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As far as journeyman goaltenders go, Chad Johnson is the perfect model for grinding the hockey life waiting for an opportunity.  Johnson bounced around organizations and finally got a chance to backup in Boston 2 years ago putting up outstanding numbers in 27 games.  He was miserable for the Islanders last season and was traded to the tanking Sabres at the deadline.  Well, the Sabres aren’t tanking now and Johnson is taking advantage of his chance splitting time.  Johnson played incredibly on Thursday night, stopping all 44 shots he faced in the 3-0 win over the Ducks.  His numbers on the season are now very solid for someone who’s sitting on the waiver wire in the majority of leagues; 2.33 GAA and .918 sv%.  It’s still unknown when Robin Lehner will return and Linus Ullmark will get his starts but I’d grab Johnson in 12’ers for the time being.  Here’s what else I saw the last two nights:

Braden Holtby – 26 saves on 27 shots in the 2-1 win over Ottawa.  Firmly the #1 goalie right now.

John Carlson – Goal on three shots.  Great season so far for Carlson in all categories.

Tuukka Rask – 33 save shutout against the mess that is the Penguins.  His numbers are starting to creep back towards his numbers of old but I’m still not buying that the Bruins defense is fixed.

Jimmy Hayes – Goal and an assist with two shots.  His numbers are all over the place right now so I’m leaving him on the wire and considering him for streaming in the right matchups.

Ryan Spooner – Goal and an assist with two shots.  Spooner is getting really close to must own in 12’ers now.  The shots are below average but he’s providing great special teams points and penalty minutes in addition to 8+10 in 30 games.

Rasmus Ristolainen – Assist with four shots.  The only downside is that he amazingly has 0 PIM on the season.  Everything else is spectacular.

Jussi Jokinen – Goal and an assist with two shots.  Didn’t see this coming but Jokinen has been great this year for Florida.  He has almost the exact same line as Spooner does with a few more assists but less STP.  Like Spooner, he’s at least a top end stream and pushing must-own in 12’ers.

Brandon Pirri – Goal and two assists with two shots.  That’s a five game point streak for Pirri who has a history of hot stretches so stream him tonight (Spoiler alert!)

Vincent Trocheck – Two assists with a shot.  A step below the previous guys in the streamer list.

Steve Mason – 36 save shutout.  He’s been thoroughly outplayed by Michal Neuvirth so far this season but perhaps this game will get Mason more starts.

Wayne Simmonds – Assist with four shots.  The points are starting to come up and he’s on pace for 150 PIM which is outstanding.

Jakub Voracek – Assist with four shots.  Finally starting to show how he was a point per game player last year.  Good buy low opportunity.

Brent Burns – Goal and two assists with six shots.  Can’t slow down that power beard! He was #7 in the ESPN player rater in defenseman going into today and that’s with a -14.  If you can stomach the plus-minus (which should fix itself somewhat), he’s the #2 defenseman right now.

Patrick Marleau – Goal and an assist with three shots.  There’s been no signs of slowing down for the 36 year old.  If anything, the power play points could come up being on the lethal first unit for the Sharks.

Joe Pavelski – Goal and two assists with two shots.  Killing it as expected.

Peter Holland – Goal and an assist with three shots.  He has a ton of talent and he’s still only 24 years old so perhaps he starts to blossom under Mike Babcock.  He’s starting to play his way into the streamer conversation.

James van Riemsdyk – Goal on seven shots. The penalty minutes have disappeared which is strange but he’s over 3 shots per game and on pace for around 27 goals and 27 assists.

Jonathan Quick – 45 save shutout.  So strange to see playoff Quick regularly appear this regular season.  At this rate, the Kings are going to run away with the division.  Are they going to know what to do not being the 8 seed in the playoffs?  I kid, but damn, they look really good.

Drew Doughty – Goal and an assist with two shots.  Solid across the board but not as good in fantasy as real life.

Marian Gaborik – Goal and an assist with two shots.  Starting to heat up and he only has one power play point on the season so I’m grabbing him where available.

Anze Kopitar – Goal on four shots.  He’s also starting to heat up but I’ve come to expect that his offense will never be as good as most hoped after his first couple of seasons.

Roman Josi -Goal on four shots and two PIM.  Very similar to Carlson at this point; very solid across the board with elite special teams points.

David Backes – Goal on four shots extending his point streak to six.  When Backes gets to play with quality linemates, he puts up points regularly.  When he’s carrying a line, the points aren’t there.  So Ken Hitchcock, please keep Alex Steen (assist and two shots) on Backes’ wing.

