Weekly NHL Forecaster November 20th – November 26th

Below is a breakdown of the seventh week of NHL games in the 2017-2018 season (can you believe we are about 25% into the season?!?) . The graph breaks down the schedule and the strength of the opponent in goals for, goals against, their power play and penalty kill and ranks it against the rest of the league on a scale from 1-31 (with 31 being the worst) So the higher the average ranks you see for an opponent the better schedule that team has. It factors in how well a team does at home vs. on the road as well.

*Stats are as of 11/9/2017

Favorable:

Offense: Toronto Maple Leafs. As if they needed any help on offense, get Arizona, Florida, Carolina and Washington. All but Carolina are in the bottom 10 in their respective home/away situation. Chicago has just two games and one is against the best goalie in the league (Andrei Vasilevskiy) but Tampa isn’t as good at home as on the road and immediately after they go to Florida which is the worst team defensively at home. Artem Anisimov has 9 goals and is just 20% owned.

Goalies: Tuuka Rask. This week is about as good as good can be for a goalie as he faces the offenses of New Jersey (weak at home) the Penguins are weak offensively on the road and the Oilers (dead last in the league on the road). Andrei Vasilevskiy, as if he needed a boost gets Chicago, Washington and Pittsburgh which is normally a tough path but not right now.

Power Play: The Stars get some weak PK teams this week in Montreal, Colorado and the Calgary Flames. Esa Lindell (D – 11% owned) has 3PPP and Devon Shore (1% owned) has 5PPP this week and they could add to those totals. Nashville Predators also have it good with Winnipeg, Montreal and St. Louis. Look for some PPP from Mattias Ekholm (31% owned – 4PPP) and Craig Smith (14% owned – 4PPP). Finally the Maple Leafs get Arizona, Florida, Carolina and Washington (all in the bottom 10). Grab Tyler Bozak (9% owned – 4PPP).

Penalty Kill: The Sabres have a favorable week on the Penalty Kill as the Blue Jackets are not doing well in power play as well as the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens. Do you know the Blue Jackets, who were a top 5 power play team last year, have just 5 power play goals all year?!?

Unfavorable:

Offense: Tampa Bay, while favorable for their goalie, has it tough on defense with Washington and Pittsburgh who have been razor tight on defense this year. Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov might cool off for a week. The Blues have their work cut out for them with the Oilers, Predators and Wild, the first two are in the top ten defensively at home.

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

Goalies: Braden Holtby, in his Vezina form, has to go up against Calgary, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Toronto. With the exception of Calgary they are all top ten teams in the scheduled home/away situation and Ottawa and Tampa Bay are both top tier teams offensively on the road.

Power Play: Winnipeg faced Nashville, LA, Anaheim and San Jose who collectively make up 4 of the top 9 teams on PK. I am tempted to bench some Jets this week if I’m counting on their PP numbers (cough Dustin Bfuglien, Matheiu Perreault and Blake Wheeler).

Penalty Kill: Vancouver has a gambit as they face Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey and NYR, all above average teams on the power play. In addition to this, their entire week is spent on the road (through a tough Metropolitan division).

Vancouver gets this: