Another fantasy week complete and the streak remains intact for Chicago’s Patrick Kane as he now has a point in 26 straight games; which happens to be the longest streak since the 92-93 season. Mats Sundin went 30 games strong for the Quebec Nordiques; look to see if he can extend the streak as Chicago hosts the Colorado Avalanche tomorrow evening.
Kane as you can imagine leads the NHL in points with 46. Both Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin have 40 points and could easily catch number 88 if he ever slows down. Rookie forward Dylan Larkin leads the NHL in plus-minus with a most glorious +20 on the season.
With the holidays on now for some and Christmas around the corner for others, it’s a busy time of the year and you will see a very heavy schedule this week with many teams playing four games, be sure to set your rosters accordingly. With so many teams having so many games there will be many names to pick from in the HockeyBuzz SuperLeague (HBSL), so be sure to look at not only who has so many games, but who their opponents are. This will be a week where you can potentially make up some quality points on your opponents, go with some hot hands and make sure your goalie is going to get three starts.
Number of games per team this week:
2 Games: Anaheim – Arizona – Winnipeg
3 Games: Carolina – Colorado – Dallas – Detroit – Los Angeles – Minnesota – Montreal – Nashville – New York Islanders – Philadelphia – St. Louis – Toronto
4 Games: Boston – Buffalo – Calgary – Chicago – Columbus – Edmonton – Florida – New Jersey – New York Rangers – Ottawa – Pittsburgh – San Jose – Tampa Bay – Vancouver – Washington
Injuries: Simon Despres (concussion) – DTD Mike Smith (lower body) – DTD Martin Hanzal (lower body) – DTD David Pastrnak (foot) – Indef. Tyler Ennis (upper body) – week to week Robin Lehner (ankle) – DTD Karri Ramo (flu) – DTD James Wisniewski (knee) – April Sergei Bobrovsky (lower body) – DTD Teemu Pulkinen (shoulder) – January Nail Yakupov (ankle) – late December Connor McDavid (clavicle) – January/February Nick Bjugstad (upper body) – Indef. Carey Price (lower body) – Indef. Brendan Gallagher (hand) – Indef. Mike Fisher (lower body) – DTD Travis Zajac (upper body) – DTD Adam Henrique (lower body) – DTD Ryan Strome (upper body) – DTD Derek Stepan (ribs) – January Mark Streit (groin) – January Kris Letang (upper body) – Late December Logan Couture (leg) – DTD Jaden Schwartz (ankle) – End of January Jonathan Drouin (lower body) – DTD Ondrej Palat (lower body) – DTD Tyler Johnson (N/A) – DTD James Reimer (groin) – DTD Joffrey Lupul (lower body) – DTD Brandon Sutter (abdonmen) – Mid January Ondrej Pavelec (knee) – Indef.
Starting Goalies:
(EDM) Talbot VS (BOS) Gustavsson (WSH) Holtby VS (PIT) Fleury (TBL) Bishop VS (CLB) Korpisalo (LA) Quick VS (OTT) Anderson (BUF) Johnson VS (DET) Mrazek
Quick hits:
Jamie McGinn (now on Buffalo’s top line) Mikel Boedker (consistently putting up points, 11g, 11a) Valeri Nichushkin (promoted to top line with Seguin and Benn, has been good lately) Chris Kunitz (very slow start, has been hot since added to Crosby’s line) Victor Rask (has been excellent for Carolina – 9g, 13a) Rasmus Ristolainen (red hot young Sabres D-man - get him if you can) Shayne Gostisbehere (replaced Streit on the powerplay and looks solid out there, worth a shot if you need some help on the back end)
I’ll have a blog later this week on some trading that I’ve done in my keeper, rotisserie and head to head pools with a brief overview of where I stand and a game plan moving forward as we slowly approach the 40% of the season mark.
Thanks for reading, enjoy tonight’s games and I hope everyone is having a successful fantasy season thus far.