Ramblings: Price Steals, Anderson Ties and Wins; Jeannot, Kuokkanen (June 19)

Ian Gooding

2021-06-19

Josh Anderson sure picked the right time to break his slump. Anderson scored a gift goal with 1:55 in regulation to tie the game after Marc-Andre Fleury misplayed the puck. Then he scored the game-winner in the first overtime to give the Canadiens a seemingly improbable 3-2 win and a 2-1 lead in their series with Vegas. Here are both of Anderson's goals.

https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1406080073212600322

Anderson wasn't just dealing with a mini-slump. This was 12 games without a point and one goal in his last 24 games entering Game 3.

The result of this game was hockey logic at its finest. Over half of the first period had passed before the Canadiens were credited with their first shot on goal. After two periods, the Golden Knights had a 30-8 edge in shots and a 51-21 edge in shot attempts. So the star of this game by a mile was Carey Price, who kept the Habs in it by stopping 43 of 45 shots he faced. Conversely, Fleury only had to face 27 shots. Let's just call it for what it is: Price stole a game that the Habs had no business winning otherwise.

Having said that, one could also argue that the Habs were redeemed after an obvious missed high stick on Corey Perry just moments before the OT winner. But you should know by now that the referees place their whistles in their pockets during overtime. Perry had quite a nasty gash on his face after this.

Even though some North American cities are back to full crowds and no masks or distancing, Friday's news from earlier in the day served as a reminder that COVID-19 is not over. With the recently fully vaccinated Dominique Ducharme quarantined due to a positive COVID test, assistant coach Luke Richardson assumed head coaching duties for this game.  

For the Golden Knights, Alex Pietrangelo's goal early in the third period looked like it might stand as the game-winning goal until the Fleury gaffe/Anderson goal. Pietrangelo, who is the shots leader of the playoffs (63 SOG), has now scored four goals in his last four games (his only four goals of the playoffs), and he has eight points over his last seven games. If Vegas can go all the way, Pietrangelo should be on the short list for Conn Smythe favorites.

Chandler Stephenson missed this game with concussion-like symptoms. That meant that Alex Tuch moved up to the top line with Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty. This was a big break for the big speedy Tuch, who is often stuck on third line. Tuch was 1-for-5 in the faceoff dot, which was a major concern with having three wingers on the same line. Tomas Nosek, who had much better success with faceoffs (8-for-13) was moved onto the Pacioretty/Stone line later in the game.

We know that Vegas is a team that can take over games for long stretches. However, it's starting to feel like they can lack finish at times, particularly when they face a hot goalie. Look at Thatcher Demko's three-game run in the bubble last season (0.64 GAA, .984 SV%), when the Canucks nearly stole that second-round series. Then Anton Khudobin allowed just eight goals in the five-game Conference Final loss to Dallas. Now the Golden Knights appear to be reliving that with Price.

A lack of power-play success is also hurting the Golden Knights. Their 10.5% success rate is the worst among all 16 playoff teams. I know 5-on-5 play is the real key to success, but Vegas can’t keep squandering away these prime opportunities to score.

This might be mildly concerning if you're a Kirill Kaprizov owner.

I would have thought that Kaprizov was already signed to multiple years on an entry-level deal, but he did sign a two-year contract before the return to play last summer (he was ineligible to play in the first year, as it was just for him to be around the team). Kaprizov is a 10.2c free agent, which means he is ineligible for an offer sheet. Not that offer sheets are commonplace, but this seems to be the most likely alternative should he be unable to come to terms with the Wild. Kaprizov is a potential franchise player, so he is not someone they should try to go cheap on, even if they have their share of undesirable contracts. The Wild's CapFriendly page will give you a better idea, if you're not sure who I mean.

Rather than the cheesy award show that we've become used to, and of course because of the pandemic, the NHL has decided to announce its award winners via press release on a nightly basis. On Friday, Aleksander Barkov won the Selke Trophy, finishing ahead of Patrice Bergeron and Mark Stone.

