Ramblings: Top Even-Strength Lines and Pairings – Hall, Weegar, Moore (Jan 16)
Ian Gooding
2022-01-16
The Midseason Guide is now available for download! If you've ordered it already, go to the Downloads section on the Dobber website. Then you'll see a link for both a spreadsheet for midseason projections and a PDF for the midseason guide itself. For more, see below.
Lots going on today at Dobber Hockey. The Top 100 Roto Rankings for January are also now up. Have a look, and feel free to leave feedback.
The only non-goalie that I decided to drop from the top 100 (aside from injury or COVID related) was Martin Necas. He entered Saturday's game without a goal in his last seven games and with just one point over his last four games. Sure enough, he broke out of that slump with a goal and an assist while on a line with Vincent Trocheck and Andrei Svechnikov. Both Trocheck and Svechnikov also finished the game with two points. Necas's icetime has fallen to the 13–15-minute range over the past few games, while his power-play time tends to vary.
By the way, Necas was a Tim Horton's NHL Challenge pick for me on Saturday, for those of you who like to play that game (Canada only, I believe). If you are also into that contest, you may want to join in on this Forum thread.
After reeling off seven consecutive wins, Thatcher Demko has lost three consecutive games, averaging four goals allowed. The Canucks are on what should be considered the new "road trip from hell" with stops in Florida, Tampa Bay, and Carolina (the old Southeast Division!) There's a very real chance Demko starts again today (Sunday) with Jaroslav Halak entering COVID protocol just before game time. The Canucks face yet another daunting matchup, this one against Washington, so you might be better off leaving an overworked Demko on your bench for that one.
Elias Pettersson… I watch the Canucks more than any other team, but I don't know what to tell you. Saturday was another game of frustration for him. Pettersson is without a point in his last four games and without a point in his last seven games. During the goalless drought, Petey is averaging only about a shot and a half per game. The shooting percentage (7.6%) is about half of what it usually is while the 5-on-5 SH% and PTS/60 are also quite low, so admittedly some of this is bad luck. I didn't know how far to drop him in the Roto Rankings because I just don't know when the switch turns on. If you're going to buy low, buy very low.
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In case you're wondering whether the new forward lines in Boston are working, here are the top even-strength lines in the league this past week (as of right after the Bruins game on Saturday afternoon).
| Line Combination | Team | POS | GF |
| JONATHAN HUBERDEAU – SAM BENNETT – ANTHONY DUCLAIR | FLA | F | 5 |
| JOE PAVELSKI – ROOPE HINTZ – JASON ROBERTSON | DAL | F | 5 |
| ANZE KOPITAR – ADRIAN KEMPE – ALEX IAFALLO | L.A | F | 4 |
| TAYLOR HALL – ERIK HAULA – DAVID PASTRNAK | BOS | F | 4 |
| MATS ZUCCARELLO – RYAN HARTMAN – KIRILL KAPRIZOV | MIN | F | 4 |
| RICKARD RAKELL – MAX COMTOIS – TREVOR ZEGRAS | ANA | F | 3 |
| GUSTAV NYQUIST – BOONE JENNER – PATRIK LAINE | CBJ | F | 3 |
| JUHO LAMMIKKO – TYLER MOTTE – MATTHEW HIGHMORE | VAN | F | 3 |
| PATRICE BERGERON – BRAD MARCHAND – CRAIG SMITH | BOS | F | 3 |
| STEVEN STAMKOS – ALEX KILLORN – ANTHONY CIRELLI | T.B | F | 3 |
| SEAN KURALY – ERIC ROBINSON – YEGOR CHINAKHOV | CBJ | F | 3 |
| PHILLIP DANAULT – VIKTOR ARVIDSSON – TREVOR MOORE | L.A | F | 3 |
| ALEXANDER KERFOOT – MICHAEL BUNTING – AUSTON MATTHEWS | TOR | F | 3 |
Brad Marchand has posted five consecutive multi-point games, which shouldn't be a huge surprise. Yet the one player that has suddenly found new life with the line shuffling is Taylor Hall. Since the calendar turned to 2022, Hall has 11 points over his last nine games, including a goal and an assist on Saturday. Prior to that, Hall started the season with just 14 points over his first 26 games – a 45-point pace. The Bruins have now won five consecutive games and eight of their last nine games. They've also got Tuukka Rask back in the fold, so they're feeling good.
About the Rask/Linus Ullmark goalie competition: I'm guessing it's a split to start, but you'll start to see a little more of Rask as the Bruins get closer to the playoffs.
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Vitek Vanecek pitched the 23-save shutout against the Islanders on Saturday. Zach Fucale crashed back to earth with a really bad start (RBS) on Monday, so he has been sent back to the AHL. That means it's probably going to be Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov taking turns again, so I'd have to assume Samsonov starts Sunday against Vancouver.
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On Friday night the Florida Panthers scored a touchdown against the Stars. On Saturday night they scored both a touchdown and a safety against the Blue Jackets. If you're not a football fan (yes, I also have NFL playoffs on my mind), that's a whopping 16 goals over their last two games.
Surprisingly, the leading point-getters were the defensemen. Mackenzie Weegar scored a shorthanded goal and added three assists, while Aaron Ekblad recorded three assists of his own. Fun fact: Weegar has as many shorthanded goals as he has power-play points. Weegar is the more defensive defenseman in his pairing with Ekblad, but he clearly puts up the points to be fantasy-worthy on his own. In fact, a look at Frozen Tools shows they are the even-strength D pair with the most goals scored while they are on the ice this season, and by a sizable margin.
| Line Combination | Team | POS | GF |
| MACKENZIE WEEGAR – AARON EKBLAD | FLA | D | 38 |
| VICTOR HEDMAN – JAN RUTTA | T.B | D | 33 |
| BRENT BURNS – MARIO FERRARO | S.J | D | 30 |
| RYAN LINDGREN – ADAM FOX | NYR | D | 29 |
| RADKO GUDAS – GUSTAV FORSLING | FLA | D | 28 |
Just to be clear, this isn’t combined goals or points between the two defensemen. It’s the total number of goals scored while each pair is on the ice. No doubt Weegar and Ekblad have had the opportunity to pick up plenty of points.
How about their teammates in fifth place? That Florida team is quite a goldmine of fantasy talent.
Frank Vatrano and Maxim Mamin were the only two Panthers forwards that did not record a point on Saturday. No Panthers forward scored more than two points, however. How's that for balanced scoring?
I won't break down every notable Panther scoring performance, since I discussed a few of them yesterday. One that I didn't mention was Anton Lundell, who scored two goals while firing eight shots on Saturday. Over his last nine games, Lundell has 11 points (4 G, 7 A). He's currently fifth in rookie scoring with 23 points in 34 games, providing the Panthers with secondary scoring and even penalty killing in his rookie season.
Elvis Merzlikins followed up a 31-save shutout of the Hurricanes on Thursday with four goals allowed in the first period before getting yanked. What a rollercoaster week for Elvis.
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Alex Nedeljkovic earned his first shutout as a Red Wing on Saturday, stopping all 22 Sabres shots he faced. He had struggled with losses in December and early January, but he has now put together five consecutive quality starts. Nedeljkovic is grabbing the starting job away from Thomas Greiss, as he has now started six of the last seven games for the Wings.
Over his last 10 games, Tyler Bertuzzi has nine goals and 13 points. That includes a goal and two assists on Saturday, along with six shots and two power-play points. Bertuzzi is now a point-per-game player (31 points in 31 games), with 18 of those points being goals.
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Between an injury at practice and COVID, Mitch Marner hasn't had an enjoyable time over the last couple months. Marner returned to the lineup from COVID protocol, scoring a goal and adding an assist in over 20 minutes of icetime. Because of the layoffs, the goal was Marner's first since November 21, when he scored a pair against the Islanders. Since December 2, Marner had played in only two games leading up to Saturday, so hopefully things are back to normal now.
With this nice setup from Marner, Auston Matthews has now scored at least one goal in 10 straight road games. Matthews is now just one goal behind Leon Draisaitl in the Rocket Richard Trophy goal race.
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Marc-Andre Fleury's value has fallen after being traded to the Blackhawks, but he has been heating up recently. With a 37-save shutout of the Ducks, Fleury has allowed just five goals in his last four games. All four of these games have been quality starts. I'm generally not bullish on Fleury with the Hawks, and I still wonder if he'll get traded before the deadline if the Hawks aren't a factor in the playoff race. Feel free to roll with him while he's hot, though.
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Darcy Kuemper also earned a shutout, a 20-save effort against the Coyotes. Kuemper rebounded from two consecutive really bad starts where he allowed a combined eight goals in the equivalent of just under four periods. Pavel Francouz has begun factoring into the goaltending workload more, so this was much-needed for Kuemper.
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Josh Norris scored two power-play goals in the Senators' 6-4 win in Edmonton. The second power-play goal was quite a sequence of events, where Norris's helmet needed repairs or replacement after he was high-sticked (the reason for the power play).
Don't look now, but Matt Murray has recorded back-to-back wins on the road in Alberta. Those are his only two wins of the season.
The Oilers have now lost six consecutive games. With the number of games they've had postponed, the last time they posted a W was December 18 – nearly a month ago. Goaltending is again at the top of the list of issues, as Stuart Skinner couldn't shut the door with five goals allowed on 25 shots. Their goaltending situation is very much day-to-day, so it's probably back to Mikko Koskinen on Thursday against Florida – not a matchup I'd want for an Oilers goalie.
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With a pair of goals, Phillip Danault has five goals and seven points over his last six games. Earlier in this Ramblings, you may have noticed Danault's name in the top even-strength lines of the past week, along with Viktor Arvidsson and Trevor Moore. Arvidsson has eight points (3 G, 5 A) over his last six games, while Moore might be the hottest of the three with 11 points (2 G, 9 A) over his last six games. All are rostered in fewer than half of Yahoo leagues, although you're much more likely to find Danault (17%) or Moore (7%) than Arvidsson (39%). If all three are available, then obviously go with Arvidsson.
Moore is particularly interesting because he started the season with just seven points over his first 32 games, averaging just 13 minutes with very little power-play time. Since jumping on the Danault/Arvidsson line, Moore's icetime has increased to 17 minutes while receiving time on the second power-play unit. He could be worth a look in deeper leagues now that he is in a much more favorable situation.
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For more fantasy hockey discussion, follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding
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