LOGIN
Hello everyone. Welcome to the twenty-second 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. With the fantasy season dwindling, the slate is what matters most this time of year. Be sure to drop fringe players if they only play 2 games, and replace them with guys that will play 4 games.
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:
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:
It's been a disastrous season for the Wild, and it's hard to imagine them digging out of this hole.  Monday was a lone bright spot, both for the team and their oldest player.  The Wild beat the Islanders 5-0, with Marc-Andre Fleury posting a 21 save shutout.  The win gave Fleury the second most wins in NHL history, passing Patrick Roy.  It's been a very up and down career for Fleury.  He was incredible in the 2008 playoffs getting Pittsburgh to the finals.  His most iconic moment clinched the Cup the year after.  There were a handful of years right after that where his poor play was the reason the Penguins were eliminated early in the playoffs.  They won a Stanley Cup with him as the backup.  He also saved them the next year when Murray struggled early in the playoffs to lead Pittsburgh to back-to-back cups.  He carried Vegas to the Cup finals in their inaugural season.  That's how I'm going to remember MAF.  There were too many down years for him to be in that inner circle of all-time goalies, and his best generally wasn't among the current elite, as evidenced by him being a Vezina finalist once in 20 seasons.  However, when he was at his best, it was incredible to watch, and that will put him in the Hockey Hall of Fame sooner than later.  For this season, Gustavsson is back, so I expect them to split the games fairly evenly.  He's a streamer in good matchups for now, but like most goalies, MAF can turn into a hold sooner than later, or be complete unusable.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Hello everyone. Welcome to the seventh edition of JOT This Down! Thank you to everyone who provided feedback in volume six. I appreciate it.  Keep the questions, comments, and concerns coming. I’ll be here all week to answer any and everything you may have.
As good as the Jets have been, Friday was a huge boost for their team.  Not only did they get Wheeler, Schmidt and Perfetti back, Nikolaj Ehlers returned for his first game since the second game of the season.  He immediately went onto a line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor, and it worked out as well as it has in the past.  In the 4-2 win over the Lightning, Dubois scored two goals with four shots and four PIM, with Connor having a goal and an assist plus four PIM of his own.  Sunday was even better with Connor scoring a hat trick, Dubois dishing four assists, and Ehlers scoring a goal and two assists.  This line has the potential to be one of the best in hockey yet again, and with Dubois playing the best hockey of his career right now, it can be even better than last season.  All of them are easily top 50 players with Connor in the top 20, and the other two with the potential to push towards that, but probably a step behind that.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
The Blues are in the middle of a brutal schedule, playing three back-to-backs in a row, including four games in six days.  They pulled off the first back-to-back through Alberta before going to Vancouver on Monday.  There, Jordan Kyrou stole the show.  Kyrou scored a hat trick on five shots while adding an assist in the 5-1 win, giving him 10 points in his previous four games.  Unfortunately for Kyrou, he was injured late in the game and missed Tuesday's debacle against the Kraken with a UBI.  It's unclear how serious it is, but I do find it a bit encouraging that the news that he was out came later on Tuesday instead of immediately after the game Monday or early Tuesday.  With only one game over the next week, let's hope that he misses minimal time while he's on a heater.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
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:
Tage Thompson's nickname, as given to him by Sabres announcer Dan Dunleavy, is TNT.  Safe to say that everyone who watched Wednesday's game on TNT learned the nickname.  Thompson had the game of the season, scoring five times, five times, five times, five times!  He scored four in the first period, becoming the 18th player to ever score four in a period, and the fourth to do it in the first period.  He put nine shots on goal in total and added an assist despite playing only 13:56 in the game.  Here's the list of players who have multiple 3+ goals, 6+ point games in the last 30 seasons: Thompson, Zibanejad, Lemieux, and Gretzky.  And Thompson is only 1/3 of the way through the season!  He now has 21+19 in 26 games with over five shots per game.  Honestly, it doesn't look like a fluke at all.  Sure, his shooting percentage is a little high, but marginally so.  If he can maintain his shot rate, that's over 400 shots in a season, making him close to a lock for 50 goals.  As far as going forward, Thompson has played his way into the top 10 discussion.  His minutes could even end up increasing towards 20 per game from the 18:31 he's at now.  Thompson has already turned his contract extension into a massive steal for the Sabres.  Let's take a look at what else happened the last two nights:
One of the goaltending performances of the season came in the marquee showdown on Tuesday.  Toronto sure didn't make it easy on Matt Murray, taking seven penalties, but Murray stood up to the challenge and then some.  Murray had a 44 save shutout, leading Toronto to a 4-0 victory.  I thought the Toronto goaltending would be rough this season, but Murray has been very good when on the ice.  Same goes with Ilya Samsonov.  It could fall apart just like it did for Campbell last season, but the reason I liked these guys as #2 goalies is their floor is so high because of wins.  When Toronto gets this level of goaltending, it's extremely hard to beat them.  Here's to hoping Murray can stay healthy because he could be a big difference maker in fantasy.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights: