Not the news that Penguins fans or fantasy hockey owners wanted to hear: Sidney Crosby has COVID.

Now, he should be fine, assuming he's vaccinated (which he is), along with teammate Brian Dumoulin, who also tested positive. We have seen some players develop long-term issues from this, namely Marco Rossi and Brandon Sutter. Both those guys were unvaccinated when they got the virus 6-10 months ago, though, so hopefully Crosby (and the rest of the NHL that is dealing with this) will be just fine in short order.

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Tyler Johnson also has COVID and missed Wednesday night's game. He is the latest victim of the Blackhawks' breakout.

For a minute, let's set aside how much this has impacted our lives and the lives of those who contract it. Let's just focus on fantasy hockey and the implications here for a second.

Vaccinated people are less likely to carry and contract the virus, but anyone who has played fantasy sports long enough should know that "less likely" doesn't mean "impossible". In fact, with a lot of teams having lax rules for vaccinated players – no masks, for example – this is inevitable. These guys are spending hours every day in a room with the same groups of people. If you're vaccinated, but you're still spending five hours a day in a room with 1, 2, 3 or more people with COVID, you're still at high risk to contract it. It's that simple. And unless the NHLers decide to get dressed at home by themselves like they're six years old again, this is just going to be a fact of life in this league. We can stamp our feet at how unfair it is, or we can just… accept what is blindingly obvious.

It'll be a frustrating season in this regard but it's what we signed up for. Let's just hope there aren't (more) serious health implications for the players, because it sure seems to me that hockey is breaking out at higher rates than other team sports.

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Some good Jonathan Drouin news:

#Habs Ducharme says Drouin is doing well this morning. Tests conducted did not indicate a concussion. He's considered day-to-day. @TSN_Edge

— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) November 3, 2021

He took a puck to the head on Tuesday night and was taken to a local hospital for testing and observation. It seemed like he had incurred another brutal injury but he may be clear. We'll know more in the coming days but this is obviously very good news for now.

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Not a great Forsberg update:

Filip Forsberg (upper-body, week-to-week) and Mark Borowiecki (upper-body, day-to-day) will not play in tonight's game against Edmonton. #Preds | #NSHvsEDM

— Nashville Predators PR (@PredsPR) November 4, 2021

Week-to-week designations are always tough. He’ll go to the IR and we’ll go from there.

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Panthers updates as far as lines go:

Looks like Anton Lundell back for #FlaPanthers on Thursday. If Sam Bennett doesn't go, Sam Reinhart centers second line.

— George Richards (@GeorgeRichards) November 3, 2021

This is a big improvement for Sam Reinhart, who has been off to a nice start with seven points in nine games. Obviously, moving to a line with Jonathan Huberdeau is a big boost as well, but hopefully that comes with PP1 time. That is where his value is really going to jump, is if he can take Bennett's PP1 role while he's out of the lineup. This could be a nice boost coming for Reinhart, depending on Bennett's status. He should improve a lot on his 16 minutes a night that he's getting currently.

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Nicklas Backstrom update

Nicklas Backstrom is skating by himself here at the Panthers' Ice Den. He is eligible to come off LTI on Saturday, but he has yet to skate with the team.

— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) November 3, 2021

That he's skating at all is a good sign. There are obviously a lot more steps to come, but the team is humming along at 5-1-3 and don't necessarily need to rush him back to the lineup. There are more updates to come, but with the way Connor McMichael has looked, the Caps appear to have a second wind for a Cup here. Am I making a sweeping projection based off minimal information early in the season? Absolutely. Am I going to regret making that sweeping projection? We'll find out in six months.

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Of note with Cale Makar out of the lineup:

Byram gets top PP nod tonight, could switch with Girard mid game if they wanted too but think he gives them a better shooting option as opposed to G.

