Week Three Recap/Week Four Preview

19 Oct, 2026

Will the real hockey fans please stand up?

Believe it or not, some teams have already played more than 10% of their seasons. We've had some surprises, and plenty of things have gone exactly as expected.

Things we expected:

• The Wings are a mess. Their record is 3-3-2, but the eye test portends something worse.
• The Blackhawks are a mess. They're 3-6-0 with a -15 goal differential.
• The Blues are a mess. They have an interesting group of young'uns, but their top line has been (charitably) inconsistent.
• The Canucks are in free fall. They've lost seven straight and allowed 45 goals in 10 games.
• Carolina is cruising at the top of the East.
• The West has its usual top dogs: the Oilers, Vegas, Colorado, and Minnesota have all started as expected.

Surprises:

• The Kings can't win a game. They're 0-4-2 and have scored just 12 goals. Maybe Panarin was the problem all along.
• Philly's slide may not shock many people, but just last year they finished 42-27-12. What happened there?
• The Rangers are 6-3-1 despite losing Panarin and Shesterkin. Is Alexis finally turning into a star?

I also learned I just need to start taking shots at people to get them going. As I thought might happen, Brady Tkachuk woke up thanks to the Bozo Bump. Then, after I pointed out the hilariously bad Rasmussen, he scored his first two points in nearly a full calendar year. I think I need to dub myself Bozo of the Week and see if I can ride the wave. More on that later.

Let's get into what happened last week in the Midwest is Best universe... right after I drop all of my goalies to keep up with the emerging strategy.

Week Three Recap

Whereas last week was a bit of a snooze-fest on the competition front, this week had close games throughout—until Saturday's slate sorted out the winners and losers.

On my predictions, I went 4 for 5. Pretty solid. I have to brag about that because I have nothing else to point to.

Seider House Rules (Brent) vs. Singin' the Blues (Justin)

As predicted, Seider House Rules fell to Singin' the Blues. SHR drops to 0-3 despite putting up the sixth-most points in the league this season. He has continued to face hot teams and gotten shellacked in his matchups.

While I foresaw this outcome, I thought it would be Matthews and Draisaitl combining for an ungodly number of points. That's not how it played out. Matthews put up an average week and Draisaitl severely underperformed. It reminds me of the season a few years ago when Draisaitl struggled early—by the end of that season, he was in the top three in fantasy points and won The Commish (team name Draiboys) the 'ship. I wouldn't be surprised if Leon did that again.

Instead, Justin was propelled to victory by Matt Boldy (finally putting up some numbers) and... Seth fucking Jones. Brady and the Panthers really conspired to fuck SHR over.

Not Gavin a Good Time (Andy) vs. Geri-hat-tricks (Brian)

Here's the only matchup I got wrong this week. I wasn't confident in Andy's team after coming off a big week where two of his players accounted for more than 40% of his points. But the combination of his roster producing consistently and Brian's team massively underperforming turned this one into an easy victory for Not Gavin a Good Time.

Geri-hat-tricks will be hoping for more output from most of his team, particularly from Point and Raymond, the latter of whom was moved to the third line in Thursday's matchup against Philadelphia. It's clear McLellan is not impressed with Lucas' production so far this year. It's especially disheartening in a year when his draft-mate Tim Stützle has seemingly taken a big step forward.

After a rocky Week One, Andy has put together two solid weeks in a row.

Gus Chychruns (Ben) vs. The Doans Tell Me Nothing (Alan)

As someone put it in the lively group text, this was a Greco-Roman struggle... but only for about half of the week.

Gus Chychruns turned on the jets later in the week, putting a healthy distance between himself and The Doans Tell Me Nothing. A few things clicked for Ben that hadn't quite come together in Weeks One and Two—namely, his big names all hitting at the same time. Celebrini, Tage, Matt Tkachuk, and Stone (whom Ben tried to trade!) put up between 25 and 34 points each. That's some serious firepower. Let's just hope the annual tradition of Stone getting injured and going on LTIR until the playoffs doesn't start too soon this year.

As for Alan, he saw some definite improvement over his first two weeks, though likely not enough to make him happy about his future prospects.

Kim Kardashian (Rich(ie)) vs. Big Macs (Kevin)

This one started out as a close battle but turned into the easy win I thought it would be. Big Macs continue to comfortably roll over their opponents thanks to a roster stacked with prolific scorers. Eichel, DeBrincat, Tuch, Josi, MacKinnon, Necas, and Swayman all overperformed this week. I expect the Colorado and Vegas trains to keep running, and DeBrincat might be the only Red Wing to score this season, so look for Big Macs in the win column a whole lot more. I really need to revisit the draft to understand how anyone could've assembled this team.

You can't say that Kim Kardashian had a bad week. In fact, his 190.32 points were his best total yet. He got some great, and unexpected, contributions from defensemen like Rasmus Andersson (24+ points), but his depth forwards (Horvat, Batherson) came back down to earth. There's still plenty of potential for this team to win a lot of games.

King Booby's Ice Reign (Myles) vs. Rebuilding Since 2019 (Matt)

This turned out to be our closest matchup of the week. Justin summed it up in the text thread:

In the end, it was Matt working the waiver wire that improved his record to 2-1. The Panthers helped many teams to victory, and Rebuilding Since 2019 was one of them. Sam Reinhart put up 27.61 points, quite an improvement over the 1.18 he had in Week Two. In addition, Kyle Connor has continued his hot start, and Pastrnak and the Bruins have shown that they are truly annoying and seemingly never go through a true rebuild. Podkolzin has helped, too.

King Booby's Ice Reign falls to 1-2 despite a heroic 35.91 points from Brady Tkachuk, the return of Bedard, and a strong week from Forsberg. At some point, you have to expect that Kucherov is going to put up crazy points. When that happens, Myles' squad could start reliably chalking up Ws.

Of course, following our recaps, we move on to:

There truly is no bigger bozo in the league than Seider House Rules. He continues his perfect losing record for the season and did himself no favors on the path there, leaving plenty of points on the bench and daring to pretend he knows anything about hockey (fantasy or otherwise).

It feels as though The Commish has already written his ticket to the peanut gallery come playoff time. The once-reliable fantasy hockey manager has now become the blog boy, only good for writing mediocre missives that give him a mild dopamine hit. Point and laugh, everyone.

(Let's see if I was hard enough on myself to get me a Bozo Bump in Week Four.)

Power Rankings

Three weeks in, the Big Macs are still the top gun of the league, and the middle of the pack is starting to sort itself out.

Three Stars of the Week

Our top star is a goalie who was on the waiver wire eight days ago. Brent grabbed Linus Ullmark late last Sunday night, cutting Pavel Zacha after 76 minutes to make room, and Ullmark rewarded him with the best week in the league. A blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.

Honorable mention goes to the Bozo Bump, which is officially real. Brady Tkachuk put up 35.91 points for Myles' lineup and another 19.97 from his bench. That's 55.88 for the week, which would've topped everyone. You're welcome, Myles.

1) Linus Ullmark, OTT (39.28 points, Seider House Rules)

2) Kirill Kaprizov, MIN (38.99 points, Geri-hat-tricks)

3) Seth Jones, FLA (36.79 points, Singin' the Blues)

Welcome back to the Waiver Wire Wizard, where we recognize managers who showed a bit of magic in their pickups.

For the second week in a row, our wizard is Alan. He grabbed Neal Pionk Tuesday morning, cut Luke Evangelista (-1.72) to make room, and got 23.66 points out of him, the most of any pickup in the league. He also squeezed 11.31 points out of Daniil Tarasov during a two-day stay before swapping him for Jaden Schwartz (0.89), who lasted one day before giving way to Brandon Bussi (7.61). The magic is real. The wins, not so much.

Honorable mentions go to Ben, whose Cam Talbot pickup turned in 13.06 points, and Kevin, who scooped up Thomas Harley (yes, the same Harley Alan dropped in Week Two) for 9.61 points. Matt also deserves credit for finally rostering goalies, landing Casey DeSmith (9.91) and Dylan Garand (8.97). And a belated nod to Brent's Ullmark pickup from last Sunday, which paid off to the tune of 39.28 points. Brent also finally cut Marco Rossi. Growth.

Now for the dark arts. Kevin picked up Jakub Dobes on Wednesday, got -8.24 points out of him, and dropped him the next day. Matt brought back Sergei Murashov for his third stint of the young season, and Murashov thanked him with -4.59 points in one day. Myles kept the goalie carousel spinning with Carter Hart, Jacob Fowler, and Leevi Meriläinen, whose entire 9.86 points came from Myles' bench before he was dropped.

Ben deserves his own paragraph. He picked Devon Levi back up (yes, the Week One Bozo of the Week) for 2.66 points before cutting him again. He also used a waiver claim on Elias Pettersson, dropping Alex Ovechkin to make room. Every one of Pettersson's 7.30 points came from Ben's bench, and Ovechkin is now a Big Mac.

Speaking of Big Macs, the Pavel Zacha World Tour continues. After stints with Matt and Brent (76 minutes, a personal record), Zacha landed with Kevin, who dropped J.T. Miller to make room. Zacha scored 6.88 points. Miller had -1.63 in Kevin's lineup before the move. Maybe Kevin knows something.

Putting on an Jeff Buckley record as we return to Benchwarmer Blues, where we shine a light on the managers who left points sad and alone on their benches, just like Brent every Sunday night.

Myles led the league with a staggering 77.82 points on the bench and lost to Matt by 14.91. The headliner was Brady Tkachuk, who scored 19.97 points from the bench, so the Bozo Bump was real but only partially cashed in. Andrei Svechnikov (16.03), Cole Caufield (13.64), and the aforementioned Meriläinen (9.86) piled on. Myles had the points to win this one. They were just sitting in the wrong spots.

Matt came in second with 70.97 points, his second straight week over 50. Sam Reinhart put up 27.61 in the lineup and another 18.20 from the bench, and Morgan Geekie (11.91) and John Tavares (9.42) chipped in from the pine. Matt still won, so it's hard to complain. Still, it's scary to think what his total could've been.

Ben rounded out the top three with 65.45, led by Kirill Marchenko (16.95), Roman Kantserov (11.81), and Dylan Holloway (10.29). Ben won anyway, but it could've been a blowout.

Also worth noting: Connor McDavid scored 16.04 points from Rich's bench. That's a sentence I never expected to write. And Seider House Rules left 14.28 points on the bench from Juuse Saros. Again. Meanwhile, Andy benched Vejmelka for -12.38 points, dodging disaster for the second straight week. Call him the Vejmelka Whisperer.

The Big Macs made the most of their roster, using 93.5% of their total points. That's how you go 3-0.

Here's the full breakdown.

Week Four Preview and Commissioner Picks

This is a make-or-break week for the league. Some teams can soar to 4-0 while others can sink to 0-4. Given that after Week Four we will be 18% of the way through the regular fantasy season, it will be difficult to undo the paths teams have forged so far.

Let the battles begin.

Seider House Rules (Brent) vs. King Booby's Ice Reign (Myles)

I don't even think I need to explain why I made this choice.

Rebuilding Since 2019 (Matt) vs. The Doans Tell Me Nothing (Alan)

The Doans Tell Me Nothing showed some life in Week Three. It wasn't enough to overtake the surging Gus Chychruns, and I don't think it will be enough to contend with the consistent Rebuilding Since 2019. But I do think the Doans will get back in the win column soon.

Kim Kardashian (Rich(ie)) vs. Geri-hat-tricks (Brian)

I think Kim Kardashian gets back on track this week. They have a lot of games on the schedule, and McDavid is on a completely different level right now. If Richie gets just a little support for Connor, he should be sitting pretty.

Gus Chychruns (Ben) vs. Not Gavin a Good Time (Andy)

Ben's management showed glimmers of its past self in Week Three, and there's a real chance that continues in Week Four. This one should be close, though. Not Gavin a Good Time put the Week One troubles behind them and has produced ever since.

Big Macs (Kevin) vs. Singin' the Blues (Justin)

Singin' the Blues put up the second-most points in Week Three... second only to Big Macs. Through three weeks, the Big Macs have put up the second-most points, the most points, and the most points. I don't know how many times I can say this team is scary, but it is.

Thanks for reading, crew. Good luck this week and we'll see you back here next Monday.