Vladimir Tarasenko – Goal on three shots with two PIM.  He’s tied for the league lead in goals now justifying the aggressive top 10 preseason rank.

Mikko Koivu – Two goals and an assist with four shots.  After dropping off a bit last year, Koivu is shockingly close to a point per game with seven points in his last two games.  His shots have fallen off but this is one of the best bounceback seasons in recent memory.

Jason Pominville – Goal on four shots.  The shots are starting to go in as he regresses to the mean.  The minutes are big on the top line so if somebody dropped him in frustration, grab him.

Corey Crawford – 33 save shutout against the Oilers.  What a heater Crawford is on. Three shutouts in the last four games and he’s allowed three goals total in the last 5 games.  Craziness.

Marian Hossa – Three assists and five shots.  Good buy low option as he only has 5 goals on 98 shots; that will surely fix itself.

Teuvo Teravainen – Two goals and an assist with four shots.  More importantly, he stuck on the first line and played almost 18 minutes.  Grab him while he’s in this role and it becomes too late.

Jonathan Toews – Goal and two assists with a shot.  It’s about time that the other Blackhawks top 6 line had a big game.  The power play points have been poor for Toews making a hot streak seem impending.

Karri Ramo – 36 saves on 37 shots in the win against Dallas.  Crazy that a 36 save performance isn’t even a top 5 start the last two days.  Ramo has been the workhorse lately and the Flames are starting to come around (they’ve won 7 straight) so he should continue to improve.

Dougie Hamilton – Goal on two shots.  Call me a sucker but I’m still not giving up hope on Hamilton for this season.

Sean Monahan – Goal on four shots.  Another guy who should keep up his recent pace given that his power play points are far too low.

Semyon Varlamov – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 2-1 win over the Islanders.  What a heater Varlamov is on bailing out the Avalanche on a regular basis. Starting to inch his numbers close to average with all of these big performances but owning him is still a big risk.

Francois Beauchemin – Two goals on five shots.  After his hot streak, Beauchemin fell off big time.  He should still be owned in 12’ers even though he’s bottom end because his performances should hold given his huge playing time (he played 28:31 Thursday).

Anders Lindback – 6 saves on 10 shots before getting pulled.  Arizona is about to fall off a cliff with Mike Smith out injured.  Look to stream guys against the Coyotes even more than usual because they’re going to be getting AHL level goaltending for the foreseeable future.

Tobias Rieder – Two goals on his only two shots.  He’s another quality streamer who’s not quite a hold in 12’ers.

Antoine Vermette – Goal and an assist with two shots.  No interest in Vermette; the points aren’t good enough for the complete lack of shots.

Cam Atkinson – Goal and two assists with two shots.  Very solid season so far and only has two power play points so there is room for improvement.

Jared Boll – Got in a fight and played 5 minutes.  Good thing Torts got him in the lineup in place of Ryan Johansen.  I can’t wait for the Jackets to trade arguably their most talented player in franchise history for 50 cents on the dollar.

Scott Hartnell – Two assists with a shot and two PIM.  Carrot Top can’t be slowed down!

Brandon Saad – Goal and two assists with four shots.  Finally a big night for Saad, who I had ranked top 50 preseason.  It hasn’t been a horrible season but it looks like he can repeat last year’s number, not exceed them as I expected.

Alexander Wennberg – Goal and two assists with two shots.  Big fan of Wennberg’s potential but unless Johansen is shipped out, he’s not worth owning outside of the deepest of leagues.

Friday’s Streamers: There’s a 6 game slate on Friday with a fair amount of teams playing on a back to back.  Here are my top streaming options for tonight:

Brandon Pirri (8.4% owned) – He’s on fire and gets a great matchup against the Hurricanes.

Elias Lindholm (23.2%) – He has six points in the last five games, the Panthers played last night and the minutes are big for the former 5th overall pick right now.

Melker Karlsson (0.4%) – He doesn’t have a point in the last 10 but the minutes have been there and Ottawa is consistently playing 4-3 games so opportunities will be there for Karlsson to snap the streak.

That’s all for now guys.  I’ll be back on Monday recapping this weekend’s action.  Be sure to check out the newest article from Marv and Pesos; it has a lot of good information in it.  As always, feel free to ask any questions and post any comments below.  Have a great weekend Razzball Nation!