Looking Ahead returns to examine the favourable schedules for the first week of the season.

Greetings Dobbernation!

You may know me as Fighting Emu on the forums and I'm thrilled to be taking on the Looking Ahead column this year. We'll take a look at your best and worst matchups in weekly start leagues and try to dig beneath the surface and make sense of those difficult roster decisions. I really enjoyed Bob's format and will try to stay true to it while hopefully adding my own unique spin. Each week I'll continue posting a team to Target, Consider, Beware, and Avoid- over a two-week period as per the old format. I'll also continue to recommend some of those low ownership guys (Yahoo) for leagues that allow streaming over the same two week period. Lastly, each month I'll be adding another feature that might provide some insight to people in leagues with daily changes.

Cloudy with a Chance of Add/Drops will be a monthly forecast breaking down teams with favorable games played totals projected over the next thirty-day period. Hopefully this will help with those tough calls at the bottom of your roster when you want to take a flier on the waiver wire- especially in formats with limited moves. I hope that at the very least each week- I can provide some insight, a bit of humor and more bad puns than a Flintstones marathon!

So without further ado…

Big Bad Bruins (Target)

Games: 4 Away, 3 Home

@ Phl, Det, Was, Col, @Det, @Mtl, @Buf

The B's kick off their season with a bang, being one of only two teams starting seven games in the next two weeks. Although they face some quality competition in that schedule it should be noted that most of those teams are relatively middling in terms of Goals and Shots allowed per game, categories for which the Bruins were conversely ranked 3rd(Goals For) and 5^th  (Shots For) last year.

Washington will be especially interesting considering they were giving up an average of 33 shots per game last season- good for fourth worst in the league- although Barry Trotz may have something to say about that this year. Look for some lucky bounces as they finish up their three game road trip in Buffalo on the 18^th as well. Start your Black and Yellows with confidence.

Lightning Storming Out of the Gate (Consider)

Games: 2 Away 4 home

Fla, Ott, Mtl, NJ, @Van, @Edm

Tampa Bay skaters should see some favorable ice time to start the season with a four game home stand and you just might want to mark October 10^th down on your calendar if you own any of them. There will be plenty of room for carnage when they face off against the lowly Panthers who were second worst in the league for Goals Allowed and a miserable league worst in Penalty Kill Percentage. Of special note, will be who is able to lockdown those coveted top-line power-play minutes. The early favorites seem to be Callahan and Garrison- but this situation bears monitoring.