Happy New Year! Here's hoping 2022 ended on a high note for you and that 2023 is fruitful in both your fantasy life and your real life. And thank you for supporting Dobber Hockey with your fantasy hockey fix. Look for our Midseason Guide to be available in two weeks, which I am personally playing a more significant role in compiling this year. Working with an outstanding team certainly helps with this endeavor.

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Nathan MacKinnon was activated from injured reserve in time for Saturday's game against Toronto. MacKinnon has missed most of December with an upper-body injury. Unfortunately, if you activated him for Saturday, he was held without a point and saddled with a minus-3 against the Leafs. Because of the number of key players that have spent time in the injury ward, the Avalanche are on pace to be a Pacific Division or Central Division winner's first-round nightmare matchup. Or the Avs themselves may have a nightmare matchup on their hands. Depends how you look at it. We're not even at the midway point of the season, so it's still way too early to speculate.  

Alexandar Georgiev had just one Really Bad Start (RBS) in his first 23 games. Now he has two RBS over his last three games, the latest after allowing five goals on 24 shots to the Leafs. Opens the door for Pavel Francouz… oh wait, he's injured.

I'm probably late to the party in mentioning this, but the Leafs have been using a five-forward power play. Michael Bunting is the fifth forward, promoted to line up beside the big 4 (check their CapFriendly page if you're not sure who I mean). Bunting made that decision look good on Saturday, scoring a power-play goal and finishing with two goals in the game. That was Bunting's first power-play point since mid-November – a span of nearly 20 games. Bunting has 26 points in 37 games this season, but only three of his points have been on the power play.  

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With a 26-save 4-1 win over Chicago, Joonas Korpisalo now has quality starts in back-to-back games. After a disastrous 2021-22 season (4.15 GAA, .877 SV%), Korpisalo is now at least in the positive numbers for season GSAA (goals saved above average). Given his recent history, the current state of the Blue Jackets, and the return of Elvis Merzlikins as the backup goalie on Saturday, I wouldn't recommend relying on Korpisalo long-term. However, I'll admit that I streamed him on Saturday because the Jackets were facing the low-scoring Blackhawks at home. Both he and Alex Stalock (Blackhawks starter on Saturday) were available in my league. I knew one of them would "likely" earn a W, and I correctly guessed Korpisalo.

Gustav Nyquist led the Blue Jackets with a pair of goals, a plus-2, and five shots. He's now on the hot list with five points in his last five games. In addition, Nyquist has taken at least five shots in each of his last three games. The Jackets are one of a handful of teams to play four games next week, so Nyquist (2% Yahoo/14% Fantrax) might be worth an add in weekly leagues.

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When the biased Boston play-by-play announcer (you might know his name) says that Buffalo is for real, then there might be some truth to that. Right now, it might be best to describe them as streaky. After a hot start (won 7 of their first 10 games), the Sabres lost eight in a row. Now they're hot again, having won six games in a row (interrupted by two snow postponements). That means Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has won four consecutive games while starting four of the last five for the Sabres. Somehow, he's rostered in only 14% of Yahoo leagues. His season numbers (3.35 GAA, .896 SV%) might be the reason.

As I'm typing this (Saturday afternoon), the Sabres boast the NHL's top offense at 4.00 GF/GP. That's not something we would have predicted at the start of the season, but here we are. Tage Thompson is the main reason, and he still hasn't cooled off (25 PTS in last 13 GP, including a goal on Saturday). Thompson has not finished without a point in back-to-back games since late November.

Thompson's linemate Alex Tuch finished Saturday's game with two goals (including the overtime winner) and two assists. Tuch now has 10 points over his last six games and is second on the Sabres in scoring with 39 points in 34 games. Even though everything Thompson and linemates Tuch and Jeff Skinner touch seems to turn to gold, all three show plenty of orange and red in their Frozen Tools Buy/Sell Meter. In case you're not familiar, the meter compares advanced stats for the season with previous seasons. It's obvious that the Sabres are in a whole new world compared to previous seasons of mediocrity, but their overall level of streakiness could lend itself to a cold spell at some point.

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If you stacked Washington players in DFS against Jake Allen and the Canadiens, you might have been buying drinks at the New Year's Eve party. The Capitals struck for nine goals with some familiar names hitting the scoresheet.

The hottest Capital was at it again on Saturday (no, not that Ovechkin guy, we'll get to him in a bit). Erik Gustafsson scored another goal and added two assists, giving him an astounding 13 points over his last seven games. There may not be a hotter defenseman in the league at the moment.

If you're thinking that Gustafsson's recent run is happening because he's on the power play with John Carlson out, only two of those 13 points have been with the man advantage, although both have been in the three games that Carlson has missed. It's not just the power play – Gustafsson's icetime is up two minutes per game in the second quarter (20:44) compared to the first quarter (18:42). His production will inevitably decline, particularly when Carlson returns. However, he could hold enough value to remain on many fantasy teams for the rest of the season. Washington is starting to look like a great fit for his skill set.  

