After a massive breakout in which he scored 72 points in 77 games and Tampa Bay made the Cup Finals in 2014-15, everyone expected Tyler Johnson to push his way into superstardom. Then he struggled massively in 2015-16 scoring 38 points in 69 not-so-nice games. "It's okay, he'll bounce back!" Kind of, but 45 points in 66 games wasn't necessarily what people hoped. "Write him off, that was a fluke!" Nope, Johnson is back on track. Johnson scored a hat trick on Tuesday putting six shots on goal in the 5-4 win over Carolina. He now has 16 goals and 18 assists in 42 games with a +11 rating. The shot rate on the whole doesn't look great, but Johnson has 33 shots on goal in his past 9 games, in which he has 8 goals. The player that was tied for the team lead in points during the regular season and led a Cup finalist in points in the playoffs looks to be back. If he is, Tampa is going to be even more unstoppable. Johnson is available in around 25% of leagues and if you're lucky enough to be in, grab him immediately. If you own him, props for grabbing him and don't look to sell high because we know the upside. Let's take a look at what else happened the last two nights:
The Tampa Bay Lightning head into the 2017-18 season looking to get back into the playoffs following an extremely disappointing 2016-17. After two deep runs in the playoffs, the Lightning couldn't overcome a plethora of injuries, causing them to miss the playoffs by a single point. Picking them to make the Stanley Cup Finals in the presesason didn't work out so well for me. Anyways, a healthy team should have no problem making the playoffs again but some puzzling offseason moves leave me a bit concerned of their overall upside. From a fantasy perspective, Tampa has their usual set of elite options with some new supplemental pieces. Additionally, we finally have a clear goaltending situation with Andrei Vasilevskiy, one of my favorite targets, getting full time duties. Let's take a look at what Tampa Bay is working with:
What looked like an amazing weekend for Mark Stone turned for the worst at the last minute. Stone had one of the biggest games of the year on Saturday scoring a goal and four assists with five shots in the 6-3 win over the Maple Leafs. Stone followed that up by scoring a goal and taking a penalty against the Jets on Sunday before a hit to the head from Jacob Trouba knocked him out of the game. As if a hit to the head wasn't concerning enough, Stone has already had a concussion in the preseason, an injury that caused him to become a value in drafts. Stone has been terrific this season with 22 goals and 25 assists through 56 games but now, his fantasy owners are in a tough spot as are the Senators who were decimated by injuries over the weekend. Look for some news to come out later today on Stone's status but here's to hoping it's nothing serious like another concussion. Let's take a look at what else happened around the league this weekend:
