Crosby Breaks Goalless Slump, Johansen Doesn’t, plus more…

Despair no more, Sidney Crosby owners. Sid the Kid scored his first goal in 12 games and added an assist with five shots on goal in 23 minutes of icetime. There was an interesting discussion on the most recent Keeping Karlsson podcast about Crosby being a potential buy-low candidate. I can certainly vouch for that. But here’s something to ponder during your down time: Is there any player on your fantasy roster that you would not trade if you were offered Crosby in a 1-for-1 deal? The list has to be very short, but worthy of debate. McDavid? Kucherov? Anyone else?

Crosby plus/minus watch: He was an even rating (0) in this game, so his plus/minus remains at minus-14.

Justin Schultz splitting power-play time with Kris Letang has been a topic of discussion lately. But things were back to normal (so to speak) on Tuesday. Letang totaled 5:19 on the man advantage, whereas Schultz totaled just 2:23. In my keeper league I targeted Schultz at least in part because I also own Letang, which means that I’m leery that the next injury is just around the corner. Each blueliner earned an assist in this game.

Conor Sheary scored two goals on Tuesday, including the overtime winner against Buffalo. He is not only the Penguins’ co-leader in goals, but also an early leader for a Cy Young (8-2).

If you missed out on Sam Reinhart’s three-point performance in a losing cause, you can’t be blamed. Reinhart had not recorded a point in his previous four games and had not scored a goal in his previous ten games.

*

Meanwhile, here's a live look at Devan Dubnyk during that last commercial break. pic.twitter.com/W4iO04fqsm

— Dane Mizutani (@DaneMizutani) November 15, 2017

Or to put it another way, this is yet another example of why you should not panic when your fantasy goalie struggles during the first month of the season. From October 5 to November 8, Dubnyk posted a goals-against average above 3.00, a save percentage barely above .900, and just four wins in 11 tries. Since then, he’s posted three consecutive shutouts, including a 30-save performance against the Flyers on Tuesday (back-to-backs against Philly).

And yes, yet another goal for Jason Zucker, who now has seven goals in his past four games. Zucker scored all six of the Wild’s goals in their three previous games. The losses of both Zach Parise and Charlie Coyle (forgot to mention Coyle the last time I mentioned Zucker in the Ramblings) have hurt the Wild’s offense but created increased opportunity for Zucker. His icetime is up a full two minutes per game over the previous few seasons, all of which is increased power-play time.

*

If you own a Blue Jackets’ player, there’s a good chance that he hasn’t provided much for your fantasy team this past week. The Jackets have scored just five goals over the last four games. There was finally a Cam Atkinson sighting on Tuesday, as he recorded an assist on the game-winning goal. If you factor in time out of the lineup because of injury, Atkinson had not recorded a point since October 27. The assist was his first in five games.

So if Jonathan Huberdeau scored two first-period power-play goals to pump up the crowd, yet there wasn’t much of a crowd to watch it, did it really happen? I hope so for the sake of my fantasy team. With 21 points in just 17 games, Huberdeau is well on his way to cracking that 60-point barrier that has eluded him throughout his career. The one that we at Dobber Hockey know is going to happen.
 

So, @JonnyHuby11 is on track to obliterate career highs.

Points in 14 of 17 games this season. https://t.co/T3FzoAggWz pic.twitter.com/hWdkq9oVFr

— NHL (@NHL) November 15, 2017

Those hearty souls that made it out to the game also witnessed a two-goal performance from Jamie Benn, who also fired seven shots. As expected, Benn skated on a line with Alexander Radulov and… what now?

19.11%  EV           BENN,JAMIE – JANMARK,MATTIAS – RADULOV,ALEXANDER

16.67%  EV           DICKINSON,JASON – SEGUIN,TYLER – SHORE,DEVIN

12.2%    EV           ELIE,REMI – HANZAL,MARTIN – SPEZZA,JASON

8.13%    EV           FAKSA,RADEK – PITLICK,TYLER – ROUSSEL,ANTOINE

Mattias Janmark earned a helper on one of Benn’s goals while skating nearly 20 minutes. He’s quietly putting together an effective season (10 points in 18 games), so he might be worth keeping an eye on while the Dallas lines are in a state of flux.

