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There was a lot of craziness around the NHL on President’s Day, but nothing topped the game in Minnesota.  At one point late in the second period, the Canucks looked in complete control up 5-2.  Two minutes and seventeen seconds of game time later, Minnesota was up 6-5.  And if that wasn’t enough, there were still six more goals!  The Wild beat the Canucks 10-7, and to wash it down, they played a paltry 6-3 game on Tuesday, a loss to the Jets.  Nothing like 13-13 aggregate over two nights.  On Monday, it was all of the stars for the Wild, as those four goals in a 2:17 span were all on the power play, three of which were 5 on 3.  Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov had three goals and three assists… each!  Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy had a goal and three assists… each!  On Tuesday, Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, while Marco Rossi had two goals on five shots.  Both goalies were shelled, and right now, it’s hard to trust either of them.  For the moment, the Wild look like a four star team, Faber is a clear hold, and Brodin is on the fringe.  Rossi is a solid streamer, and gamble if you’d like on their goalies.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:

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Two division rivals exploded on Saturday, both winning in dominant 9-2 fashion.  Not too often nowadays that you see two 9-2 scores.  For Toronto, a 9-2 win against the Ducks certainly wasn’t expected, but isn’t actually shocking either.  On the other hand, Florida blowing Tampa Bay out 9-2 after falling behind in the first 30 seconds of the game qualifies as jaw dropping.  Florida is arguably the best team in the league right now, dominating in multiple ways.  Matthew Tkachuk is fully back, scoring two goals and two assists with ten PIM in the victory, giving him 13 points in the last five games.  Carter Verhaeghe scored two goals and an assist with six shots and two PIM against his former team.  He’s back on the point of the top unit and with Barkov, making him a top 50 player.  Sam Bennett had two goals and two assists iwth three shots and ten PIM.  Bennett is firmly on the fringe right now as long as he’s with Tkachuk.  For Toronto, Auston Matthews had a hat trick and two assists with four shots as he scores goals at an unprecedented rate.  Bobby McMann had two goals and an assist with four shots, although I’m still not buying in with his workload.  He’s bumping up to decent streamer for the time being.  Also, if you need short term defensemen help, Timothy Liljegren is on PP1 and dished three assists with Rielly still suspended.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the weekend:

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After his big breakout last season, Martin Necas has had a rough go of it this season.  Much like his team, he’s started to turn his game around over the last month.  Since coming back from a two week injury on January 19th, when Necas had 9 goals on the season, he has seven goals in seven games, culminating with a natural hat trick in the first period against the Avalanche on Thursday.  On top of the goals, Necas has been taking a ton of shots.  He’s averaging five shots on goal per game in the past seven, with 4+ in six of the last seven games.  If you’re lucky enough to be in the 20% of leagues that Necas is available in, grab him immediately.  If you’ve held onto him, here’s to hoping he keeps up this form to make up for the poor first half.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:

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Fantasy Hockey Weekly Newsletter: Week 17

Hello everyone. Welcome to the seventeenth edition of JOT This Down!

Keep the questions, comments, and concerns coming. I’ll be here all week to answer any and everything you may have.

The schedule is quite wonky this week. Multiple teams only play 1 or two games and the Sharks do not have a game. After this week, the schedule goes back to normal for a while. Keep tabs on your rosters as there will be many off days, and decisions will need to be made regarding whether or not to hang on to fringe players.

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It was quite the low scoring day on Thursday, with eight of the eleven games going under their betting total, two of which needed overtime to do so, plus there was a miracle in Boston (more on that later).  There were four shutouts on the night, all of which were quite surprising.  I’ll go in chronological order.  The Avalanche were undefeated on the season, so naturally Tristan Jarry shut them out, making 31 saves.  Jarry now has two shutouts, two dreadful starts, and one mediocre start.  He’s one of the highest variance goalies around.  I’m lower on him than most, but I acknowledge that he could be a bottom end #1.  Next, Jonas Johansson had his second consecutive shutout, making 23 saves against the Sharks.  He’s clearly must own for now, although like Jarry, the downside is undeniable.  Joel Hofer shutout the Flames, making 27 saves.  I was high on him because I don’t believe in Binnington.  Both have been off to a hot start, but I’m skeptical of the Blues being good defensively.  I’m bullish in Hofer for dynasties, but in redrafts, he’s a selective streamer with upside.  Lastly, Jonathan Quick shut out the Oilers, making 29 saves.  He made a couple spectacular saves, but color me skeptical.  I think this says more about the Oilers without McJesus than anything.  Quick is a reasonable streamer in plus matchups for now, but know that it could blow up in your face.  Let’s see what else happened on Wednesday and Thursday night:

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Two teams that have had massive up and downs clinched a playoff berth on Tuesday.  The Jets did it by themselves, beating the Wild 3-1 on the back of Connor Hellebuyck.  The Panthers clinched because the Penguins had the worst loss of my time at Razzball, losing to the tanking Chicago Blackhawks.  Petr Mrazek made 38 saves in a game that made the fans of both teams furious, and a bunch of other fans happy.  Now, the Penguins need the Islanders to lose to Montreal tomorrow to make the playoffs.  It would be crazy for Washington and Pittsburgh’s playoff streaks to end in the same year.  Here’s a quick rundown of what happened over the last two nights:

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Another star player has made his way to the Eastern Conference well ahead of the trade deadline.  We already had Horvat and Tarasenko move, and now we have a former Conn Smythe winner.  Ryan O’Reilly was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, along with Noel Acciari, for a bevy of draft picks.  The Wild also acquired a pick for retaining salary, and there were prospects involved, but none of them are particularly relevant.  For fantasy, we care about RoR and Acciari.  Let’s start with Acciari because it’s easier.  Acciari moved right onto Toronto’s fourth line.  He scored a goal against the Blackhawks on Sunday, and is piling up hits.  He’ll be a deep league value for his hits and decent goal rate.  O’Reilly is an interesting debate.  He’s easily having the worst offensive season in the last decade.  On the other hand, RoR has been playing much better lately, and he went right onto the second line with Tavares and Marner.  He dished an assist in his debut on Saturday playing just over 16 minutes in the 5-1 blowout against Montreal.  He also won 12 of 14 draws, which is notable that he bumped Tavares from the faceoff circle most of the time.  I’m not rushing to pick up RoR, mostly because we know that he’s not cracking Toronto’s first power play unit.  That said, there’s upside in Toronto that he couldn’t touch in St. Louis again.  If you want to stream him on Tuesday against the Sabres and see where it goes, I can get behind that.  

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The Senators have been a disappointment this season despite their big forward acquisitions in the summer.  Turns out that you can’t get away with completely ignoring the blue line and being forced to give bad players big minutes.  Anyways, we don’t care about that for fantasy, we care about their scoring, and their top players have largely delivered.  Claude Giroux had a great weekend, totaling three goals and two assists with ten shots over two games.  Giroux is having his best goal scoring season since his monstrous 34 goal, 102 point season in 2017-18.  Unsurprisingly, that season and this season are Giroux’s two highest shooting percentages, but it seems a bit more sustainable in this environment in Ottawa.  Even with an inconsistent PP1 role, Giroux has still played his way into being a bottom end hold in all formats.  The one problem is that after Ottawa’s game on Tuesday, they don’t play again until February 11th.  My biggest point here with bottom end holds over these bye weeks is that you need to know your league format and whether the waiver wire is strong enough that you can drop someone like Giroux to get more games.  In head to head leagues, volume is king, so you can make a case after Tuesday that you can let him go for players with a bunch of games after the All-Star break. In roto, I would hold onto Giroux without hesitation.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the weekend:

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There used to be a time where players received a massive fantasy boost playing with Tyler Seguin.  That time has now passed, but right now, he’s getting the boost playing with Robertson.  With Hintz injured, Seguin has moved onto the first line centering Robertson and Pavelski, and he’s blown up.  On Thursday against the Kings, Seguin had two goals and an assist with five shots and two PIM.  In the six games since Hintz was out of the lineup, Seguin has five goals and three assists with 22 shots on goal.  It’s unclear when Hintz will be back, but until he does, Seguin is an automatic hold in all fantasy formats.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:

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Mats Zuccarello has gone through three separate streaks this season.  He started the season on fire, he had a cold streak, and now he’s on a heater again.  Zuccarello started off the weekend with a hat trick and an assist against the Blackhawks, before adding a goal and an assist against the Senators.  That brings Zucc’s point streak up to ten games.  He’s well over a point per game, and pushing towards three shots per game.  The 35 year old has shown no signs of slowing down, being rejuvenated playing with Kaprizov.  Zuccarello is starting to erase his plus-minus hole as well.  Even including the plus-minus, Zuccarello has been a top 50 player, and should continue to be so.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the weekend:

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At risk of ignoring the 6’7” elephant in the room, the Sabres have been absolutely cruising with Cozens for the last week. Tage Thompson (that 6’7” elephant) was one of our writeup targets earlier in the year, and he definitely had a game for the ages with 5 goals (and 6 points) on Wednesday night. But there’s more to be excited about for Buffalo fans that have been cramming into the ‘Cozens cab’ for the last couple of weeks

Please, blog, may I have some more?