This article is part of our Schedule Analysis series.
After a shortened five-day opening week, the NHL schedule gets back to standard operating procedure this week and there are tons of trends to follow for both seasonal and DFS players.
Anaheim has the rare four-game schedule with no back-to-back sets. Hopefully the Ducks won't go flat on Frederik Andersen like they did against San Jose.
Columbus has a fairly soft schedule, though two are on the road and one against the Hawks. They could use it after the wheels came off early against the Rangers. Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled in Saturday's defeat.
Edmonton plays three of four on the road. We simply can't imagine Connor McDavid remaining point-less by the end of this week regardless of who or where they play. Either way, Taylor Hall owners are taking a hit.
Florida plays two back-to-back road games before hosting the Sabres and high-powered Stars.
Apparently the Panthers used that idle time last week to prepare. It's not just Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad who produced for Florida in their 7-1 rout of Philly. Of course, Jaromir Jagr had a pair of goals. Vincent Trocheck, Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Pirri and Jussi Jokinen all got in on the fun while Roberto Luongo stood tall.
St. Louis takes an early trip to the great almost-white north. After one week of probably the league's strongest battle for No. 1 goaltender: Brian Elliott, 1, Jake Allen 0, but I still think Allen prevails in the end.
The Lightning, much like the Panthers,
After a shortened five-day opening week, the NHL schedule gets back to standard operating procedure this week and there are tons of trends to follow for both seasonal and DFS players.
Anaheim has the rare four-game schedule with no back-to-back sets. Hopefully the Ducks won't go flat on Frederik Andersen like they did against San Jose.
Columbus has a fairly soft schedule, though two are on the road and one against the Hawks. They could use it after the wheels came off early against the Rangers. Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled in Saturday's defeat.
Edmonton plays three of four on the road. We simply can't imagine Connor McDavid remaining point-less by the end of this week regardless of who or where they play. Either way, Taylor Hall owners are taking a hit.
Florida plays two back-to-back road games before hosting the Sabres and high-powered Stars.
Apparently the Panthers used that idle time last week to prepare. It's not just Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad who produced for Florida in their 7-1 rout of Philly. Of course, Jaromir Jagr had a pair of goals. Vincent Trocheck, Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Pirri and Jussi Jokinen all got in on the fun while Roberto Luongo stood tall.
St. Louis takes an early trip to the great almost-white north. After one week of probably the league's strongest battle for No. 1 goaltender: Brian Elliott, 1, Jake Allen 0, but I still think Allen prevails in the end.
The Lightning, much like the Panthers, start the week with road games on consecutive nights. It's difficult to ignore the talent Jonathan Drouin's working alongside. If he's still available, grab him and find a new league next year.
Vancouver has probably the most challenging pair of back-to-back road games to start the week.
Winnipeg starts with back-to-back tilts in the Empire state. Check out your FA pool, you'll find all sorts of Jets personnel warming up, including Tyler Myers and Michael Hutchinson.
Three Kings
Of the 20 NHL teams that play three times this week, 12 will have three games with at least a day's rest in between each tilt. 10 of those 12 have a healthy and clear-cut No. 1 goaltender, leaving us confident about your top tender getting three starts this week.
The Bruins have not had a good start, but perhaps the consistent schedule can level out Tuukka Rask. At least David Pastrnak is off to a good start.
Just when things started looking up for the Sabres, Robin Lehner (lower body) could be out for two months.
Colorado's Semyon Varlamov tightened things up after yielding two first period goals in Saturday's win over Dallas.
Tied with the Flyers, Los Angeles has the worst goal differential (minus-7) in the league heading into Sunday. Is it really Jonathan Quick's fault? All we know is Quick had a very solid 2.03 GAA in the first month of last season.
Montreal's Carey Price is back to his old tricks. Alex Galchenyuk (goal, three assists) is off to a good start and seems to have chemistry with Alexander Semin and Lars Eller. Semin could provide tremendous value out of the pool if that continues.
