Happy Tuesday y'all! I'm so glad our fantasy leagues are back this week! I can only hang out with my family for so long (just kidding!). Many of you are probably approaching your trade deadline as the NHL's is about a week and a half away. We will certainly see lines shake up as moves happen, creating opportunity and value for some players, while others will get moved down the lineup. Between the instant Fantasy Take column, the daily Ramblings, Looking Ahead, Capped, and other columns, there are always great insights into trades after they break; whose value goes up, whose goes down, so keep an eye out for those.

I'm not sure what your league is doing, but we do have a pretty consistent schedule for the return of the league with Friday being the only day that has less than five games (it has four). I am weary of the players coming back from the Olympics to start slower than their teammates just because of the different pace in game and all the travel/time change. I would especially be cautious of the American players as they partied in Miami last night and are headed to Washington DC tonight to meet the President. This could provide some value for cheaper options on a daily fantasy website. 

The four teams that have three light nights are the Anaheim Ducks, Utah Mammoth, Vegas Golden Knights, and Winnipeg Jets, but be on the lookout for the Americans on these squads, along with the other teams that play on Wednesday. You might be able to IR stash them for the day – it will all depend on how the teams decide to report their players.

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Still no news on the Sidney Crosby injury front, which can't be good. With the Olympic rules allowing teams to dress 20 skaters (13 forwards and seven defensemen) I thought for sure Crosby would dress as the 13th guy and come out for power plays. Who knows, maybe that was Sid's call saying if he can't contribute more than that and someone else should take his spot, but we may never find out.

Anyway, this has big implications for the Penguins for the rest of the season. The Pens are in the middle of a playoff hunt and need their captain. Pittsburgh doesn't have much depth down the middle, so look for a young guy like Ben Kindel to step up to play with Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell in his absence. However, it is the second line that will potentially create the scoring opportunities as Evgeni Malkin turns into a beast without Crosby in the lineup.

In 148 games, Geno has 122 assists and 77 goals without his captain on the bench. A very impressive stat indeed to go with the chemistry that he, Tommy Novak and Yegor Chinakhov have developed. Both forwards are 0% owned on Yahoo and Novak is only 11% owned on Fantrax while Chinakhov is at 27%. If Sid remains out for an extended period of time, this line will be leaned on heavily to carry the team so they will get their looks.

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Artemi Panarin had his first practice with his new club, and he was next to Alex Laferriere and Taylor Ward (which we presume is a place holder for Adrian Kempe). It would have been really fun to see him between Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala, but with the latter getting hurt and missing the rest of the regular season, the coaches had to go a different direction. Panarin is an elite high-skill, playmaking type of player the Kings have not had in quite some time. I could see them juggling their lines a few times before the trade deadline to determine what else they need to add to make a deep playoff run. 

Back to Laferriere, he is not a true center so like I said, I can't see this line sticking together for more than a few games, but if you can stream the 24-year-old, he has that elusive tri-eligibility for fantasy purposes. 

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Even though we did not see the same amount of games per day or at normal business hours, the Olympic hockey itself was amazing and it may take the rest of this week to get used to this game speed. Either way, we have multiple hockey games going on at once, the world is right again! If you have any trade deadline questions or lineup decisions, feel free to hit me up on Twitter @LAM1926, and hopefully you don't have the same injury luck as me! Have a great week everyone!