The Week Ahead: Dec 22 – 28
3 Game slates: ANA, ARI, NASH, PIT, WASH
2 Game slates: BOS, BUF, CAL, CAR, CHI, COL, CLB, DAL, CET, EDM, FLA, LA, MIN, NJ, NYI, NYR, OTT, PHI, SJ, STL, TB, TOR, VAN, WIN
1 Game slates: MON
Back to Back games: ANA, ARI, NASH, PIT, WASH
By Lane Myer
This holiday week will obviously be a slow one in fantasyland with only five clubs set to play more than two games. If your head-to-head league scores this week as one stand alone week, make sure you have enough starts in goal to meet your weekly minimum requirement. If you play in a league where rosters lock on Monday, it’s a good week to sit all Montreal players you own in lieu of their one game schedule. If you need to add a goalie start off the wire for the week, the backup situation is pretty light given the choices of Bryzgalov, Dubnyk, Hutton, Greiss or Justin Peters. On paper the best bet may have been Thomas Greiss who would seem a good choice to face Florida while Fleury grabs the Lightning matchup the following night, but Greiss was ill this past week and has undergone testing for mumps. So he may not even be available.
Goalie Watch
* Buffalo: Jhonas Enroth patrolled the crease in two of Buffalo’s three starts for the week resulting in four goals allowed to both the Senators and Avalanche respectively. Neuvirth took on the Jets which also didn’t end well coughing up five to Byfuglien and company.
- Enroth – 21 starts – 3.01 GAA, .913 SV%
- Neuvirth – 12 starts – 3.06 GAA, .915 SV%
TTMI Counsel: Buffalo had been on a bit of roll, for them, with Enroth earning the win in 9 of his last 12 starts, but it was a rough week for the Sabres in the goal prevention department. Enroth has started five of Buffalo’s last six games so Neuvirth can be safely reserved or dropped in shallower leagues.
* Calgary: Two weeks ago Karri Ramo drew 3 straight starts. Since that point, Ramo has allowed 8 goals in just under 90 minutes. Meanwhile Jonas Hiller has minded the crease in four starts and came in from the bullpen in another.
- Hiller – 20 starts, 2.38 GAA, .915 SV%
- Ramo – 15 starts, 2.69 GAA, .903 SV%
TTMI Counsel: While Hiller hasn’t won a game since November 18th, he hasn’t allowed more than 2 goals in five of his last seven starts. Hiller is back to being the clear starter in Calgary.
* Edmonton: If you’re an unfortunate owner of Ben Scrivens and you were in need of goalie counting stats, the good news is Scrivens received all three of Edmonton’s starts for the week.
- Scrivens – 22 starts, 3.16 GAA, .893 SV%
- Fasth – 12 starts, 3.29 GAA, .891 SV%
TTMI Counsel: The bad news is Scrivens allowed another 11 goals in those 3 starts. The even worse news is his save percentage actually rose despite allowing 11 goals in those 3 starts. Happy holidays Edmonton Oilers goalie owners!
* Ottawa: Same as it ever was in The Capital as Robin Lehner and Craig Anderson split the four Senator starts for the week.
- Anderson – 20 starts, 2.43 GAA, .930 SV%
- Lehner – 13 starts, 2.93,GAA, .909 SV%
TTMI Counsel: Anderson managed to put a halt to his ratio’s market correction following up his shutout of the Devils by allowing just two goals to the Ducks. Conversely, Lehner was shelled by Montreal and Buffalo to the tune of 8 big ones in his two starts. Lehner has now allowed four or more goals in five of his last nine starts and can be safely reserved against more potent offenses for the time being.
* Winnipeg climbs aboard Goalie Watch for the first time this season by means of their current Ottawa situation. That being a developing even timeshare in goal for the Jets, despite management’s refusal to acknowledge one exists publicly. The fact remains Pavelec and Hutchinson have evenly split Winnipeg’s last eight starts.
- Pavelec – 23 starts, 2.27 GAA, .916 SV%
- Hutchinson – 10 starts, 1.73 GAA, .940 SV%
TTMI Counsel: In Hutchinson’s 10 starts, he has yet to allow more than three goals in any of them, while allowing three goals just twice. Pavelec hasn’t exactly been terrible having allowed 3 or fewer goals in 15 of his last 17 starts. Pavelec’s SV% has slowly crept down to just above league average, but his goals against is still well above league average at 2.27. If you own Pavelec, and Hutchinson is on the wire, it’s probably time to use a bench slot on him.
Trending: The Waiver Wire
- Jonathan Drouin was drafted in your league. After seeing a few healthy scratches coupled with being bumped to Tampa’s fourth line, chances are he was dropped in half of those leagues as his current ownership sits at 46% in Yahoo leagues. Drouin has at least now regained some traction and has now replaced Ryan Callahan on Tampa’s first unit PP where he’s inching closer to two minutes per game on the man advantage.
- Nick Leddy has accrued six points over his last 10 games while averaging over 20 minutes per game. Leddy’s ownership sits at 36%. Somewhat surprisingly, Leddy averages 2.2 minutes per game on the man advantage which certainly isn’t bad by any means. However it’s nearly a full minute per game less than Johnny Boychuk. That said, Leddy does have four PP assists on the season. As an aside, and although it doesn’t matter for fantasy purposes, Nick Leddy currently ranks #2 overall in CORSI% at 58.5%. Just a few ticks below Joe Thornton’s league leading 58.8%. That would be despite losing his usual pairing partner, Johnny Boychuk, for the better part of 2+ weeks. Leddy is driving the play on the Island is what we’re saying. Another Nick Leddy surprise, he’s allegedly landed 32 hits and 33 blocks in 33 games.
- Mark Scheifele has finally started to get it going having scored three goals and four assists over Winnipeg’s last four matchups to go along with a +2. Scheifele is also breaking regular sweats on the Jets’ second PP unit to the tune of exactly 2.5 minutes per game. Scheifele is also quietly a bit of a stat category filler for those in deeper category leagues with 28 hits, 23 blocks, and 190 faceoff wins.
- Reilly Smith is also on a bit of a roll with four goals and three assists over Boston’s last 8 games which also improved Smith’s chances of collecting added value as the result of Smith replacing noted dope, Milan Lucic, on the fledgling Bruins’ first PP unit. Smith is inching closer to averaging nearly 2 minutes per game with the man advantage. After having bounced around Boston’s lineup while he was struggling, Smith as been reunited with his second line mates – Bergeron and Marchand, and averages more than a hit per game.
Deep (League) Cuts
- Scott Laughton, since being promoted to a top six role, has been deployed over 17 minutes per night skating on the Flyers’ second line with Simmonds and Brayden Schenn. Holding Laughton back from an automatic add, for now, is the 37 seconds he currently averages per game on the PP. Laughton does have 25 hits in 16 games and is exactly even at the dot on draws at 82/164.
- Mathieu Perreault checks in with three goals and five assists over his last eight games while skating second line even strength and PP minutes. Perrault’s man advantage time per game is nearly three minutes per game where he has contributed a goal and two assists. Seeing as how Kane and Scheifele have both struggled for the majority of the year, those three points on the PP probably aren’t that surprising.
- Andrei Vasilevskiy might be worth a roster spot if you have one to spare in the interim while Ben Bishop is sidelined. Nabokov is performing like post-Sharks-era Nabokov is prone to do, so Vasilevskiy might grab two or more starts as it appears, as of now, that Tampa is contemplating playing it safe with Bishop and perhaps leaning towards giving Bishop added rest until after the holiday break. Vasilevskiy has flashed elite level play in his lone two starts thwarting aside 68/71 shots faced.
Fantasy Hawk Factor
Second Line Heroes Watch (for the week)
- Kane – 2 goals, 5 assists, 12 shots, +5
- Richards – 0 goals, 0 assists, 9 shots (tick tock)
- Versteeg – 1 goal, 1 assist, 6 shots, +3
Oh you work here too?
- Toews – 2 goals, 2 assists, 10 shots, +2
- Hossa – 1 goals, 0 assists, 7 shots, -1
- Saad –0 goals, 0 assists, 7 shots
- Kris Versteeg, even with Patrick Sharp’s return, has been moved up to the first PP unit. Toews/Kane/Sharp/Versteeg are accruing nearly 60% of the Hawks’ PP shifts on the first unit.
- Patrick Sharp’s shooting% remains at a career low 6% (nearly half of his Chicago era career average) for the season maintaining a possible buy low opportunity if you feel his struggles this season are about to hit market correction. One positive of being deployed on the third line is facing easier defensive matchups. Of course the flipside to that coin is the quality of his linemates and Shaw and Bickell aren’t going to make him any better in terms of regularly setting up The Shooter for scoring opportunities. Sharp will be tasked with creating his own scoring opportunities if the assistance isn’t coming from the defensemen. Four of Sharp’s five goals have been recorded via the man advantage along with four of his seven assists. I would think it would be an upset if Sharp maintained his current third line standing for the majority of the season, but if it were to become his new home on the regular, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if at the end of the season 70% of his production was tallied from the PP.
- Antti Raanta, as sketchy as he’s looked on rebound control at times, is still flashing elite level ratios at 1.76 GAA, and a .945 SV%. In shallower bench roster leagues it’s difficult to roster a backup goalie who doesn’t grab at least half of a timeshare in net, but with the way Raanta is performing, he becomes an almost automatic add in any Chicago back to back game scenario if you have a need for some extra goalie streaming production.
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Lane Myer