When the nominees were first announced, I had a long discussion on Twitter as to what the criteria were for nomination. Long story short: it seems very subjective. I can remember a time when the award was given to a defensive specialist like a Bob Gainey or a Guy Carbonneau. If you're looking for that guy among the nominees, Phillip Danault (another Hab) might be a deserving winner.

Danault finished sixth in the voting while scoring at less than a 0.5 PTS/GP pace. He was a top-20 finisher in faceoffs won while finishing with above a 52.5% success rate, often against teams' top lines. In addition, he finished third on the Habs among players with at least 30 GP with a 58.4 SAT%. There were a grab bag of various stats listed in the Selke finalist press release, so I'm probably only scratching the surface with Danault's strengths. Regardless, Danault seems to be that throwback Selke finalist.

Getting back to Barkov, knocking off top-drawer two-way forwards like Bergeron and Stone for this award is quite an accomplishment. In addition to strong defensive play, Barkov finished tenth with a 1.16 PTS/GP pace. He's a tremendous player, both in real life and in the fantasy game.

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Like I did last offseason, let's dive into the most popular Frozen Tools searches from the past week. In particular, why some of the names might be of interest.

I'll start with two names that were virtually unrecognizable in fantasy leagues, at least to start the season.

Tanner Jeannot

Both Monday columnists (Tom Collins, Grant Campbell) mentioned Jeannot, bringing him up as a potential name to consider for next season. In case you've never heard of him, Jeannot snuck into 15 regular-season games, scoring a decent five goals and seven points. That output wasn't on a scoring line; rather, it was mainly with fellow grinder Yakov Trenin.

The interest in Jeannot shouldn't be limited to scoring, although we're not talking about a player with huge scoring upside. Jeannot was credited with 53 hits, which worked out to over three hits per game and a team-leading 17.5 hits/60. Jeannot and Trenin are similar players, forming a bottom-6 "Herd Line" for the Predators. Trenin himself led the Preds with 94 hits.

I'd want to see Jeannot moved up to a scoring line before I'd show any interest in multicat leagues. However, he could be a waiver-wire source of hits in deeper leagues while not dragging your scoring total down as much as, say, Ryan Reaves would.

Janne Kuokkanen

You can debate which players will be left unprotected for the Seattle expansion draft and which players Seattle will pick until the cows come home. So I think Dobber did a great job of compiling a potential Kraken roster in the Monday Ramblings. He forecasted the player to be picked from the Devils to be Kuokkanen over Nick Merkley, while Yegor Sharangovich and Michael McLeod were protected.

In what amounted to a lost season for the Devils, Kuokkanen performed decently. In his first full NHL season, Kuokkanen tied for fifth in scoring on the Devils with 25 points (8 G, 17 A) in 50 games, as well as tied for fourth with 2.0 PTS/60. Kuokkanen's most frequent linemate was Yegor Sharangovich, who also surprised in his rookie season with 30 points (including 16 goals) in 54 games. By the end of the season, Kuokkanen and Sharangovich were lining up with Jack Hughes, so it's entirely possible that the Devils could be viewing both as long-term linemates for Hughes. That means protection in the expansion draft.

At this point I'd only consider Kuokkanen in deep leagues late in drafts. If he sticks with Hughes, and Hughes manages to break out next season, then Kuokkanen might be able to build on his 0.5 PTS/GP from 2020-21.

No team has scored more than three goals over the past three games, so it's been more difficult to correctly pick goal scorers in the Tim's Hockey Challenge. I'll keep on trying, starting with Game 4 of the Lightning and Islanders.

Pick 1: Nikita Kucherov – There's no Brayden Point here, which would be too easy given his playoff-leading 11 goals. So I'll take Kucherov, who might be due after being held without a goal for his past four games.

Pick 2: Blake Coleman – I'm okay picking an Islander here, since I'm not sure who will win this game. Yet the available Islanders are a mix of bottom-6 forwards and defensemen. That's why I like Coleman, as he has a bit more of a scoring touch than the other options here.

Pick 3: Noah Dobson – Here's my Islander pick. He has yet to score a goal in the playoffs but is receiving power-play time. He's also shooting more than Nick Leddy, who is also available here. Maybe Dobson is due?

– For more fantasy hockey discussion, or to reach out to me, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding

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