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).
Atlantic Division Preview here
Metropolitan Division Preview here
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
It’s your new/old hockey writing friend, MarmosDad, back with another divisional preview as we start knocking games off of the NHL calendar.
Last week, I gave you the final Eastern Conference preview with the Metropolitan Division (you can click it to check it out!).
This week, we head West with a peek at the Central division, and boy, am I excited to get rolling on this one!
I nearly jumped the gun and went straight to the Central when I started writing these up, just because I’m kind of obsessed with a certain Winnipeg Jets prospect who opened some eyes in training camp.
That should be enough of a teaser to get us through this preview, especially because the Jets round out our teams at the bottom of our profiles today.
So let’s close our eyes, take a deep breath, and try to find our Central, er, center, as we head out to visit the place with the least creative division name of all…
Good morning all, welcome to week 3 of the NHL season. Let’s begin per usual today with our best and worst team schedules for the week:
This week we have a total of 5 teams playing 4 games, listed here in descending order by strength of schedule we have: New Jersey, Philly, Toronto, Tampa, and Detroit. Out of the 5 only the Devils and Flyers play on two “off-nights” and with only a single game being played on either Monday or Wednesday and all 32 teams playing on Tuesday those off-nights are extra valuable this week.
Additionally, the worst team schedules for the week go to: Vancouver, Columbus, and Buffalo. Again, listed in descending order by strength of schedule. All 3 of these teams play only 2 games this week and all of those games will be played on “busy nights” in the league. As such, if you have any players on your roster that were either streams or are borderline droppable from any of these three I highly recommend you look into swapping them out if possible with a player from one of the teams with a stronger schedule above.
It's nothing new when Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler have big games, and both managed to do so twice this weekend. In Friday's 5-2 win over the Avalanche, Wheeler registered a point on all five goals, going 1+4, while Scheifele scored a goal and two assists with three shots. They followed that up with Wheeler getting two more assists and Scheifele posting a 2+1 game. Wheeler already has 20 assists in 16 games to go with 19 PIM and 3 goals, while Scheifele is up to 9+10 with 20 PIM. Wheeler was a borderline first round pick that I had ranked as a high second rounder, while Scheifele was more 2nd/3rd range. With his shot rate at exactly 2.5 per game right now, that solidifies him as a second round value. Remember when ESPN had him ranked in the 60s? Hilarious. These two should continue to put up points no matter the opposition. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
On Wednesday, one of my streamers for the day was Beau Bennett with his recent promotion to the first line. Well, Beau knows! Bennett buried two goals on six shots in the Penguins win over the Oilers. He's available in almost all leagues and I'd look to stream him again tonight against the Kings. He has a ton of upside that he's shown in flashes in the past and if this role sticks, this streamer could turn into somebody you keep on your roster for the rest of the season. Here's what else I saw the last two nights:
When you look at the Montreal Canadiens' roster, I see a quality team with three superstars, but not a team that amazes you on paper. Right now, you have a team that's clicking on all cylinders, starting 9-0 with every win in regulation. Even when they get outplayed, like they did on Saturday, they have Carey Price to bail them out. Price stopped 49 of 52 shots to carry Montreal to a 5-3 in the second game of a back to back. If you were bold enough to take him in the first round, it's paying off so far. Hell, almost all Canadiens have been great so far and are carrying fantasy teams in plus-minus by themselves.
Let's take a look at what happened in a busy weekend around the league:
(Picture from here.)
The Chicago Blackhawks raised their Stanley Cup banner to the rafters last night. They went out and downed the Washington Capitals 6-4 to open their title defense and make Mikhail Grabovski‘s hat trick go for naught in the losing effort. Please, blog, may I have some more?
