We’ve reached the final week of the regular season, which means the end of the fantasy season. Here’s to hoping that you’re still playing for your championship. As I’ve been doing on most Mondays recently, I’m going to give a quick rundown of the week ahead, recent injuries, and general strategy advice. Let’s get to it!
The first thing you should do is check whether your league includes the two games on Friday or not. On Yahoo!, the game is included, while on ESPN, leagues end on Thursday. Most other places do include the Friday game, so I’m going to treat this post as if the Friday games are going to count in your league. Colorado, Nashville, Columbus, and Buffalo play on Friday, so obviously drop the value of their players if you’re on ESPN.
Seventeen of the 32 teams have only two games this week. Fourteen have three games, while Buffalo has four. Obviously Buffalo becomes the top streaming target. Devon Levi should start two of the games. I’d expect Craig Anderson to start Thursday if the Sabres are mathematically eliminated by then, as it’s the last home game of the season and probably the last game of Anderson’s career. Casey Mittelstadt is on fire right now and is the top streaming option. Jordan Greenway would be my second option as he’s playing on a line with Cozens and Tage at the moment.
Monday and Tuesday both have ten games, while Thursday has 15. Calgary and the Islanders finish their seasons on Wednesday. Wednesday has three games, and Friday has the aforementioned two games. That makes Wednesday the primary streaming day leading into the finale. Those three games are:
San Jose @ Calgary
Dallas @ St. Louis
Montreal @ NY Islanders
We scrap Calgary and the Isles are the primary streaming candidates since they don’t play on Thursday. Given the quality of the other four teams, Dallas is the top target, especially because they play St. Louis on Thursday as well, and they’re fighting for their division. Wyatt Johnston and Max Domi lead the charge.
There are plenty of notable names who are banged up. Now is the time to cut bait. I would wait to see if Alex Ovechkin plays tomorrow after missing Saturday’s games. If he doesn’t, I would be very surprised if he plays again this season. With Nashville practically eliminated from the playoffs, Roman Josi will probably be shut down.
Here are the list of teams that have two games left this week, on Monday and Thursday:
Arizona, Florida, Los Angeles, N.Y. Rangers and Ottawa. (Add Nashville if your league doesn’t include Friday)
If you have any marginal players on these teams, cut them after Monday. You’ll be able to get a full roster for Thursday anyways. The Rangers and Kings could end up sitting players on Thursday anyways depending on the results before then.
I say all of the time that volume is king, but that is especially true in the last week. The odds of two games from a Vegas player being better than someone who gets three games is extremely unlikely. Be extremely aggressive in making moves and be sure to use every single move you can make.
Three Point Challenge: As it’s the last week of the season, we’re going to spice it up by doing a challenge on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. For tonight’s games, you can’t select McDavid, Draisaitl, Pastrnak, Kucherov, Tkachuk, MacKinnon, Robertson, RNH, Rantanen, or Pettersson. I’ll go with Kaprizov against the Blackhawks.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Wednesday recapping the action from the next two nights. As always, feel free to ask any questions, give any comments, or leave any suggestions below. Best of luck to everybody. Thanks for reading, take care!
UPDATE: Go ahead and make a Three Point Challenge pick for Tuesday in the comments section as well. I’ll go with Aho against the Red Wings.
