Rambling about just how great Brad Marchand has been in roto-leagues; and so much more…

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Happy to see my fantasy teams in all three leagues doing well and mounting a comeback. Frustrated to see that in the league I run I am in first place if you capture the window starting December 7…yet the season, unfortunately, started on October 8. My deficit is so far back that I would have to seriously tear apart my team to take a run.

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A big part of the comeback, besides Sid, J.T. and Ghost, is the fact that the Rangers have discovered the net again. Mats Zuccarello, who disappeared from the face of the earth, has been sighted. He has eight points in his last six games. Before that he had five in 14. He’s been separated from Derick Brassard and has found a bit of magic with Derek Stepan.

Stepan actually has 10 points in his last 12 games (15 in 33 before that) in what is now just an effort and uphill battle to get to the 50-point mark. He needs 25 in 25 to get there and salvage what has been a pretty bad season.

Keith Yandle has four points in the five games that McDonagh has missed (that includes the game in which he left after just a few shifts). In all Yandle has eight points in his last 11. I know it seems like he hasn’t done much this year but his pace is now up to 45 points and by the end of the week his pace could be back up to 52 or 53. And that’s exactly where we had him pegged and exactly what he produced the last two seasons. The difference is that this year he’s doing it despite his power-play points taking a nosedive and his PPTOI also dropping to 2:30 (was 4:09 last year). He’s on pace for just 13 power-play points and yet he had 60 of them over the two prior campaigns.

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Interesting…

#KINGByke RT "@stevezipay: Lundqvist hasn't allowed an even-strength goal in three games."

— J-Bone (@jsc905) February 15, 2016

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Shayne Gostisbehere’s point streak stays alive thanks to an assist with just 10 seconds left in the game Sunday. The rookie blueliner’s streak is up to 12 games.

It was interesting to see Mark Streit see more PP time than Ghost (6:20 to 4:52).

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Robby Fabbri is on fire. He has points in four straight and nine points in his last 11. He is now enjoying a regular and probably permanent stay in my lineup, actually forcing Kyle Palmieri onto my bench. The latter has just one point in nine contests.

I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent here since I’m speaking of Palmieri. His puck luck is down, his offensive zone starts are way, way down, and yet his numbers are still tracking for 50-plus points. I’m not sure what’s more impressive, those facts or the fact that he’s yet to get hurt (knock on wood). To me it paints a very bright future. He’s doing all the things that the coach loves, he’s being leaned on in tougher situations, and when the Devils finally get a group of players that can properly shoulder that stuff – Palmieri will be turned loose. I think, production-wise, there is more to come.

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Brian Elliott since January 9:

9-3-2, 1.72 GAA and 0.946 SV%

Jake Allen is skating with the team but no set time yet for a return. I think it’s fairly safe to say that Elliott will continue to roll for at least another week.

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Six points in six games for Tyler Johnson. He’s too good to be held down for long when he’s healthy. I know that he’s not ‘proven’ enough for most poolies and you’re feeling jittery about him as a result. But if he can kick the injury bug he’s a sure-fire star.

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Henrik Zetterberg is back on track after a three-point game Sunday. He has points in four in a row and has 11 in his last 11. The reason? Pavel Datsyuk. The two were reunited and the combo has flourished. Here were Detroit’s line combos (and you’ll note that I added links to each team’s latest line combos in the main menu up top, in case you need to find them quickly):

#1           32.7%    ABDELKADER,JUSTIN – DATSYUK,PAVEL – ZETTERBERG,HENRIK

#2           23.5%    GLENDENING,LUKE – HELM,DARREN – SHEAHAN,RILEY

#3           17.9%    LARKIN,DYLAN – RICHARDS,BRAD – TATAR,TOMAS

#4           7.1%      ATHANASIOU,ANDREAS – JURCO,TOMAS – NYQUIST,GUSTAV

Datsyuk of course also had a three-point game and has nine in his last five. Suddenly he’s looking good for 55 points, a number we thought was out of reach two weeks ago. The sweet linemates have pushed Justin Abdelkader back up to fantasy relevancy too. He has back-to-back two-point games to show for it.

