I'm honestly not a fan of the Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday schedule that had fantasy managers suddenly able to – gasp! – talk with their significant others, and maybe interact with family members who are still returning Christmas presents. Honey-do lists? Out to dinner? Something ELSE on television – OMG, Lifetime Channel? Thank goodness we had the IIHF Juniors to entertain us, right?

I had a bit more time this week, so I was able to run some stats on goalies. Hot vs. cold, and sometimes netminders on the same team. I'm a charitable guy, so I'll spend more time on the best performers.

Thatcher Demko – Preseason Yahoo ranked 16th best goalkeeper, currently #1. 18-8-1 record, 2.47 GAA, 0.918 save%.  His career record prior to this season is an honest .500 win percentage, and 0.910 SV%.  The team's overall record both is the cause and the consequence of these improved numbers, and evidence here is that backup Casey DeSmith also having his best stats since entering the league in 2017-18.

Cam Talbot – preseason #25, available in the eighth draft rounds in many drafts, now second-ranked in Yahoo. His stats are actually more impressive – 2.10 GAA, 0.925 SV%, but he's won only 14 games.  This is Talbot's 12th season, and seventh team since entering the league in 2012-13.  Undrafted, he had a losing record in the NCAA with hockey power (sic) University of Alabama at Huntsville. A true journeyman. Oh, yeah – you're in a salary cap league? He makes $1,000,000 this year.

Two other bright lights, both wildly unexpected, are Connor Ingram and Joey Daccord. Daccord, a 2015 seventh-round draft selection, with THREE career NHL wins, obviously went fantasy-undrafted this fall, but has saved Seattle's season after Philipp Grubauer's injury on December 9th. The Kraken starter only had five victories, and the team was well below .500 then. Since that game, Seattle is 8-1-2, and Daccord's season totals are ten wins, a sparkling 2.29 GAA, an 0.922 SV%, and the first-ever Winter Classic shutout. Ingram had only seven wins in 30 games played prior to this season, now boasts a 13-8-0 record with a 2.61 GAA and 0.916 SV%. He's tied for the NHL lead with four shutouts and has taken over Coyotes' net, as Karel Vejmelka has compiled a 6-8-2 record thus far. Seattle and Arizona are presently battling for a wild card position, and these netminders are the reason.  

On the other end of the spectrum, if you drafted Frederik Anderson (blood clots – on IR), Joonas Korpisalo, Ilya Samsonov, or Vitek Vanecek, these goalies were all considered top-20 in preseason rankings and average (goalie) draft positions, don't feel bad. You have plenty of company.

Today's matchups

I'm going to focus on three visiting teams this evening.  Home ice is only important if you have equally matched teams. Tampa at Boston, for example, probably a really exciting contest, but I'm not taking the "over" when I see Andrei Vasilevskiy and Linus Ullmark at opposite sides of the ice. However…

New York Rangers @ Montreal Canadiens

The Rangers have been the class of the Metropolitan Division and are currently the Vegas oddsmakers' favorite to carry Lord Stanley's Cup away this June. They are second in the East with a +24-goal differential (Boston, +25), and the host Canadiens are last in the East at -27. Gracious hosts, indeed. So I wonder why Mika Zibanejad ($6300), Chris Kreider ($6300), and Adam Fox ($5500) are seemingly undervalued in Saturday's DraftKings lineups?  I'll play all three of these #1 power-play guys who've totaled 48 points with the extra man this season. Yes, I do remember Artemi Panarin – 53 points, 23 on power-play – but his ($8700) price tag gave me heartburn. 

Vancouver Canucks @ New Jersey Devils

New Jersey flew home from their 4-2 win in Chicago overnight, and the Canucks would love to start their three-game visit to the greater New York City area with a decisive victory. Nico Daws ($7800) has been really solid in two starts since Christmas with two wins and an 0.906 SV%.  But he's valued more than Thatcher Demko ($7600)? I'm not buying. Take Vancouver over a Devils' defense corps that's still struggling without last year's nucleus of Dougie Hamilton, Ryan Graves, and Damon Severson. Whether you'd pick up Elias Pettersson ($7400) or JT Miller ($7300) to lead the charge, I'm going to recommend Dakota Joshua ($2700) to balance cost. Joshua has nine points in his last nine games since mid-December. Too bad his hits and PIM don't help in this format.

Minnesota Wild @ Columbus Blue Jackets

This one's tougher to predict until the starting goalie is confirmed – always check with GoaliePost in late afternoons. I'm not concerned that Marc-Andre Fleury has started the past three games, all losses as he tries to equal Patrick Roy's 511 wins. Flower's save percentage was 0.911 in three quality starts. No, I see the Wild's home-and-home series with Dallas coming up and maybe Zane McIntyre gets the net for this non-divisional tilt. But whether or not it's the future Hall-of-Famer, Minnesota needs to find its offense. Kirill Kaprizov is out, as is Mats Zuccarello and Jared Spurgeon. Ryan Hartman ($4700) and Matt Boldy ($5900) need to be a part of the solution. They were both scoring around Christmas, but have been empty for those last three Fleury starts. 

Toronto Maple Leafs @ San Jose Sharks

Yeah, yeah. The Sharks are beyond just last, they're on a ten-game losing streak, and have a minus-81 goal differential for the season. Neither goalie has been reliable. And I'd blame no one to roster one of their top guys for DFS. But I didn't. Character flaw, maybe? But you can't always follow the crowd.  Laugh if you have to. We'll see.

My lineup:

Centers – Zibanejad and Miller

Wings – Kreider, Hartman, and Boldy

Defense – Fox and Pittsburgh's Marcus Pettersson ($3500), who has 14 assists and 65 blocks for the year.

Goalie – Demko

Utility skater – Joshua

Last week?  Honesty being the best policy, I lost track of time and forgot to enter. I saved my dollars for losing Powerball tickets.

New Year's resolutions: Seemingly a waste of time, right?  My side bet is that half of my resolutions will be broken by my next article on January 13. Good luck to all in both fantasy and life for 2024.