Welcome back to The Oil Rig‘s weekly fantasy update! We aim to bring you the information you need to show up your friends (or enemies) and get bragging rights by winning your league.
Each week we provide a schedule breakdown showing which teams to stream players from, who is hot and who is cold, some sleeper picks with low owned percentages to keep an eye on, and some Edmonton Oilers fantasy hockey updates.
Keep checking back for a new update each week.
NHL weekly schedule
Games per day from February 3 to February 9
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 14 | 2 |
Tuesday and Saturday each have 14 games scheduled. Your lineup will certainly overflow on each of those days. These two days represent 58% of the total games played on the week. You can assume that you’re opponent(s) will also be in the same boat. If you’re looking to rely on something other than luck, you’ll need to plan towards maximizing games played on off-nights.
Keep these resources at the top of your season-long tool list. Use them to guide your transactions. These become more valuable as the season goes on and teams establish themselves in overall power rankings.
Daily Faceoff provides a schedule table with each team’s games over the upcoming fantasy week for easy comparison between teams focusing on back-to-backs and off-day games.
Left Wing Lock goes deeper to look at strength of schedule so you can see which teams have easy games coming up and could be focused on for your streaming options.
Teams playing twice this week:
- Anaheim Ducks
- Buffalo Sabres
- Detroit Red Wings
- Winnipeg Jets
Teams playing four times this week:
- Montreal Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Utah Hocky Club
Off-night tracking
Here is a list of teams to consider adding players from in effort to increase your total games played on the week.
| Team | Off-night Games |
|---|---|
| Chicago Blackhawks | 2 (Wednesday, Friday) |
| Edmonton Oilers | 2 (Wednesday, Friday) |
| Los Angeles Kings | 2 (Wednesday, Friday) |
| Montreal Canadiens | 2 (Wednesday, Sunday) |
| Nashville Predators | 2 (Monday, Friday) |
| New York Rangers | 2 (Wednesday, Friday) |
Back-to-back tracking
Use this week’s back-to-back games to plan out some extra goalie starts in spots where teams will be leaning on backup goaltenders.
| Team | Back-to-Back Games |
|---|---|
| Boston Bruins | Tuesday, Wednesday |
| Chicago Blackhawks | Friday, Saturday |
| Colorado Avalanche | Thursday, Friday |
| Dallas Stars | Friday, Saturday |
| Edmonton Oilers | Tuesday, Wednesday |
| Los Angeles Kings | Friday, Saturday |
| Montreal Canadiens | Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday/Sunday |
| Nashville Predators | Friday, Saturday |
| New York Islanders | Friday, Saturday |
| New York Islanders | Friday, Saturday |
| Ottawa Senators | Monday, Tuesday |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Friday, Saturday |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Saturday, Sunday |
| Utah Hockey Club | Saturday, Sunday |
Strength of schedule
Easy schedules
| Team | Opponents |
|---|---|
| Dallas Stars | Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks |
| Edmonton Oilers | St Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche |
| Nashville Predators | Ottawa Senators, Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres |
Difficult schedules
| Team | Opponents |
|---|---|
| Anaheim Ducks | Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings |
| Carolina Hurricanes | Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild, Utah Hockey Club |
| New York Islanders | Vegas Golden Knights, Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild |
Hottest teams
Last 10 games played
- Winnipeg Jets 8–2-0
- Washington Capitals 7–1–2
- Ottawa Senators 7–2–1
- Detroit Red Wings 7–2–1
- New York Islanders 7–3–0
Coldest teams
Last 10 games played
- San Jose Sharks 2–8–0
- Vegas Golden Knights 2–5–3
- Chicago Blackhawks 2–5–3
- Los Angeles Kings 3–6–1
- Utah Hockey Club 3–5–2
Fantasy hockey team of the week
The fantasy team of the week highlights the top player at each position from the previous week. Scoring follows Yahoo!’s default point settings and categories.
Left wing
JJ Peterka- 58.90 FPTS
The Buffalo Sabres have won three straight games including wins against Boston and New Jersey. Peterka has scored 4G, 2A with a +8 rating over those games.
Centre
Dylan Larkin – 48.10 FPTS
Larkin racked up 19 SOG during week 17 with 2G, 2A and a +4 rating. He is one of the biggest reasons for Detroit’s 5G win streak that includes wins against Tampa Bay, Los Angeles and Edmonton. Larkin hit 10 SOG over 25:03 TOI in the Red Wings 3–2 in Edmonton this week.
Right wing
Tage Thompson – 71.10 FPTS
Look out for one of the top performances on the season to date. Thompson scored 4G, 4A in week 17 with a +8 rating. Half of Thompson’s production came in a 7–2 victory against the Boston Bruins. He now has 7G in his last 7GP.
Defence
Jake Sanderson – 45.3 FPTS
The Senators have won their last four consecutive games. During that stretch, Sanderson has 2G, 6A, +3 rating, 4 PPP, and 4 BLK. In his most recent game, against the Minnesota Wild, Sanderson had 4PTS. These are significant numbers for any player, let alone a defender.
Goalie
Ilya Sorokin – 56.6 FPTS
Prior to their 6–3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Sunday, the Islanders and won seven games in a row. Sorokin appeared in six consecutive games, earning a shutout victory against the Philadelphia Flyers while allowing no more than two goals in a single game.
Streamers of the week
It’s basically expected that the league’s top players will be the ones you want on your roster week in, and week out. But those players aren’t likely to be available for you to pick up. Here are some players who are hot with low ownership percentages that you should consider picking up for the week.
Jonathan Drouin (LW,RW) – Colorado Avalanche 31% Rostered
Over his last 2GP, Drouin has 2G, 3A, and a +5 rating. His role on the Avalanche PP1 unit has been a big reason for his success. Since the trade which sent Mikko Rantanen from Colorado to Carolina, the Avalanche roster has yet to solidify their next grouping of top scorers outside of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. Consider Drouin an intriguing add with 3GP on the week.
Shane Pinto (C) – Ottawa Senators 12% Rostered
Over his last 4GP, Pinto has 2G, 3A and a +4 rating. Senators Josh Norris is now injured and has an increased potential to be held out of this week’s lineup, knowing that a long break exists after the Senators next 4GP.
Tony DeAngelo (D) – New York Islanders 23% Rostered
With Noah Dobson out of the lineup due to injury. DeAngelo is seeing an increased opportunity to contribute offensively. DeAngelo only has 4GP on the season, with the Islanders playing their best hockey of the season, DeAngelo represents a good streaming for the week ahead.
Elvis Merzlikins (G) – Columbus Blue Jackets 37% Rostered
With the recent success that the Blue Jackets have enjoyed, its easy to see that Merzlikins makes a strong add for teams in need of goaltender support. The Blue Jackets face Buffalo, Utah and the Rangers this week. It possible that Merzlikins gets all three starts on the week.
Fantasy hockey players to consider dropping
Not everyone is always rosterable. Sometimes, it makes sense to let someone go and pick up one of the players above to get you more points this week. Here’s a recommendation of who has gone ice cold lately that it may be time to drop.
Leevi Merilainen (G) – Ottawa Senators – 21% Rostered
With Linus Ullmark coming back from IR, Merilainen has been sent down in a correlating move. With no timetable to potentially return to the NHL, he represents dead weight has a critical portion of the season waits ahead.
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