…Told myself time and time again,
This time I’m gonna win…
What is it they say? The best offense is a good defense? Something like that.
Going into Week Three of the Fantasy Hockey season, many of us were confronted with another somewhat disjointed schedule from a streaming perspective. It seems like I just haven’t been able to get any flow going here. For whatever reason, maximizing my teams’ respective schedules has been a real chore. It’s like trying to squeeze in players from the waiver wire has meant either contemplating dropping core players for players with better schedules or having to get comfortable with standing pat. And Week Three, at least for me, was no different. Looking ahead to Week Four, it’s more of the same.
Anyway, in Week Three, I decided to add the best Montreal player I could get on Monday (Nick Suzuki) and hang on to my adds until later on in the week. I didn’t want to make the same mistake I made in Week Two, i.e, adding week-long streamers and keeping my fingers crossed.
So I took a look at my opponent’s team to see if I could add players to counter players they had on the same team and hopefully the same lines. I was able to do so with Suzuki because my opponent had Cole Caufield. Additionally, I added Ryan Hartman on Sunday because they roster Kirill Kaprizov. I did this because I recognized that the start of the week projection totals for our respective teams was razor thin and I essentially was just trying to hold serve.
Adding Suzuki worked out pretty well as he ended the week with 34.10 points to my opponent’s Caufield point total of 43.40. Not exactly equal but close enough to keep me in the mix. Ideally, I would have added Hartman at the beginning of the week, but couldn’t do so without having to drop one of my core players. The thought process here was to get in Suzuki’s Saturday game and then drop him for Hartman’s Sunday game. It was a gamble that a non-gambler like me was able to take so I went full on Early in the Morning with the Gap Band.
As of this writing (early Sunday morning), I have a solid lead, but as you all know…Sunday in fantasy hockey can be a very loooong day. When I finish this piece (later tonight), I’ll know if this strategy paid off. My goodness it’s been tough sledding early on this season.
Key Adds:
1. Nick Suzuki: As noted above, he played a huge part in one of my team’s Week Three success. I added the Montreal captain last year to disastrous results. Nevertheless, letting bygones be bygones sometimes works out. This time it did. Thanks Mon Capitan.
2. Travis Sanheim: Huge minutes for a PP QB was too hard to pass up. As a bonus, Philly has the best Week Four schedule so I traded away one of my better upside defensemen (more about that later) to add Sanheim.
3. Andrei Vasilevskiy: A Gap Band Reprise to grab this beast Sunday morning. Another manager dropped him on Thursday and I waited with baited breath for his waiver period to expire before beating everyone else to the punch. I went in a little too hard with Zero-G in my points league draft and have been struggling so far to get something going in net. I’m hopeful that he comes back sooner rather than later and I can ride him down the backstretch to victory. Plus I’m low on platitudes.
4. Ryan Hartman: Very much like Suzuki, he burned me late last year, but this is a new year right? I was able to add him for the Sunday game and he came through with a goal and helped me win by being a check-mating my opponent’s Kaprizov salvo.
5. Nick Schmaltz: One of my favorites in all of fantasy, Schmaltzy is well-known for being so underrated. I added him on Thursday and even though I only got one game from him, he had an assist, three SOG, and two BLKs. More importantly, Arizona has a really good Week Four schedule. This was a look-ahead, potentially long-term hold/add.
6. Travis Konecny: Gotta full circle it first….
Last, but not least (hey, I thought you were out of cliches Professor!), is TK. If Timo Meier and Clayton Keller are two of my fantasy favs, TK is probably number three. Another manager in my league needed a defenseman and I was looking for more O, so I offered Zach Werenski and she agreed to the deal. While I hated to part ways with Werenski, in my opinion it was a win/win…
…I think I’d better let it go,
Looks like another love (for) T.K.(O)…
Thanks for reading and good luck in Week Four.
Mike@TheFantasyHockeyProfessor
Apples and Ginos 