Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
As Viz said on Sunday, we’re officially 1.5 weeks from the end of the regular season!
Hopefully, you finished up your head-to-head playoffs on a strong note, or you have enough of a lead in your roto-points leagues that you can enjoy the final 3-4 games without feverishly refreshing your league app.
If you have the luxury of being able to relax, enjoy it! More than a few NHL teams are facing a tough road ahead for the next 9 days.
Why? Well, it's time for the playoff push!
We've got three teams tied for first place in the Atlantic division.
One point separates three teams at the top of the Pacific Division.
And our wild card spots could be filled by any of a half dozen teams in either conference.
Quite a few teams were jockeying for playoff position Tues
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:
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.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
I can say that I’m glad I didn’t take a sick day last Friday to watch the “excitement-challenged” trade deadline unfold the way that it did. I suppose for something to unfold, it would have needed to be packaged up neatly to begin with.
All that means is the asking prices were far too high on the “sellers” pieces, and the buyers were not willing to pay them.
Nicolas Roy for a conditional first-round pick? No thanks.
Corey Perry for a second-rounder? Wow.
Is there ANY Perry worth that kind of premium?
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
We’re smack-dab in the middle of Olympic chaos, and Wednesday’s playoff round looks like a doozy.
I’m not even sure which game I’m looking forward to watching more: David Pastrnak vs Team Canada or the Swedish berries/fish/meatballs vs Team USA.
Luckily, we don’t have to look into too much of that for right now, because it’s time to pair up last week’s trade deadline preview with the other side of the league. If you missed it last week, you can click the link here…
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
It was an 8-game schedule, so a bit lighter than usual, to peek in on Tuesday night.
But that didn’t stop Wyatt Johnston (1 G [26], 3 SOG, his league-leading 16th PPG) and the rest of the Stars from feasting on a steady diet of bear paws on home ice.
Jeremy Swayman (19-12-1-1) faced 32 shots on goal…before the third period started. Oh boy. The B’s defense corps looked like they were late to the opening faceoff in this one, then spent the rest of the game spinning in circles trying to figure out which way was up.
The 6-2 Dallas win snapped a 3-game losing streak for the Stars and pushed Dallas’ record to 3-5-2 in its last 10 games.
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:
It was another 10-game schedule on tap for Tuesday night’s NHL action!
And no one had a better night than the Boston Bruins’ netminder, Jeremy Swayman - 24 saves on 24 shots and the 3-0 shutout vs Detroit.
Swayman’s GAA (2.38) and save percentage (.919) over his last 5 games are as solid as it comes, and were good enough to give him a 4-1 record since New Year’s Eve.
With an 18-11-1-1 season line, Swayman is sitting third overall in wins (behind Karel Vejmelka, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Andrei Vasilevskiy). The shutout was his first of the year, but second in two games for the B’s.
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!
I was extremely bullish on Jakob Chychrun last season after his move to Washington, and was a bit above consensus this season. He's now blowing my expectations out of the water. Chychrun scored two more goals on Thursday, helping the Capitals beat the Maple Leafs 4-0. He now has a fantastic 14 goals on the season and has firmly played his way into the Olympic picture. He's the #2 overall defenseman on the season for fantasy purposes, and while I wouldn't rank him there for the rest of the season, Chychrun is crushing across the board. He's a clear #1 in all formats. Let's take a look at what else happened on Thursday night:
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.
There's not much that a slam dunk Hall of Famer can do to surprise you, but with how poorly the last two seasons have gone for Steven Stamkos, last night qualified. Stammer scored four goals by the end of the second period on Thursday, finishing with nine shots on goal in the 7-2 win over the Blues. Look, it couldn't be going worse in Smashville overall. That said, he's getting some trade buzz, and a game like yesterday is going to do wonders for the chances of someone taking on his contract. He did have six points (4+2) in the seven games before Thursday, so it didn't come completely out of the blue. For now, he's in elite streamer range while he's hot. Let's take a look at what else happened on Thursday night:
