off in Montreal next Saturday and another game in Toronto the week after.  It's simply too hard to hold a player that's missing games for something other than an injury.  Let's take a look at what else happened on the ice on Thursday night:
Life without Couturier hasn't been as good without Claude Giroux.  He started the turnaround on Thursday night.  Giroux scored two goals and two assists with three shots and two PIM in the 5-3 win over Carolina.  That brings Giroux up to 17 points in 22 games, not exactly lighting the world on fire, but the shot rate is the best of his career.  75 shots in 22 games is a huge step forward, and if that continues, we could be looking at a new career high in goals.  Yes, he only has 7 to this point, but we could be on the verge of a heater.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Not sure David Pastrnak even knows who Christopher Columbus is, but he sure dominated on his day Monday.  Pastrnak won the game for the Bruins scoring all four goals on five shots.  Two of those goals were on the power play, he chipped in two penalty minutes, and finished +1.  I generally don't like to lead off posts talking about superstars, but I feel obligated to give Pasta props for a four goal game.  The top seven going into the season were pretty clear for me but who was eighth was a debate.  I ultimately decided on Draisaitl but went with Pastrnak in the nine spot.  So far, so good.  Look for the Bruins top line to dominate on a nightly basis.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
We're at the end of individual rankings!  Almost 15,000 words later, we've ranked the top 100 forwards and 40 defensemen.  Now, we conclude that with my goaltending rankings.  I'm going to start by talking about my goaltending strategy for drafts, then split the goalies into tiers.  I'm not going to go in-depth on every goalie, just the ones that I feel are worth talking about, mostly because I'm higher or lower on somebody.  The reason I don't want to go very in-depth on every goalie is that the variance on goaltending from season to season is massive.  In other words, even the best goalies have poor seasons from time to time, and guys will come out of nowhere to have excellent seasons.  Did anyone know who Jordan Binnington was a year ago?  The public certainly did not.  Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss were afterthoughts for most.  Darcy Kuemper was the backup and wasn't drafted outside of deep leagues.  Those goalies were the 3rd-6th ranked goalies at the end of the season.  This is why I never draft goalies in the first two rounds, and never more than one in the first 7-8 rounds.  If you like to have one presumed top end goalie, that's fine, go for it in the 4th-5th rounds if they're still there.  Just do not reach, because the range of outcomes in goalies is incredibly wide, while forwards and defensemen are much more certain.  Any other questions on this, let me know in the comments section below.  Here are my tiers: