We are weeks away from the full NHL season and injuries are starting to pile up across the league. Aaron Ekblad, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Tyler Bertuzzi, to name a few notable fantasy options, have already hit IR and will be out for long, albeit varied, time frames. Ottawa have started to put up with their own as Josh Norris is expected to miss at least a few weeks with a shoulder injury sustained over the weekend. Here’s how they lined up without him:
Your eyes don’t deceive you, it’s Derick Brassard lined up at 2C, where he started their home game against Dallas on Monday night. Brassard was signed just before the season for depth at center, but played his first game of the year yesterday. I’m sure there were a lot of fantasy owners who wanted Shane Pinto to step up, but it seems the team likes him in that third-line role, which is often used as a stop three.
We will see how long this will last. Maybe Brassard will stay there until Norris returns, but it’s hard to see him playing 18 minutes a night at this stage of his career. He hasn’t averaged more than 15 minutes of TOI/game over a full season since 2017-18.
Even without Josh Norris, Ottawa played a great home game against a strong Dallas team and skated to a 4-2 victory. Brassard scored the insurance marker, skating just over 16 minutes. He remained on his second line throughout the game. Brady Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, with two shots, two PIMs and two hits. He is now 10 points in this first part of the season.
Tyler Seguin got an assist on Wyatt Johnston’s goal for the Stars, allowing Seguin to maintain his point per game at the start of the year.
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You have to wonder if Brad Marchand is starting to get closer:
Skating on the fifth line in practice is at least a good sign that they are starting to pick up the pace. He’s also been seen power-playing which is always a positive for players coming back from injury. His timeline, at least in September, seemed to be around American Thanksgiving, a month away. Such serious hip surgery, combined with the team’s 5-1 start to the year, means there’s no rush to get him back as soon as possible. We will wait for further updates, but there continue to be good signs of progress.
I’m still hesitant to assume that Marchand will be the Marchand we watched for years after hip surgeries, but time will tell. Maybe he has all the recovery time he needs and can really fly on the ice.
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Dylan Strome was brought back to the front line in Washington, playing between Alex Ovechkin and Conor Sheary. He had a strong start to the season with four points in six games, but three of them came on the PP. He has just one 5-for-5 point, as the team is generating just 1.84 expected goals per 60 minutes with him on the ice (a career low for him). The Caps entered Monday night’s game in New Jersey with the 28e-Offense classified by expected goals at 5 against 5 (and midfield by actual goals). They need more Strome at 5-5 offensively, and we’ll see if passing Ovechkin helps.
Connor McMichael was scratched again, having been out of the lineup for 6 of Washington’s 7 games this year. Despite injuries and underperformance elsewhere, he just can’t get regular minutes. A fearless NHL general manager would make a call to see if the team would be willing to part ways with him.
Washington ended up winning its game Monday night by a score of 6-3. On the day MacKenzie Blackwood was named last week’s third star, he allowed five goals on 18 shots and was retired after the second period for Vitek Vanecek, who conceded one goal on four shots. It’s a combined six goals against on 22 shots. By my calculations, the Devils goaltenders now have a combined .844 save percentage this season. It’s not great.
That’s not to absolve the Devils’ skaters, who have left goaltenders dry on a few goals, but .844 isn’t going to cut it through and through. I don’t know where they go from here other than just weather the storm.
Strome had two assists in that game while Alex Ovechkin scored on the power play for five shots and four hits. Jesper Bratt scored his first of the year for New Jersey in the loss.
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Filip Chytil seems to have a week-long injury:
Defeat Writer Larry Brooks say later it is believed to be a concussion, but I couldn’t find confirmation from the team (not what we would have). It’s a bad break for a guy who really took a big step forward in the playoffs last year and was continuing that at the start of this season. That leaves them a bit bare in the top 6, with Alexis Lafrenière remaining in the top 6 but Vitali Kravtsov has just come back and heads for the third row. He will really have to start delivering on his promise if Chytil’s injury prevents him from playing longer than the team’s planned week.
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Rasmus Dahlin was the NHL’s first star of the week:
Dahlin has scored in all five games for Buffalo, has eight runs, 18 total shots and 20 hits/blocks combined. It’s just been a superlative start for him and the team, as he leads the NHL’s blue liners in points and the team has four wins in five games.
I was going through Natural Stat Trick and found something quite amusing: Dahlin leads defenders in all situations, individual goals expected per 60 mins at 0.96 with next closest at 0.8. Across the league, that’s slightly higher than names like Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, Nikita Kucherov and Carter Verhaeghe (yes, all forwards). Dahlin looked really good at the net, although his shooting percentage will drop further. I just thought it was interesting that he actually had so many good chances.
It really looks like Dahlin stands out as the top-end No. 1 rear guard. We need more than five games but his performances, goals aside, looked impressive night after night.
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Denis Gurianov was healthy scratched for Dallas on Monday night. Jacob Peterson took his place on the second row with Tyler Seguin and Mason Marchment.
It’s been a real tough run for Gurianov in the NHL. His first full season saw him score 20 goals in 64 games while skating less than 13 minutes a night. It looked like he was going to be a big part of this team going forward. However, as many beat writers and trainer Pete DeBoer have pointed out, consistency is the problem:
Unless you’re a top player, a veteran — and Gurianov is now 25 — can’t work shifts, plural, at a time, let alone games. He has a good offensive upside, but it really seems like his days in Dallas are numbered unless he finds another gear and can stay at that gear most of the time.
Whether Gurianov will ever become an NHL regular is an open question, but at this point he likely needs a fresh start elsewhere.
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Both Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad were out of the injury roster for St. Louis on Monday. With David Perron moving on in the offseason, this team lacks a lot of winger talent, even with guys like Jordan Kyrou and Vladimir Tarasenko in the mix. It also reduces their depth as Brayden Schenn and Ivan Barbashev are moved into the top 6.
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We have brand new lines from Minnesota:
It was a poor start for the Wild, going 1-3-1 and ranking 28e in the NHL based on projected goal share. The loss of Kevin Fiala made me nervous for Matt Boldy, but Boldy was one of the few problems on this team. On the contrary, Joel Eriksson Ek’s control line looked very beatable at the start of this season and the front line struggled to score at 5 on 5. The strength of this Minnesota team a year ago was a first elite line with one of the best control lines in the league, if not the best. Missing Jordan Greenway for most of the year didn’t help, but it shouldn’t be that bad either. They’re a team that’s way below the cap because of buyout penalties, but they’re not meant to be bad, and certainly not that bad.
Finally, they need more from their goalkeeper. Although the team wasn’t good overall, they were last in the league with a 5-on-5 save percentage heading into Monday night’s action. Unless it improves significantly, it probably doesn’t matter if skaters change their season.
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We’ve had a slew of injury updates from the Canucks:
To add to that, Brock Boeser is day to day and missed Monday night’s contest.
Like Minnesota, goaltenders have been a big problem for the Canucks, but it’s more on the penalty kill where the team’s PKSV% is an awful .619. It’s going to get a lot better, but if they stay bottom of the league in that regard, it’s going to lead to some uglier nights as we’ve seen before.
On the bright side, Elias Pettersson is playing as well as ever and that makes the team worth watching every night.
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