SMC 10/27/2019 There were some who may have been skeptical about my prediction of the NY Islanders making the playoffs this year, perhaps because of Robin Lehner’s departure to Chicago, but a team led by Barry Trotz will always have more than a decent chance to make the playoffs and I’m sticking to it even though it way early in the season. Carter Hutton, Tuukka Rask and Petr Mrazek lead the NHL with 2 shutouts so far this season. T-Rask I can see, but the other 2?  I know it’s only 2, but they seemed to be locked in for a good season. Ever since I gave up on him just a few short years ago is when he started becoming the offensive defenseman we all thought he was going to be, John Carlson has been one of the top 3 defensemen to own in your fantasy league. He’s actually at the top the leader board in points in the NHL. I’ve expected more out of the Chicago Blackhawks but they did have a weird opening schedule so I’ll give them another 2 weeks to get rolling. Bottom of the league in goals scoring with 20 in 9 games? Pffft! They won’t stay there long with the like of Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat among others. BUY LOW if possible. David Pastrnak has 11 of the Boston bruins’ 29 goals scored this season. And he could have about 15 with a little luck. WOW! Buy lows on Carolina’s Sebastian Aho and Nino Niederreiter as once they get going the cost will be prohibitive. Patrice Bergeron will now be known to me as the Quiet Scorer.  He has 8 points in 10 games and I hardly notice him in the box scores. I thought Andreas Johnsson of the Toronto Maple Leafs was injured in the game last Saturday and was doubtful for the week.  Boy was I wrong.  He had a goal and two assists in 4 games this week. D Tyson Barrie is shooting but not scoring.  When he does, he will probably score in bunches. I think that the Tampa Bay Lightning are saving some of that high-octane force for the playoffs after their early dismissal last season. Roman Josi is the defenseman from Nashville to own in fantasy, but Ryan Ellis is a good #3 or #4 this season. Did you know he has 13 points in 11 games and is tied with team mate Josi for 2nd amongst all NHL defensemen in points so far this season? I don’t think the Predators are missing PK all that much. Did the Blue Jackets implode or what last night against Philadelphia? 5 unanswered goals in the last 10 minutes of the game to lose 7-4. Did the defense go home early? If Sonny Milano, with 5 points in 9 games, is your bright spot then you know ...

SMC 12/23/2018 With the holiday break coming up after today, time to catch up with family and friends with some coffee and dessert.  I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Boxing Day and a very healthy, happy and prosperous 2019! Some of the teams that were holding up nicely at the beginning of the year are starting to fade like the NY Rangers, Ottawa Senators, and the Detroit Red Wings. One team that hasn’t is Montreal. And the reason is Carey Price. Time to sell high on some of the aging veterans on those teams and re-stock your fantasy squad for the second half and beyond. I have never seen so many starting goalies have so much difficulty in one season.  Must be the shrinking pads.  Fantasy teams are just having fits trying to get starting goalies in their lineups. Pittsburgh is starting to rise up in the rankings.  I’m expecting Florida to start creeping its way back to relevancy. Mark Scheifele and the Winnipeg Jets are starting to go full throttle. Nikolaj Ehlers is finally getting his opportunity.  You knew it was only a matter of time. I don’t know how Chicago is going to do without Corey Crawford, out with another concussion. Vegas baby!  Coming around after a slow start. Is anybody else waiting for the fire sale in Los Angeles?  Maybe that was a poor choice of words. ALERT!  The Los Angeles Kings have won 2 games in a row.  May be too far behind now to catch the teams above them.  They are on fire!  Again, a poor choice of words. What’s all this fuss about Carter Hart? All the 20-year old has done is get 2 wins in three starts with a 2.36 GAA and a .904 SP.  He’s going be a good one! If a 4-point game on his return from the IR tell you that Patrice Bergeron is someone special, then I don’t know what to tell you.  And he just makes everyone around him that much better. Can the St. Louis Blues salvage this season that was supposed to see them compete for the Stanley Cup with the off-season acquisitions that they made? Not unless Jake Allen becomes superman in net. The Maple Leafs had 5 goals against the NY Rangers and Auston Matthews didn’t record a single point.  And not surprisingly, neither did William Nylander.  Rusty, are we, from the holdout? The Coyotes outslugged the Avalanche last night 6-4?  WOW! That trio of MacKinnon-Rantanen-Landeskog is the most dangerous line in hockey IMHO. Lightning-Jets for the Cup unless something drastic happens.  I know, duh! Scheiiiiiiiiiiii-fele! May all your fantasies come true! And ...

SMC 1/21/2018 DOWN IT AND OUT! Sorry for the short article and absence of an article last week but I've been driving my kids back to college these past few weekends. Sabres rattled again 7-1 by the Dallas Stars on Saturday.  The Sabres have given up 4 or more goals in their last 6 losses.  There was a 6 GA and two 7’s in that stretch.  Ouch! Every single Sabre player in that game on Saturday had a negative next to their name. I mentioned that Avalanche goaltender Jonathan Bernier should have been their #1 in the original version of this year’s PrimePucks™ Fantasy Draft Guide but tweaked back my gut feeling. Stick with your gut I always say.  Bernier has won 8 in a row with an insane Save Percentage of .957 in January. New Jersey is starting to slide down in the standings.  I think I said they would come back down to Earth.  Or even further. Nathan MacKinnon.  Wow!  We knew he had it in him.  I guess it took discarding Matt Duchene to get him rolling again like his rookie season. Winnipeg wins again.  When is Mark Scheifele coming back?  Doesn’t seem to be any rush to get him back the way they have been winning. So happy to see Patrice Bergeron having this kind of offensive stretch. Could Toronto’s 3rd period comeback against Ottawa spark the resurgence? I’m kind of torn between wanting Carolina or the NY Islanders making the playoffs. Did Arizona really put a beat down on the St. Louis Blues on Saturday?  I guess Carter Hutton has lost that magic. I’m thinking that the Florida Panthers will go on a hot streak now.  Maybe not a Boston-like hot streak, but a good offensive stretch nonetheless. Pittsburgh is still dangerous people.  Chicago, not so much. The Islanders must be really be happy to have Josh Bailey back in the lineup. Tampa Bay going through a little tough patch in the schedule.  Happens to every team. Have a great week everyone and may all your fantasies come true!

SMC 1/7/2018 COFFEE BRUIN! Back from the holiday break with coffee a-brewin’! You know what else is brewing?  More like percolating; the Boston Bruins!  Don’t say we didn’t warn you a few weeks back. Hard to believe that Patrice Bergeron only scored his second career hat-trick on Saturday.  He means so much to that team. The big, bad Bruins really pasted Carolina goaltending on Saturday. Jake Allen doesn’t fare well against Philadelphia. An o-3-0 record with a 3.45 GAA and a save percentage of .890.  Geez coach, let someone else start against the Flyers for Pete’s sake. Edmonton had a dog day afternoon against Dallas on Saturday giving up 3 first period goals and losing 5-1.  Tampa Bay did the same thing.  Came back to tie the game with three unanswered goals then gave up three to the Ottawa Senators to waste their comeback effort. Colorado is starting to score goals in bunches lately as they beat Minny 7-2 on Saturday and 6-1 last Sunday versus NY Islanders in their 5 game win streak.  Not as bad as last year, but how could they be. Tampa Bay goalie Andrej Vasilevskiy had some stretch the past few games until he met up against Ottawa.  2 shutouts and a 2-1 shootout loss against Montreal before that lopsided loss to the Senators. Vancouver almost beat Toronto with most of their stars missing from the lineup.  The Canucks have been playing spirited hockey this season but are a few years away still. I am going to say that Las Vegas is for real now.  There!  Now they can go on an extended losing streak since I jinxed them. The Golden Knights are tough to play against with all that speed and tenacity.  I have a few players on my fantasy teams. I said this last time I think but the NY Rangers have a good shot at the Cup this year because it looks like it’s anyone’s game. The Rangers need to start scoring a little more than 1 or 2 goals a game though.  They last scored more than 2 goals in a game 7 games ago.  But thanks to G Henrik Lundqvist they got 7 points in last 6 games. Now it’s Anaheim’s turn to start putting together a long winning streak or winning stretch with all their players back in the lineup.  I’m thinking the same thing for Minnesota.  So, if it’s too late to grab some Bruins, go Duck hunting or go Wild! I’m just thinking that Los Angeles could be so much better once Jeff Carter returns from his freak skate injury. Is Dallas Stars offense starting to heat up? They scored 4 or more goals in a game in 6 out of last 8 games. This week is going ...

