With the Sharks playing the second half of a back-to-back, all eyes are on Yaroslav Askarov's potential season debut.
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10 games for Thursday, Nov. 21
* = confirmed
Karel Vejmelka, UTA* at Joonas Korpisalo, BOS* (7 p.m. ET)
Ilya Samsonov, VEG* at Linus Ullmark, OTT* (7 p.m. ET)
Ilya Sorokin, NYI* at Alex Lyon, DET* (7 p.m. ET)
Pyotr Kochetkov, CAR at Jacob Markstrom, NJ* (7 p.m. ET)
Justus Annunen, COL at Logan Thompson, WSH* (7 p.m. ET)
Jonas Johansson, TB at Elvis Merzlikins, CLB* (7 p.m. ET)
Yaroslav Askarov, SJ* at Jordan Binnington, STL* (8 p.m. ET)
Spencer Knight, FLA at Petr Mrazek, CHI* (8:30 p.m. ET)
Igor Shesterkin, NYR at Dustin Wolf, CGY* (9 p.m. ET)
Marc-Andre Fleury, MIN* at Stuart Skinner, EDM* (9 p.m. ET)
Goalies
Yaroslav Askarov, SJ at STL (13% rostered)
The Sharks are being coy about their starter and Vitek Vanecek is travelling with the team, so there's a chance we won't see Askarov make his season debut. But perhaps the Sharks are simply protecting Askarov to temper expectations and media hype because surely the Sharks' supposed goalie of the future will draw a lot of attention.
From a fantasy standpoint, we'll have to be careful with Askarov. He's not playing on a good team, though the Sharks are much better than they were last season, and the Blues will be eager to snap their funk with Robert Thomas back in the lineup and having lost six of their last seven. Askarov has just two NHL starts under his belt, winning his lone start last season against the Caps, 3-2, and stopped 27 of 29 shots.
Note the Sharks swept the season series last season, and in their first meeting on Oct. 10, the Blues won in overtime. Their games have been close even though the Blues are 14-6-0 against them all-time since 2020. Askarov is only worth starting if you want to roll the dice, otherwise the Blues should have the upper hand in this matchup, and a good save percentage is not guaranteed despite Askarov's strong play in the AHL this season.
Justus Annunen, COL at WSH (32% rostered)
Alexandar Georgiev was a full participant in Wednesday's practice, and if he's ready to go, I think the Avs will start him over Annunen, who was the subject of some, uh, critical choice words from Jared Bednar.
I prefer Georgiev since his play is trending up, but this should be a matchup that favors the Avs even with their inferior record. The Caps will be without top goal scorer and captain Alex Ovechkin, and the Avs are basically are at full strength save for Ross Colton. I like the Avs' ability to provide goal support but do not expect particularly strong performances from either Georgiev or Annunen.
Jonas Johanson, TB at CLB (1% rostered)
The Lightning rotation seems to be five games of Andrei Vasilevskiy and then one game of Johansson. Vasilevskiy saw very little work in a 3-2 OT win against the Pens, making just 17 saves, but it's a nice break before the Lightning return home to host the Stars, Avs and Caps.
I don't like Johansson as a goalie but admittedly this is a good matchup. The Jackets' surprising sweep of the Lightning in 2019 aside - it actually still feels like yesterday - the Lightning have dominated this matchup since. Johansson has a career .844 SP (yikes) and 5.15 GAA (double yikes) against the Jackets, who have this weird ability to defy the odds when you least expect it, but I'm reasonably confident Johansson can be a good streaming option.
Spencer Knight, FLA at CHI (6% rostered)
Just a guess, but I think Knight gets this start with Sergei Bobrovsky losing two of his past three games and allowing nine goals. Knight hasn't been quite as good as I'd anticipated but he's been quite good lately, winning three of his past four starts.
The Panthers are quite good at limiting shots (10th best in the league) and the Hawks offense is absolutely floundering, needing the likes of Jason Dickinson to score goals for them. I'd be genuinely surprised if the Hawks stage an upset because they're just not trending in the right direction.
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