Week 6 will be challenging with the Global Series running from Thursday to Sunday. Set your rosters accordingly with help from the weekly primer.

Hopefully, you made it out of Week 5 alive. From injuries to trade requests to poor goaltending, it was a difficult week to navigate.

Of course, these challenges must be overcome every week, but it does seem like goaltending has been more volatile and poorer than usual. If you went into the season with elite goalies such as Connor Hellebuyck (6-4-1, 2.98 GAA, .892 SP), you’ve been disappointed. If you went into the season with a zero-G strategy, odds are it hasn’t worked out, either, because many of the 1B’s and backups have failed to take over the starting job.

With Pyotr Kochetkov, Dustin Wolf and Calvin Pickard getting called up, it’s worth taking a shot and rostering them for the time being because you just never know with goaltending. I’m sure Pheonix Copley won a couple leagues last season.

The extra wrinkle with Week 6 is the Global Series in Stockholm. It’ll affect four teams – Senators, Red Wings, Wild and Maple Leafs – with games from Thursday to Sunday. Due to the time difference, those games will start between 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., so set your rosters accordingly.

While each of the four games will designate a home and away team, technically, all four teams are on the road. The Sens get the short end of the stick since they are designated as the home team in both of their games, meaning they play two less games in Kanata. The Leafs, meanwhile, are the road team in both games, which makes sense because they are, in fact, on the road, and the NHL revolves around them, anyway. The Global Series games are highlighted in yellow in the schedule matrix below.

With the travel, all four of the Global Series participants will only play two games in Week 6. That’s not the low, however; after playing the Blue Jackets on Sunday, the Rangers do not play again until Saturday in New Jersey to kick off their four-game road trip. Their five-day break is the longest break between games until their eight-day bye week in late January.

There are seven teams that will play four games, and the Blues, who are ranked second on the schedule matrix, have a chance to go on a bit of a run. After burying the Avs, 8-2, they will go on a road trip through California later in Week 6, including matchup against the lowly Sharks on Thursday. There’s basically no travel involved and a chance to build on positive momentum.

All eyes will be on the Oilers. They have two games at home against the stingy Isles and a very deep Kraken squad before a litmus-test game on Saturday against the Lightning. We’ll see if there’s a new coach bump with Kris Knoblauch; at the very least, the coaching change should spark a little more offense, while defense and goaltending are more related to personnel than coaching.

Pick players from teams at the top of the schedule matrix to maximize games and matchups. Green is good. Red is bad. All advanced stats courtesy naturalstatrick.com. All positions and rostered percentages are courtesy of Yahoo fantasy.

Points percentages as of Saturday. Global Series games highlighted in yellow.

Schedule

Weekly Bangers

(< 50% rostered on Yahoo, on teams with 4 games this week)

Hits/GP

Sammy Blais, LW, STL – 3.69
Keegan Kolesar, RW, VEG – 3.67
Paul Cotter, C, VEG – 2.80
Brayden Pachal, D, VEG – 2.58
Radko Gudas, D, ANA – 2.38
Cal Clutterbuck, RW, NYI – 2.38

Blocks/GP

Alec Martinez, D, VEG – 3.60
Brayden McNabb, D, VEG – 3.20
Jamie Oleksiak, D, SEA – 2.73
Erik Gudbranson, D, CLB – 2.57
Colton Parayko, D, STL – 2.54
Ilya Lyubushkin, D, ANA – 2.54

Season-long adds

(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)

Wyatt Johnston, C, DAL (24% rostered)

Johnson has scored multiple points in consecutive games – two on Saturday and three on Sunday – and finally getting paid off for his strong play this season. He’s the No. 2 center behind Roope Hintz based on production with Tyler Seguin and Matt Duchene struggling to be consistent contributors on offense.

Sam Bennett, C, FLA (19% rostered)

Hopefully, Bennett’s back for good after playing just 7:54 in his season debut before having to leave the game. Slowly but surely, the Panthers are getting healthy, and Bennett returned to his usual spot on the second line, now flanked by Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk. This is a high-upside offensive line and Bennett can contribute in both scoring and hits categories.

Jared Spurgeon, D, MIN (22% rostered)

Usually, Spurgeon’s greatest contribution in fantasy is blocked shots. But as the quarterback on PP1, he’s added immense value. It wasn’t long ago Spurgoen scored at a 50-point pace thanks to 14 helpers on the man advantage, and he’s in a similar spot right now. Last season’s quarterbacks, John Klingberg and Calen Addison, are no longer on the roster to provide competition.

Mid-term holds

(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)

Evgeny Kuznetsov, C, WSH (19% rostered)

Kuznetsov is frustratingly inconsistent, so be wary of that. But as Alex Ovechkin’s center, this is the best spot Kuznetsov can be put in to score points. He scored three points during the Caps’ two-game winning streak; the downside is the Caps only play twice in Week 6, but Kuznetsov may retain his fantasy value should he continue to play with Ovechkin.

Ilya Mikheyev, LW/RW, VAN (17% rostered)

Mikheyev’s sixth goal of the season Sunday against the Habs puts him on pace to shatter his previous career-high of 21. He’s still not a high-end offensive player, but playing with Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko raises his ceiling by a significant margin.

James Reimer, G, DET (22% rostered)

I can’t shake this feeling that Reimer will eat into nearly half of the starts this season. Ville Husso is unreliable and Reimer has plenty of experience operating a timeshare. Reimer’s stats will certainly regress, but it’ll also take strong play from Husso for him to keep the net.

Connor Ingram, G, ARI (20% rostered)

The Coyotes have operated a pretty even split and even though Ingram allowed five goals in his previous start, it was a wild game and the Coyotes ended up earning the win, anyway. This is a much-improved team with tons of upset potential. In a season where goalies have been more unpredictable than usual, Ingram might end up taking over as the 1A.

Short-term streamers

(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)

Eeli Tolvanen, LW/RW, SEA (13% rostered)

Kraken players can be a frustrating bunch because you never know which of their many wingers will start popping off. Recently, that’s been Tolvanen, who’s on a five-game point streak playing opposite Oliver Bjorkstrand, who is second on the team in scoring. The Kraken play four games this week.

Kirill Marchenko, RW, CLB (8% rostered)

Marchenko’s minutes are limited but two things are trending his way: the Jackets play four games in Week 6 and he’s been on fire since sitting out as a healthy scratch, scoring a point in five straight games entering Sunday’s matchup against the Rangers. Marchenko scored at a 29-goal pace last season so there’s definitely talent there, and he also gets to play on the power play.

Dustin Wolf, G, CGY (12% rostered)

There’s a ton of warranted hype with Wolf, who won goalie of the year awards in both the AHL and WHL twice. Despite being tagged with the loss, he looked very good against the Sens. While Jacob Markstrom is injured, Wolf will likely alternate with Daniel Vladar. The drawback with Wolf’s fantasy value is the Flames; with Nikita Zadorov requesting a trade and Chris Tanev already in the rumor mill, Wolf is going to get even less help. You can stream Wolf knowing that it’s going to be a quality start, but the wins will be really tough to earn.

With back-to-backs this week, also look for Joel Hofer (likely Sunday vs. Ducks) and Joey Daccord to start at least one game this week. Hofer looked fantastic again in his previous start while Daccord seems to have the edge as the 1A goalie again after Philipp Grubauer was pulled against the Oilers.