Fantasy Hockey: Weekly Forecaster 11/21 - 11/27

Weekly NHL Forecaster 11/21 -€” 11/27

Below is the average of ‘CORSI For' on the Home team and Away team to tell me if this is going to be a shot filled matchup. The graph below is sorted from the most offensively oriented games to the least offensively oriented. To put it in a nutshell, if you want goals scored -€” look at the top teams, if you want to see where your goalie will be seeing few shots and have the best opportunity look to the bottom.

Weekly schedule -€” ranked by CORSI:

Ten Notes:
1. Pittsburgh faces the best team in the league twice and then the toughest defense in the league. Not a great opportunity for them.

2. Nashville has scored the 6^th most goals of any NHL team on the road this year. They face TB, Winnipeg twice and Dallas once, both of the latter teams are in the bottom 6 in goals allowed this year. VERY favorable week for Nashville.

3. Tampa Bay has the most goals on the road by FAR and they face Philadelphia who has allowed the most goals in the league this year. Additionally while Boston, Nashville and Columbus have been strong defensively, Boston has struggled on the road allowing the 11^th most goals against. Nashville will be the hardest matchup, they are the strongest home team this year. This is Tampa Bay's top unit with Stamkos out for 4 months: Jonathan Drouin, Vladislav Namestnikov, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Nesterov (who is a name to watch over this week).

4. Washington Capitals have the 7^th most goals on the road and face St. Louis, Buffalo and Toronto. St. Louis and Toronto are in the bottom 10 in the league in goals allowed.

5. Columbus -€” This might be a spot where Columbus struggles. Four games but all are against teams who have been strong defensively. Additionally some traveling early in the week out west then coming home for a back to back could be trying on them.

6.  Boston should be avoided this week fresh off a 7-3 record over the last 10 they are running into a road trip buzz saw. St. Louis, Calgary and TB are all strong on home ice which they will have against Boston as they travel all throughout the country. Meanwhile their lone home game is against Ottawa who has allowed the 2^nd fewest goals on the road this year.

7. Edmonton seems like a bullish bet this week. After a great start they've gone 2-7-1 over their last 10 but now they have 4 games, all spaced a day apart against 4 middle of the road teams defensively but they face Arizona twice who is one of only two teams with fewer Power Play opportunities than Edmonton has received. As long as Patrick Maroon is on the top line with Connor McDavid, he will have scoring chances.

8. San Jose has done quite well on the road despite their 3-5 record, they are scoring a lot and shutting down opponents. This week they have 4 games on the road against a mix of great and poor defenses, I think this might be an opportunity for them to improve that road record. They have created a third line of Patrick Marleau, Tomas Hertl and Kevin LeBanc, LeBanc is a good name to keep your eye on.

9. Ottawa has two home games (against the two best teams in the league) then has two road games against opponents who have been drastically outshooting their at home, no thank you. Erik Karlsson or Kyle Turris are the only two I'm starting this week.

10. LAK  -€” They have to go across the country to face the best team in the league and a team whose played well at home while they themselves are 2-5 on the road.   Unless it's Jeff Carter or Anze Kopitar, I'm avoiding these starts.