As for Alex Ovechkin, he recorded a hat trick on five shots. Six goals in his last four games, and at least five shots in three of those four games. Still no signs of slowing down.

Other Capitals with three points include Evgeny Kuznetsov and Marcus Johansson. Kuznetsov is riding a five-game point streak in which he has eight points (2 G, 6 A). Johansson now has three goals and five points in his last five games, and he's spent some time on the first unit power play. The Capitals play four times next week, so Johansson might be worth a short-term pickup (2% Yahoo/11% Fantrax).

Maybe 2023 will be better for the Habs…

Canadiens -93 goal differential in 2022 is their worst in franchise history in a calendar year.

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) January 1, 2023

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Filip Forsberg followed up a three-point effort on Friday with a hat trick on Saturday, in spite of the Predators' loss to the Golden Knights. Over his last three games he has five goals and seven points, which definitely places him on the hot list. I wrote about Forsberg yesterday, so I won't add anything else here. Just want to say that the opportunity to buy low, as I suggested to someone earlier this week, might be fading fast.

Michael Amadio scored a goal on Saturday, extending his point streak to six games. He's still under the 10% ownership rate in both Yahoo and Fantrax, and he's still on a line with Mark Stone and Chandler Stephenson. Both Stone and Stephenson recorded three points on Saturday, including assists on Amadio's goal.

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Michael Rasmussen has been hanging around the Frozen Tools top searches for quite some time, so I guess I shouldn't put off bringing him up any longer. Rasmussen scored a goal on Saturday against Ottawa, which gives him seven points over his last five games. A key reason for his recent success has been a promotion to the top line with Dylan Larkin and David Perron. His shot total is still a little low, although his 3 SOG/GP over his last five games is better than his season average of 1.7 SOG/GP. That being said, he's only 8% rostered in Yahoo and 22% rostered in Fantrax, so he could help your team if he stays on that line.   

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With a goal on Saturday, Phillip Danault has goals in three consecutive games and at least one point in each of his last seven games. Over that span, Danault has nine points (5 G, 4 A).

With an assist on Saturday, Tony DeAngelo has a four-game point streak and eight points over those last four games.

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Calle Rosen has goals in three consecutive games. Yes, Leafs fans, the same Calle Rosen who played sparingly for your team. He's not receiving much power-play time and is playing third-line minutes, but he should at least get into the lineup regularly now that Torey Krug has been placed on LTIR.

Speaking of goals by defensemen, Jared Spurgeon has goals in three of his last six games. He also has five points over that span.

Calen Addison, who bumped Spurgeon from the first-unit power play before the season, is ice cold again. Addison has just one point in his last nine games. I wonder if a change back to Spurgeon would be in the Wild's best interests.

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Remember all that worry about Victor Hedman's declining scoring (10 PTS in first 22 GP) and drop to Tampa's second power-play unit? Well, over his last four games he has six points, and over his last 11 games he has 13 points (all assists). Hedman recorded three of those assists on Saturday against the Coyotes, two of which were on the power play. And yes, he's back on the first power-play unit. Hopefully you didn't sell low, which I don't recommend as a general practice.

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On New Year's Eve, Mackenzie Weegar scored his first goal as a Calgary Flame. Dating back to last season with Florida, Weegar had gone 39 games without a goal. His scoring has dipped considerably from 0.55 PTS/GP (44 PTS in 80 GP) last season to 0.24 PTS/GP (9 PTS in 37 GP).

Weegar is known for peripherals, which also haven't been keeping up. One major reason for the decline in offense might be his shot rate, which is down to 1.7 SOG/GP this season from 2.5 SOG/GP last season. Although he is on pace to come close to his 179 hits from last season, he is only about a third of the way toward his 156 blocked shots from last season. Simply put, Weegar hasn't lived up to his 81.0 Yahoo ADP on his new team.  

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Finally, a word about Connor Bedard, even though he’s not on fantasy rosters this season.

Connor Bedard at the #WorldJuniors:

– Tied for the most goals ever by a Canadian at the World Juniors
– Tied for the most points ever by a Canadian at a single tournament
– Tied for the most points ever by a Canadian at the World Juniors

Incredible. pic.twitter.com/F7BQI4iyc5

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 1, 2023

Via 4 assists in a 5-1 win vs Sweden tonight, Connor Bedard not only tied a #TeamCanada record for career #WorldJuniors points (31) but also tied Jaromir Jagr (1990) for the most single WJC points (18) by a player younger than 18. He does so in just 4 games as opposed to Jagr's 7

— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) January 1, 2023

Hopefully your keeper league has some sort of fair policy in determining draft order. In other words, there's no one "tanking hard for Bedard," although I'm sure that's happening in at least a few keeper leagues. It might be too early to anoint him as an NHL superstar, but he's certainly living up to his exceptional status. The playmaking ability, the top-shelf shots… man. The team that wins the draft lottery should be absolutely giddy.

If you can't get enough Connor Bedard, go to his Dobber Prospects profile, where he rates as a perfect 10 in both fantasy upside and NHL certainty. Or you can check out this highlight package.

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Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding for more fantasy hockey.