The 15^th annual Midseason Guide was released on Friday, January 13 with final update put in on Sunday. Pick it up here! This is included in the Platinum/Gold subscriptions only, or the Ultimate Fantasy Pack (not the Keeper League Pack). Projections, prospects, free agents, trade block, advanced statistical analysis and more!

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Sam Montembeault started his fourth straight game and second on back-to-back nights – and he had his best performance yet. All four of his games have been Quality Starts, even though he won only two of them, he's faced an average of 40 (!) shots per game. He's been sneaky good value in daily fantasy lineups, if anyone was brave enough to use him against Igor Shesterkin Sunday. During this run, he has pushed his GSAA (goals saved above average) from a -3.295 to a +2.81 and his SV% from 0.897 to 0.910.

I'm starting to wonder if Cole Caufield is going to tally 50 goals this year. He is on pace for about 48.

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Collin Delia had himself another Quality Start Sunday in Vancouver's shootout win, his fourth QS in six tries. He has appeared in seven games now, and currently leads the other two Vancouver goalies (Spencer Martin and the injured Thatcher Demko) in win percentage, GAA, GSAA per game, QS% and RBS%. A couple more games like this and he just might steal the backup job from Martin. Demko is likely back at the start of February or possibly the end of January, so Delia has another two weeks to make his mark.

In his first 22 games after joining the Canucks, Ethan Bear had six points, 21 SOG, and was minus-5. Then he was made a healthy scratch. Since returning from that (11 games), Bear has four points, is plus-6 with 21 SOG. His shot volume has doubled.

Speaking of shot volume, Brock Boeser has also seen a nice uptick. He scored on Sunday, giving him nine points in 10 games. He missed two games in December with an illness and at that point he was averaging 2.18 SOG per game. Since then, he is averaging 2.38. Both numbers are lower than what we are used to seeing from him, as his career average is 2.8, but at least he's making progress.

Quinn Hughes now has seven points in his last four games and has pulled himself up to just one shy of a point-per-game average. Now he ranks sixth in D scoring.

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Andrei Svechnikov has been snakebitten of late, unable to score on any of his last 37 SOG. Rod Brind'Amour is still sticking with the line combination of Svechnikov, Martin Necas and Paul Stastny. When Stastny was moved to that line, it started off pretty well but things have tapered off a little since then. Overall, Jesperi Kotkaniemi was probably a better fit.

Pyotr Kochetkov is still looking for his first win in 2023 in four tries, but Sunday's game saw him pick up his first Quality Start of the calendar year. With Freddie Andersen back and playing great, it's only a matter of time before Kochetkov goes down to the AHL for more game action. Kochetkov will be in the NHL full time next year in a 1A/1B situation (where he is under no pressure to become the starter, but will likely take over the job anyway by midseason). Kochetkov owners just need to be patient – he'll be a top productive fantasy own by Christmas.

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Nik Ehlers continues to put up points since returning from injury. He's enjoying a five-game points streak with nine in that span, including an assist Sunday. His return has sparked his linemates Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor, who have six and seven points in that span. But not only that, as I mentioned last week, this improved second line (first line?) has had the domino effect of helping that first line too – Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Cole Perfetti have been hot.

Josh Morrissey, who has 48 points in 44 games this season when his career high before this was 37, is actually taking fewer shots. His SOG/GP is 1.70. Last season it was 2.19 and before that it was 2.07. He's dishing more, but his primary/secondary assist ratio has remained the same as always – meaning the assists haven't been a fluke. His goal rate will go down, but his assists rate may actually continue.

Clayton Keller played an astonishing 25:42 for Arizona in that game – his second highest ice time of the season. That entire first line, with Nick Schmaltz (23:34) and Barrett Hayton (20:28) logged a ton of minutes. Hayton was held off the scoresheet but in his last 10 games he has nine points. Hayton has seemingly been in the league forever, but in actuality he's still just 22.

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The official halfway point of the regular season hit last Wednesday and goals-per-game were averaging 6.4. The last time it matched that was in 1995-96. Interestingly enough – the scoring rate has actually climbed from 6.3 after the first quarter. You rarely see scoring rise as the season goes on. Usually teams come out of training camp still getting their systems in place, hockey is a little sloppy, and scoring starts a little higher and gradually comes down.

The last time a player reached 150 points was in 1995-96, when Mario Lemieux had 161. This happened about nine months before McDavid was even born. Maybe McDavid's parents celebrated Lemieux's feat?

At the midpoint, three players had already reached 30 goals: McDavid, David Pastrnak and Tage Thompson. The last time that happened at the midpoint was 2007-08 (Ilya Kovalchuk, Jarome Iginla and Alex Ovechkin). There were 23 20-goal scorers, the most since 95-96 (25).

The Bruins (32-4-4, 68 points in 40 GP) have left the rink – or field – without a point only four times in the first half of the season and are on pace to set single-season NHL records for wins and points. The number of points the NHL-leading Bruins are on pace to have at the half was 139, which would set a new single-season NHL record. The 1976-77 Canadiens (60-8-12, 132 points) hold the current benchmark and are one of two teams in League history with 130+ points in a season. Montreal held a 29-5-6 record (64 points) entering the League's halfway mark in 1976-77 and posted a 31-3-6 mark over the second half to set the current record.

In the last 80 years, this has never happened: Never has both the Cup champion (Colorado) and points leader from last year (Florida) been out of a playoff spot at the midpoint.

And now it has.

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See you next Monday.

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