There are numerous games this week and many games on tonight. With eleven games lined up for action tonight you want to choose your goalie starts wisely this week. There are thirteen teams that play 4 games this week which is an onslaught of hockey! Great for putting up big offensive numbers, but sometimes you may have to sit a goalie because there is such heavy action. Some fantasy pools have a minimum number of games needed per week…there will be plenty this week so just be sure you pick which games you want to start your goalies if you are concerned about keeping a low goals against average and a high save percent. If you have a horrible night in one or both of these categories you will likely be playing your goalies each game you can on every night to make up for the ugly start.
Which of course brings me to my next poin: With so many teams playing four games this week and as we approach the playoffs…teams will want to give their goalies a rest and make sure they are healthy come playoff time. Expect a number of backup goalies to get a start this week; see if you can’t pick out a nice matchup and get some quality stats when you need them most. Fantasy pools are about a month away from roster freezes (trades), so if you are chasing someone for a playoff spot you want to obtain as many points in a week as possible. Go for it, don’t be shy and sit back and hope…make some trades, make some smart decisions that are going to improve your team.
Here is a small example of a trade I made last week, moving the ‘King’ Henrik Lundqvist in a trade.
I was in need of some high end forward talent; a goal scorer is what I needed…After looking over the free agents list I saw nobody worth picking up on the forward front…but what I did see was Hiller available. Someone must have given up on him between the pipes for Calgary, so I decided I was going to move one of my big goalie names and pick up Hiller. So far so good, as he has been solid for me since the All-Star break…
I traded Lundqvist for Corey Perry. Two valuable assets in the fantasy hockey world…
Hiller for free, Lundqvist out, and Perry in the lineup…overall I like the trade. I now have Hiller, Bishop and Schneider. That’s a tweak that I felt was going to improve my team in the big picture, maybe that opens up a door for you?
Here is a list of which teams have how many games going forward this week:
(2) Games: Detroit – Minnesota – Philadelphia
(3) Games: Arizona – Boston – Calgary – Carolina – Chicago – Columbus – Edmonton – Los Angeles – Montreal – New Jersey – Ottawa – Pittsburgh – Toronto - Vancouver
(4) Games: Anaheim – Buffalo – Colorado – Dallas – Florida – Nashville – New York Islanders – New York Rangers – St. Louis – San Jose – Tampa Bay – Washington – Winnipeg
HBSL:
It’s tight! Coming down the stretch things should be very close in each of the divisions…best of luck this week in your matchups. Check who you play next week and see how important that win or loss is to the person you are against…do your best to win, who knows you may block someone from making the playoffs, or win the week and squeak in yourself!
Starting Goalies:
(OTT) Lehner VS (NJ) Schneider (FLA) Montoya VS (NYI) Halak (LA) Quick VS (WSH) Holtby (ARI) Smith VS (CBJ) Forsberg (BUF) Enroth VS (MON) Price (CHI) Crawford VS (MIN) Dubnyk (TOR) Bernier VS (NSH) Hutton (TBL) Bishop VS (STL) Elliott (COL) Varlamov VS (DAL) Lehtonen (WPG) Hutchinson VS (VAN) Lack (CAR) Khudobin VS (ANA) Andersen
Best of luck in tonight’s games!