LOGIN
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. 
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:
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:
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! I know you’re all getting things ready for the holiday, so let’s keep this brief and focused. There’s one group of NHL players who are certainly NOT on Santa’s naughty list this year. They'd also be perfectly happy to find just one thing underneath the tree tomorrow morning. A written guarantee from Santa that they’ll break the team’s 14-year playoff drought this April. I swear. I’m not lyin’. Buffalo is actually good. Sabres fans can thank Alex Lyon - 24 saves on 26 shots, and the 3-2 OT win at OTT.  Don’t look now, but the Sabres have won 7 straight games!
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! It’s been a bit of a wild ride for Morgan Geekie (2 G, +1, 3 SOG, 1 PPG, GWG). The Geekie Squad was the 67th overall pick in the 2017 draft and wasn’t considered much of a prospect after a 25-point season (in 66 games) for the 2015-2016 Tri-City Americans of the WHL. It was the following year’s breakout that put Geekie on the map (72 GP, 35 G, 90 PTS), and convinced the Carolina Hurricanes that he was worth a gamble in the third round of the NHL Entry Draft.
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:
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s a pretty popular show on Netflix these days that the kids are losing their ever-loving minds over. And as much as I was hoping to roll out a bit about Ivan Demi-dov-Gorgon, the Ottawa Senators had other plans (more on that below). Well, as they say, Stranger Things have happened than writing up a full round-up without a main star’s full stat-sheet to recount. And thankfully, a Motown defenseman gave us a performance to feature in our lede today. Moritz Seider took a page out of the alternate universe and flipped the Bruins into the upside down last night in Detroit with 1 G (4), 2 A (15), +1, 4 PIM, 1 SOG, 1 PPA, 4 BLK, and 22:55 of ice time.  It was a nice bounce-back of sorts for the big German blueliner, after being held off the scoresheet in his last 3 games. Seider led the charge for the Red Wings in this revenge game after he was beaten (on the scoreboard and in a fight by Mark Kastelic) on Saturday afternoon. But was that the only player worth highlighting from a Tuesday night 10-game slate?
Despite seeing nearly a month of games in our NHL schedule, it was a season debut last night that spoiled the Rangers’ modest 3-game winning streak.  Pyotr Kochetkov was recalled from the AHL (Chicago) for his first game of the year on Tuesday evening, after getting the green light to return from a lower-body injury. The 4th year backstop made 25 saves on 25 shots and held off the Rangers’ offense for a 3-0 win at NYR. After winning 27 games last year, Kochetkov looked like he hadn’t missed a beat, and is worth an immediate pickup if an impatient manager needed some roster space and cut him loose in a shallow league. Check the FA list as soon as possible, or float out a trade offer before the 26-year-old goes on a run.
Here is the list of teams that have 0 or 1 loss so far (overtime included): Colorado, Winnipeg, Carolina, New Jersey, and Detroit.  None of the first four come as a surprise at all.  However, Detroit reeling off five in a row after a dreadful opener is a huge surprise.  They've been better defensively than expected, but the big thing so far is Dylan Larkin carrying the top line.  No Raymond for a couple games, no Kane today, no problem.  Larkin had a goal and an assist on Friday, including the overtime winner against Tampa, before scoring two goals and two assists in the 4-2 win over Edmonton Sunday.  That brings Larkin to a whopping 5+6 in six games to go along with 20 shots and a +9 rating.  Despite playing with a recent seventh round pick and a bottom six guy in Appleton while Raymond was out, Larkin has at least one point in every game so far.  It's early to predict career highs from Larkin, but I'm not ruling out his first point per game season.  With his elite shot rate, we could see his first top 50 season in three years.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend: