After an active evening in the National Hockey League last night there was a lot of fantasy activity. Unfortunately for those who own Pekka Rinne have to keep an eye on his status as he left the third period of their game against the Canucks with an injury. It’s unknown at this point the severity of the ailment, so be sure to stay tuned if you have him on your roster.
To play it safe if you can afford to - grab Carter Hutton as he is Nashville's backup, that way if Rinne is hurt you will be better off than having no goalie to replace him on a dynamite team.
There were a number of high scoring games last night including a 7-2 lashing from Pittsburgh over Minnesota and it looks as if David Perron has settled in nicely with the Pens. Another dominating game was displayed by Winnipeg over Florida where Mathieu Perreault put on a show scoring 4 goals in a game; big Dustin Byfuglien buried a couple as well. Another player I would like to point out is David Pastrnak from the Boston Bruins. I’ve seen him score two goals in each of his last two games and he is 18 years of age and the youngest active player in the National Hockey League today. He seems to be a spark of some sort around the net as he easily could have got a hat trick in each of his last two games. He was a +4 last night with 2 goals and 7 shots on net; any of these guys mentioned you could consider adding to your fantasy roster.
Another three players who have stood out over the last while and have been heating up are from Nashville. Colin Wilson, Craig Smith and Mike Fisher have all been producing consistently; perhaps one of them is available? James Neal returned to the lineup last night for the Predators and was able to chip in two assists in his return, it seems to me things are just going well for Nashville this year; time will tell with Pekka Rinne’s status to be determined.
It’s ever so important to keep an active roster…don’t be left in the dust while other people in your fantasy pools pick up players who are bursting out of their shell. You want to be the one who is cashing in on picking up players who are free agents and ride their hot streak. If you have a few ‘moves’ a week where you can rotate a couple different players through one of your slots to make the most out of it…there really is no better way. Sometimes I will pick up a player on Monday who plays both Monday and Tuesday, after that I will use another move and get a player who perhaps plays on Wednesday and Thursday. Take who you feel is going to have a good game, even a point or a penalty, anything that contributes to you winning the week is great when doing a spot start. You never know by week’s end, that extra assist or shorthanded point may just be enough for you to win the week. Often if I see a really good matchup and the better teams backup goalie is playing I will use one of my moves for the week on the goalie and hope they do well for me. Do what suits your teams needs the most, especially in head to head matchups where you may be way ahead in one column and don’t need to worry about points per say and wanted to concentrate on getting some penalty minutes or whatever the case may be.
Injuries:
(WPG) Jacob Trouba – February (TOR) Joffrey Lupul – February (TBL) Victor Hedman – DTD (TBL) Tyler Johnson – DTD (PIT) Patric Hornqvist – next 2 weeks (PHI) Steve Mason – next 2 weeks (NYI) Mikhail Grabovski – DTD (NYI) Lubomir Visnovsky – DTD (NJD) Patrik Elias – DTD (MON) P.A. Parenteau – DTD (MIN) Darcy Kuemper – DTD (MIN) Mikael Granlund – end of month (LA) Tanner Pearson – week to week (LA) Tyler Toffoli – DTD (DET) Jimmy Howard – Early February (DET) Johan Franzen – DTD *likely concussion…it’s the mule* (DAL) Patrick Eaves – Indefinitely (DAL) Valeri Nichushkin – end of March (CLB) Boone Jenner – February (CLB) Artem Anisimov – DTD (CHI) Kris Versteeg – February (CLG) Karri Ramo – DTD
Keep in mind that the last three weeks of the regular season are more often than not ‘playoffs’ for your fantasy. So you don’t have as long as you think left in the regular season…I’d imagine you have about 7 weeks of this season left before the playoffs start. Like I’ve said recently, don’t be shy to make some moves before it’s too late and you can’t bounce back and squeak into a playoff spot. Be aggressive, once you make the playoffs anyone can win you just need to have a few good weeks in a row!
There are only four games tonight:
(MON) Price VS (CLB) Bobrovsky (PHI) Rob Zepp VS (WSH) Holtby (TOR) Bernier VS (ANA) Andersen (NJD) Schneider VS (LA) Quick
Have a great day and thanks for reading.