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) November 3, 2021

That is a huge, huge boost for him, provided the team can score some goals with all the injuries they're enduring. Remember that Mikko Rantanen, Devon Toews, Valeri Nichushkin are all out, and now Makar. It is not unreasonable to think that while Byram getting top PP minutes is great, all these injuries are going to hurt the offensive output of the team. I wouldn't assume Byram is automatically a top-12 defenceman just because he has the role until Makar returns. Then again, this is hockey, and maybe he puts up 5 points in 3 games.

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For no particular reason, here are some players who've gotten off to a great start this season. A couple I talked about this summer as good values, but it's more about figuring out if they can maintain this. Because if they can, we're looking at four potential top-25 skaters. If they can't we have to figure out which one to move on from before the bottom falls out.

Kyle Connor

Seven goals in nine games would normally set off shooting percentage red flags, he's only shooting 18.9%. He has shot over 15% every full season of his career. What is new here with Connor is an uptick in shooting as he's over four shots per game. That kind of volume, with 15%+ shooting, is the stuff elite fantasy seasons are made of.

The only question here is if he can keep up his shot rate. We should mention that his shot attempt rate jumped last year by about 2.5 shots per 60 minutes. He has made a similar jump this year and he is only 25 years old. Maybe this is just his final form? Maybe he's just rounded into this guy: not a 30-goal scorer who can threaten 40, but a 40-goal scorer who can threaten 50. We would be remiss to not mention he's skating over 21 minutes a night.

Even if he doesn't turn into one of the top goal scoring threats in hockey – like, the Matthews/Pastrnak tier – he is still in the next tier below. I wouldn't be looking to trade him now unless I got an offer that blew me away, like a legit top-12 player in the Pastrnak/Barkov vein.

Vladimir Tarasenko

Having played only 34 games over two seasons due to injury, it was very fair to wonder what the soon-to-be 30-year-old would bring now that he was presumably healthy. What he's brought so far is a lot of production: 4 goals, 9 points in 7 games with 4.4 shots per game (as of Wednesday afternoon). He has been on an absolute tear to start the season.  

He is shooting the puck a lot, and that's reflected in his league-high shot rate. My general problem is that he is skating just 16:06 a night, his lowest since 2013-14. Not that he can't be very valuable skating 16 minutes a night, but I'm not sure he has the top-25 upside we're looking for the rest of the season. He would have to set not only career-bests, but league-bests, in shot rates to keep up his current goal rate. That feels like a lot to ask.

I hesitate here because Tarasenko is an elite offensive talent and we've seen him have some very big fantasy seasons. Those often came with 18-19 minutes a night, though, and not 16. It would be nice to see that climb in the coming games before making a decision one way or another.

Josh Norris

A major source of Norris's value right now is his goal scoring, with six in nine games. His shooting 23% is also an issue. The team is also shooting over 13% with him on the ice at 5-on-5, and these are all signs of negative regression.

On the other hand, his IPP is just 50% (the rate he gets a point when a goal is scored). That will probably be closer to 70% by the end of the year so even if he starts scoring less, the players around him should start scoring more, and then we're just trading goals for assists.

We should mention that he's sitting with 14 hits in 9 games, averaging nearly three shots per game. Even if there are stretches where the regression kicks in and his points dry up for a few games at a time, he can still support a reasonable fantasy value with shots and hits. There is more to him than just production, and that separates him from a lot of centres.

Matt Dumba

While his point production isn't extravagant, the peripherals are: he has 29 shots and 40 hits+blocks in nine games. That is just wonderful peripheral production from Dumba.

I have some doubts that he stays over two blocks and hits per game. Those are just too high for what he's established. But that isn't to say he can't be closer to 1.5 blocks and hits per game, and a guy who can do that and post 10 goals and 40 points is very, very valuable.

The thing with Dumba is he's not likely to draw a lot in a trade offer. He is not running the top PP unit and it's not as if he's a well-known elite offensive talent like Hedman or Makar. We have seen Dumba post some great multi-cat seasons before, though, and he's capable of doing so again. It is probably best just to hold for now.