With Draisaitl out for the regular season, somebody in the Oilers supporting cast had to step up. There's been a few depth guys that have, but nobody more than Matt Savoie. The former ninth overall pick from the Sabres has started to come into his own. Savoie had a goal on five shots in the 3-1 win over the Blackhawks. This was his fourth game out of five that Savoie scored a goal, but the most important things for projecting going forward were his role. In this game, Savoie played with McDavid and registered over 19 minutes, including on the top power play unit. The Oilers schedule is pretty spread out so I'm not going to say he's an automatic hold, but Savoie has a Tuesday/Wednesday back to back next week, which is a prime spot to stream him. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
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!
Matthew Knies (2 G, +1, 2 PIM, 4 SOG, 2 H) is one of the only bright spots shining on the sinking ship that is the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season. His second-period shorthanded goal was a thing of beauty. Knies intercepted a weak Bruins pass, pushed aside Mason Lohrei, who looked a lot less powerful than his 6’5” frame would suggest, like an empty paper plate, and threw a nifty head fake on Jeremy Swayman before roofing a nice lickety-split wrister over the netminder’s glove.
As much as this was a nice opportunity for the Bruins to pad their lead over Columbus, Montreal, and Detroit in the extremely tight playoff race, this tiny snapshot in time was an equally important reminder for Leaf fans that the team needs to do a lot of other “retooling or rebuilding” that DOES NOT involve trading their 23-year-old sniper.
It's no surprise that Nazem Kadri is the big winner of the trade deadline. The surprise is how big of a winner that he is. Kadri has played on the wing with MacKinnon and Necas instead of centering his own line, and it doesn't get better than that. Kadri had a goalon two shots on Thursday in the win over the Kraken. His 19:26 in a blowout win is the lowest TOI he's played so far. There's a real chance that Kadri will be a top 50 player for the rest of the season if he stays in this spot, despite being available in 15% of leagues. I assume your league's trade deadline has passed, but if it hasn't and you're making a push, Kadri is a top target.
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.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
The Olympics are finally done. And I guess nothing too exciting happened, so let’s not waste any time digging into that stuff…
Oops. Wrong image.
Ok. I didn’t think we’d be able to get around that one.
Before we get into names to consider for the final 25 games and the race to the playoffs, a quick recap of Olympic play is in order.
First, congratulations to Team Canada for their clean sweep of SILVER in Italy!
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
It was a night to remember for the Sabres and their franchise defenseman on Tuesday night.
Rasmus Dahlin scored one in the first, one in the second, and then finished off the hat trick with an empty-netter in the third. The 3 goals and 2 assists were a career high single-game output for the 25-year-old Swede, and brought his point total up to a robust 42 PTS in 48 GP.
It wasn’t all Dahlin, though, as the rest of the Sabres brought their scoring sticks with them on their trip North of the border. Tage Thompson (1G, 1 A), Alex Tuch, Jack Quinn, and newly extended Josh Doan all tickled the twine for the Sabres, and helped to extend their newest win streak to 4 games.
As a Buffalo fan, I experienced plenty of pain in my sports fandom. For the first time this millennium, the Sabres and Bills are doing well at the same time, and while it might only last a few more days (I feel good about the Bills Saturday though!), I'm certainly going to enjoy it while it lasts. I'm a hockey fan first, having gone to games 3, 4, 5 (in Philly), and 6 the last time that the Sabres were in the playoffs. I was in college and wasn't even able to buy a beer at the games! Here we are, almost fifteen years later, and the Sabres are finally looking like a real time. Their best forward led the charge the last two days. Tage Thompson dished two assists and added two shots in the 5-2 win over the Flyers on Wednesday. He followed it up with one of the games of the season on Thursday, scoring a hat trick with two assists in the 5-3 win over the Canadiens. Tage is up to 25 goals and 24 assists in 46 games with a 3.5 shots per game pace. He's now tied for fifth in the league in goals, and second in even strength goals behind MacKinnon. This is after leading the league in even strength goals last season. Now, if only the Sabres power play can ever sustasin some success, and Tage could push for a Rocket Richard. As is, we're looking at a premier goal scorer and a top 20 fantasy forward, which makes him a top 25 player. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
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:
Like most of the Rangers, Mika Zibanejad has been extremely frustrating this season. Before Friday's outdoor game in Miami, he had one shot on goal in the previous five games combined! So naturally, he had one of the games of the season so far, scoring a hat trick on six shots and adding two assists in the 5-1 win over the Panthers. The top line for the Rangers was dangerous throughout, and just like that, Zibanejad is ahead of last season's points pace. He's just shy of a 30+40 pace now and the shot rate is back up towards three per game. It's not exciting, and it's definitely close to the fringe, but I lean towards bottom end hold still. The minutes are through the roof at the moment and with their lack of depth, I can't imagine that changing any time soon. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
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.