SMC 10/22/2017 Interesting week with some injuries to key fantasy players, some not so major and then some kinda returning soon. Tuukka Rask goes down, as does Roberto Luongo. And then there was M-A Fleury in Vegas.  A minor scare for John Gibson, who always seems to get injured. That’s why you need to draft their backups in fantasy.  Golden rule. Jeff Carter will miss a bunch of time which is a shame but gives LA a chance to take a long look at Adrian Kempe as they need to transition to younger players. Coming back sooner or later…Mikael Granlund...boy does Minnesota need him back.  And Leon Draisaitl may be returning this week, but concussions are always tricky to predict recovery. Boone Jenner returned to the Columbus lineup and had 6 SOG but didn’t earn a point.   Soon though.  A PrimePucks™ Rebound candidate. Go figure that Boston Bruin castoff Malcolm Subban would get his chance in Las Vegas and start out 2-0-0 with a 2.06 GA and sporting a .936 SP.  Are these Golden Knights for real at 6-1-0? Some decent fantasy pickups from Vegas while they are hot.  D Brad Hunt, formerly from Edmonton and other places, had 2 assists last night and is getting major PP time.  My buddy Steve, and former PP writer/partner, were talking pucks as we watched the Yankee-Astro game Wednesday night and we discussed Hunt because someone picked up Nate Schmidt in our fantasy league.  Strange selection over Hunt or even Colin Miller. A Dustin Brown resurrection has been sighted in Los Angeles.  Don’t be afraid to scoop him up off the waiver wire.  He is back and contributing in all categories for the time being.  He could fall off the cliff at any momentum but for now, the trend is your friend. At the Rangers game yesterday and saw them earn a much-needed win on an early Saturday matinee at the Garden.  I guess the wife and I are good luck charms.  Does this mean I have to go to all the home games from here on out? All I kept saying throughout the game was, ‘watch that #9, he’s really good”.  Of course, Filip Forsberg scored, he had an assist on the other goal.  Damn, he’s good! I think I mentioned in the PP Draft Guide that Philly was going to be a playoff contender this year. That Metropolitan Division is going to be a dogfight until the end for teams to get into the playoffs. I wouldn’t have thought Edmonton would be 2-5-0.  Scoring is down without Leon Draisaitl in the lineup. Speaking of the Oilers, RW Kailer Yamamoto has found himself playing on a line with McDavid…....

