There are plenty of highs and lows over the course of a fantasy hockey season.

The longer you play, the more you become accustomed to the swings.

As someone who that has experienced those swings firsthand playing in the same fantasy hockey league for almost two decades, I know what to expect for the most part.

I’ve never experienced a low like I did on Tuesday night.

With my MVP Philipp Grubauer on the NHL’s COVID protocol list, I was tasked with finding a goalie to stream in my fantasy hockey semifinal.

There were four options that were still available to consider on the wire: Alex Nedeljkovic, Spencer Knight, Braden Holtby and David Rittich.

For me, the decision seemed straightforward. After all, there was no way the Toronto Maple Leafs were going to lose again to the Vancouver Canucks as a massive favourite, right?

I was wrong.

Here is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday April 21, 2021.

 

Maple Leafs Slide Continues

Two nights after pulling off the biggest upset of the season as a +330 underdog, the Canucks went right back to work as a +260 underdog on Tuesday night.

Tanner Pearson and Brandon Sutter scored twice each, Holtby made 37 saves and Vancouver beat Toronto 6-3.

It was stunning how quickly things unravelled for Rittich and the Maple Leafs.

After John Tavares got Toronto on the board with a late first-period goal, the buddy I’m playing in this week texted me wondering if Rittich would get a shutout and put him on the ropes in our fantasy matchup.

Two hours later, our conversation had a much different tone.

Rittich gave up five goals over the final 40 minutes as the Canucks rallied from down 3-2 in the third period to beat Toronto 6-3.

Of the four streaming options I had available, three picked up wins, including two that allowed just a single goal.

Rittich finished the game with a 5.42 goals-against average and an .821 save percentage.

For me, it was one terrible decision that could derail my entire fantasy hockey season.

For the Maple Leafs, that’s now a season-high five straight losses and some obvious concerns about the goaltending heading into the final stretch.

Toronto has allowed an average of 4.33 goals per game over its last six dating back to April 10.

Now they will have to find a way to get back on track against the team that is right behind them in the standings as they play back-to-back games against the Winnipeg Jets to close out the week.

The Maple Leafs are still the consensus favourite to win the North Division, but their odds have shifted from -500 to -240 following the five losses.

As of this morning, the Jets and Edmonton Oilers are +400 to win the North Division.

 

Knight wins NHL debut

While the Rittich selection would have been difficult enough to deal with on its own, the fact that each of the other three goalies I could have picked up won made the decision sting that much more. 

Holtby gave up three goals against Toronto but still posted a .925 save percentage and picked up the win.

Nedeljkovic stopped 26 of 27 shots he faced as the Carolina Hurricanes (+100) beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1. 

Meanwhile, Knight was excellent in his first NHL start, stopping 33 of 34 shots to lead the Florida Panthers (-215) to a 5-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Knight, who was the top-ranked goaltender on our TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button’s list of NHL-affiliated prospects earlier this month, gives Florida a third option to consider in goal along with Sergei Bobrovsky and Chris Driedger.

It will be very interesting to see how the Panthers handle their goaltending situation the rest of the season.

Speaking of fantasy highs and lows, managers that had Tristan Jarry in their lineup likely aren’t very happy this morning.

Jarry appeared to be headed towards a shutout with the Pittsburgh Penguins, up 6-0 heading to the third period.

Instead, he gave up six goals in the final frame and the Penguins barely managed to hang on for the 7-6 win.

 

Nets win without Harden, Durant

Kyrie Irving led the Brooklyn Nets (-3) to a 134-129 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night.

With James Harden and Kevin Durant both sidelined, Irving scored a team-high 32 points.

Brooklyn improved to 7-4 this season in games in which only one of Irving, Durant and Harden dresses.

The Nets are 2-2 when Irving is the only one of their big three that plays.

With the news that Harden will be out indefinitely with a hamstring injury, it will be very interesting to see where Brooklyn ends up at the end of the regular season.

The Nets are still the favourite to win the NBA championship at +225 odds and the favourite to win the Eastern Conference at -115, so there doesn’t seem to be much concern that their final position in the regular-season standings will have much of an impact come playoff time.