Hutch's Hockey: Stay Cool

If you're a big fantasy player, you know all about the emotions that come from watching not just your favorite team, but the players you have all around the league as well. There's the glow of victory, the depths of defeat, the agony of a narrow loss. Depending on your format, you can go through all of them in the same night.

We've all been there. Sometimes, you're going up against an opponent who has one of the hottest forwards in the league. You don't want to be staring down a 10-point week from Connor McDavid or Artemi Panarin, especially if your team isn't in peak form. Other times, it's an informed streamer or matchup play that goes awry. Sorry to anyone who had Ilya Samsonov on Saturday -- it looked like a good matchup on paper, but the Golden Knights didn't get the memo. 

It's not hard to find things to be mad about these days. Don't let any lingering anger from work or life seep into sports. Sure, it can be frustrating. We've all had disagreements with referees' calls before. Hockey's a sport where a little on-ice animosity or passion among rival fanbases can enhance the experience. It's still just a game. You get out of it what you put in -- if you want to focus on everything your team does wrong, that's your choice, but it'll ruin your enjoyment. 

Keep a cool head, both in fandom and fantasy. I've watched plenty of disappointing games, but I leave it at the final whistle most of the time, and I certainly won't let it ruin my tomorrow. I won't win any awards for most passionate fan. I'm too analytical in how I watch to do that, but that's not a bad thing. I enjoy the wins and ride out the losses. Above all else, I want to have a fair and informed opinion about the course of the game, a part of the season or the campaign as a whole

One more thing on emotions: keep the players out of it on social media. They're doing their jobs, just like anyone else, but they are in a much more public forum. What I'm saying here is it's fine to criticize performance generally. You don't have to like everyone on your favorite team. It's useless to try to get in their faces about it, either in DMs or through tagging them in posts. That's just harassment, and it adds nothing to the conversation. At best, the players will ignore you, and at worst, they'll make you and themselves look like petty teenagers. They don't get in your face about your job performance, so extend the same courtesy. Remember one of the golden rules of fantasy: the players don't care about your fantasy team or your bets, they play to win as a team. None of us are so important to have anyone out to get one over on us in fantasy.

Now, speaking of cool, it's time to have a serious talk about Logan Cooley. He's been the textbook example this season of avoiding a sophomore slump -- he's yet to go more than two games without a point. The 20-year-old is centering Utah's second line and has a spot on the team's first power-play unit. Cooley has three goals and five assists over his last five games, bringing him to a total of six goals and 20 points through 24 appearances. He's averaging over two shots per game after being below that mark in his rookie year. Utah's shown flashes of a bright future this season, and Cooley is a future star, though that future could be pretty close. 

Conor Garland saw his seven-game point streak end Sunday in a 5-4 overtime win over the Red Wings, but he's still worth mentioning here. He had four goals and six assists during the streak. Garland has been above the 45-point mark for the last three years, and he's a threat to add 200-plus shots, so he's not an unknown for fantasy. This year, he's hovering just under a point-per-game pace. His ice time is up by nearly five minutes per game from last season, and about 1:40 of that has been added on the power play. I don't love the 15.4 shooting percentage, easily a career high, but it looks like the increased ice time and higher quality of linemates should insulate him from any slumps. 

If Garland's not your style, Jake DeBrusk made an emphatic case to be on fantasy rosters Sunday. He had a hat trick and an assist in that win over Detroit. He has seven goals and two helpers over his last five contests, and four of his goals in that span have been on the power play. DeBrusk's really had just one bad patch in October, but he's starting to show some explosiveness on offense -- both of his multi-point efforts have been during his current five-game heater. Most importantly, he's gotten Vancouver's star center Elias Pettersson back on track, so that could be a fruitful partnership as long as it lasts. Between Garland and DeBrusk, Garland's the better consistent offense option, while DeBrusk can chip in decent points and make up the difference with physicality. 

Another Jake who started slow and has turned it around is Jake Neighbours, who has four goals and an assist over his last seven outings. The 22-year-old winger is not as strong an option as DeBrusk, but Neighbours offers arguably more hits and PIM. He's held onto a top-six job with the Blues, and that looks a little better with a facilitator like Robert Thomas as his center. Neighbours is shooting 16.3 percent this year, down from 18.6 percent in 2023-24 when he had 27 tallies over 77 contests. I like him for speculation -- if Jim Montgomery can coach more out of the Blues' roster than Drew Bannister, a young player like Neighbours should stand to gain quite a bit of value over the rest of the campaign.

