An interesting wrinkle with Winnipeg's lineup on Monday night was that Cole Perfetti was moved to the top power play unit with Nikolaj Ehlers being bumped down. The top PP unit had three goals in eight games, which isn't awful, but they had gone three straight contests without tallying. This was the change they decided to make, and it does give Perfetti some additional fantasy value.

This is a shame for Ehlers's value though. He finally cracked the 20-minute mark for TOI in a single game on the weekend and his fantasy value looked to be on the rise. It has now been thwomped like a mole at a carnival game. We will see how long this lasts, and the team only has three games next week, all of them on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday.

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Tyler Motte was on the ice for Tampa Bay on Monday.

It is a non-contact jersey but just being back on the ice is a good sign. The team has struggled a bit this year and he can provide some good defensive stability, especially on the penalty kill. It'll only help Jonas Johansson and, eventually, Andrei Vaslievskiy.

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While I have serious concerns about Nicklas Backstrom's effectiveness at his age and after his surgery, we now have Top Line Tom Wilson as a regular thing:

Capitals lines at practice today:

Ovechkin-Strome-Wilson
Mantha-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Milano-McMichael/Backstrom-Phillips
Malenstyn-Lapierre-Protas

Fehervary-Carlson
Sandin-TvR
Haman Aktell-Jensen
Alexeyev-Johansen

Kuemper
Lindgren

— Bailey Johnson (@BaileyAJohnson_) October 30, 2023

On the flipside of the injury coin, Wilson has looked pretty good on a pretty bad Washington team, posting five points, 21 shots, and 26 hits in eight games. More ice time won't hurt, either.

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Gabriel Landeskog provided an update and it was covered by Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now. Basically, everything has gone smoothly in the six months since the surgery and he's looking forward to "hitting the ice soon." He is still months away from a return, but any positive news is good news.

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Minnesota sent down a couple players that had been recent recalls:

#mnwild reassign Daemon Hunt and Jujhar Khaira to Iowa

— Jessi Pierce (@jessi_pierce) October 30, 2023

I don't really know how the cap works in relation to accruing LTIR space by sending players up-and-down, and Minnesota doesn't play until Thursday. It might be a good sign for both Matt Boldy and Jared Spurgeon but we'll find out more in the coming days.

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A late goal from Teuvo Teravainen – his eighth tally in 10 games – led to a 3-2 Carolina win in Philadelphia on Monday night. The winger didn't score his eighth goal until March last season, so he's a fair bit ahead of schedule this season.

Andrei Svechnikov registered his first assist of the season, skating a little over 14 minutes with a shot and a pair of hits. For the second game, he was moved up alongside Sebastian Aho for the third period. It seems that's the long-term plan once he gets up to speed.

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In Tampa Bay, another late goal, this one from Brandon Hagel, tied their game against Seattle with under six minutes left. It was Hagel's second point of the night (he assisted on Alex Barre-Boulet power play goal earlier) as he's up to 10 points in nine games on the season.

Barre-Boulet and Tanner Jeannot each had a goal and an assist, while Jeannot had four total shots and three hit in a very good fantasy performance.

Both Kailer Yamamoto and Jared McCann had a tally and a helper each in the overtime win (McCann with the OT winner himself), and that makes five goals in 10 games for the latter as he looks for a second 40-goal season.

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Matt Grzelcyk was injured in Boston's 3-2 overtime win against Florida on Monday night. He left the game in the first period and did not return. It is deemed an upper-body injury. Hampus Lindholm skated over 28 minutes in his teammate's absence.

Pavel Zacha registered the OT winner, his second point of the night, having assisted on a Charlie McAvoy marker earlier. McAvoy now has eight points in nine games as his offensive game is really starting to show itself production-wise.

Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart each had a goal and an assist in the loss. Reinhart maintains his goal-per-game pace and is now up to 31 shots in eight games, or nearly four per game.

