LOGIN
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! It’s double duty for your guy, MarmosDad, this week! After writing just under 4000 words on this past weekend’s NHL action, I’m back again for our Tuesday night roundup! I managed to squeeze in a quick snooze before the 7:00 games started up, but I guess I didn’t tune in early enough as the Leafs were already down 1-0 when I turned the game on 5 minutes after puck drop. But don’t worry, fans. The Blue Jackets Fam door was wide open, and the torrential downpour that followed soon after soaked everyone in Leaf showers. Sure, Columbus got the chickens and pigs in before it got too muddy. But they couldn’t get the Cowan.
Happy MONDAY, Razzball faithful! Let’s start this one out with one of Friday night’s goalies. Clay Stevenson - 34 saves on 37 shots in a 3-2 loss to Carolina…Ah, who am I kidding? With all due respect (and with apologies to Grandma Stevenson), no one wants to read a Clay Stevenson update. It’s true. There’s no need to add your name to the Razzball database just yet, Clay.
Tuesday marked the return of The Frozen Frenzy, where every team in the league plays in a stand alone time slot.  It's a cool concept, but I can't understand for the life of me why this doesn't happen on a Saturday instead?  I digress.  The second game of the night was Florida against the Blue Jackets, and the Florida superstars destroyed Columbus 7-3.  They were led by the Tkachuk brothers, with Brady Tkachuk scoring a hat trick, his first goals as a Panther, while Matthew Tkachuk dished five assists.  Matthew was off to a very good start, while Brady started woefully.  I haven't seen anything to think the switch to Florida is going to bring a drastic change to Brady's fantasy value.  He does seem to be shooting the puck a bit less, mostly cutting up the hopeless, bad angle shots.  His spot on the top power play unit is locked in as long as Barkov is out, so for now, enjoy the production that you're getting.  Let's take a look at what else happened on Tuesday night:
It was a very difficult start to open the season for the Ducks, opening at Vegas before hosting the Panthers.  Here we are on Sunday night with the Ducks winning both games.  They stormed out to a 4-0 lead against Vegas, holding on to win 4-3, before beatong the Panthers 3-2 in overtime.  Leading the charge?  The man who broke the NHL pay scale this offseason, Leo Carlsson.  Carlsson had a goal and an assist against the Golden Knights before dishing three assists against Florida.  Last season, Carlsson started the year with 34 points in his first 25 games before injury derailed him.  If he can stay healthy and play to his potential, the 21 year old has a chance to reach 100 points.  I had him ranked just outside the top 50 overall because we saw that he could be a fringe top 100 guy for an extended period, but I'd bet on him being inside the top 50 come the end of the season.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
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.
And we're off!  Today, we start our journey through my rankings with the Top 10 overall.  For those of you that are new to these parts, my rankings focus on the offensive categories, namely goals, assists, shots, and special teams points.  I assume that your league uses either hits or penalty minutes, but not both.  Banger leagues could use this as a baseline and make the obvious adjustments.  I will note those extreme cases in the writeups, along with those who always have elite plus-minuses that we can count on. 
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:
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.
I've long been a fan of Bobby McMann, but the early returns for Seattle blew my expectations out of the water.  McMann scored two goals and an assist with four shots in his Kraken debut on Saturday against Vancouver, and followed it up with a goal and an assist with four shots against Florida on Sunday.  He played over 18 minutes in both games slotting right onto the first line and second power play unit.  With Seattle in the thick of a playoff race, I see no reason to expect McMann's workload to decrease.  That means a 20-25% boost in playing time compared to what he was getting in Toronto.  Over the last three seasons, McMann is in the top 50 in the league in even strength goals per 60 minutes.  Given that, I think he should be held in all formats for the time being.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend: