Cole Caufield scored two goals in the Canadiens’ 6-2 win over Utah. The goals vaulted Caufield to the league lead in that category with 12 (until Nathan MacKinnon tied him later in the evening). Surprisingly, Caufield could be shooting the puck more, as he has averaged only 2.6 shots per game – over a shot per game below his career high of 3.8 SOG/GP, set two seasons ago. Caufield’s 30.8 SH% will regress, but the goals may not fall off as quickly if he can shoot the puck more.
Sam Montembeault has struggled this season, so it’s an encouraging sign that he had his best game of the season on Saturday. Montembeault stopped 25 of 27 shots in earning the win. Despite the Habs’ strong start, Montembeault has four really bad starts compared to three quality starts. His game will need to be stronger in order to be selected for Team Canada again this season.
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Hot on the heels of Caufield for the goal lead is Morgan Geekie, who scored his 11th of the season on Saturday. Nine of those goals have come in his last 10 games, so Geekie is really holding the hot stick. I had Geekie listed as a potential regression candidate after a 21.9 SH% last season, but he has exceeded that with a 28.2 SH%. He will naturally slow down, but the fact that he is taking regular shifts with David Pastrnak should help his cause going forward.
After being healthy scratched on Monday for the defensive side of his game, Matias Maccelli has goals in back-to-back games. He also has six points in his last six games. He might not be getting the ideal deployment lately, but he is finding ways to produce. However, he needs the strong linemates in order to keep producing, as evidenced by last season in Utah (just 18 PTS in 55 GP).
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The Senators defeated the Flyers 3-2 even though they took only 13 shots. That qualified as a really bad start for Samuel Ersson, who has as many quality starts (2) as really bad starts (2) this season. With significantly better ratios this season, Dan Vladar (2.18 GAA, .917 SV%) seems to have grabbed the Flyers starting job away from Ersson (3.03 GAA, .864 SV%).
Tim Stutzle scored two goals, including the game-winner in overtime. Stutzle has been hot recently with 11 points over his last seven games.
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Still worried about Brandon Hagel? Don’t be. After registering a single point in his first seven games, Hagel has heated up with 13 points in his last eight games. Included in that is seven goals over his last seven games. Hagel’s power-play time isn’t quite where it could ideally be, but he has been an extremely strong 5-on-5 scorer throughout his career with a career high of 13 power-play points. At least for now, it’s Oliver Bjorkstrand receiving top power-play minutes over Hagel.
Speaking of the Tampa Bay power play, Darren Raddysh has been receiving top power-play minutes over Victor Hedman recently. That’s kind of weird because Hedman leads the Bolts with six power-play points and Raddysh has none. Perhaps the Bolts have their reasons, but I can’t seem to find anything about why. Raddysh provides spurts of fantasy value but is overall more of a streaming option or injury replacement than anything. In other words, this isn’t something I’m taking any action on for any of my teams.
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After allowing either three or four goals in eight of his first nine games, Ilya Sorokin gave his fantasy teams a much-needed 33-save shutout over the Rangers. Sorokin’s ratios are still not where they should be, and he has been alternating starts with David Rittich over the past several games. Let’s see if he can continue trending in the right direction, which would mean he’s less likely to take turns with Rittich.
Bo Horvat scored two goals for the Islanders, while Jonathan Drouin and Jean-Gabriel Pageau each scored a goal while adding two assists. Horvat is among a cluster of players challenging for the goal lead with 11 goals, and he also has seven points over his last five games. Pageau has six points over his last five games.
Let’s talk about the Rangers’ home record. They’re 0-6-1 at Madison Square Garden, which I don’t imagine is going over well there. Worse yet, they’ve been shutout in five of seven games at MSG. Also, aren’t the Pittsburgh Pirates a baseball team?
Rangers are the first team to be shut out in 5 of their first 7 home games since the 1928-29 Pittsburgh Pirates
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 9, 2025
Yesterday, I discussed Artemi Panarin breaking his slump with a three-point effort. Panarin’s three points on Friday are his only points in his past eight games, yet he’s not the only slumping Ranger. Adam Fox and J.T. Miller are both without a point over their past three games, while Mika Zibanejad has two assists in his last five games. The Rangers as a team are barely averaging two goals per game, which is the lowest total in the league. I’ve invested in a few Rangers, and I would expect that their players will turn it around. The team, maybe not as much after failing to meet expectations last season.
A silver lining to this is the fact that the Rangers are 7-1-1 on the road. Maybe that’s where they should play all of their games!
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With Rasmus Dahlin on leave, Bowen Byram was on the Sabres’ top power play on Saturday (although the Sabres had just one power-play opportunity). Byram is rostered in just 13 percent of Yahoo leagues, so he’s definitely worthy of an add. If you believe in Owen Power more, he’s rostered in only 18 percent of Yahoo leagues.
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Did getting healthy scratched for one game pay off for Jordan Kyrou? He scored a goal on four shots, so the results were there. However, the Blues lost 4-3 in overtime to Seattle.
Eeli Tolvanen scored his first goal of the season and added two assists for the Kraken. He started the season with just one point in his first nine games, but he has since picked up six points in his last five games. This seems to describe Tolvanen:
I love how Tolvanen pokes his head up every few weeks, grabs three points, and then disappears again. It’s cool.
— Dobber (@DobberHockey) November 9, 2025
Joey Daccord was placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury, which means we should see more of Philipp Grubauer in the near future.
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The potential “marquee matchup of the night” and the nationally televised second game on Hockey Night in Canada turned into a blowout, with the Avalanche dominating the Oilers by a score of 9-1. Nathan MacKinnon helped a lot of fantasy teams with two goals and two assists, while Parker Kelly helped very few fantasy teams with two goals and an assist.
Jack Drury and Cale Makar each scored a pair of goals. Drury has five points over his last five games. Makar is the runaway scoring leader among defensemen with 20 points in 15 games, clearly in a tier of his own among d-men in fantasy leagues.
In a game where a team scores nine goals, you would automatically assume that your players on that team will get in on the fun with at least one point and hopefully more. However, ALL of Gabriel Landeskog, Martin Necas, Brock Nelson, and Valeri Nichushkin failed to pick up a point in this game. Conversely, eight other Avalanche players had multiple points in this game.
Stuart Skinner was pulled after allowing four goals on 13 shots, but Calvin Pickard wasn’t much better in allowing five goals on 21 shots. The Oilers’ defense can certainly shoulder much of the blame, but Saturday’s result only adds to the argument that Skinner is not a viable goalie for a Stanley Cup contender. Meanwhile, Connor Ingram is struggling in the AHL, so the Oilers simply have to cross their fingers and hope for the best with what they have in net right now.
I’m sure you hate plus/minus with a passion, but I’ll share a few Oilers plus/minuses with you anyway.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: -11
Evan Bouchard: -11
Mattias Ekholm: -9
Connor McDavid: -6
Only four players in the league have a worse plus-minus than Nugent-Hopkins and Bouchard at the moment.
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The Canucks/Blue Jackets game appeared to be a much less appealing option than the Oilers/Avalanche matchup, but it was surely far better from an entertainment standpoint. Drew O’Connor scored a goal and added an assist for the Canucks in a spirited 4-3 win, giving O’Connor six points in his past five games.
Hits machine and now goal scorer Kiefer Sherwood registered his first assist of the season. The Cy Young leaderboard so far:
Pavel Dorofeyev: 10 G, 1 A
Chris Kreider: 9 G, 1 A
Sherwood: 9 G, 1 A
Sam Reinhart: 7 G, 1 A
Kirill Marchenko scored twice while adding an assist for the Jackets. Marchenko has a seven-game point streak with nine points over that span.
Dmitri Voronkov scored a goal while adding two assists. Voronkov is off to a strong start with 13 points in 14 games.
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Yesterday we discussed Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard being 1-2 in the scoring race. Celebrini scored a goal on Saturday, but he is now tied with MacKinnon for the scoring lead because of the latter’s four-point night. Because Bedard and the Blackhawks were idle on Saturday, Leo Carlsson has now pulled into third ahead of Bedard.
Carlsson scored two goals and added an assist in the Ducks’ 4-3 overtime win in Vegas. That gives him 23 points in 14 games, including 16 points over his last nine games. In 14 games this season, Carlsson has failed to record a point just twice. The first time was during the first game of the season. It’s fair to say he has been much better than expected. Carlsson was drafted in only 7 percent of Yahoo leagues, and he was not even drafted in my 14-team league (although he was added off waivers right after the draft – I’m kicking myself for not making him my first waiver-wire priority).
Should Carlsson be considered in that Celebrini/Bedard tier, or will he cool off? His advanced stats (23.5 SH%, 12.0 5on5 SH%, 5.3 PTS/60) show some degree of regression should surface. However, Carlsson is showing increases in other indicators of potential improvement. Compared to last season, he’s up nearly a full shot per game, averages two and a half minutes more, and is clearly cemented on the top power play. He’s clearly a better player this season – just not a player that will continue at a 135-point pace. Do with that what you will in single-season leagues. I don’t think he’s in the Celebrini/Bedard tier, but we’ll find out over time. He’s a fine player though.
Also, the Ducks as a team are first in the NHL in goals per game (4.24 GF/GP). Four of their players (Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Troy Terry, Kreider) are at or above the point-per-game mark.
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