Fantasy Hockey Schedule Week 1: Finally, a New NHL Season

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The NHL season is finally upon us and it's time to make those final adjustments to your fantasy roster and dress your opening day lineup. Four teams start the NHL season overseas (Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers). Teams who start the season overseas tend to have slow starts once they get back to North America—something to think about for next week.

Games To Be Played in Week 1

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Three Games: Pittsburgh

Two Games: Anaheim, Boston, Buffalo, Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Montreal, Nashville, NY Rangers, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Toronto

One Game: Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey, NY Islanders, Phoenix, San Jose, St. Louis, Vancouver, Washington and Winnipeg

Home/Away Games This Week

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When it comes to dressing your players for the upcoming week—especially your goalies—it is important to know which team is on a long road trip and which team is enjoying an extended period at home.

Listed below are the teams that play all their games at home or on the road (home/road records preseason):

Home: Boston (1-1-0), Calgary (3-1-0), Colorado (1-2-0), Edmonton (3-2-0), Los Angeles (0-2-2), Minnesota (1-1-1), New Jersey (2-1-0), NY Islanders (1-1-0), San Jose (3-0-0), St. Louis (2-2-0), Toronto (1-3-0), Vancouver (2-2-0), Washington (3-1-0) and Winnipeg (2-0-1)

Away: Florida (0-2-0), Montreal (2-0-0), Nashville (4-1-0), NY Rangers (1-1-0), Ottawa (2-1-0), Philadelphia (2-1-0), Phoenix (2-3-0), Pittsburgh (2-1-0) and Tampa Bay (2-1-0)

Teams That Play on Sunday

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If you participate in any type of head-to-head hockey pool, you are likely dressing a lineup for each scoring period, which usually ends on Sunday.

As the week comes to an end, and you find yourself in a close battle for those wins, you want as many players as possible playing for you.

Here are the teams that play on Sunday: Edmonton, Montreal, Pittsburgh and Winnipeg.

Teams That Play in Back-to-Back Games This Week

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When you are deciding which goalie to dress you need to look at the NHL schedule to see if your goalie's team will play in a back-to-back game that week.

Most coaches will not dress the same goalie in back-to-back games, so that is something to consider when you are thinking about which goalie to dress. 

Here are the teams that play in back-to-back games this week: Anaheim, Buffalo, Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, NY Rangers, Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay.

Top Five and Bottom Five Teams

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Knowing which team is on a hot streak or cold streak will help in making your lineup decisions. 

For example you definitely want to dress a goalie from teams that are on a hot streak. Here are the top five and bottom five teams from the preseason:

Top Five: Nashville (7-1-0), Dallas (6-1-0), Columbus (5-2-1), Pittsburgh (5-1-0) and San Jose (5-1-0)

Bottom Five: NY Islanders (1-4-0), Florida (1-4-1), Carolina (1-4-1), NY Rangers (1-1-1) and Montreal (2-6-0)

Top 10 Forwards from Preseason

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Most elite stars are consistent scorers, but there are several players who are very streaky so keep an eye on their stats so that you can dress them while they are on a hot streak.

Here are the top 10 scorers for each skater position from the preseason:

Mike Ribeiro: Dallas (4 GP 2 G 8 A)

Mark Scheifele: Winnipeg (5 GP 4 G 4 A)

Mikko Koivu: Minnesota (4 GP 3 G 4 A)

Colin Wilson: Nashville (6 GP 3 G 4 A)

Claude Giroux: Philadelphia (4 GP 0 G 7 A)

Matt Read: Philadelphia (6 GP 2 G 5 A)

Patrick O’Sullivan: Phoenix (6 GP 2 G 5 A)

Evgeni Malkin: Pittsburgh (4 GP 3 G 4 A)

Mikhail Grabovski: Toronto (6 GP 3 G 4 A)

Jaromir Jagr: Philadelphia (3 GP 4 G 2 A)

Top 10 Defensemen from Pre-Season

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Fedor Tyutin: Columbus (4 GP 2 G 5 A)

Cam Fowler: Anaheim (5 GP 2 G 3 A)

Christian Ehrhoff: Buffalo (4 GP 2 G 3 A)

Alex Goligoski: Dallas (4 GP 1 G 4 A)

Pavel Kubina: Tampa Bay (5 GP 1 G 4 A)

Marek Zidlicky: Minnesota (4 GP 1 G 4 A)

Shea Weber: Nashville (4 GP 1 G 4 A)

Jake Gardiner: Toronto (6 GP 1 G 4 A)

Paul Postma: Winnipeg (4 GP 2 G 3 A)

Zdeno Chara: Boston (3 GP 1 G 3 A)

Hot Goaltenders

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Here are the top five goaltenders and bottom five goaltenders from the preseason:

Steve Mason: Columbus (4 GP 4 W 0 SO)

Thomas Greiss: San Jose (5 GP 4 W 1 SO)

Sergei Bobrovsky: Philadelphia (3 GP 3 W 1 SO)

Pekka Rinne: Nashville (4 GP 3 W 0 SO)

Andrew Raycroft: Dallas (3 GP 3 W 1 SO)

Cold Goaltenders

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Jason LaBarbera: Phoenix (3 GP 3 L)

James Reimer: Toronto (4 GP 3 L)

Carey Price: Montreal (5 GP 3 L)

Dan Ellis: Anaheim (2 GP 2 L)

Leland Irving: Calgary (2 GP 2 L)

 

Aaron Brouwer is the co-creator of www.fantasyhockeycoach.com.  FHC is a free fantasy hockey service that developed a ranking system combining post-lockout statistics, current factors and our own hockey knowledge.  Brouwer writes about fantasy hockey on Bleacher Report. You can contact Coach Brouwer at [e-mail].