The Oilers were able to pick up a desperately needed win on Saturday, and that was in spite of neither Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl hitting the scoresheet. This in spite of the twin towers being used as an even-strength unit along with Warren Foegele. McDavid is officially cold with no points in his last three games and no goals in his last eight games.

This is only the 8th Oilers win since 2015 where both Connor McDavid & Leon Draisaitl were held pointless

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 12, 2023

All the Oils needed in their 4-1 win over Seattle was Zach Hyman, who produced a first-period natural hat trick. Props to our DFS expert Brad Hayward, who advised you to pick him in your daily fantasy lineup. Hyman is now the Oilers' second-leading scorer (behind Draisaitl) with 13 points in 13 games, and he also leads the team with seven goals. He's one Oiler who seems largely unaffected by the team's struggles.

Stuart Skinner posted just his third quality start of the season and his first since October 29, as he faced just 18 Seattle shots. By comparison, Skinner has had four really bad starts. Whether Skinner deserves it or not, the Oilers' net is his with Jack Campbell now in the AHL.

Jaden Schwartz scored the Kraken's only goal. That is notable because he now has four consecutive games with a goal, along with a nine-game point streak. This of course happened right after I dropped him in one league. If you've played this game long enough, you just know that's how things work. Yes, it is unsustainable, since he is shooting at nearly 20%, but he is at least averaging nearly three shots per game. Add him while he's hot, but expect him to settle in at his usual 50-point pace at some point. On top of that, he's a Band-Aid Boy.

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Patrik Laine returned to the Blue Jackets' lineup on Saturday after missing the past few weeks with an upper-body injury. Laine scored a goal (the 200^th in his career) while taking four shots in 18 minutes of icetime. Get him back into your lineup as soon as possible.

Since starting the season with a bang (13 PTS in 7 GP), Alex DeBrincat had cooled off considerably with just a single point (an assist) in seven games prior to Saturday. DeBrincat broke his seven-game goal drought with a goal in the Red Wings' 5-4 win over Columbus. Despite the recent slide DeBrincat is maintaining a point-per-game pace (15 PTS in 15 GP) and has already scored 10 goals. However, he's proof that we shouldn't be too quick to jump to conclusions about the first couple weeks' worth of results. DeBrincat will likely have a strong season, but not 100+ point strong.

Shayne Gostisbehere is another Red Wing who has been slumping. A healthy scratch on Thursday, Gostisbehere was back in the lineup on Saturday. He remained pointless on Saturday, which means he has been held off the scoresheet for seven games that he has appeared in (eight games for the Wings). Despite the lack of scoring, he is still receiving the +50% power-play minutes. And like DeBrincat, Ghost Bear started the season strong (9 PTS in first 7 GP).

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Nikolaj Ehlers picked up an assist and four shots on Saturday. But for the sixth consecutive game, his total icetime was below 15 minutes (14:59, to be exact). And for the fifth time over those six games, he appeared in fewer than 50% of the Jets' available power-play minutes. I wonder if the Jets would ever think about trading him.

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With Jacob Markstrom dealing with an upper-body injury, Dustin Wolf made his season debut on Saturday against Ottawa. Wolf allowed four goals on 38 shots in the Flames' 4-1 loss in Ottawa. The 22-year-old Wolf has very little left to prove in the AHL and seems NHL-ready at some capacity. Markstrom appears day-to-day, so Wolf's next potential start is not known. The struggles of the Flames as a team don't make Wolf a must-start anyway, although he has high keeper value.  

After a slow start, Drake Batherson has goals in back-to-back games and four goals in six games. His shot total is still slightly down from last season, but he did fire seven shots against Vancouver on Thursday. His ownership in Yahoo leagues has dipped to 60% because of the slow start, so he's definitely worth an add if someone else in your league gave up on him early.  

Mathieu Joseph is a point-per-game player (13 PTS in 13 GP). Joseph scored a goal on Saturday, which was his fourth of the season, surpassing his total from all of last season. He's taken three shots in three consecutive games, which is helping his cause. Joseph is receiving more icetime with the Sens' top forwards than he was last season, giving him better opportunities to score. On Saturday, Joseph was on a line with Claude Giroux and Tim Stutzle. He's rostered in fewer than 10% of Yahoo leagues and about 30% of Fantrax leagues, so he's making his way into the waiver-wire option discussion.

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With a goal on Saturday, Nick Robertson has points in all four games he has played in this season. Maybe Robertson will finally stick in the NHL for good, although the Leafs' salary cap situation is far too complicated to suggest that this will happen for sure. He had piled up 11 points in nine AHL games prior to his callup. For more on Robertson, check out this week's The Journey.

William Nylander's season-opening point streak is now at 15 games.

Only three Leafs forwards were held without a point on Saturday. Two of them were Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

John Klingberg was back in the lineup on Saturday after missing Friday's game with an undisclosed (?) injury. Klingberg was held without a point, which means he has now gone eight games without a point.

