We had our first Frozen Frenzy of the season last night, with all 32 teams in action, and all 16 games starting on offset times.

That's enough with the preamble, onto the action!

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The evening kicked off with the New Jersey Devils (playing the second of back to back games), being hosted by the Detroit Red Wings. The Devils took the game in overtime thanks to Jack Hughes' game winner, and third point of the night – He also added eight SOG. Jesper Bratt also picked up three points in the win, while Evan Rodrigues looked solid in a slightly bigger role, picking up two points and skating with the top power play unit thanks to the absence of Luke Evangelista (illness).

Emmitt Finnie and Michael Bransegg-Nygard both pointed on the first two goals for Detroit, but it was Alex Debrincat and his three-point night that led the offence for the Wings. DeBrincat is also rumoured to be close to signing a seven-year extension worth $13 Million per season. Compared to the $13.5 Million price tag recently signed by Cutter Gauthier, and $12.5 Million for Kirill Marchenko, the number looks about right for DeBrincat. The term will be an interesting wrinkle as it takes him to the age of 35, where the play will be dropping off but the cap should be soaring. It's a gamble, but one that it seems the Wings had to make in order to retain talent.

John Gibson had 37 shots against him, so it's tough to blame him too much for the loss, but the bigger number is five goals against. That's 16 against in his last four games, while Daniil Tarasov has one one goal against on his 39 shots against him on the season.

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After entering Monday night's game in place of Jacob Markstrom, Arika Schmid got the start against Columbus. He let in a couple late goals, but played well enough to earn the win with three goals against on 27 shots.

Florida’s top line last night was Sam Bennett centering Brady and Matthew Tkachuk, and the brothers broke out in a big way. Brady Tkachuk especially had a big night with three goals and an assist. His first goal in a Panthers uniform was a big monkey off of his back, so he added two more for good measure. Matthew finished with five assists.

Seth Jones' market correction has also come very quickly, with six assists in the last two days, and four of them coming on the power play. Sam Reinhart also corrected his season pace, with two goals, an assist, and seven shots last night.

Davon Severson had two assists for the Blue Jackets in the loss, bringing his season total up to four points in three games since returning from an injury. Kent Johnson scored the first goal for Columbus to give him scores in back to back outings. He's up to four points on the season, a mark that took him eight games last season, but he then didn't hit the six-point mark until game 26. He's looking better this year and getting the deployment to match, so hopefully that kind of slump doesn't strike twice.

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Owen Zellweger scored his first goal with the Sabres. Through six games, Zellweger now has two points. While that’s a bit of a slow start for him, the points have come in the last two games, where his ice time has really jumped due to the absence of Rasmus Dahlin. When injuries hit this year expect a pop in production, but the numbers that Zellweger will produce when everyone is healthy might be a bit disappointing.

Lane Hutson and Cole Caufield took over for the Canadiens though, with both scoring a goal and an assist, and Caufield potting the shootout winner for good measure. This comes after I joked in one of my league chats last night that Hutson wasn't going to score because he "doesn't shoot". That's an outdated view though, as Hutson is up to 13 SOG through six games, and has multi-shot efforts in each of the last five contests. That added shot volume would add at least five goals to his total from last season, and gives him an added dimension.

Montreal hugely outshot the Sabres overall in the game, 38-17, which shows that Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen was solid, but just wasn't bailed out enough, while Jacob Fowler was just as solid as he needed to be to earn his second straight win.

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Jordan Staal is out 1-2 months with a partially torn calf. That means a permanent lineup spot for Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the meantime, as well as some added minutes for Logan Stankoven, and Mark Jankowski. Jankowski scored the empty net goal in the win, extending his goal streak to five games. That's not keeping up, so if he's owned by you for some reason, sell high now while you can.

Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho combined for five points in 43 minutes of ice time, continuing their hot starts to the year. Taylor Hall left the game with an injury though, so we may see some line juggling coming up. Or, maybe the promotion of top prospect Bradly Nadeau.

The Capitals had shuffled their lines, but they just can't seem to get their offence going at full throttle right now. I wonder how long it takes them to reunite last year's beast line with the Protas brothers and Tom WIlson. Last night's group didn't fare so well across the board, though Ryan Leonard's two assists were a nice continuation of his hot start to the season. He's deserving of more than third-line minutes right now.

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The Philadelphia Flyers ALMOST won a hockey game. But they didn't. Instead, they drop to eight losses (three in extra time) and zero wins on the season. They took the Kraken to the fifth round of the shootout, but weren't able to score the extra goal they needed in order to win their first game of the season.

Trevor Zegras at least snapped his cold streak with a goal, four PIMs, and five SOG. Owen Tippett notched his first assist of the season, and while I'm still on board with Zegras recovering for a strong year, I don't have much faith in Tippett, who has burned me too many times with his tantalizing upside of peripherals to go with a scoring touch that has never ended up leading to top-tier fantasy numbers.

Bobby McMann scored his third of the season, and is again pacing for about 50-points on the season. That seems to be his benchmark, regardless of team or contract status.

Defenceman Ville Ottavainen scored his first career goal in only his fifth career game. He was a fourth round selection in the 2021 draft, and likely doesn't have much fantasy value.

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Dylan Garand stole the show for the 25-save win. He hasn't allowed more than two goals in any outing yet this year, and has looked steady each time. An early zero-G MVP.

Garand was staked to an early lead thanks to two markers from Alexis Lafreniere, both assisted by Tye Kartye. The two were put together in the lineup for the last two games, and they each have four points to show for it. They won't keep scoring at a 168-point pace, but the fantasy relevance for both of them is high in the short term.

Dennis Hildeby was out for the Lightning with an undisclosed injury, so Mads Sogaard was on the bench as the backup. I had no idea Sogaard had moved over to the Tampa organization, but we're still early in the season and there's always a few names that surprise in new places.

Victor Hedman picked up an assist, but continued to show that he's done as a fantasy asset. He's playing low third-pair minutes, has only five SOG through six games, and has only two points. Hopefully you didn't spend much to get him on your roster this summer.

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Samuel Ersson allowed seven goals in what was the big offensive game that the Blues were looking for. Here's a list of the big performances from them on the night:

Pavel Buchnevich – Three assists

Mason McTavish – Two goals and one assist with six SOG

Pius Suter – Two goals and one assist with four SOG and three HIts

Jake Neighbours – Two goals on three shots

Joel Hofer – Win, 15 saves on 17 shots

Adam Jiricek – First career NHL goal

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Leevi Merilainen was fantastic through his first four games, with only eight goals against and a .900 save percentage or better in each game. He allowed only three goals on 38 shots, but it wasn't enough as the Vancouver offence looks to be drying up.

Kyle Palmieri had two goals for the Islanders, his first two in almost a calendar year. Matthew Schaefer and Matias Maccelli each also notched two points in the win.

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Connor Bedard made his season debut, and picked up one assist to go with three SOG, one Hit, and six faceoff wins (out of 14 faceoffs) in 21 minutes of ice time. Roman Kantserov and Teuvo Teravainen each scored twice in the win.

Sidney Crosby scored his first two goals of the campaign, but that still has him sitting below a 50-point pace. His shot rate is steady, the ice time isn't changing, and the underlying metrics outside of his IPP are all within the normal range. That IPP marker though shows he has just been a bit unlucky this year though, as he has been in on a minimum of 69% of the team's goals scored while he is on the ice throughout his career, except for this season's mark of 44%. Bring that up to his usual rate and he's his usual point-per game self. Don't buy into the talk that he's hitting the drop off, just a slow start for now.

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The Jets are refusing to fit the narrative of becoming a lottery team as their star goaltender sits on the sideline, and instead they sit behind only the Utah Mammoth in the deepest division in the NHL.

A three-point night from Mark Scheifele and two goals from Cole Perfetti fueled the offence, while Kyle Connor also kept his hot streak going with a goal and an assist. Scheifele is suddenly back to a point per game after a slow start, while Perfetti is now up to a 112-point pace, fueled by some extremely unsustainable underlying numbers.

Kirill Kaprizov supplied all the offence for Minnesota, scoring both goals, to bring him up to eight through the first seven games.

