Ryan Getzlaf has been killing it for the Ducks since they were known as The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. He's been bald for that long too! Getzlaf missed extensive time this year due to injury but he's been great when in the lineup. He had his best game of the season on Thursday dishing four assists and adding two shots in the 5-4 OT win over the Islanders. To be honest, he wasn't even the best player on his team for fantasy (more on that guy later), but Getzlaf's fantasy impact is much greater. Getzlaf now has 2+13 in only 12 games so far. He played almost 25 minutes in this game which just goes to show you, everything is in place for Getzlaf to get back to being a top 50 player for the rest of the season. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Hello Razzballers, Reid here.
While Viz is off doing things in Vegas that will inherently stay in Vegas, I'm going to bring you the daily writeup from the Monday and Tuesday games (doing a separate post for just one game on Monday makes absolutely no sense). Nikita Kucherov is against hot hot hot as he has a goal in each of the first 6 games for Tampa Bay. I'm only going to highlight the notables from these games that you should be focusing on.
Remember how poor Max Pacioretty was playing the first six weeks of the season? Despite the incredible start from the Canadiens, Patches was struggling to find the back of the net, mostly due to his shot rate falling off a cliff. While he's not at his normal levels, he's back over three shots per game and on Tuesday, Patches had a huge night. He scored on all three of his shots leading the way in Montreal's destruction of the Sabres. All of a sudden, Pacioretty is tied for second in the league in goals (at the time of this writing) being a plus contributor in all categories. While he's not pushing the top 25 like he was a couple years ago, Patches is firmly in the top 50 going forward. Here's what else I saw around the league on a massive Tuesday slate:
Everyone knew that Shayne Gostisbehere wasn't going to get a point in every game like he was when he was first called up. He's an amazing offensive talent but everyone goes through rough patches, especially 22 year olds. Ghost broke his recent slump in a big way scoring twice on three shots to lead the Flyers to a 4-2 win over the Lightning snapping their nine game winning streak. Shockingly, the Flyers are only two points out of the playoffs right now and they can thank Ghost and the first line for carrying them. The shots are great, the power play points are elite and so are the goals. Where will Gostisbehere rank among defensemen for next season? It's a very tough question to answer at this point. More than likely it's in the top 20 which is outstanding for somebody who was in the AHL to start the season. Here's what else I saw on Monday night around the league:
On Wednesday night here, I recommended Jamie McGinn as a streamer in his first game as a Duck, saying "early indications are that he’s going to play with Rickard Rakell and Corey Perry tonight. I like his chances to get a point if that’s the case." Well McGinn on both Wednesday on Thursday. On Wednesday, McGinn scored a goal on four shots against the Canadiens. He came back on Thursday scoring a goal and an assist with two shots against the Coyotes. This is the best opportunity that McGinn has had in his career so it's nice to see him produce right off the bat. This should help him keep this role putting him right on the fringe of 12'ers with how well the Ducks are playing. At the least, he's a top end streamer from this point moving forward. Here's what else I saw around the league the last two nights:
For the past week plus, every time that the Blues played I bring up a solid performance from Colton Parayko. His role was increased with the injury to Kevin Shattenkirk and he's run with it ever since. Yesterday, he scored another goal getting an absurd 10 shots on goal with 2 blocked shots. Shattenkirk is going to be back soon but Parayko has solidified himself as a top 4 option on the blueline with power play skills. Again, go grab him where you can.
Here's what else happened the last two nights:
Mathieu Perreault (1 G, 2 SOG, even) is Anahiem’s version of Martin St. Louis, the only difference is Perreault is actually scoring! It wasn’t always so, though. Maty, not to be confused with Marty, was playing really well to start the season with 11 points in 13 October games but then fell completely off the map for a few months scoring just 8 points over his next 23 games. Then January rolled around he put up 9 points in 11 games. Now this month he’s got six points in seven games and has scored a point in six straight. I’ve mentioned Perreault a few times this season and that’s because I really like the guy. Right now he’s penciled in as the Ducks’ second line center with Patrick Maroon and Kyle Palmieri on his wings and while those names may not overwhelm you to the point that you rush to the wire to add Perreault, they do have some solid chemistry going and Maty is starting to see some time with the Ducks’ second powerplay unit while averaging around 16 minutes TOI a game lately. The smooth skating, shifty playmaker has some solid offensive upside, plays for the Ducks and is scoring right now, so do you need another reason to add him to help keep your title hopes alive? I sure hope not, because you’re playing the wrong game if you do. Anyway, here’s what else I saw in the world o’ fantasy hockey last night:
EDIT (21/2/14): Kane is now on LTIR and is out for the rest of the regular season. You can safely drop him in any yearly leagues.
Patrick Kane (1 A, +2) apparently injured his left knee in a 4-0 victory over the Blues last night and it sounds like he’s going to be about for the rest of the regular season, or at least long enough to make sure he contributes nothing to his fantasy owners’ hopes and dreams of winning their leagues. Some reports say two weeks, others say three weeks, I say the rest of the regular season because why would the Hawks tempt fate and rush Kane back before the playoffs? Pro tip: they won't. I guess Brendan Morrow accidentally rolled into Kane’s knee after a hit from the Hawks’ Sheldon Brookbank. Well that’s great; it’s good to know two mostly worthless guys took one of the most valuable fantasy assets off the board for the playoffs. Can you sense my bitterness? Oh, I’m bitter. Like sour patch kids bitter. What, that’s sour? Fine, I’ll happily donate some of my bitterness to bitter it up further. So what do you do if you just lost Kane? Drink and cry, my friends, drink and cry. Before you get too deeply into the bottle, though, consider that Kane’s absence opens up TOI for some of the younger guys and will demand a reshuffling of the lines. It’s hard to say who will end up where, the Hawks have a ton of options, but Andrew Shaw (1 G, 3 SOG, +1, 2 PIM) has goals in back-to-back games and has seven points in nine games this month, so he might be worth a flier. A former Blackhawk now turned Panther is also worth a look as Brandon Pirri has been a roll since being traded to South Florida with seven points in his last eight games. Right now Kane owners are looking at this advice and cringing, thinking; “Shaw? Pirri? These are the guys you expect to replace Kane?” No, bitter Kane owner, I don’t! You can’t replace him, but you might be able to mitigate the impact to your hopes by looking into some of these guys, they might just be available to save your (and my) skins:
Well, that was quick.
Florida Panthers’ goaltender Tim Thomas was a last-minute signing to shore up a crappy goaltending unit that was near the bottom of the league for most of last season. Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Canucks got the short end of the stick in the playoffs. The shortest end possible to say the least. Vancouver won the Northwest Division and was promptly broomed out of the playoffs by San Jose. Please, blog, may I have some more?
