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Daily Faceoff Morning Report — 03/19/22

Nick Szeman
Nick Szeman
Mar 19, 2022, 01:17 EDTUpdated: Mar 19, 2022, 01:24 EDT
Daily Faceoff Morning Report — 03/19/22
Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig

The Daily Faceoff Morning Report will be released on weekdays, recapping the key news and events from the day before.

We will highlight injuries that will affect today’s games, hot streaks, cold streaks, and anything relevant for everyone from the casual hockey fan to the Fantasy Hockey grinder.

The trades keep coming

Brandon Hagel (LW, RW) was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a deal that involved two first-round picks going to the Chicago Blackhawks. Read about all the details here.

Keep track of every trade with our up-to-the-minute Trade Deadline Tracker.

A night for backup goalies

Friday night saw many faces in the crease that aren’t necessarily the first goalies that come to mind for their specific teams. Whether it’s been injuries, time management, or poor play, here is a look at several goalies that received expected and unexpected starts.

Antti Raanta (G) is the undisputed backup for the Carolina Hurricanes but since February 18th has split time evenly with Frederik Andersen (G); 7 games each. Raanta made 37 of 40 saves in an eventual 4-3 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals. Raanta is 7-3-2 and has a .926 SV% in his last 13 games while seeing an increase in his playing time lately to lighten the workload for Andersen heading into the playoffs.

Illya Samsonov (G) started for only the second time in the last eight games for the Capitals and recorded his first win since February 17th (2-2-1). Samsonov made 17 of 20 saves in the victory.

Linus Ullmark (G) seemed to have been relegated to backup duties behind Jeremy Swayman (G) for the Boston Bruins but the five-million-dollar man has regained his worth in his last couple of outings. Ullmark saved 27 of 29 shots in the 4-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets and has now won consecutive starts for the first time since January 15th (7-4-2). Ullmark and Swayman will likely continue to alternate starts but the win on Friday was a good sign for Ullmark who, going into action, had lost four of his last six starts (2-3-1).

Connor Hellebuyck (G) was the busier of the two goalies on Friday and had a remarkable outing in the loss, saving 41 of 44 shots. Even with the strong performance, Hellebuyck has now allowed three or more goals in each of his last 10 games (4-4-2).

Anton Forsberg saved 28 or 29 shots in the victory over the low-scoring Flyers and improved to 7-4-1 since February 8th. He ranks fifth in the league among goalies that have played at least 10 games in that time with a .929 SV%.

Martin Jones (G) has put together a nice string of play lately and added to it on Friday night, making 33 saves on 35 shots in a 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. Jones has lost three of his last four starts (1-3-0) but has managed a sparkling .927 SV% on a terrible Philadelphia Flyers team. The Flyers have done a good job of showcasing Jones in games where he is destined to perform well and potentially increase his trade value before Monday’s deadline.

Dustin Tokarski (G) saved all 24 shots he faced in a 1-0 overtime win over the Calgary Flames to record his second career shutout, his first since the 2013-14 season. Tokarski has taken a backseat to Craig Andersen (G) of late and only played for the second time since the beginning of the month. Tokarski’s shutout was the first for the Buffalo Sabres this season.

Jacob Markstrom (G) made 33 saves on 34 shots but had a blunderous unforced error in overtime to prevent him from being the first goalie to reach 10 shutouts this season. Markstrom has no regulation losses in his last eight outings (6-0-2).

Spener Knight (G) was given a chance to redeem himself after allowing four goals in a loss the previous night. Knight got the start on back-to-back nights and showed no lethargy as he made 17 saves to record his first career shutout. Knight has a 5-2-1 record in his last eight games and has steadily been working his way into seeing more action in the Florida Panthers crease.

After splitting games with Darcy Kuemper (G) for most of January and February, Pavel Francouz (G) got his first start in almost two weeks for the Colorado Avalanche. Francouz allowed three goals, all in the third period, on 28 shots but held on for a 5-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks. After recording back-to-back shutouts in mid-January, Francouz has faltered a little and recorded a sub-.900 SV% in half of his last eight starts (5-2-1).

Fantasy Spin

Some of the owned percentages in standard Yahoo! Fantasy leagues for these goalies do not add up given their workloads and quality of play lately.

  • Ilya Samsonov is 79% owned despite having barely played in the last month and has played rather poorly when called upon. There is a slight crutch for Vitek Vanecek (G) owners to carry both goalies but regardless, fantasy owners will get significantly more value out of other keepers on the waiver wire.
  • Anton Forsberg is only 37% owned despite being one of the top goalies in the league since the beginning of 2022. The Senators won’t win many games but Forsberg has been playing nearly every game lately and putting up terrific numbers in the process.
  • Antti Raanta is 32% owned and probably won’t continue to receive the volume of starts he has for the last several weeks but should still see a considerable amount of time down the stretch run.
  • Francouz is 43% owned and despite playing on a Colorado team that rarely loses, has become somewhat of a frustrating hold for fantasy owners. Despite the occasional decision to split starts between him and Kuemper, it has become increasingly obvious that Kuemper is the starting goalie as he has started upward of four consecutive games regularly. Francouz is a good streaming option whenever available but, at his high owned percentage, there are probably more valuable goalies on your waiver wire depending on your league format.

Ekblad leaves the games

There was a scary moment early in the game between the Florida Panthers and Anaheim Ducks on Friday night. Aaron Ekblad (D) was involved in a three-player collision along the boards and was unable to put any pressure on his right leg as he was helped off the ice. Going into action on Friday, Ekblad had already racked up a career-high 57 points (15G / 42A) in 60 games. Ekblad has had some terrible luck with injuries in the last couple of seasons. Last year he was forced to end his season early after fracturing his right ankle. Early reports suggest that the injury may not be as serious as it first appeared.

Other News and Notes

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