Some food for thought after another week of fantasy hockey …
.889
That's Nashville's save percentage entering Monday, fifth lowest in the league. It's only slightly better than New Jersey, who just recently demoted its $42-million former franchise goalie to the AHL, and Florida, whose $70-million starter backs up a 25-year-old journeyman. It seems like no one really understands the value of goaltending, and so Peter Laviolette has tossed Juuse Saros a bone and given him the chance to win the starting job after Pekka Rinne struggled with four consecutive losses.
The results, however, have been mixed; despite winning consecutive starts against the division rival Blues, Saros is 2-1-1 in his past four games with 11 goals allowed and a .899 save percentage. Rinne is 37 and doesn't seem capable of providing 50 solid starts a season anymore, and this is Nashville's chance to accelerate its succession plan. At this pace, expect Saros to play more than the 31 games he played last season, and they have a soft schedule coming up with dates against New Jersey, Buffalo, Ottawa and the Rangers. Saros is a required handcuff for Rinne, and there's an outside chance he becomes the full-time starter, but come playoff time expect Rinne to get first crack.
114
That's the Dead Things' goals against through 29 games this season, 22 more than the next team (Montreal) and on pace for 322 for the season. It will be the lowest total in the last 20 seasons, a dubious honor
Some food for thought after another week of fantasy hockey …
.889
That's Nashville's save percentage entering Monday, fifth lowest in the league. It's only slightly better than New Jersey, who just recently demoted its $42-million former franchise goalie to the AHL, and Florida, whose $70-million starter backs up a 25-year-old journeyman. It seems like no one really understands the value of goaltending, and so Peter Laviolette has tossed Juuse Saros a bone and given him the chance to win the starting job after Pekka Rinne struggled with four consecutive losses.
The results, however, have been mixed; despite winning consecutive starts against the division rival Blues, Saros is 2-1-1 in his past four games with 11 goals allowed and a .899 save percentage. Rinne is 37 and doesn't seem capable of providing 50 solid starts a season anymore, and this is Nashville's chance to accelerate its succession plan. At this pace, expect Saros to play more than the 31 games he played last season, and they have a soft schedule coming up with dates against New Jersey, Buffalo, Ottawa and the Rangers. Saros is a required handcuff for Rinne, and there's an outside chance he becomes the full-time starter, but come playoff time expect Rinne to get first crack.
114
That's the Dead Things' goals against through 29 games this season, 22 more than the next team (Montreal) and on pace for 322 for the season. It will be the lowest total in the last 20 seasons, a dubious honor held by the 1999-00 Atlanta Thrashers, who allowed 313 goals against 170 goals scored and finished with just 14 wins. Forwards Andreas Athanasiou (minus-29) and Valtteri Filppula (minus-23) and defenseman Dennis Cholowski (minus-19) are at the bottom of the plus-minus column in a race for VIP membership into the Detroit Golf Club. This is a particularly disappointing season for Athanasiou, who scored 30 goals in 76 games last season. With the season clearly lost, playoff hopes next to non-existent and goaltending again an issue (no, Eric Comrie will not solve their woes), it's time to dump Athanasiou — 15 percent owned on Yahoo, 49 percent on ESPN — if you haven't already.
55
That's the number of power plays the Islanders have received this season, which is a league low and 15 fewer than the next lowest and half of the Canucks' league-leading 110 opportunities. If you've been reading this column, you'll know in Week 3 I noted the Isles were on pace for just 123 opportunities; now, they're on pace for 187. It's slightly better, but that's still barely over two power plays per game. I got curious, and I wonder if it's because no one really pays attention to the Islanders or if it's just a trait of Barry Trotz's teams.
In 20 full seasons behind the bench, Trotz's teams have received fewer power-play opportunities per game than the league average 14 times. It's punctuated by a five-season stretch (2002-08) during Nashville's transformation from "what is Bettman thinking?!" into the beginnings of Smashville, and a one-season hiccup in 2016-17. Trotz's skilled Nashville teams were big beneficiaries in the post-lockout crackdown on clutching and grabbing, but since then his teams have routinely had fewer less power plays than other teams, including some of his longest tenured peers. Not only is the Isles PP just merely average, it's not getting enough opportunities to begin with, which means Mathew Barzal (4 PPP), Josh Bailey (3 PPP), Jordan Eberle (2 PPP) and Anders Lee (0 PPP) aren't going to provide much value in power-play points, and it doesn't seem like a turnaround is imminent.
25
That's David Pastrnak's goal total this season through 27 games. Pastrnak and Auston Matthews are the only two players who have scored 50 goals since last season in fewer than 100 games since last season, but Pastrnak has pulled ahead with a better start on a stronger team. The key milestone Pastrnak is gunning for is 50 goals in 50 games, which hasn't been done since Brett Hull in '92. Mario Lemieux scored 50 in 50 in '96, but it doesn't officially count in the NHL history books because it was the Penguins' 59th game of the season.
10
That's the number of points Robby Fabbri has scored as a Red Wing in 12 games after a much-needed change of scenery. His previous three seasons with the Blues have been hampered by injuries, derailing the once promising career of the 21st overall pick in 2014. There's no pressure in Detroit; Fabbri doesn't have to live up to any hype as a first-round pick and he only cost Steve Yzerman a depth player in Jacob de la Rose. Fabbri will really get a chance to show his wares, unlike in St. Louis when he often lost his spot in the lineup to a more trusted veteran. His minus-11 is ugly, but so is everyone's plus-minus on that team save Darren Helm (… how?!), and with a scoring role and ample time on the power play, Fabbri is worth picking up, especially in leagues that don't count plus-minus (good on you). You may also want to consider winger Filip Zadina, who was recently called up and has averaged more than 15 minutes in the last two games. Zadina's 50.8 CF% through four games is encouraging even though his puck luck has been extremely poor (.947 PDO).
0
That's how many goals the Flames have scored when Mark Jankowski has been on the ice this season (min. 200 TOI), the only player to have this dubious honor, according to Natural Stat Trick. Call them the Three Stooges: Jankowski, Adam Erne and Christoffer Ehn (a lot of Dead Things content this week) are the only three players who've played at least 20 games but yet to register a point. Jankowski's performance has been particularly egregious; he was an unpopular first-round pick in 2012 but worked his way up the ladder and finished with 32 points in 79 games last season. The silver lining? He's actually controlling the play very well with 55.43 SAT% and 55.32 CF% in high-danger areas, both which lead the team, but his puck luck is by far the worst in the league with a PDO of .871. When Jankowski and the Flames start turning it around — they're too talented not to, and with the Bill Peters nightmare put to bed it'll be a weight off their shoulders — Jankowski might be a worthwhile short-term pickup for weekly leagues. He's a name to keep an eye on.
Zero
That's the chance of Julius Honka and Jesse Puljujarvi returning to the NHL this season. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Under CBA rules, restricted free agents who do not pen to paper by 5 p.m. EST on Dec. 1 are not eligible to play for the remainder of the season. Puljujarvi has been lighting the Liiga on fire with Karpat; he's first on the team in goals with 11 and second in points with 24. With the Oilers finally moving forward in the Connor McDavid-Leon Draisaitl era, the absence of Puljujarvi is not felt, and in all likelihood will play for another team next season, if he decides to return to the NHL. His time with the Oilers comes to an unceremonious end, with the highlight (lowlight?) being his pizza-eating photobombing antics, giving us the best food vs. hockey players meme since Olli Jokinen swallowed whole waffles. Those who've been stashing Puljujarvi all season … sorry, the Pool Party's officially cancelled.
