You know what the best feeling in fantasy hockey is on a week-by-week basis? Coming back from a deficit and winning the week. While I don’t expect any of you to be losing this season, at any point (especially if you’re following my advice), occasionally it happens. Sundays can make or break your week, so follow along and you’ll be ripping out your opponents’ hearts with late week comebacks.
Now when you look at the NHL schedule, there are days which teams play most of their games, these being Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. You clearly want to have the best players available on your team; however you also need to take into account the ability of getting all of your players in the lineup. For example, if you followed along with my previous post, I told you that you need to have a clear starting lineup and a clear bench. The important point that I’m trying to make here is that, while you can build up an amazing bench, what good are they if they never make it into your lineup?
When you’re filling out your bench, you should take players who play more games on Sunday into consideration. Now, I’m not saying that you should draft Bryan Bickell for your bench instead of someone like Scott Hartnell, simply because Bickell and Chicago plays 13 games on Sunday, while Hartnell and the Blue Jackets only play three, but if you’re deciding between comparable players, I suggest that you take the player with more Sunday games.
A player like Cam Fowler (Anaheim) could be better than a option than Seth Jones (Nashville), or Teuvo Teravainen (Chicago) would likely make your lineup more often than fellow youngster David Pastrnak (Boston), as they’re all comparable players. Ducks and Blackhawks can help fill your Sunday lineup more than Predators or Bruins. Check out the chart below for the number of Sunday games each team plays. You should build your bench up with Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, and New Jersey Devils (just make sure you would be picking up comparable players).
| Team | Sunday Games |
| ANA | 11 |
| ARI | 3 |
| BOS | 6 |
| BUF | 5 |
| CAL | 7 |
| CAR | 10 |
| CBJ | 3 |
| CHI | 16 |
| COL | 10 |
| DAL | 5 |
| DET | 9 |
| EDM | 10 |
| FLA | 8 |
| LA | 8 |
| MIN | 9 |
| MON | 6 |
| NAS | 1 |
| NJ | 11 |
| NYI | 10 |
| NYR | 12 |
| OTT | 8 |
| PHI | 5 |
| PIT | 10 |
| SJ | 6 |
| STL | 8 |
| TB | 8 |
| TOR | 3 |
| VAN | 9 |
| WAS | 7 |
| WIN | 10 |
That’s it for now! Let me know if you’d like me to dive into more advanced statistics by sending me a request on Twitter – @Rstarr_18.
Continue to “Reach for the Starrs”!
Ryan Starr
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