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Mason McTavish scored two third-period goals, one in the waning seconds, to lift Anaheim to a 4-3 win in Pittsburgh. It made for a three-point night for the burgeoning star, who now has five goals and 11 points in nine games to start the year.

The short-handed goal was a nice shot but this looks bad on the Pittsburgh power play, and Erik Karlsson:

🚨MAC-T!!! 🚨

He scores on the shorthanded breakaway and we lead it with seconds remaining!! pic.twitter.com/0JR6CX2EqZ

— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) October 31, 2023

Karlsson did have a goal and an assist with four shots and three blocks in a great fantasy outing, but that replay will last a while.  

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Lucas Raymond and JT Compher each had a goal and an assist in Detroit's 4-3 overtime win over the New York Islanders with Raymond providing the OT winner. Jake Walman also had one of each, which gives him five points in 10 contests. He has 17 shots and 25 blocks, too, so his multi-cat effort is very impressive.

Bo Horvat also went 1+1 on five shots while Noah Dobson had a pair of helpers, three shots, and a block as his stellar season continues.

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Artemi Panarin had a three-point night (1+2) and Mika Zibanejad ripped home the overtime winner as the New York Rangers took a 3-2 win in Winnipeg. Panarin is up to 15 points in nine games as he's helped carry the team's offense through the first few weeks.

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Dallas took a 5-3 win over Columbus but, notably, Thomas Harley scored once again on two shots, adding three blocks. The young defender now has four points in seven games, all at even strength. His ascension continues.

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Arizona put up eight goals on Chicago, but it wasn't the top guys doing the damage: Jack McBain (2+2), Michael Carcone (3+1), and Liam O'Brien (1+1) did most of the damage in one of the wildest box scores we'll ever see. Though they didn't all skate on the same line, that is six goals from, basically, three fourth liners.

Sean Durzi's hot start rolls on with a goal, an assist, three shots, and a pair of blocks.

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In honour of Halloween (is that something we honour?), today is a good time to look at scary starts across the league. Whether good or bad, there are always players, lines, or teams that terrify fantasy owners and digging into what's happened and what may happen in the future is necessary. Let's look at six frightening first few weeks.

Jason Robertson

Going into Monday night's game, Robertson had one goal and four points in six outings. After a 109-point season last year, and back-to-back 40-goal seasons, it's certainly not the start fantasy owners were looking for. Of course, shooting 5.9% against a three-year average of 15.8% is one culprit, but there's more going on.

First off, his ice time is down. Robertson is earning 17:50 a night, down a full minute from a year ago. The early portions have seen his power play shot attempts decline 33% from last year, which isn't helping matters. Finally, the team is taking 30% fewer shot attempts on the power play with their top unit on the ice (and Roope Hintz has not made a difference). Once shooting percentages turn around, both Robertson's and his linemates', production will improve, but there are some red flags that indicate a return to last year's levels may not happen.

Mitch Marner

When the NHL introduced its new tracking data, I was very unsure how it would be helpful. Then I saw Steven Burtch – former analytics writer for Sportsnet – talk about how he thought Marner may be playing injured after looking at the new skating metrics. Digging into it, he may have a point. Here are Marner's 2023-24 (left) and 2022-23 (right) tracking webs with key skating and shot metrics highlighted:

Before screaming "small sample", here is linemate Auston Matthews's webs, with this year on the left and last year on the right:

Aside from top skating speed, the other two metrics are virtually identical for Matthews. Marner's significant declines in all three areas are noticeable, as are his seven points and 21 shots in eight games. The winger's rate of shot attempts/60 (11.8) is a career-worst, too.

Whether Marner is really injured or not, only he and the team know. What we know is that he's showing a lot less burst in his skating, something that is usually a strength for him, and he's shooting less than ever. Not a great start for him.

Erik Karlsson

One of the big hopes in Pittsburgh with the Karlsson trade was an improved power play. Last year, Pittsburgh finished near the middle of the league in goals per minute on the man advantage, ranking 13^th. Things are even worse this year, coming in 29^th thanks to the Penguins shooting 5.3% on the power play. As a result, Karlsson went into Monday night's game with zero power play points in eight contests.

