The Red Wings turn to Alex Lyon (again) to salvage their playoff hopes in the midst of an early-season slump.
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Alex Lyon13 Games for Saturday, Oct. 19
* = confirmed
Andrei Vasilevskiy, TB* at Anton Forsberg, OTT* (1 p.m. ET)
Alex Lyon, DET* at Juuse Saros, NSH* (2 p.m. ET)
Stuart Skinner, EDM* at Jake Oettinger, DAL (4 p.m. ET)
Ilya Samsonov, VEG at Sergei Bobrovsky, FLA* (6 p.m. ET)
Igor Shesterkin, NYR* at Anthony Stolarz, TOR* (7 p.m. ET)
Logan Thompson, WSH* at Jacob Markstrom, NJ* (7 p.m. ET)
Cayden Primeau, MON* at Semyon Varlamov, NYI* (7 p.m. ET)
Kevin Lankinen, VAN* at Samuel Ersson, PHI* (7 p.m. ET)
Filip Gustavsson, MIN* at Daniil Tarasov, CLB* (7 p.m. ET)
Pyotr Kochetkov, CAR at Joel Hofer, STL* (7 p.m. ET)
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, BUF* at Arvid Soderblom, CHI* (8 p.m. ET)
Jeremy Swayman, BOS at Connor Ingram, UTA (9 p.m. ET)
Dan Vladar, CGY at Joey Daccord, SEA (10 p.m. ET)
Goalies
Arvid Soderblom, CHI vs. BUF (17% rostered)
Soderblom gets his second start of the season after a strong season debut with 33 saves in a 2-1 loss to the Jets. Petr Mrazek gets a break after starting three straight games, two of which have been wins. This is a good matchup for Soderblom.
The Blackhawks may have less talent top to bottom than the Sabres (Connor Bedard notwithstanding) and they've lost five of their past six meetings, but there's no question which team is playing better right now. The Sabres are also 25th in points percentage on the road since the previous season. The risk I'm most wary of is that this could be a high-scoring game.
Semyon Varlamov, NYI vs. MON (47% rostered)
Varlamov gets a chance to notch his first win of the season after losing both of his starts in the first two games of the season. He was much better in his second start, allowing just two goals on 26 shots though he got literally zero goal support in a shutout loss.
The Habs may be without several key players, including top left winger Juraj Slafkovsky and defenseman Mike Matheson. Varlamov has been historically quite good against the Habs with a career 7-3-2/.910/2.75 record. He was 1-2-0 against them last season, but that included a 36-save performance in which the Isles nearly came back from a 4-0 deficit.
Dan Vladar, CGY at SEA (6% rostered)
The Flames are basically firing on all cylinders and this will be a tough test. The Kraken haven't been very good at home but their biggest problem since the franchise's inception — scoring — has not been a big issue so far with 13 goals in their past two games, both of which were wins.
Both teams head into the matchup with a lot of positive momentum, but note Vladar has been historically good against the Kraken. He's 5-1-0 all-time against them, though he's needed good goal support to do so with a 2.80 GAA and .897 SP. The Flames currently rank second with 4.75 GF/GP.
Alex Lyon, DET at NSH (3% rostered)
The Wings are turning to Lyon yet again as they hope to salvage a poor start to their season. Lyon was tagged with a loss after allowing three goals on 27 shots in his season debut and made a relief appearance stopping all 15 shots he faced, both against the Rangers.
The Preds are reeling; they're having trouble scoring but they're too talented to be kept off the score sheet all season. That's the risk here; the Wings looked awful in their most recent game against the Rangers, and the Preds must be desperate to snap their 0-4-0 start. I'd be cautious about this start, but note if Lyon has a strong performance, he could see more playing time going forward and relegate Cam Talbot and Ville Husso to the bench.
Kevin Lankinen, VAN at PHI (15% rostered)
This is the Flyers' home opener so they'll certainly be eager to put on a show and snap their three-game losing streak. Lankinen, meanwhile, has looked excellent and looks poised to take over the starting job after Arturs Silovs started the season opener.
Lankinen is coming off a 3-2 overtime win against the Panthers, and if he gets the start, it'll be his second straight start and the Canucks will have broken away from their current rotation. The upside is the Flyers' offense isn't particularly threatening, but the Canucks have also been unable to provide much goal support with star center Elias Pettersson struggling. I'm cautiously optimistic Lankinen can post a good save percentage, but the Flyers should have the edge in this game.
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