LOGIN
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! When Viz and Grey asked if I’d come back for another year of NHL writing, I couldn't tell a lie. I was, and am, pretty stoked to get rolling on the preseason content! So, if any of you were hoping you’d seen the last of your dear old MarmosDad, I’ve got bad news for y’all. I’m back! I spoke a bit with Viz about the schedule, and, as he said in his first post of the year, I’ll be covering all of our NHL games from Tuesday nights throughout the season.
I started the opening paragraph before the Blues game ended and got punished for it.  I was already writing about Dylan Holloway, but his night got a lot better late improving his stat line.  Holloway was playing his first game since January 18th, and only his second since December 12th, and he delivered the best game of his career.  Holloway had a hat trick and an assist with five shots in the 5-1 win over the Kraken.  Holloway broke out last season with 26-37 in his first year with the Blues, but this season has been a huge disappointment both for him and the team.  The Blues are out of the playoff picture, so it's hard to say who will be traded and who will stay.  Holloway is one of the few players that I'd be surprised if they moved.  The 24 year old has the upside of a bottom end hold in 12'ers, as he showed last season.  The Blues play a bunch of poor defenses in the short term, so for now, Holloway is an elite stremer.  Let's take a look at what else happened in the first two nights back from the Olympic break:
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:
We're very accustomed to Vegas making a big trade every season at this point.  Surprisingly, we got their big move on Sunday already.  Since they were willing to acquire Rasmus Andersson without a contract extension, the Flames sent him to the desert, acquiring Zach Whitecloud, a first round pick, a second round pick (turns to another first if Vegas wins the Cup), and a prospect that projects to be an AHL'er.  It's a good return for Calgary, taking advantage of Andersson bouncing back from a dreadful 24-25 season.  For Vegas, the fit is kind of weird to me.  It's a team that doesn't even play a forward on their top power play unit, so are they really going to jam Andersson with Theodore on the second unit?  Probably to make him happy, at least with their current injuries, but I don't see a lot of gain there.  Scoring goals hasn't been a problem, and Andersson has still been bad defensively.  He should play with Hanifin which maybe helps a bit?  Overall, I think this is a net negative for Andersson's fantasy value, but I'm still holding him for the time being to see how it looks for the next couple weeks.  For Calgary, Weegar takes over the top power play unit by default.  He's on the fringe.  Whitecloud could gain some deep league value.  My assumption is he gets a top four role, and with that, some quality hits and blocks.  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:
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.
The Utah Mammoth have been struggling lately, with four consecutive losses and only two wins in their last ten.  They snapped that streak in a big way on Wednesday, winning 7-0 in Anaheim.  Leading the charge for Utah was J.J. Peterka, their big offeseason acquisition.  Peterka scored two goals and two assists with six shots.  It hasn't been the best start in Utah for Peterka, who was down on the third line for a couple weeks recently.  Besides the obvious of it being a big game, this was notable for Peterka for a couple reasons.  One, he was on the first line with Keller and Schmaltz.  That's always a help.  The other big boost is that Peterka was on the first power play unit.  One of his goals came with the top unit.  The Utah power play has been atrocious for the last few weeks, so it wouldn't surprise me if Peterka gets an extended look there.  The goals have been there, but that's because of a high shooting percentage.  The assists have also dried up significantly compared to where they were in Buffalo.  My hope is this boost in role can cancel out the inevitable shooting regression, which can get Peterka back into clear hold territory.  For now, Peterka belongs on the fringe, although I lean towards bottom end hold for the upside.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two 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?
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! We had an 8-game schedule to dip into on Tuesday night, and none had a bigger asterisk in the record books than the New Jersey Devils’ visit to Tampa Bay to face the Lightning. Coming into Tuesday night’s game, superstar Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov: 1 G (9), 1 A (9), 2 PIM, 2 SOG, 1 PPA, 1 GWG, 1 HIT - sat tied for third place on the all-time Tampa Bay goal-scoring list with 365 goals.  It was only a matter of time before Kucherov blew past an old legend, and current Montreal bench boss, Martin St. Louis. The good news is it didn’t take Tampa’s active star RW very long to snap #366 past the Devils’ giant netminder, Jakob Markstrom, on their way to a 5-1 win.  If you can guess which two players sit above Kuch on the All-Time Lightning Lamp-Lighting List, throw it in the comments below. I messaged Viz last night and said I really wished it were Brian Bradley. Alas, he’s 14th (111 goals) and nestled between Vaclav Prospal (127!) and Brandon “Cream Cheese” Hagel (102).
It's not too often that we see 23 year old goalies in the NHL.  It happens more often now than in the past, but letting them develop in the minors after junior hockey is a must.  Jesper Wallstedt just turned 23 on Friday so he's been in while he was even younger, but this season he has cemented himself as an NHL'er.  He is an elite prospect, and the time might already be now.  Wallstedt had his second consecutive shutout on Saturday, stopping all 28 shots from the high powered Ducks.  Wallstedt has started six games and is 4-0-2 with a 2.10/.924.  There are a couple major things working in Wallstedt's favor.  One, the Wild are playing much better hockey as they get healthier.  Two, despite a win on Sunday, Gustavsson has really struggled.  It's far from a guarantee that Wallstedt turns into something this season, but if you're hurting in goaltending like a lot of people are, a speculation add of Wallstedt could pay dividends.