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All the best to Cale Makar and his family – hope everyone is healthy. As the father of three, including a set of twins, I know it’s not an easy birth or adjustment back into the day to day "routine".

For those of you that believe in the "dad power" for players, we’re about to have that doubly tested. Makar has seven points through his first five games, though the underlying numbers say he should be closer to four, which would be below his usual rate.

Gabe Landeskog has had a disappointing start, and I have moved him in one league already. At 33 and with the wear on his body, I’m skeptical of how high of a level he can maintain. The shot rate this year is concerning, even if the ice time is holding for now. He did have one power play assist last night, though Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas led the way with two points apiece in the win over the Stars.

Devon Toews had an assist, four SOG, and four minutes of PP ice time in Makar's absence.

Tyler Seguin and Miro Heiskanen each had two points for Dallas in the loss.

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Playoff legend Brett Howden led the offence for Vegas, with a goal and an assist, with Rasmus Andersson posting two assists and 10 other skaters picking up a point. In the 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators. Adin Hill stayed perfect on the season with his third win in three games. He has only allowed seven goals across those three starts.

Ryan O'Reilly continued to up his trade value, posting a goal and an assist while adding 11 FOWs in response for the Predators.

Jayden Strube (Darnell Nurse's lookalike) now has nine Hits through his first two games with the Preds after being acquired from the Canadiens for a second round pick a few days ago.

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The Leafs came out flat early against Utah, and Anthony Stolarz let a few weaker shots squeak through him, posting Mammoth to a 3-0 lead through the first 25 minutes.

Dylan Guenther and Mikahil Sergachev each posted a goal and an assist, while 13 skaters recorded a point for Utah.

The big names posted most of the offence for Toronto, with goals from Auston Matthews, Gavin McKenna, Jack Roslovic, and John Tavares. In contrast, only seven skaters picked up points for the Maple Leafs (plus an assist to Stolarz if your league counts such randomness).

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Roger McQueen was called up yesterday morning and made his NHL debut last night as the third line centre. I added him speculatively in two leagues, though his debut was unspectacular, with no points, one shot, and one block in under 12 minutes of ice time. He was sheltered and started only in the offensive zone, but at least he responded with a dominant possession share as a result. Anaheim ended up taking the 4-2 loss, with goals from Leo Carlsson and Beckett Sennecke.

Aydar Suniev scored a goal and an assist for the Calgary Flames to bring him up to three points in three games this season. He's only playing 13 minutes a night, but if he gets bump up the lineup then the fantasy relevance could be sustainable.

Dustin Wolf earned his first win and first quality start of the season, stopping 23 of 25 shots he faced.

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Devon Levi continues to look like the solution in goal for the Oilers, putting up his third straight quality game after the seven-goal-against stinker to start the year. He stopped 39 of 40 shots against last night, as the defence didn't do him too many favours.

The offence did though, with a goal and three primary assists from Connor McDavid, supported by multi-point efforts from Vasily Podkolzin, Leon Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard.

Brandt Clarke scored the lone goal for LA, his first of the season, and fourth point in five games. The three shots per game is a great sign from him too, though with him having the puck so much he hasn't recorded a Hit yet this season.

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Fraser Minten scored two goals, Morgan Geekie picked up two assists, and all but five Bruins skaters recorded a point in the win over San Jose. Jeremy Swayman recorded his fifth quality start in six games. Matthew Poitras scored his second goal and third point of the season through four games, for some quiet but interesting production from the fourth line centre who finally seems to be healthy again.

Jacob Trouba scored his first goal as a Shark and Dmitry Orlov picked up two assists (one on the power play) from the back end. I dropped Orlov in one league recently as he wasn't getting much power play time, and the shot rate was abysmal. He did split PP1 time last night with Luca Cagnoni, which accounted for one of Orlov's two assists.

Up front, Ivar Stenberg and Macklin Celebrini both notched two power play points – a goal and an assist each. Stenberg was minus four in the game, but at least his offence appears to be picking up, with two shots in each of the last three games after only one total shot in the first three games.

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All stats courtesy of Frozentools.

See you next Wednesday, and if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments you can find me on BlueSky @alexdmaclean.