It’s not a surprise in the least that Claude Julien landed another coaching gig just days after the Boston Bruins parted ways with him. His Bruins were the NHL leaders in possession (Corsi) and incredibly unlucky (third-last in PDO, a shooting and save percentage metric which measures “luck”).
The Montreal Canadiens also needed to hit the reset button, with a slow fade that began in December.
Editor’s Picks
How the Blues’ turnaround impacts their trade strategy
After firing Ken Hitchcock, the Blues have caught fire. Has this altered what the team plans to do ahead of the trade deadline?
Best NHL player at each age, 24 to 29
Who is the NHL’s best player at each age? Here’s our second installment of the series identifying them, featuring the top players from ages 24 through 29.
Expansion draft complicating contract talks
Craig Custance provides notes from around the league, along with responses to reader tweets in his Friday mailbag.
2 Related
After firing Ken Hitchcock, the Blues have caught fire. Has this altered what the team plans to do ahead of the trade deadline?
Who is the NHL’s best player at each age? Here’s our second installment of the series identifying them, featuring the top players from ages 24 through 29.
Craig Custance provides notes from around the league, along with responses to reader tweets in his Friday mailbag.
In his first practice with the Habs, Julien did what most fantasy owners hoped, and put Alex Galchenyuk back on the top line. The Canadiens’ lack of depth had been killing Galchenyuk’s fantasy value. He scored 23 of his 29 points this season in the 25 games before a December knee injury, which happens to coincide with the Habs’ free fall. Upon his return, former coach Michel Therrien kept Galchenyuk down the depth chart, and he’d managed just six points in 12 games.
Now available in 23 percent of ESPN leagues as owners had jumped ship, Galchenyuk should sail back to universal ownership now that he’s playing with Max Pacioretty and Alexander Radulov. His ice time should also get an uptick. He’s the first stop fantasy owners should make as they look to gain advantage from this coaching change.
We can also bank on some marked improvement from Carey Price going forward. Julien runs a fantastic system for his goaltenders when it comes to possession. It’s helped Tuukka Rask be among the NHL’s save percentage leaders since Julien took over behind the bench in 2007-08. In fact, in the span since 2007-08, the NHL’s save percentage leaders are Tim Thomas (since retired), Cory Schneider and Rask. Two out of three played the majority of their games for Julien.
Considering that Price was already among the NHL’s best at keeping the puck out of the net, you can almost guarantee this mini slump of his is over. After posting a monthly .954 and .944 save percentage, respectively, in October and November, Price has managed save percentages of .899, .906 and .879 in December, January and February. He’s only had four months worse than those numbers during the last seven seasons — and non of them were even in the same season, let alone in consecutive months. This coaching move should save Price’s season.
While Julien’s arrival should lift Galchenyuk and Price, a new coach doesn’t change the depth of the offense. This team still doesn’t pass the sniff test for offensive acuity beyond the first line. For now, that means Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Plekanec and Paul Byron will do their best impression of a second scoring line. Gallagher can, at times, carry a line, but he’ll be hard-pressed to do enough for fantasy relevance without some additional help. Philip Danault won’t have any fantasy relevance anymore if he sticks on the third line, where it appears Julien is tucking him.
As for defense, the Canadiens have deeper offensive talent on the blue line than the Bruins ever had under Julien, so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. The Bruins operated with a one-defenseman power play, but doing so for the Canadiens would leave some of their best weapons off the man advantage. Shea Weber and Andrei Markov should continue to team up on the first unit, with Jeff Petry and Nathan Beaulieu anchoring the second. It remains to be seen if Julien goes top-heavy with his forwards on the power play or splits up his talent a little here. Depending on the answer, this is where Gallagher could eke out enough production to be on fantasy teams again.
It’s fantasy baseball season! Renew an existing league, or sign up to play in a new one. Either way, it’s free.
Sign up now!
As the NHL squeezes out all but one of the remaining bye weeks during the next fantasy scoring period, be prepared for more than a few of your players to have a light schedule. The San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, St. Louis Blues, Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings all have at least part of their break during next week, resulting in no more than two games for any of the franchises.
After next week, the Anaheim Ducks have their bye week, and then we are back to regularly scheduled programming for the remainder of the season.
It’s a light week overall for the NHL, with only six teams boasting a four-game week and even some teams not on a bye still only playing two games (the New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning).
