Ward has played well lately. He is 2-1-0 in his last 3 starts stopping 114 of the 121 shots he faced (.942 SV%). He got off to a rough start to the year but his play lately has shown signs of improvement which is good news for the Hurricanes. He has a great match-up tonight against a struggling Islanders team that is starting their backup Rick DiPietro.
Panik has 21 G and 14 A to give him 35 points in 43 games as a member of the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. There is no timetable for how long Malone will be out but consider him as day-to-day until more information is released.
Coyotes goalie Mike Smith was 3-0-0 with a 1.33 GAA & .967 SV% vs. Avs last season. He has won 3 of the 5 starts he's made since returning from injury posting a 2.10 GAA and .915 SV%. He has a good match-up tonight against a struggling offense in Colorado.
Varlamov has played well this season although it doesn't show in his win total. He is 3-6-0 with a 2.55 GAA and a .910 SV%, but the Avalanche offense is struggling to score with all the injuries they've had (25th in the NHL in GF per game w/ 2.10). Varlamov has a solid match-up tonight against a Coyotes team who is 20th in the NHL in scoring.
Cory Schneider started the last two Canucks contests and played great in both recording 2 wins and only allowing 1 goal in each game. Luongo will start tomorrow vs. the Wild and comes into the game with a 3-game winning streak intact. Despite all the trade rumours Luongo has been great posting a 3-0-2 record with a 1.53 GAA and .940 SV%. He is a must-start when he plays.
Backstrom followed up a poor outing against the Canucks (4 goals on 16 shots) with a good performance in a 2-1 win over the Predators on Saturday. This was Backstrom's first win in February and will look to get his second tonight against a struggling Flames team. Backstrom is a strong start tonight.
The starting goalie for the Jets contest tomorrow vs. the Flyers will be a game-time decision. Ondrej Pavelec has struggled this season while Al Montoya was great last night posting a shutout vs. the Senators. Monitor this situation before game-time.
Same as Ryan Kesler, they are both nearing returns but still a little away as long as they are wearing no-contact jerseys.
There is still no timetable for when Kesler's return might be but he will need to ditch the no-contact jersey before we get excited about him coming back.
It was speculated that the Flames could have Kiprusoff back on Wednesday when he is eligible to come off of IR. However based off of what he was able to do in practice it does not sound like he will be ready.
HIller's lower-body injury is not expected to be serious. This could just be an extra day-off for Hiller to recover from that lower-body injury. However I would expect Fasth to start tomorrow against Chicago considering he has been the better of the 2 net-minders this season and Hiller is banged up.
Tardif had only played a total of 9:52 in the 2 games he played and MacDermid is a tough-guy, neither are fantasy relevant.
Baertschi (hip-flexor) hasn't played since January 26 but practiced today albeit in a "no-contact" jersey is still not expected to be back all that soon, but the fact that he is skating is a good sign.
Spurgeon has not played since January 22, it is likely that he will re-join Ryan Suter on the WIld's top-D pairing. Spurgeon won't be back tonight but should be back soon.
Byfuglien should be back tomorrow vs. the Flyers barring any setbacks.
Anderson has lost 3 of his last 4 starts but he is hardly to blame. In those 4 starts he allowed 9 goals while posting a .922 SV% and they were all one-goal games. He has a solid match-up as the Sens take on the Sabres who they just beat 4-3 last Tuesday. It appears at this point as long as they slow Thomas Vanek down they'll be alright, but that is easier said than done.
Lehtonen has been awesome lately, winning his last 4 consecutive starts. Lehtonen has a 2.00 GAA and .930 SV% in those 4 starts and will look to keep his hot-streak going tomorrow in Edmonton.
Holtby had his first really good performance of the year on Saturday, when he shutout the Panthers. He saved all 27 shots that he faced and it was enough to earn him a start tomorrow against the Panthers again. One of the goalies in Washington need to get on track if they want to make it back into the playoffs. As of right now the Capitals are last in the NHL with 7 points (3-8-1).
This will be Bernier's first start of the season. He entered a game earlier when Quick was pulled but didn't fair any better than Quick. Bernier will want a good performance if he wants to get traded, but the match-up isn't ideal as the Kings take on the Blues. Bernier is a good young goalie and could be a good spot start but against the Blues it is risky.
Regin only has 2 assists and is a -1 in 12 games this season. Not fantasy relevant.
