There are a number of games tonight in the National Hockey League as teams continue their regular season journey. The closer to the twenty game mark we reach, the closer we are to trades and line promotions getting more stabilized as coaches try to figure out who has the best chemistry if things slowed down since last season or an injury occurred.
Make sure for all types of fantasy that you’re in; you keep a close eye on trades and promotions from the AHL and guys moving from the bottom six to the top six. Sometimes you can pluck a real fantasy gem off the wire before someone else notices.
That goes especially for goalies; Mike Condon replacing Price is a perfect example. It looks as if Price will be missing this week’s action as well.
Goalie Battles:
What true goaltending battles are taking place and what goalies are slowly creeping up on their team’s starters?
Niemi vs Lehtonen: Through the first ten games or so it looked as if Niemi had the starting job on lockdown as the new net minder for the Stars. He struggled a bit in that stretch and Lehtonen won the last three starts giving him some hope of starting more games. Dallas has the best record in the Western Conference at 12-3 and Niemi gets the nod tonight versus the Toronto Maple Leafs who gobbled Niemi up for four goals in their last meeting.
Reimer vs Bernier: Not that it’s been much of a battle as both goalies haven’t exactly been brilliant, but the Leafs have to rely on Reimer to stand big in the fort as the Leafs try to crawl out of the basement of the league. Bernier is still nursing an injury and has been atrocious for Toronto in the early goings of this 2015/16 season. Reimer needs to stand on his head each game just to earn more of Babcoks trust as he should be the Leafs backup goalie this season, time will tell.
Mrazek vs Howard: Both goalies have been excellent so far this season, making it a win-win situation for the Wings new coach Blashill as he selects one of two goalies fully capable of getting the job done. From a fantasy point of view it hurts as you may have to carry both goalies in order to get all of the starts for Detroit, but nevertheless each tender has been reliable. Perhaps it’s time for Detroit to make a splash and move a goalie or some of those extra forwards for some defensive help; Calgary and Detroit seem to make great trading partners. Keep an eye, you never know if Holland is going to go for it as Datsyuk’s time is slowly coming to an end.
Ramo vs Hiller: This really has been a horrendous start for Calgary and their goaltending situation. Ramo has been crap, straight up. Hiller not any better and is currently hurt; they even waived Ramo and then brought him back up. It’s kind of a ‘hot’ mess in Calgary right now as the Flames try to get back into the hunt they are going to need Ramo to get back to last year’s form where he was red hot.
Mason vs Neuvirth: From one extreme to the next…Mason has been DTD with family issues, hurt, or just not looking stable at all. Neuvirth on the other hand has been a monster in the early goings of the season, registering a league high three shutouts and making his fourth straight start tonight versus Colorado. If he keeps it up, Mason just may be looking from the outside in sooner than predicted, which of course leaves his owners in quite a kafuffle.
Allen vs Elliot: The writing was on the wall this season if you ask me. Elliot has been given a number of changes to run away with the number one, he has done well, but not well enough. Allen has clearly got the foot up on Elliot, but there is still hope for more shared time down the road; so don’t give up on Elliot, just be patient. Allen is likely the go to man though, so keep that in mind.
Jones vs Stalock: This started as all Jones as he had a monster start for the Sharks out the gates. Things have started to go a bit sour on Mr. Jones over the last seven outings as he sports a 2-5-0 record and an .888 save percent. That’s not going to cut it all season long, so consider Jones’ leash tightened up, he’s still the most likely starter for San Jose going forward, but just make sure you don’t let his glorious start pave the way from here out. Stalock hasn’t been anywhere close to impressive with a .880 save perfect in the early goings, I wouldn’t expect him to steal the job anytime soon.
Any other goalie battles you can think of?
Just keep an eye on Vasilevskiy from Tampa Bay…he’s going to be something else.
Each team’s number of games remaining this week:
2 games: Anaheim – Boston – Montreal
3 games: Arizona – Buffalo – Carolina – Chicago – Colorado – Columbus – Dallas – Detroit – Edmonton – Florida – Los Angeles – Minnesota – Nashville – New Jersey – New York Islanders – Ottawa – Philadelphia – Pittsburgh – San Jose – St Louis – Tampa Bay – Vancouver – Washington – Winnipeg
4 games: Calgary – New York Rangers – Toronto
Starting Goalies:
(STL) Allen VS (NJ) Schneider (CAR) Ward VS (NYR) Lundqvist (COL) Berra VS (PHI) Neuvirth (VAN) Markstrom VS (CBJ) Bobrovsky (CLG) Ramo VS (FLA) Luongo (BUF) Johnson VS (TBL) Vasilevskiy (WSH) Holtby VS (DET) Mrazek (OTT) Anderson VS (NSH) Rinne (WPG) Pavelec VS (MIN) Dubnyk (TOR) Reimer VS (DAL) Niemi (ARI) Smith VS (LA) Quick (NYI) Greiss VS (SJ) Jones
Enjoy tonight’s games and best of luck this week!
Any questions regarding trades or free agents, feel free to comment.
Thanks for reading.