A Tuesday Night round-up? With a Leafs/Bruins game on the dockett?
Yes, please!
Well, I’ll admit, when I sat down to watch the second game in 4 days between these two rivals, I expected to see a bit of a different start.
When the B’s scored a first-period power-play goal before the clock had burned off 5 minutes, it didn’t look like the Leafs were poised to push back very hard after being doubled up on shots in the Saturday matchup (a 5-3 Boston win). Toronto’s favorites then followed up by giving up 47 shots on net in a 5-4 Carolina win on Sunday.
A Steven Lorentz shorthanded marker to tie the game up at 1-1 seemed to offer a flash of hope for fans of the blue buds.
But then…after another PP goal less than three minutes later…
Despite seeing nearly a month of games in our NHL schedule, it was a season debut last night that spoiled the Rangers’ modest 3-game winning streak. Pyotr Kochetkov was recalled from the AHL (Chicago) for his first game of the year on Tuesday evening, after getting the green light to return from a lower-body injury. The 4th year backstop made 25 saves on 25 shots and held off the Rangers’ offense for a 3-0 win at NYR. After winning 27 games last year, Kochetkov looked like he hadn’t missed a beat, and is worth an immediate pickup if an impatient manager needed some roster space and cut him loose in a shallow league. Check the FA list as soon as possible, or float out a trade offer before the 26-year-old goes on a run.
For today's post, I'm going to do something a bit different from what I've done in the past. Yes, we don't want to overreact to only 10 days worth of games. That is something I have preached on here for a decade now, as being stubborn and sticking to your priors is generally the best course of action. That said, we do have some more information now than we did ten days ago, and we don't want to completely ignore that. Today, I'm going to highlight some players that are off to amazing starts, and others that have started terribly. Am I buying the hot start, or looking to sell them? Am I worried about the struggling start for a player, or betting on them turning it around? Let's find out!
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…
One way to prove last season's breakout wasn't a fluke? Get an early hat trick. Kirill Marchenko did just that, scoring three times on four shots in the 7-4 win over the Wild. Yes, Marchenko didn't get any points in the Columbus opener, but the eight shots on goal also goes a long way. I was neutral compared to consensus on Marchenko going into the season, but I already kind of regret not being bullish. Columbus is playing a wide open, attacking style, and their best forward will continue to benefit from it. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
We keep moving along with defensemen 21-40 for the upcoming season. In case you missed it, you can see the Top 20 here. This is a reminder that MarmosDad will have his first post of the year on Wednesday, and I will be back on Thursday. Let's get right to it!
21) John Carlson - This tier started with McAvoy and goes through Toews. This feels a bit harsh on Carlson, but I'd rather be conservative on a 35 year old trending the wrong way. As I mentioned in the Chychrun board, Carlson is at risk for losing PP1 time for the first time in over a decade. I think they'll try both of them to start again to be fair, but it's possible. I do think the goals bounce back closer to 10, but 10+45 seems close to the best case now. That's fine, but don't draft based on name recognition.
Five teams for three playoff spots. One division on the line. There's still some things on the line over the last three nights of the season, so today, I'm going to give you a quick rundown of teams that will be going hard to finish the season, and what teams will take their feet off the gas before the playoffs start. Let's get to it!
Montreal did the seemingly impossible on Monday, blowing a 2-0 lead against the Blackhawks, eventually losing in a shootout. The good news for them is they only need one point against Carolina on Wednesday to clinch, and Carolina has nothing to play for. Additionally, Columbus has to win both of their remaining games in regulation as well. I have a few takeaways from Monday's game. One, Ivan Demidov stole the show in the first period, scoring a goal and an assist. I covered him extensively last week here. Two, for a team with very few bright spots this season, Frank Nazar looks like the real deal for Montreal. He was torching Hutson regularly, and few players have done that in the second half of the season. Nazar will be a very good late round target next season. Lastly, Sam Rinzel stood out on a regular basis. The former first round pick picked up his fourth assist in eight games, playing almost 27 minutes in this one. He's also averaging 2.5 shots per game in the small sample size, but we could see a fantasy impact as soon as next year.
