On every game day this season, THN Fantasy will highlight players and goalies for fantasy managers to stream or roster for the rest of the season. The recommended players and goalies are rostered in less than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues and can be selected in standard fantasy leagues or for daily fantasy games.
12 games on Tuesday, February 25
* = confirmed
Anthony Stolarz, TOR at Jeremy Swayman, BOS (7 p.m. ET)
Lukas Dostal, ANA at Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, BUF (7 p.m. ET)
Frederik Andersen, CAR at Sam Montembeault, MTL* (7 p.m. ET)
Alex Nedeljkovic, PIT at Samuel Ersson, PHI (7 p.m. ET)
Dustin Wolf, CGY at Logan Thompson, WSH (7 p.m. ET)
Jake Oettinger, DAL at Elvis Merzlikins, CBJ (7 p.m. ET)
Stuart Skinner, EDM at Andrei Vasilevskiy, TB (7:30 p.m. ET)
Igor Shesterkin, NYR at Ilya Sorokin, NYI (7:30 p.m. ET)
Joey Daccord, SEA at Jordan Binnington, STL (8 p.m. ET)
Sergei Bobrovsky, FLA at Juuse Saros, NSH (8 p.m. ET)
Cam Talbot, DET at Filip Gustavsson, MIN* (8 p.m. ET)
Petr Mrazek, CHI at Connor Ingram, UTA (9 p.m. ET)
Goalies
Lukas Dostal, ANA at BUF (40% rostered)
John Gibson was injured on Saturday and if he’s unavailable, look for Dostal to get his second straight start. Dostal is coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to the Wings but note two of the three goals he allowed in the first 5:06 came on the power play when two simultaneous penalties were called against the Ducks. Otherwise, Dostal was pretty solid the rest of the way, allowing just two more goals over the next two-and-half periods and finished with 31 saves on 36 shots.
However, this matchup against the Sabres worries me. The Sabres are coming off an 8-2 trouncing against the Rangers and their offense is legitimately explosive. Meanwhile, the Ducks are often forced to grind through low-scoring games – their most recent one aside – and their past three meetings against the Sabres have all been one-goal affairs. Dostal’s heavy workload with potentially his third appearance in four nights could also work against him.
I think Dostal will face plenty of shots and also make plenty of saves, but I doubt he can get the win. The only way the Ducks can steal this one is if the Sabres’ goaltending is poor and their offense disappears; usually it’s just one, but not both.
Samuel Ersson, PHI vs. PIT (24% rostered)
Alex Nedeljkovic, PIT at PHI (20% rostered)
A big advantage for Ersson in this one with the Pens potentially without Bryan Rust, who has not played since Feb. 7, and also Matt Grzelcyk, who left Sunday’s game and didn’t return. That’s two of the Pens’ more productive players out of the lineup; meanwhile, Ersson has a 2-1-1 record and .920 SP in February.
The Pens allowed 13 goals over the weekend and they neither have the defense to prevent goals nor the offense to outscore their problems. Historically, the Pens have dominated this matchup in the Sidney Crosby era, but he hasn’t been getting a lot of help. I think the Pens will come out with a better effort following their disastrous weekend but definitely remain the underdogs.
I don’t trust the Pens’ goalies and would much rather stream Ersson, who has a good shot at earning the win. His recent play has been very good though I’d hedge my bets a little bit against a good save percentage, mostly because Crosby alone feasts on the Flyers.
Connor Ingram, UTA vs. CHI (34% rostered)
Petr Mrazek, CHI at UTA (11% rostered)
Utah is essentially at full strength with Sean Durzi back in the lineup, missing only depth defenseman Robert Bortuzzo, who’s played sparingly this season. They have a huge advantage in every facet of the game, which bodes well for Ingram. He hasn’t been sharp, but he’s fared much better at home (.902 SP) than on the road (.861 SP), and allowed just two goals on 26 shots (.923 SP) in a win against the Hawks in their season opener.
Mrazek is arguably the more talented goalie but he allowed five goals on 16 shots on Saturday and the Hawks have allowed 10 goals while scoring just three since the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Ingram is a good bet to get the win. He’ll have a healthy defense in front of him and good goal support. He hasn’t offered a strong save percentage all season so don’t look for it, but there’s a chance that Utah can really limit the high-danger chances and afford him easy saves all night.
Remember to bookmark The Hockey News Fantasy site for stats, news, analysis, rankings, projections and more, including the Sleepers and Keepers fantasy hockey podcast!