Although the Canucks could not pick up yet another win on Saturday, J.T. Miller scored again. Miller now has goals in seven of his last eight games. Only Chris Kreider has more power-play goals than Miller (5 PPG).

With a goal on Saturday, Pius Suter now has goals in four of his past five games. He has yet to record an assist this season, though. Suter has helped improve the Canucks' bottom-6 depth and is strong in faceoffs (55.8 FO%), and he also has a role on the Canucks' second power-play unit.

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Artturi Lehkonen is expected to miss several weeks with an upper-body injury. Lehkonen was injured in a collision during Thursday's game. With Lehkonen out of the lineup, Valeri Nichushkin should receive more power-play time and perhaps more overall icetime as well.

The Avalanche's problems on Saturday were more related to goal prevention, as they coughed up eight goals to the Blues. Alexandar Georgiev allowed six goals before getting pulled early in the third period, giving him his third really bad start in his last five games. After reeling off six consecutive wins to start the season, Georgiev has sputtered with a 1-4-0 record since. Georgiev has also allowed a minimum of three goals in each of his last seven games, which is far below expectations (ADP 26 in Yahoo). Despite the recent struggles, Georgiev still provides a strong probability of a win every time he starts. However, backup Ivan Prosvetov might factor into the workload more often with Georgiev's recent results.   

Brayden Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich each posted hat tricks for the Blues, while Robert Thomas registered four assists. Schenn in particular got off to an awful start with no goals and just one assist in his first nine games. However, he has flipped the switch with eight points – including five goals – over his last four games. Buchnevich has five points in his last four games, while Thomas has ten points in his last six games (although his five-game goal streak was snapped on Saturday).

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Tristan Jarry earned his league-leading third shutout of the season on Saturday, stopping all 35 Buffalo shots that he faced. Jarry has posted three consecutive wins after starting the season with a 2-5 record. With some strong ratios (2.23 GAA, .920 SV%), Jarry should be in your starting lineup each game.

Erik Karlsson scored a pair of goals for the Pens, giving him nine points over his last five games. He has had multiple points in four of those five games. After he seemed to need some time to get used to his new surroundings (4 PTS in first 8 GP), Karlsson has found his way back to point-per-game status. It looks like he'll be just fine in Pittsburgh with no worries about whether he'll fit in.

Evgeni Malkin has seven points in his last five games, including a goal and an assist on Saturday. Imagine this goofy goal deciding your head-to-head matchup.

Insanity. pic.twitter.com/9amJjvdIpQ

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 12, 2023

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After I described the lack of goals from Alex Ovechkin yesterday, the Great 8 scored twice on Saturday. Ovechkin also added five shots, four hits, and two blocks to boost the peripherals. The goals were Ovie's first in seven games, while he just scored his very first 5-on-5 goal of the season. He's at least maintaining an average of four shots per game, and his low advanced stats such as shooting percentage suggest that he'll start to score with more frequency soon. By doubling his goal total in one game, Ovechkin is on pace for just 25 goals. Some trivia: Ovechkin has now tied Wayne Gretzky for the most empty-net goals in history (56).  

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Kaiden Guhle has six points in 10 games, including the game-winning overtime goal and an assist on Saturday. None of those points have been on the power play, where Guhle has received little to no time. That could change for Guhle at some point, as he is only 21 and has some offensive upside.

Nick Suzuki has scored goals in four consecutive games.

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If you've been waiting on Pyotr Kochetkov, you were rewarded with a 22-save shutout on Saturday. Kochetkov entered this game with some really bad numbers (4.33 GAA, .838 SV%) in limited action, but Frederik Andersen's blood clot could mean that Kochetkov is in the NHL for a while. Expect him to split starts with Antti Raanta for the time being. Jaroslav Halak is also in the organization on a free agent tryout to provide goaltending depth in the event of another injury.

With a goal and an assist on Saturday, Brent Burns snapped an eight-game point drought.

After being a healthy scratch on Friday, Tony DeAngelo was back in the lineup on Saturday. He was back on the top power play, although he did not register a point and logged just 14:40 in total icetime, along with some pregame shenanigans.  

Austin Watson and Tony DeAngelo in warmups… 👀 pic.twitter.com/0YQJZHQXHf

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 12, 2023

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The Arizona Coyotes now have an eight-goal game and a seven-goal game this season! The Nashville Predators were the victim of the seven-goal game on Saturday, being edged by a score of 7-5.

Clayton Keller scored a goal and added two assists in the offensive onslaught, giving him six points in his last three games. Dating back to the start of last season, Keller has 101 points in 96 games. Yet he isn't mentioned in the same breath as many of the league's top scorers. Keller had an ADP of 60 in Yahoo, which I about where I drafted him on one team. The fact that his hits total is miniscule might lower his ADP from that of where other similar scorers could be normally drafted.

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I'm off next weekend, so I'll chat with you again in two weeks. In the meantime, follow me on Twitter/X and Threads.