Fantasy Hockey Schedule Week 4: Decision Time

Most teams will be playing their ninth or 10th game this week, which means decision time for players that can be sent back to juniors. There are plenty of tough decisions to make. 

Sean Couturier (Philadelphia, 6 GP, 4 PTS), Brett Connolly (Tampa Bay, 7 GP, 1 PT), Nino Niederreiter (NY Islanders), Mark Scheifele (Winnipeg, 6 GP, 1 PT), Gabriel Landeskog (Colorado, 7 GP, 3 PTS), Brett Bulmer (Minnesota, 7 GP, 2 PTS), Ryan Johansen (Columbus, 4 GP, 0 PTS) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton, 4 GP, 5 PTS) will all have their fate decided within the next seven to 10 days.

Here is some great information for helping you to decide who to dress for the upcoming fantasy hockey week.

Games to Be Played in Week 4

	GP	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN
ANAHEIM	4		@CHI		@MIN		@NAS	@CBJ
COLUMBUS	4		DET		@BUF		@CHI	ANA
EDMONTON	4		SJ		WAS	@COL		STL
LOS ANGELES	4		NJ		@DAL		@PHO	@COL
MONTREAL	4	FLA		PHI	@BOS		BOS
OTTAWA	4		@CAR		FLA		@NYR	TOR
PHILADELPHIA	4	TOR		@MON	WPG		CAR
TORONTO	4	@PHI			@NYR		PIT	@OTT
BUFFALO	3		TB		CBJ		FLA
CAROLINA	3		OTT			CHI	@PHI
CHICAGO	3		ANA			@CAR	CBJ
COLORADO	3			@CGY		EDM		LA
DALLAS	3		@PHO		LA		NJ
DETROIT	3		@CBJ			SJ	@MIN
FLORIDA	3	@MON			@OTT		@BUF
NASHVILLE	3		SJ		TB		ANA
NEW JERSEY	3		@LA		@PHO		@DAL
NY ISLANDERS	3		PIT		@PIT		SJ
NY RANGERS	3	@WPG			TOR		OTT
PHOENIX	3		DAL		NJ		LA
PITTSBURGH	3		@NYI		NYI		@TOR
SAN JOSE	3		@NAS			@DET	@NYI
ST. LOUIS	3			@VAN		@CGY		@EDM
TAMPA BAY	3		@BUF		@NAS		WPG
VANCOUVER	3		@EDM	STL			WAS
WINNIPEG	3	NYR			@PHI		@TB
BOSTON	2				MON		@MON
CALGARY	2			COL		STL
MINNESOTA	2				ANA		DET
WASHINGTON	2				@EDM		@VAN

Home/away Games This Week

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 at least three home/away games this week or play all their games at home or on the road (home/road records up to October 22, 2011):

HOME: Buffalo (1-1-0), Calgary (1-1-1), Edmonton (2-1-1), Minnesota (2-1-1), Montreal (0-2-1), Nashville (0-1-1), Philadelphia (1-1-1) and Phoenix (1-2-0)

AWAY: Anaheim (1-1-0), Florida (2-2-0), Los Angeles (2-0-1), New Jersey (1-0-0), San Jose (1-1-0), Toronto (0-1-0) and Washington (2-0-0)

Teams That Play on Sunday (October 30, 2011)

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 (October 30, 2011):

Anaheim, Colorado, Columbus, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Ottawa, St. Louis and Toronto.

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

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, Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Montreal, Ottawa, Philadelphia, San Jose, Toronto and Vancouver.

Top Five and Bottom Five Teams

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 up to October 22, 2011:

TOP FIVE: Washington (6-0-0), Detroit (5-0-0), Dallas (6-1-0), Buffalo (5-1-0) and Pittsburgh (5-2-2)

BOTTOM FIVE: Columbus (0-6-1), Winnipeg (1-4-1), Montreal (1-4-1), Ottawa (2-5-0) and San Jose (2-3-0)

Top Five Power Plays

Fantasy hockey is all about offense and what better place to generate offense then the power play.  Here are the top five power plays up to October 22, 2011:

Colorado: 29.2 percent
Florida: 28.6 percent
Washington: 26.1 percent
Los Angeles: 26.1 percent
Philadelphia: 25.0 percent

Latest Significant Injuries

Staying on top of injuries is extremely important to the success and failure of your fantasy hockey team.  Not knowing who is injured could lead to dressing a player who won’t get you any fantasy points.  A player on injured reserved (IR) doesn’t have an exact time line yet, so dress with caution if you are going to put him in your lineup.  Here are the latest significant injuries taken from TSN.ca up to October 22, 2011:

Jason Blake: Anaheim (out three months after wrist surgery)

Jochen Hecht: Buffalo (day-to-day with a concussion)

Mikael Backlund: Calgary (out six weeks from Oct. 4 with broken finger)

Zac Dalpe: Carolina (questionable with a lower body injury)

Peter Mueller: Colorado (questionable with concussion-like symptoms)

Kristian Huselius: Columbus (out indefinitely after pectoral surgery)
Jared Boll: Columbus (out six to eight weeks from Oct. 1 with broken thumb)
Jeff Carter: Columbus (questionable with illness)
Curtis Sanford: Columbus (out two to four weeks from Oct. 19 with groin injury)