SMC 3/5/2017 SEASON DWINDLING DOWN Got my cup of coffee and ready to write on this extremely cold day in NYC! The trade deadline came and went and in my honest opinion, it wasn’t as exciting as some past ones.  Okay, the Shattenkirk one was a doozy, but only for the Washington Capitals, who just got even stronger. Mark Streit doing the East Coast shuffle from Philly to Tampa to Pittsburgh. Bishop to LA was interesting to say the least. The Deadline didn’t impress me, and I love trades.  I’m an equities trader in my other life outside of hockey. 5 weeks left in the NHL regular season.  Where does the time go? With a goalie like Tuukka Rask, I can see the Boston Bruins going far in the playoffs. The Devils would have made the playoffs if they had the 80-point Hall and not the 60-point version. After such a slow start, December and January have been very good months for Patrice Bergeron.  He was my favorite buy-low candidate at that time.  Too bad I owned him. Even though it looked like the Tampa Bay Lightning were sellers at the trade deadline, they still have a shot at making the playoffs.  Crazy I know. Gotta give credit to the Columbus Blue Jackets for not letting up as the season wore on. You would think that eh Dallas Stars would be locks to make the playoffs with offensive weapons such as Benn, Seguin and Spezza.  Montreal pasted a lifeless NY Rangers team on Saturday.  Are the Rangers on cruise control at the moment? The Winnipeg Jets seemed to be refueled and generating some high-octane offense of late. Dusty Buf has picked up his game after a rough stretch. Steve Mason will drive you nuts as a fantasy owner.  He looks horrible for a spell then looks absolutely unbeatable after. Gostisbehere has got to be the man guy now that Streit is plying his wares across the state. Ovechkin with only 1 SOG in that Philly game.  And last week he had a game with 0 SOG.  Now that Trump is in Washington, maybe he will tweet that there is some sort of espionage going on and that this is not the real OV. It’s that time of the year when the Chicago Blackhawks start to get serious.  I think Minnesota has found that out. Artemi Panarin is having another solid season with 58 points in 65 games but you would never know because he isn’t this year’s NHL Flavor. This will be the year the Red Wings miss the playoffs for the first time in forever, but their future looks b right with Mantha, Larkin and company growing.SEA Vancouver came out strong and struck quickly and ...

Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Backes have a great matchup against the Coyotes tonight. Who else should you stack in your NHL DFS contests?

Patrice Bergeron scored twice and secured an assist, earning him a spot in the perfect DFS lineup. Who joined him?

SMC 2/12/2017 CATS REVIVAL! Recovering from the storm the other day, it’s nice to sit with a hot mug of coffee and peruse the hockey sites! Patrice Bergeron has turned around his season very nicely and has 9 points in last 5 games.  You just knew he would. Craig Anderson with a huge shutout victory over the Islanders in his return to the lineup.  Our prayers go out to him and his wife and their families for a speedy return to health.  Heard she is doing well. I expect the Islanders to come out guns blazing against the Colorado Avalanche today. Even ferocious Sharks can’t survive in Philly. The Panthers are alive and well and competing fiercely in the NHL.  Barkov and Huberdeau are huge components of that offense and with both back in the lineup, lookout NHL! Vincent Trocheck is no slouch either.  Expect the rest of the lineup to benefit from their returns as well. What is wrong with Ryan Johansen?  He has so much freaking talent but it doesn’t show. Now, Victor Arvidsson is having a good season.  Johansen, could be doing better. Nice to see Roman Josi starting to pick up the scoring pace. Dallas may not make the playoffs unless they go off on a hot streak. After that unbeaten month of December, the Columbus Blue Jackets are playing .500 hockey at best. Our condolences to the family of Mike Ilitch on his passing this week. Is Gustav Nyquist finally waking up?  Nah!  What a huge disappointment he has been since ’14-’15. Now Evander Kane seems to be picking up his game of late. Get those Islanders in your fantasy lineup as they are on a roll, disregard Saturday’s shutout by the returning Craig Anderson and the Ottawa Senators. Montreal is 3-5-2 in last 10.  IS that even possible? The one thing about the New York Rangers is that they get scoring from everyone in their lineup, for the most part. Jonathan Drouin had no shots on goal against Winnipeg on Saturday.  How can he not have any shots on goal with his talent?  I mean the Jets’ Jacob Trouba had 5 and he’s a d-man. I’d wear extra pads when playing the Washington Capitals and trying to block their shots.  They are explosive. I would love to see a high-scoring game and every goal scorer have the first name of Ryan. Patric Hornqvist is starting to come around. It looks like Ottawa is trying to secure a playoff spot early instead of trying to perform miracles to get in. Nicklas Backstrom has plunged himself right into the scoring title race. Have a great week and may all your fantasies come true!

Patrice Bergeron draws a great matchup today, taking on the Detroit Red Wings. Who else should you target in your DFS contests?