Rasmus Ristolainen didn't get on the scoresheet Saturday in a 3-2 overtime win versus the Blues, snapping a four-game assist streak. The 30-year-old defenseman hasn't been in fantasy conversations regularly for the last four seasons, but he has some advantages in Philadelphia. He plays a hard game, which keeps him out of trouble with head coach John Tortorella. Ristolainen can pile up hits and blocked shots without taking too many penalties, though he isn't elite in any of the non-scoring categories. This year, he's already at seven points through 25 outings -- he had just four points in 31 games in 2023-24, a campaign that was bookended by major injuries for the Finn. His production this year signals deep-league value, at least as a streamer while his offense is steady. 

It's been mostly bad luck in 2024-25 for Yegor Sharangovich. A lower-body injury cost him time to start the campaign, and he's had poor puck luck so far. Here's why I'm optimistic things are turning around for him: he had five points over a four-game stretch before coming up empty in a back-to-back situation this weekend. Couple that with an increase in shot volume -- he's pumping over three shots on net per game, up from about 2.2 last season. Last year, the talk was his career-high 17.3 shooting percentage. This year, that mark is at just 8.9, which would be his worst in a full season. The higher volume means he won't gain it all back, but if he settles in around 12 percent the rest of the way, he'll end up with a 25-goal campaign when it's all said and done. He's too important to lose playing time on the Flames, so he's a safe bet to improve over time. 

There were plenty of red flags around Jared Spurgeon to begin this season. I personally don't like drafting players coming off of one surgery, and he had two operations that ended his 2023-24 early. He then missed time with a lower-body injury in October. That's likely led to some rust, but he's looking like himself again with seven points over his last nine games while handling top-four minutes and power-play time. When healthy, Spurgeon is one of my favorite depth defensemen -- he's steady, good for 30-to-40 points, a strong plus-minus rating and a boost in the blocked shots category. There's value in his play in most fantasy formats with 10 or more teams, and when he's scoring like he has lately, his appeal is nearly universal. 

I've had some questions about how the Panthers have chosen a power-play quarterback. Not to doubt a Stanley Cup-winning coach in Paul Maurice, but it seems to me putting one of Aaron Ekblad or Gustav Forsling on the top unit would make the most sense, especially when your other options are Uvis Balinskis, Nate Schmidt and Adam Boqvist. Ekblad looks to finally be gaining some traction there, so he's worth checking in on in fantasy to see if he was dropped after a poor October. The defenseman has a goal and six helpers over his last eight contests, including two power-play assists in that span, and he won't hurt you in any category.

Spencer Knight has played three of the Panthers' last six games, and there's been just one back-to-back set in that stretch. In that three-game sample, he has gone 1-2-0, but he's allowed just four goals on 68 shots. The Panthers will do everything necessary to give Sergei Bobrovsky the rest he needs to feel fresh for what they hope will be another deep playoff run, so Knight could get 25-30 games this season. He's already 4-4-0 with a 2.31 GAA and a .911 save percentage over nine appearances, and his shutout Saturday was a thorough victory over the Hurricanes. Knight hasn't had to wait more than three games for a start this season, and that's only happened once -- he looks to be settling into a one-out-of-three rotation, and he could see more than that if he continues to play well.

I'm starting to think the Sharks' rebuild is taking its first upward step. They've won three of the last four games, including a 36-save performance in a 4-2 win over the Kraken that Blackwood authored Saturday. I'm not willing to commit to Blackwood being a reliable fantasy goalie, but he's been decent in favorable matchups and has mostly avoided total stinkers. He's got a 3.06 GAA and a .904 save percentage through 16 outings, going 5-8-3 so far. It looks like the Sharks want to alternate starts between Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek, which makes his workload predictable. That's enough for him to be in consideration as a No. 3/4 option in fantasy or a streamer when he's lined up for a weak opponent, though he may be someone to avoid during the Sharks' upcoming road trip that has them set to play some of the best teams in the Eastern Conference over the next week. In any case, keep Blackwood in mind if you need to get a game. 

Don't let the negativity get you down. Stay cool-headed and enjoy the games as they come, win or lose. In fantasy, take time to make rational moves. I was starting to get disappointed with Nazem Kadri a couple of weeks ago, but he's rattled off three goals and four assists over his last eight games. I'll be glad I didn't rage-drop him to chase a hot hand. If you're unsure if you should make a move, give it a day or two -- or at least give the player one more game to show something. Take a step back from hasty decisions this week, and I'll be back next Monday with more.