Sam Gagner: Edmonton (on IR with high ankle sprain)
Ales Hemsky: Edmonton (out one to two weeks from Oct. 16 with shoulder injury)

Ed Jovanovski: Florida (questionable with a hip injury)
Sean Bergenheim: Florida (questionable with a lower body injury)

Drew Doughty: Los Angeles (on IR with an upper body injury)

Mikko Koivu: Minnesota (questionable due to a facial laceration)

Andrei Markov: Montreal (on IR with knee inflammation)
Chris Campoli: Montreal (out indefinitely with leg injury)
Jaroslav Spacek: Montreal (out two to three weeks from Oct. 13 upper body injury)
Scott Gomez: Montreal (questionable with an upper body injury)

Mike Fisher: Nashville (on IR after shoulder surgery)
Martin Erat: Nashville (on IR with an upper body injury)

Travis Zajac: New Jersey (out indefinitely after Achilles surgery)
Martin Brodeur: New Jersey (questionable due to shoulder injury)
Jacob Josefson: New Jersey (out three to four months due to a broken clavicle)

Nino Niederreiter: NY Islanders (on IR with groin injury)
Rick DiPietro: NY Islanders (out indefinitely with concussion)
 
Marc Staal: NY Rangers (on IR with concussion)
Wojtek Wolski: NY Rangers (questionable with a groin injury)

Kimmo Timonen: Philadelphia (doubtful with a sore hand)

Sidney Crosby: Pittsburgh (on IR with post-concussion syndrome)
Evgeni Malkin: Pittsburgh (questionable with a knee injury)

Martin Havlat: San Jose (on IR after shoulder surgery)
Antero Niittymaki: San Jose (out three months from Sept. 19 after hip surgery)
 
David Perron: St. Louis (on IR with post-concussion syndrome)
Andy McDonald: St. Louis (out indefinitely with head injury)

Mattias Ohlund: Tampa Bay (out indefinitely after knee surgery)

Tim Connolly: Toronto (on IR with upper body injury)
Colby Armstrong: Toronto (on IR with a sprained ankle)
Clarke MacArthur: Toronto (questionable with a lower body injury)

Mason Raymond: Vancouver (out indefinitely with fractured vertebrae)
Mikael Samuelsson: Vancouver (probable due to a groin injury)

Michal Neuvirth: Washington (doubtful with lower body injury)

Eric Fehr: Winnipeg (on IR after shoulder surgery)
Ron Hainsey: Winnipeg (questionable with an upper body injury)

Top 10 Scoring Forwards

Most elite stars are consistent scorers, but there are several players who are very streaky. 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 at forward and defense from the past 14 days:

FORWARDS:

John Tavares: NY Islanders (4 GP, 5 G, 3 A)

Daniel Sedin: Vancouver (6 GP, 2 G, 6 A)

Henrik Sedin: Vancouver (6 GP, 3 G, 4 A)

Loui Eriksson: Dallas (5 GP, 5 G, 2 A)

Valtteri Filppula: Detroit (3 GP, 2 G, 5 A)

Phil Kessel: Toronto (4 GP, 4 G, 3 A)

P.A. Parenteau: NY Islanders (4 GP, 1 G, 6 A)

Johan Franzen: Detroit (3 GP, 3 G, 3 A)

Nicklas Backstrom: Washington (5 GP, 1 G, 5 A)

Anze Kopitar: Los Angeles (4GP, 1 G, 5 A)

Top 10 Scoring Defensemen

Marc-Andre Bergeron: Tampa Bay (5 GP, 2 G, 6 A)

Dennis Wideman: Washington (5 GP, 2 G, 3 A)

Joni Pitkanen: Carolina (5 GP, 2 G, 3 A)

Erik Johnson: Colorado (6 GP, 0 G, 5 A)

Brian Campbell: Florida (5 GP, 0 G, 5 A)

Sami Salo: Vancouver (6 GP, 2 G, 2 A)

Ryan Wilson: Colorado (6 GP, 0 G, 4 A)

Alex Pietrangelo: St. Louis (6 GP, 1 G, 3 A)

Chris Pronger: Philadelphia (4 GP, 1 G, 3 A)

Mark Streit: NY Islanders (4 GP, 0 G, 4 A)

Top Five Goaltenders

Here are the top five goaltenders from the past 14 days:

HOT GOALTENDERS:

Tomas Vokoun: Washington (5 GP, 5 W, 1 SO)
Jonathan Quick: Los Angeles (4 GP, 3 W, 2 SO)
Kari Lehtonen: Dallas (5 GP, 5 W, 0 SO)
Jimmy Howard: Detroit (3 GP, 3 W, 1 SO)
Semyon Varlamov: Colorado (4 GP, 3 W, 1 SO)

Bottom Five Goaltenders

COLD GOALTENDERS:

Steve Mason: Columbus (5 GP, 4 L)
Carey Price: Montreal (5 GP, 3 L)
Jaroslav Halak: St. Louis (4 GP, 3 L)
Pekka Rinne: Nashville (4 GP, 3 L)
Alex Auld: Ottawa (2 GP, 2 L)

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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].