NHL Fantasy: The week in review

Filip Forsberg has been instrumental in the Predators' hot start to the season. (Jeff Roberson/AP)

The Montreal Canadiens and St. Louis Blues are hot, the Washington Capitals are cooling off at both ends of the ice, and teams are dealing with what’s been described as the mumps.

Injuries are once again rampant, so it might make the most sense to start there.

  • Valeri Nichushkin
    The highly-skilled second year Stars forward had been suffering from a lingering groin injury since the pre-season, and word came down last night it would be hip surgery that would sideline him for four months. This makes him droppable in any non-keeper fantasy format. While it temporarily moved Jason Spezza back to the top line with Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin after Patrick Eaves was also injured, Ales Hemsky was last seen skating on the top line in Dallas. He would be worth a speculative add right now.
  • The Anaheim Ducks
    Anaheim — specifically Corey Perry and Francois Beauchemin — have been suffering from what has been described as the mumps. This is something that seemed to have found its way to St. Louis earlier in the season, and is also affecting Minnesota. Perry is set to return soon, but it has made relying on most players from any of these three teams a frustrating proposition.
  • David Krejci
    Krejci has played just one game in November with what seems to be an ongoing hip problem. This has caused problems with the Boston lineup, and has fantasy owners pulling out their hair because he’s not being put on the injured reserve, and thus is keeping a lineup spot on fantasy teams occupied.
  • Alex Stalock
    The backup goalie in San Jose had started 5 of 16 games for the Sharks before being pulled from Tuesday’s game against Florida due to a knee injury. Per Rotoworld, there is no timetable yet for Stalock’s return from the ensuing surgery. He had nice fantasy value as a third or fourth goalie, but is droppable now. Tony Grosenick was called up in his place, but I doubt he gets much more than sporadic spot start.

Top Performers

  • Jaden Schwartz – Jori Lehtera – Vladimir Tarasenko
    It was another banner week for the "second line" of the St. Louis Blues. In three games, the trio of Schwartz-Lehtera-Tarasenko combined for 16 points, including a Lehtera hat trick on Remembrance Day. That means all three members of this line now have a three-goal game this year. They are truly one of the deadliest lines in hockey right now.

    As always, expectations need to be tempered – it wasn’t long ago "That 70s Line" of Tyler Toffoli-Jeff-Carter-Tanner Pearson were unstoppable for Los Angeles. Now they’re not even all part of the same trio.

    All three Blues players have an on-ice shooting percentage over 10 percent, with Tarasenko over 13 percent and Lehtera over 14. On-ice shooting percentage is the rate a team scores with a given player on the ice at 5-on-5, and this all means there is regression coming. The only regular NHL forward last year to finish above 11.75 percent was Ryan Getzlaf.

  • Carey Price (3 W, 1.34 GAA, .950 SV%, 1 SO)
    The Montreal goalie started all three games for the Canadiens this week, winning all three starts including a shutout of the Winnipeg Jets. While Price seems to be in store for another solid season fantasy-wise, Montreal is giving up more shots per game than Edmonton or Arizona. This will likely keep Price from posting an elite goals-against average, and in turn, prevent him from an elite fantasy season.
  • Kevin Shattenkirk (5 A, plus-6, 4 SOG)
    It wasn’t a week where Shattenkirk stuffed the score sheet, but he probably did have a winning impact in the assist and plus/minus categories this week. He’s done it quietly, but Shattenkirk is nearly a point-per-game defenceman right now, with 16 points in 17 games. What’s odd about this is he’s third among St. Louis defencemen in on-ice shooting percentage, and his personal shooting percentage (2.9 percent) is less than half what it was coming into this year (5.9 percent). That means there may not be much scoring regression coming. Those who have him in fantasy, hold for now.
  • Max Pacioretty (2 G, 3 A, plus-4, 11 SOG, 2 PPP)
    Montreal’s power play finally came through as they connected three times in Saturday night’s game against Philadelphia, with Pacioretty being in on two of the goals. The Canadiens had three power-play goals on the season before last week, and scored four in their last two games. Pacioretty had his first multi-goal game of the season and is now up to 15 points in 18 games. He’s on pace to crack 60 points again this year for the third time in the last three 82-game seasons.
  • Brian Elliott (2 W, 1.00 GAA, .963 SV%)
    The St. Louis goaltending situation was thought by some to end up in Jake Allen’s hands as the season wore on. While Allen does have six starts in 17 games, Elliott is in the top 5 of qualified NHL goaltenders in both goals-against average and save percentage (though, to be fair, so is Allen). This could be a situation like a few years ago when Elliott and Jaroslav Halak split goaltending duties and ended up carrying fantasy owners to championships thanks to their Jennings Trophy-winning season.
  • Filip Forsberg (2 G, 3 A, plus-4, 9 SOG, 1 PPP)
    Forsberg – who was once traded for Martin Erat – has yet to slow down for the Predators, and had scored goals in six straight games before being kept off the score sheet against Winnipeg on Saturday. He leads the NHL in plus/minus (plus-19), and is tied for eighth in scoring with 20 points. If there was ever a sell-high candidate, though, Forsberg deserves consideration.

Be sure to check out Sportsnet’s Pick ‘N Play right here on sportsnet.ca. It is a pick ‘em game where NHL players facing each other are pitted against one another and fans choose who will have the better night. There are weekly prizes, and a year-end grand prize courtesy of Kia.

Also, be sure to join the Sportsnet Fantasy Hockey Pool. It is a salary cap-style game where a roster needs to be filled out based on ascending point values, and there is a $1 million bonus prize, along with many other great prizes.

*Some stats courtesy of War On Ice, Hockey Analysis, Hockey Reference, NHL.com, and Yahoo!

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