Karlsson had two similar stretches last year in San Jose and still finished with 27 power play points. That this Pittsburgh roster boasts a lot more offensive firepower than that one should bode well moving forward, but there's a complication: Pittsburgh is drawing a league-worst 2.5 power plays per game. That should rise, but there is a long way to go to being anywhere close to the league average. Even if the team rebounds to a normal shooting percentage, if they aren't drawing many PP opportunities, how many points can Karlsson accumulate? Without more power plays, getting to 25 PPPs would be a real good year for Karlsson. Fantasy owners are probably hoping for more, but we need to see more from Pittsburgh first.

Shea Theodore

Alex Pietrangelo was injured, and Shea Theodore went on a tear: two goals, seven points (four on the PP), 20 shots, and six blocks in five games. What is notable is that even after Pietrangelo returned, Theodore skated 23:36 in an overtime loss to Chicago, where he accumulated two points, and 25:13 in a home win against Los Angeles, adding another assist. All told, he's up to 10 points in nine games and has been one of the most valuable fantasy defencemen this season.

For Theodore's career, two things were missing from his fantasy profile: high levels of TOI and a heavily-used top PP role. This year, he's averaging a career-high 23:45 per night and he's earning nearly 78% of the team's power play time. He had been below just 60% of the team's PPTOI for three straight seasons. He finally has the role that fantasy owners need for Theodore to produce a high-end fantasy season. Hits and blocks will still be tough to come by, but a career point-producing season awaits him if he retains his current role.

Cole Caufield

Montreal went into Monday night's slate with 11 points in eight games, tied with Toronto and Detroit. A big part of their start has been Caufield's own start which has seen him manage four goals, nine points (five on the power play), and 32 shots. He even has six hits, which is one-third his total over 46 games a year ago (18). This across-the-board production has been a tremendous boon to his fantasy value.

The question is if Montreal's power play success can replicate over the next five months; the team is scoring 10.8 goals/60 with Caufield and Nick Suzuki on the ice. Last year, that number was 6.1 and the year before it was 5.7. A mark of 10.8 goals/60 is very high, and a number that duos like Brad Marchand/David Pastrnak, Nikita Kucherov/Steven Stamkos, and Nathan MacKinnon/Artturi Lehkonen had in 2022-23. It is a lot and retaining near that level will be key to Caufield's fantasy success.

Ask any Montreal fan how confident they are in the power play, and you'll see that Montreal fan tug at their collar as if they're in a Simpsons episode. However, they are generating more shots and expected goals than they have at any point in Caufield's career, so having more success than in years gone by is very much in play. Just keep expectations tempered.

Carter Hart

Heading into Monday night's game against Carolina, in six starts, Hart had four wins and a save percentage of .924. He, and the Flyers, have been one of the best stories through the first three weeks of the season.

We have seen this before, though. Hart was 6-0-2 through eight starts last year with a save percentage of .946. The rest of the season saw him go 16-23-8 with an .898 save percentage. So, what's different this year? The team, of course.

Last year, through November 5^th, which was roughly three weeks of the regular season, Philadelphia was last in shot attempt share at 5-on-5 (38.9%), 30^th in expected goal share (37.9%), and 28^th in goals per 60 minutes (2.04). This year, they are 14^th in shot attempt share (52.4%), sixth in xG share (54.9%), and 12^th in goals/60 (2.67). Were it not for backup Samuel Ersson being shredded for 12 goals in his two starts, the Flyers could legitimately be at-or-near the top of the Metro Division. It is not even close to the same team as 2022-23.

Whether Hart and the Flyers keep up their start requires a crystal ball, but Hart doesn't need an elite team in front of him to still be a good fantasy option. Ersson is playing his way out of a roster spot and that means Hart should be in line for a lot of starts. A high volume of starts, combined with a (hopefully) average-at-worst team in front of him could be a good fantasy season. The next 70-some games will tell us the truth.