*

Lots of players scored for Nashville on Tuesday. Six different players, in fact. But sadly, Ryan Johansen wasn’t one of them. So that’s 17 games and zero goals. I didn’t include Johansen in my list of “most shots, fewest goals” from my last Ramblings because, well, he’s taken just 23 shots. That’s not even a shot and a half per game. Wasn’t it Wayne Gretzky who said you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take? So by my math, 0-for-23 on the shots that Johansen has taken + 0-for-0 on the shots that Johansen hasn’t taken = 0. I knew being good at math in elementary school would pay off for me someday.

How about some subtraction next? Johansen's ownership on Yahoo has dipped to 73 percent. That for a player picked within the top 100 in many Yahoo leagues.

*

Two streaks end for the Jets, one good and one bad. Bryan Little’s goalless drought ended at 11 games, but Patrik Laine’s goal-scoring streak ended at five games. So of course it would make perfect sense that they play on the same line.

*

So how dreadful have the Coyotes been over the first quarter of the season?
 

#Coyotes become the first team in NHL history without a regulation win through their first 20 games of a season

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 15, 2017

Anyone want to take Antti Raanta off my hands? Anyone? Anyone? No one? Oh well, nowhere to go but up, I suppose.

*

So what do you do when your fourth-string goalie allows seven goals and the game’s not over? Why you put in your fifth-string goalie. So out went Maxime Lagace and in went 19-year-old Dylan Ferguson, complete with his Kamloops Blazers mask. Ferguson allowed another goal and stopped another shot. Barely a ripple from a fantasy perspective, but this had to be a thrill for the kid.
 

We have an NHLer on our roster! Congrats to G Dylan Ferguson on making his NHL debut tonight!! pic.twitter.com/D1Xj4ODkYm

— Kamloops Blazers (@blazerhockey) November 15, 2017

So I hear the Oilers are having trouble scoring? Yes, we know the Vegas goalie situation, and we know the Golden Knights are much less powerful on the road than at home. But this should be an important confidence booster for the Oilers, who are on the outside looking in at the Western Conference playoff picture as we approach American Thanksgiving.

Connor McDavid scored two goals and added an assist, as we might expect. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored two goals of his own, breaking a stretch of five games without a goal.

How far has Ryan Strome fallen down the Oilers’ depth chart? He’s now on a line with Iiro Pakarinen and Jujhar Khaira. But it’s kind of worked out for Strome, who with an assist now has points in back-to-back games. Khaira recorded two assists to give him three points over his past two games.

The Oilers made a trade on Tuesday, sending Jussi Jokinen to LA for Mike Cammalleri. Steve has the Fantasy Take.

Steve had a busy day, as he also told us about the fantasy impact of Louis Domingue moving to Tampa Bay.

*

For a team with a 28^th-ranked power play (entering Tuesday’s action), the Canucks sure have a ton of “power-play specialists.” They signed Sam Gagner and Thomas Vanek during the offseason. The Sedins are basically power-play specialists at this point in their career (yes, I said it). Then you have to give Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser and Sven Baertschi time with the man advantage. And I also forgot about $30 million man Loui Eriksson. Hasn’t Derek Dorsett earned some power-play time as well? Lots of mouths to feed. At least they have Brandon Sutter in a more defensive role, which he’s much better suited for.

But said power play surprised even the most optimistic Canucks’ fan, going 2-for-3 on Tuesday against the Kings. Henrik Sedin scored a goal and added an assist. And Derrick Pouliot made an appearance with two assists and second-unit power-play time. I’m wondering if Pouliot is bumped out of the lineup once both Chris Tanev and Troy Stecher return, though.

*

For more fantasy hockey information, follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.