This article is part of our Schedule Analysis series.
With the first week condensed into five days, 22 of the 30 NHL organizations will play a two-game schedule. That's right, the NHL is back and it's time to shed that MLB and NFL mindset for our first edition of this season's NHL Schedule Analysis.
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One Eyed Jacks
Weekly owners will want to seriously contemplate the ramifications of locking in players from teams playing just one tilt in the first five days.
Anaheim's Simon Depres is locked in as a top-four defender on the Ducks blue line. Although John Gibson (illness) will likely feel better by opening night, it's still Frederik Andersen's gig. After absorbing a Raffi Torres hit, Jakob Silfverberg (upper body) left Saturday's game and should be considered day-to-day headed into the team's opening night.
Florida gets a late and short start to the season opener with the Flyers at home on Saturday.
Washington's Brooks Orpik (wrist) missed the team's preseason finale and is questionable but hopeful for the team's regular season opener.
Three of a Kind
Conversely, utilizing players on teams with three games in five days is sure to give you a quick start, especially when there's a back-to-back occurrence, likely indicating a start by the back-up goaltender, just choose wisely.
Chicago's backup is now Scott Darling. The Hawks start the season with their first nine games against the Eastern Conference. Despite saying farewell to Brandon Saad, Patrick Sharp, Antti Raanta, Antoine Vermette, Johnny Oduya, Brad Richards and Kris Versteeg,
With the first week condensed into five days, 22 of the 30 NHL organizations will play a two-game schedule. That's right, the NHL is back and it's time to shed that MLB and NFL mindset for our first edition of this season's NHL Schedule Analysis.
----------------
One Eyed Jacks
Weekly owners will want to seriously contemplate the ramifications of locking in players from teams playing just one tilt in the first five days.
Anaheim's Simon Depres is locked in as a top-four defender on the Ducks blue line. Although John Gibson (illness) will likely feel better by opening night, it's still Frederik Andersen's gig. After absorbing a Raffi Torres hit, Jakob Silfverberg (upper body) left Saturday's game and should be considered day-to-day headed into the team's opening night.
Florida gets a late and short start to the season opener with the Flyers at home on Saturday.
Washington's Brooks Orpik (wrist) missed the team's preseason finale and is questionable but hopeful for the team's regular season opener.
Three of a Kind
Conversely, utilizing players on teams with three games in five days is sure to give you a quick start, especially when there's a back-to-back occurrence, likely indicating a start by the back-up goaltender, just choose wisely.
Chicago's backup is now Scott Darling. The Hawks start the season with their first nine games against the Eastern Conference. Despite saying farewell to Brandon Saad, Patrick Sharp, Antti Raanta, Antoine Vermette, Johnny Oduya, Brad Richards and Kris Versteeg, not a lot has changed for the Hawks and they still figure to remain in the league's elite. As you should know by now, those who have exited were replaced by the likes of Andrew Desjardins, Ryan Garbutt, Trevor Daley and a few internal depth faces like Andrew Shaw.
Montreal (see Splash the Pot)
The Rangers will finally give Oscar Lindberg an opening night roster spot and we have high hopes for the young Swede who will start out on the team's third line. The aforementioned Raanta should see a start this week handcuffers. The Rangers, who open the season in Chicago on Wednesday night, are probably required by fan law to give Henrik Lundqvist the start in the team's home-opener on Saturday against the Jackets. That leaves leaves Raanta with the first of the home-and-home against the uprising Jackets on Friday.
Ottawa will begin their season with two road games against their three inter-division rivals, and later this month they enjoy a five game homestand. Matt O'Connor's owners should find themselves with the road start versus Toronto while Craig Anderson will take on Montreal on Saturday, but monitor closely.
Toronto will play five of their first seven tilts on the road. Another season of Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer taking turns of who wants it less? Or will someone emerge? Your guess is as good as ours, but our money is on the favorite Bernier. Either way, Reimer will get his chances, possibly starting on Friday on the road against Detroit.
Two Pair
The following teams have a back-to-back occurrence, despite playing just a pair of tilts, meaning not only will your elite, top three draft pick tender not see more than one start this week, but his right-hand man will likely get a start.
Arizona starts the season against the Pens and Kings, yikes. While we can barely contain our excited anticipation of a lineup that could feature Maxi Domi, Anthony Duclair and Dylan Strome, we're focusing on their goalies here. Mike Smith has a lot to prove this season and yes it's more than plausible new arrival Anders Lindback gets a start this week. That said, Smith is very likely to start the 'Yotes opening game which is on the road and the team's home-opener as well, which will be on the following night. Tough call folks.
Columbus has re-assigned Oliver Bjorkstrand, but he had a nice camp and should be on your watch list. The same goes double for his training camp linemate William Karlsson, who may still nab a roster spot for the team's opening night, but will likely watch from the press box if he does end up staying with the Jackets. Despite sitting out of Saturday's preseason game, Matt Calvert should be ready to go for opening night. Boone Jenner (lower body) should be considered day-to-day. With Columbus starting their season on a traditional home-and-home against the Rangers, it appears both Sergei Bobrovsky and Curtis McElhinney will get a start this week. Either way, Brandon Saad's presence is making us wonder once again, could this be the year the Jackets take that extra step and become one of the league's best teams?
Detroit may or may not have the services of Darren Helm (shoulder, concussion) when the season begins, depending on his participation in practice leading up to the opening night game against Toronto. For now, it appears the Wings will go with a Jimmy Howard and Petr Mrazek time share of the net.
New Jersey will endure another season of Patrik Elias (knee) where he's good when he plays, but, you know the rest. Currently Elias is out indefinitely. Kyle Palmieri (undisclosed) missed last Friday's preseason finale. With all the uncertainty in New Jersey's forward corps, the Devils have signed Lee Stempniak. One would hope the Devils don't lean too heavily on Cory Schneider again, much-less in the first week of the season, so Keith Kinkaid could get a start this week.
The Islanders have not gotten much (40 minutes) out of Jaroslav Halak (upper body), Thomas Greiss supporters should commence the flocking. Either way, Brooklyn Hockey is here folks and on paper it looks to be an exciting season.
After starting the season on the road in Boston, Winnipeg plays three more in the NYC/NJ area before heading home for a nice cushy six-game homestand. One of the more intriguing goaltender drama's across the league, this could be the first net-minder depth chart change as Ondrej Pavelec is likely to begin as the number one guy before giving way to Michael Hutchinson. And complicating matters in this time share, don't sleep on Connor Hellebuyck if either struggle.
Monthly Outlook
Splash the Pot
Montreal and Tampa Bay will each have a league-high 13 tilts by the time the calendar flips past Halloween. This means investing in Michael Condon and Andrei Vasilevskiy respectively might be a good percentage move.
Montreal's Alex Galchenyuk has not been great in the face-off circle this preseason and Zack Kassian will start the season as the team's enforcer. Out of Tampa, it appears Jonathan Drouin will lineup on the team's top line with Ryan Callahan and Steven Stamkos and we couldn't be happier. Lightning's Nikita Kucherov (lower body), Alex Killorn and Tyler Johnson (knee) are all question marks as the idle period between preseason and regular season begins.
Muck 'Em
Buffalo - We know what you're thinking, despite all the changes -specifically Jack Eichel (six points in four preseason games), we're recommending the Sabres will be a dumpster fire again. Despite Robin Lehner's performance (20-of-25) in the team's preseason, a league-low nine games over the next 28 days leaves us with the most doubt. For good-or-ill, that simply doesn't provide many opportunities for fantasy value.