For those new to the forecaster chart, here are some explanations: “O” (offense) and “D” (defense) matchup ratings are based upon a scale from 1 (poor matchup) to 10 (excellent matchup) and are calculated using a formula that evaluates the team’s season-to-date statistics, their performance in home/road games depending on where the game is to be played, as well as their opponents’ numbers in those categories. The “Ratings” column lists the cumulative rating from 1-10 of that week’s offensive (“O”) and defensive (“D”) matchups.
Arizona Coyotes: Back to full health, the Coyotes are finally playing spoiler with a little more frequency. Wins against the Los Angeles Kings, Calgary Flames and Penguins in their past four games, it will be a shame to see this team partially broken up at the trade deadline. In the meantime, the Yotes have a four-game week on tap, and are getting consistent production from two lines. Those fantasy players in shallower leagues will want to consider the appeal of Martin Hanzal, Max Domi and Radim Vrbata. Those in deeper pools can note the hot play of Christian Dvorak, Brendan Perlini and Shane Doan. Dvborak, in particular, has eight points in his past seven games. We had high hopes for the rookie coming into this season, and this late effort could spur more interest for fantasy owners heading into next season. It might be worth squeezing a spot start out of Mike Smith, too, but play the matchups. Smith has won three in a row, but the Coyotes face the Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, Stars and Sabres.
Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers: The two teams from Alberta follow each other on the road for four games. Both teams play the Nashville Predators, Lightning and Florida Panthers, with the Flames’ fourth game against the Carolina Hurricanes, while the Oilers catch the Washington Capitals. These don’t sound like great matchups for either Cam Talbot or Brian Elliott, but the offense for both teams should get by. The Oilers have shaken things up again, and Jordan Eberle is currently alongside Connor McDavid on the top line with Patrick Maroon. Available in 30 percent of ESPN leagues, he makes a great short-term addition to shallower leagues, and can come off your bench in deeper ones.
Nashville Predators: Don’t sleep on your Predators as they come out of a bye week. Viktor Arvidsson needs to be on more rosters, as the first-line winger remains available in 44 percent of ESPN leagues. He has six goals and nine points in his past six contests, and is sharing the ice with Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg.
James Reimer continues to make the Panthers’ goaltending situation murky with his strong play. If you haven’t handcuffed him to Roberto Luongo for the stretch run already, do it now. If you need to take a chance on a backup goaltender stealing some thunder, Reimer is your man. He’s 4-0 with a .944 save percentage going back to Jan. 26.
Can anyone other than Braden Holtby post an .821 save percentage and 3.51 goals-against average during the course of two games and still get two wins?
The Jimmy Howard situation remains unclear, with another setback for the recovering netminder. Petr Mrzaek is slowly improving his play, but it’s still not likely enough to fend off Howard if he returns soon. But we don’t know when a return might be, as Howard has twice suffered an aggravation of his knee injury while trying to get back into game shape.
Owners of Sergei Bobrovsky, Devan Dubnyk and Martin Jones will want to consider some of the fringe options for next week, as the schedule could mean only one start out of these No. 1 fantasy goaltenders. Craig Anderson, Cam Ward and Mike Smith are probably the best of the possibly available options.
While Gustav Nyquist gets some time to think about what he did during a six-game suspension, Tomas Tatar could have some short-term fantasy impact on the top line with Henrik Zetterberg and Anthony Mantha.
Kevin Labanc is someone to consider as the Sharks enjoy their bye. While he was briefly supplanted from the top six with Tomas Hertl’s return from injury, Labanc is now back on the top line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski, notching four assists in his past three games.
Richard Panik and Nick Schmaltz continue to share the ice with Jonathan Toews, despite a healthy Marian Hossa playing further down the depth chart. It’s tough to question the decisions from a coach as perennially successful as Joel Quenneville, so fantasy owners should embrace the situation. Panik has five points in his past three games, and is even getting power-play time on the top unit with Toews, Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin.
The minus rating isn’t going away, but Mikko Rantanen is stringing together a solid month. He has four goals and seven points in nine games. However, he is no longer playing with Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog for the time being. If you see him reunited with MacKinnon at some point, consider him for a short-term addition.
Ryan Strome is quietly putting together an impressive February. He has two goals and seven points in eight games, and is getting a boost from his power-play time as the fourth forward with the Islanders’ top unit.
Jake Guentzel and Chris Kunitz warrant a look as they continue to be Sidney Crosby’s linemates at least until Conor Sheary returns.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
