As the season goes on I wonder why there are always so many games on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Well, I understand Monday has NFL football to compete with, but that game doesn’t start until around 8:30 Eastern. Wednesday, it’s hump day; where are all the games? Friday, the last day of the week everyone is either tired from a long week of work and ready to relax, or done school and ready to party.
Personally, I feel they should have games more spread out during the week. It would be great to be able to watch at least a couple games every night. Don’t get me wrong, I love the action on the heavy scheduled NHL nights, but come on; spread the glory. It would certainly bode well for us fantasy lovers as we wouldn’t have to bench as many players during the big nights. With that being said, Saturday should remain a hockey heavy night starting in the afternoon and going right through until the late game is over.
Tonight has eleven games lined up; with Tampa Bay being the only double header as they smoked the Rangers last night 5-1. Marty St. Louis scored versus his old team; but also finished the night with a horrendous -4. Bishop got the win last night and will be watching tonight as Nabokov will get his first start since November 8th.
Starting Goalies: (bold is confirmed, italics is probable)
(STL) Elliott VS (BOS) Rask (TBL) Nabokov VS (NYI) Halak (DET) Howard VS (CBJ)Bobrovsky (PIT) Fleury VS (MTL) Price (NSH) Rinne VS (TOR) Bernier (SJ) Grosenick VS (BUF) Neuvirth (NJ) Schneider VS (WPG) Hutchinson (CAR) Ward VS (DAL) Lehtonen (ANA) Andersen VS (CLG) Hiller (WSH) Holtby VS (ARI) Smith (FLA) Luongo VS (LA) Quick
Free Agents:
Some booming starts have come to a grinding halt and it’s time to replace those players. Sure, they may rejoice and get their game back and you lose out, but who knows if that happens and when. An active roster is a winning roster the way I see it. There will always be players going through hot and cold streaks who are constantly in and out of the free agents pool. My best advice is to pay attention to who’s hot and who’s not. Obviously you won’t be scooping up any 70 or 80 point players off the wire at this point, but you could certainly find a gem or two if you go about things the right way. Here are a few players I feel are starting to come around, or will come around in the near future. Keep in mind some of these players will be taken if you are in deep fantasy pools; I will do my best.
Defense:
Cody Franson – 3 goals, 9 assists, +4
Aaron Ekblad – 2 goals, 8 assists, +-0
Olli Maatta – 1 goal, 5 assists, +1
Jake Muzzin – 1 goal, 6 assists, -4
Jared Spurgeon – 3 goals, 5 asssits +9
Forwards:
Brayden Schenn – 6 goals, 7 assists, +5
Kris Versteeg – 5 goals, 5 assists, +5
Nikita Kucherov – 7 goals, 9 assists, +9
Brad Richards – 3 goals, 8 assists, +3
Nick Foligno – 9 goals, 9 assists, +3
Trades:
They can be risky, but they can be rewarding…all depends how well rounded your team is from my experience. If you are loaded up heavily on forward then you can afford to make a bit more of a ‘ballsy’ trade. If you have excellent goaltending, perhaps you can move one of your tenders for some help upfront putting the puck in the net. Whatever the case may be; the best approach is to look at what your strong suit is; and then look which team in your fantasy needs what you have to offer.
Here is my latest example of a great trade for both sides; but risky for both.
My team was very top heavy with excellent forward producing; my top 6 forwards before this trade were: Perry, Benn, Kessel, Nash, Hornqvist, and D. Sedin.
I felt I can move one of them, with another player and upgrade (hopefully) to a top tier forward.
Here is how it went down:
Rick Nash + Tyler Bozak in exchange for Patrick Kane.
Kane is off to a slow start, but is a 70+ point player the way I see it.
Bozak is a 60 point player how I see it, and Nash might score 40. So yeah, a bit of a risk on my end…but I feel Nash is scoring more than his shooting percent usually does. At the time of the trade he was scoring at 26% of his shots; where his normal success on shots is usually around 13 percent if I recall correctly. Bozak has been steadily putting up points beside his roommate and sniper Phil Kessel. Of course this leaves an extra slot open on my roster; with Perry out for those two weeks I had him on the IR and picked up Brassard. So in the end, I brought Perry back on (Sunday night) and kept Brassard.
Hopefully this example opens your mind into some possible trades in the near future. Again, the sell high, buy low method; we shall see how it goes from here out.
Thanks for reading and best of luck in tonight’s fantasy.