New Jersey's Cory Schneider has our warmest regards as their 0-2 start is no surprise. Hopefully New Jersey can get some production out of low-radar pick-ups like Brian O'Neill or its going to be a long season.
Nashville has to like what they're seeing out of Pekka Rinne (one goal allowed in two starts); now if they can get their offense going again. Yes, that means you James Neal. Modest returns on late-round defenseman Seth Jones thus far.
There were Swedes all over Broadway in the opening week. The Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist was an enigmatic beast Saturday against the Jackets and has won his first three starts. Still, there's a league-high 16 back-to-back occurrences left for this team, surely Antti Raanta will come somewhere near head coach AV's prediction of 20-25 starts this season.The team's newly formed third line of J.T. Miller (four assists), Oscar Lindberg (four goals) and Viktor Stalberg (three assists) has been a pleasant surprise.
Another goalie who plays some of his sharpest hockey in the first month of the season is Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury. While Fleury hasn't been terrible (five goals allowed in two starts) the Pens high-powered offense has managed just one goal in its first two games. If Sergei Plotnikov continues to be a deer in the headlights, it could spell good news for David Perron.
While Washington's Braden Holtby has a sub-3.00 GAA against two of this week's opponents (Sharks, Canes), he's never been a quick starter, having posted a career record of 8-7-1 (18 starts, 2.74 GAA) in the first month of the season.
Busted Straight
In the B2B column, you'll notice a lighter shade of green this week, denoting where a team will have two of their three games this week on a back-to-back occurrence. Five of those eight teams have a clear-cut No. 2 goalie in town who should sneak in a start.
Sure, Mike Smith is off to a nice start, but Arizona' Anders Lindback should get a nod this week. Max Domi collected a goal and an assist in his NHL debut, but yielded to Tobias Reider (two goals and an assist) again Saturday. Anthony Duclair has a pair of assists in his first two contests. Zbynek Michalek is looking good as well.
Carolina's Eddie Lack could get a start this week. Nathan Gerbe, who found twine in Saturday's loss to Detroit, has been skating on the team's second unit with Jordan Staal and Kris Versteeg.
Depth charts say Calgary's Jonas Hiller is the second man on the rung, but after two very different results against the Canucks, it's entirely possible Hiller subsequently becomes the No. 1 man in town and Karri Ramo gets the occasional start.
Chicago seemed to be in good hands when Scott Darling earned a win against the Isles on Saturday; look for another start this week, Corey Crawford owners.
Armed with the Kings' former back-up, tender Martin Jones (2-0, 46-of-47 shots faced), San Jose is off to a 2-0 start. Still, Alex Stalock should get in on the action this week.
NOT INCLUDED: Ottawa's Andrew Hammond could return by Oct. 16. Minnesota is currently carrying both Darcy Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom
One Pair
Philadelphia will play both of their games within the first three days this week and both will be at Wells Fargo Center, and while Toronto only plays two tilts, they'll be on back-to-back nights.
Wild Card
FORWARD
Centering two of the most talented forwards in the league, Dallas' Cody Eakin scored a pair of goals Saturday. If you're a long-time reader, you already know I'm a fan of Eakin's two-way play. Sooner or later Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin will get going and Eakin will rack up the assists. In the same ilk as Drouin, I highly recommend a pick-up if he's still available.
Could Detroit's Justin Abdelkader's (five points in two games) new found status last or will he go back to streaky blue-collar worker? He's always been a good luck charm in DFS.
DEFENSE
Francois Beauchemin is clearly enjoying life with Erik Johnson, having logged five assists.
GOALTENDER
Starting goaltender by default? Chad Johnson anyone? Predictably, Johnson has great small sample (5-0, 1.57 GAA in five career starts) against the Sabres first two opponents this week and not so much against the Lightning (0-2, 4.51 GAA in two starts).
