With the Olympics coming to an end, the NHL, and subsequently, fantasy hockey, gets back on its feet in March. We'll get you jumpstarted on fantasy hockey with the next installment of our 2-Week forecast.
Forward 1 (7 Games)
- Sidney Crosby, Marion Gaborik, Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos
Even sports fans who aren't into hockey have likely at least heard of the name Alexander Ovechkin. With all due apologies to Sidney Crosby, Ovechkin is the popular choice as the best player in the world, and his numbers bear that out. He leads the NHL with 89 points and is tied with Crosby for the league lead in goals with 42 while also claiming the top spot in shots on goal. Stamkos and Gaborik aren't far behind in goals, with each putting 35 in net, while Malkin's 44 assists trail only Ovechkin in this group, and are the eighth-most in hockey.
Forward 2 (6 Games)
- Dany Heatley, Jarome Iginla, Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrick Marleau, Zach Parise
Marleau leads this group, and is third in the NHL, with 38 goals, while Heatley and Kovalchuk also each have more than 30 tallies. Heatley's 34 assists lead this bevy of players, followed closely by Parise, though Parise shoots the puck like an alcoholic shoots whiskey, and holds a rather lengthy lead in putting the puck on net. No player in this particular collection of fantasy hockey stalwarts has fewer than 27 goals, and only Marleau has less than 30 helpers.
Forward 3 (7 Games)
- Patrick Kane, Anze Kopitar, Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis, Henrik Zetterberg
Zetterberg's injury earlier in the season means his overall point total isn't quite at the level of the others in this group, but he makes up for that by leading in shots on goal. St. Louis is sixth in the NHL in points, due in no small part to the fact that his 49 assists are tied for fourth in all of hockey. Coincidentally, the person he is tied with is also among this assortment of skaters, with that person being Dallas center Richards. Kane and Kopitar don't have the assist totals of those two, but they do have the most goals in the group, with 25 and 28, respectively.
Forward 4 (6 Games)
- Shane Doan, Jamie Langenbrunner, Rick Nash, Corey Perry, Bobby Ryan
Nash and Ryan lead this group, and are tied for ninth in hockey, with their 28 goals. Nash got to that mark with four goals in four consecutive contests before the Olympic break. However, neither of them can claim the assist totals of the other three players, each of whom has over 30, led by Langenbrunner and Perry's 37.
Forward 5 (7 Games)
- Mike Cammalleri, Loui Eriksson, Mikko Koivu, Patrick Sharp, Eric Staal
Cammalleri's 26 goals are tops among this aggregation, though Eriksson and Stall each have at least 20. Koivu has the fewest goals among the fantasy hockey options in this group with just 16, and he went into the break with a nine-game goalless streak; still, he's the only player here with 40 assists.
Defenseman 1 (7 Games)
- Zdeno Chara, Niklas Lidstrom, Joni Pitkanen, Mark Streit, Shea Weber
This cluster of defenseman doesn't have point totals that will blow anybody away - in fact they all have between 31 and 35 points - but their shot totals may, as only Pitkanen isn't among the top-10 defenseman in hockey in shots on goal. Weber leads the group with 11 goals, while Pitkanen is first in assists with 31.
Defenseman 2 (6 Games)
- Jay Bouwmeester, Eric Johnson, Filip Kuba, Bryan McCabe, Ryan Whitney
Kuba leads this company of blue-liners with 25 assists, and only McCabe has fewer than 20 helpers, but he has 19. McCabe does lead the group with seven tallies, followed by former No. 1 overall pick Johnson, who has six. Johnson, who has been playing the best hockey of his career lately, leads this posse in shots and is 15th among all defenseman with over 130.
Defenseman 3 (7 Games)
- Brian Campbell, Drew Doughty, Sergei Gonchar, Stephane Robidas, Marek Zidlicky
The third group is where the points are in this particular fantasy hockey contest, as each player here is in the top-16 among defenseman in points. Doughty, Gonchar and Zidlicky are in the top-10 with 45, 37 and 36 points, respectively. Doughty's 11 goals leads this cluster of high-scoring defensemen, and are tied for second in hockey among all d-men, with Robidas right behind him with 10 tallies. That's fitting, because Robidas leads the group in shots, though Gonchar is third despite having played 15 fewer games.
Goalie 1 (6 Games)
- Martin Brodeur, Ilya Bryzgalov, Miikka Kiprusoff, Evgeni Nabokov, Tomas Vokoun
Brodeur leads the NHL in shutouts, but hasn't been his typical self of late. That was true even before he got pulled after allowing several soft goals to Team USA in Canada's loss during the Olympics.. Before the break, Brodeur had won just two of his last seven games, and had allowed at least three goals in seven of his last eight contests, with a save percentage below.900 in six of them. For the season, he's ninth in hockey in GAA, and 15th in save percentage. He's been a fantasy hockey giant in net throughout his career, but that just hasn't been the case lately. Meanwhile, Kiprusoff is second in the league in GAA among goalies who have played at least 30 games, while Vokoun and Nabokov are in the top-three in save percentage. Vokoun has the most overall saves in hockey with nearly 1,600.
Goalie 2 (7 Games)
- Craig Anderson, Marc-Andre Fleury, Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Miller, Jonathan Quick
Miller may be hockey's breakout star for the Olympics, as his performance against Canada fit perfectly with the hockey cliché of a goalie "standing on his head." He's No. 1 in the NHL in GAA among goalies who have played at least 30 contests, and No. 2 in save percentage. However, Quick leads all NHL goalies in wins, and Anderson is tied for third with six shutouts, and has the second-most overall saves in the league.
Goalie 3 (7 Games)
- Niklas Backstrom, Jimmy Howard, Cristobal Huet, Chris Mason, Marty Turco
Howard's 2.28 GAA is the leading mark in this group, but Huet is just a fraction behind him at 2.29. Huet also is the co-leader here in shutouts with four, a mark that Turco can also lay claim to. Howard, Turco, Mason and Backstrom are Nos. 13-16, respectively, in overall saves, with Huet well behind at 29th in the league.
Team Wins 1 (6 Games)
- Calgary Flames, New Jersey Devils, Ottawa Senators, Phoenix Coyotes, San Jose Sharks
San Jose is second in the entire NHL with 89 points, though New Jersey and Ottawa have point totals that are nothing to scoff at, with 77 and 76, respectively. However, they've gone different directions of late, with the Devils sporting a 3-5-2 record over their last 10 games while the Senators have been blistering hot with an 8-2-0 record over their last 10.
Team Wins 2 (7 Games)
- Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins
Chicago's 87 points are the most in this group, and the third-highest mark in the league. The other four teams in this group are clumped together with between 75 and 78 points. The Kings were the hottest among teams here before the Olympic break, with an 8-1-1 record in their last 10 games, while the Sabres struggled to a 3-5-2 record in their last 10.
Team Wins 3 (7 Games)
- Boston Bruins, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning
Dallas and Detroit each have 68 points, Boston has 65, Montreal has 64 and Tampa has 63, though they all have one thing in common in that they are each are fighting for a playoff spot in their respective conferences. None of these teams were terribly hot or equally as tepid before the break, with each winning between three and six games over their last 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment