Ovechkin captains the DF Fantasy Team of the Week

There is only 33 days left in the NHL season, which means for a lot of leagues this could be your last week of the regular season. With the playoffs inching closer there is no better time for your players to be hitting their stride. There are some players on this week’s team who are on fire right now. If you have them on your team, hopefully you’re in the playoffs because they should continue their strong play going forward. Remember this team will be based off of the usual fantasy scoring categories and players that excelled across the board. Skaters – (G, A, +/-, SOG, GWG, SHG, PPP) Goalies – (W, GAA, SV%, SO)

C – Nazem Kadri – Toronto Maple Leafs

Kadri’s stellar season continues under new head coach Randy Carlyle. This week he scored three times and added four assists in just three games. He was also a plus-4 with 12 shots. This gives Kadri 14 goals, 20 assists and a plus-17 in 32 games this season. That is good enough to tie him with John Tavares for eighth in the NHL scoring race. Before this season Kadri had struggled in Toronto under Ron Wilson, but those seem like distant memories at this point.

LW – Alexander Ovechkin – Washington Capitals

After a slow start (by Ovechkin’s standards) Ovechkin has really found his groove as of late. The Capitals had four games this week so I’m sure fantasy owners were expecting big things out of Ovie…and he delivered. He scored five goals, three assists and was a plus-3. Of his eight points, three of them came on the power-play. As expected he threw a lot of rubber at opposing net-minders like he usually does. His 20 shots this week bring his total to 136 on the season, which leads the NHL.

RW – Jaromir Jagr – Dallas Stars

Two weeks ago Jagr did not record a point, but he bounced back this week. The 41-year-old scored three times and added three assists in four games. He was also a plus-4 with a game-winning goal. Jagr is likely your second or third RW on your team, so production like this is key down the stretch.

D – Sergei Gonchar – Ottawa Senators 

Gonchar who was on the DailyFaceoff All-Star team continues to put up nice numbers with Erik Karlssson out of the lineup. He had one goal, four assists and a plus-3 in three games. He now has two goals and 20 assists this season, which ranks him fifth amongst NHL defenseman. The Senators aren’t going to get Karlsson back anytime soon, so Gonchar will continue to be leaned on heavily to produce from the back-end.

D – Christian Ehrhoff – Buffalo Sabres 

Aside from Gonchar no other defenseman played overwhelmingly well this week. I decided to go with Ehrhoff because when you draft a D-man you want them to produce power-play points. He had a goal and two assists in three games, two of those three points came on the power-play.

G – Cory Schneider – Vancouver Canucks 

Schneider started all four games for the Canucks this week and he made them count. He went 4-0-0 with a 1.25 GAA and .957 SV% with one shutout this week. With weeks like this you could expect Schneider to see the majority of the starts going forward. Luongo being traded at the deadline also seems to remain a possibility.