The Detroit player not getting better? Nyquist. He’s in the doghouse. I still believe in him and I think he’ll be a star, but his 44-point pace would be his lowest in his three NHL seasons. And that includes his first one when he didn’t join the team until 25 games in. But he’s a genuine talent with elite vision. Next year will be his fourth season (magic?) and the best part is that he doesn’t get hurt. In keepers, I consider him a definite ‘buy low’. In one-year leagues, I’m not so sure. I still think he gets over the 50-point mark but is that enough to help you?

Nyquist’s little iron-man streak was almost in jeopardy thanks to this knee-on-knee with Matt Beleskey. But apparently Nyquist is fine, he did finish the game:

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Brad Marchand has goals in 12 of his last 13 games. Goals. He’s getting PP time this year and he’s shooting the puck a lot, already with 168 shots on goal. In fact, by the end of February he’ll already have a career high in SOG. He’s also going to top 100 PIM. How much of a multi-cat stud is he? He’s 16^th in Frozen Pool’s Roto-Ranker and 15^th on the Roto-Rater (which adjusts for position). Among all skaters, typical roto-leagues, Marchand has been the 15^th (or 16^th depending on the tool you use) best this season.

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New Jersey has scored five goals in the last three games and yet they won all three. The scored five goals in the prior three games and lost all three (two in a shootout). In the three games before that, the offense rocketed up to six goals. Year after year with this stuff with this team. With 127 goals so far this season they are 29^th in the league, with two goals more than Anaheim. The Ducks have played three fewer games and are coming on strong.

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Semyon Varlamov gave up goals on the first two shots he faced and then he got the hook. I wonder how many H2H weeks he destroyed with that little 4:42 of hockey?

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If your league counts Hits and you are looking for a temporary depth defenseman, Dallas rookie Patrick Nemeth has five points in his last five games. He’s not much for offensive upside, but he’s very solid for Hits so at worst you’ll stockpile some of those. At best, he could continue this little hot streak and help you out with the offense too. When he cools off he’ll again become a healthy-scratch risk, but I picked him up after my blue line was decimated the last few days.

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I don’t know if it’s possible for me to disagree more with Larry Brooks here. To label the notion of Steven Stamkos going to the Leafs as “among the least plausible” is a silly statement. To suggest that Stamkos wouldn’t consider joining a rebuilding team in the prime of his career is fine, but to say it with such certainty is taking the opinion overboard. Unless something changes over the next five months, this summer’s crop of free agents isn’t terrible. Toronto is well coached and there will be a couple of top prospects joining up in the fall. To add Stamkos plus another (Backes? Yandle? Hamhuis?) veteran would certainly expedite the rebuild. To return home, for max pay (which the Leafs can now easily afford) would only mean another year or two or rebuilding. I don’t think Stamkos is considering the rebuild-angle at all. And of course Toronto moved Phaneuf to free up cap space for him.

It was interesting when Brooks’ suggested that John Tavares could go there in 2018 when his contract runs out. But I would call that a Plan B for the Leafs. Stamkos is no savior, but from a PR standpoint the Leafs will stop at nothing to get him (whether he’s worth it or not).

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So now that the newsletter has been running for a couple of months, what do you think? Is there anything you’d like to see added? Leave a comment below or email me. Right now the newsletter gives you four or five key articles from the past week that are ‘must read’ in case you missed them. It also lists the top five players, top five prospects, and top five goalies who have been researched by fantasy owners over the past week. I like this feature because it gives me an idea of what the competition is looking at. But if there was another exclusive feature I can add that you can think of – I’m all ears. You can sign up for the newsletter here, if you haven't already.

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As I finalized these Ramblings, I had a trade offer accepted. Unhappy with my goaltending lately – with Jaroslav Halak shitting the bed, Jonathan Quick being ‘maybe’ injured, and Ben Bishop being ‘ho-hum’, I traded Halak, Del Zotto, DeAngelo and a late pick for Cam Talbot. Talbot has been hot and to me is the perfect No.3 goalie. I can activate him this week and bench Quick. Del Zotto is out for a few weeks and so was useless to me, while DeAngelo would not be a keeper. I knew this owner liked DeAngelo based on earlier trade offers. The pick (11^th round) actually helps me because I can now end my portion of the draft after nine rounds. I’ll see if I can cut that to seven rounds by September! So the deal boils down to one thing – I believe Talbot will be better than Halak between today and the end of the season. I’m in a dogfight and I need every edge I can get.