Week Two Recap/Week Three Preview

12 Oct, 2026

And we're back, hockey fans.

With the exception of Alan, none of the fandoms represented in this league are in great shape. But whereas the Blackhawks have some semblance of hope, the Blues have won a Stanley Cup within the last decade and made the playoffs within the last two seasons, and the Penguins have had Sidney Crosby for 20 years, the Red Wings can’t say any of that. Until I’ve worked through these personal issues, I’m going to air out some frustrations here. Thanks for reading.

Beyond the flaming pile of shit that is the Red Wings organization, there's been no shortage of action across the NHL. Probably none more heartbreaking than the news that Shesterkin will miss the rest of the season after an awkward push-off eerily reminiscent of another Rangers goalie great. It's especially demoralizing given Igor was playing at the top of his game, including netting a goalie goal in the first week of action. You never like to see a player go down for the year.

I'll get to what happened in Midwest is Best last week... right after I initiate a redraft to save my season.

Week Two Recap

It was a week of comfortable margins for our winners. Are teams already pulling away from the pack, or will things regress to the mean as the season goes on? The schedules are still fairly lopsided, with some teams getting only two games while others play three or four, which makes me think the latter. Balancing schedules is always a big factor with fantasy hockey, but it tends to even out as the season progresses.

A few themes are already emerging this season, the first being that goalies have never been more chaotic. Hot goalies with monster save percentages are carrying teams, streaky goalies are causing massive negative points, and some managers are streaming their entire rotation. I can't recall a more active goalie carousel to mark the opening of a season.

Also, there was a Curse of the Namesake in Week Two. Seider, Chychrun, and Doan all had forgettable showings.

The Commish did okay with his weekly predictions, going 3 for 5. Let's start with where I went wrong.

Kim Kardashian (Rich(ie)) vs. Not Gavin a Good Time (Andy)

I predicted Connor McDavid would be too much for Andy's team to handle in Week Two, but boy was I wrong. While I noted that NGGT underperformed with Stützle, Robertson, and Hughes in Week One, I didn't expect this point explosion in Week Two.

Stützle took my challenge to heart and put up a whopping 40.29 points as the Senators soared to a 4-1 start. Robertson also answered the call with a 24-point performance. Critical to any great team's success is goaltending, and that came through in spades for Andy. Jakey O showed glimpses of his former fantasy self, scoring 47.08 points across three starts. With those three performances alone, it's easy to see how NGGT ran away with this one. Fun fact: NGGT more than DOUBLED their point total from Week One.

Kim K had a respectable week, though. He didn't reach the heights of Week One, but McDavid held his own, and Richie got depth scoring from Horvat and Batherson, who both outperformed expectations. This isn't a team to sleep on.

Geri-hat-tricks (Brian) vs. The Doans Tell Me Nothing (Alan)

The next one I got wrong in a big way. Expecting Alan to make some tweaks and his roster to pick up steam, I thought he'd come out on top against Geri-hat-tricks. Instead, there was a nearly 70-point spread in the other direction.

The newly-minted The Doans Tell Me Nothing didn't get the boost Alan needed from his very young team. Carlsson, Cozens, Peterka, Benson, Slafkovský, Knies, Fox, and the namesake Doan all came up short. His tendies didn't offer much help either, combining for just 17.49 points across four goalies.

Brian, on the other hand, got great support in net. Between Wallstedt and Thompson, he secured more than 40 points from his goalies. Beyond the goaltending, Suzuki and Raymond played up to expectations, Kaprizov had a good week, and Stankoven delivered by notching his first career hat trick. Maybe the change from OG to Geri-hat-tricks created a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Seider House Rules (Brent) vs. Big Macs (Kevin)

Let's get to a boring one. As predicted, the Big Macs ran over Seider House Rules, powered by Nate Mac, Guentzel, and the awakening of DeBrincat. Kevin was backstopped by Swayman and the aforementioned Shesterkin, who combined for 43.3 points. Another example of good goalies laying the foundation for success.

On the flip side, Brent's goalie struggles continued. After benching Saros in Week One to the tune of 22 points, he started him every chance he got in Week Two and only squeezed 11 points out of him. He also picked up Dostál as a Hail Mary. Dostál made two appearances that combined for -0.53 points.

Despite a solid week from Hertl, Bouchard, and Sennecke (and a great one from Nylander), Brent couldn't overcome the Big Macs' firepower.

King Booby's Ice Reign (Myles) vs. Gus Chychruns (Ben)

While I can't relish a Week Two win, I can at least say I told you so. I thought Tampa Bay would wake up in Week Two, and they did. King Booby has Kuch and Hagel, who teamed up for 58.46 points, more than a third of his team's total. The matchup was Myles' saving grace, as he would've had a closer battle against most other opponents. But KBIR still hasn't fired on all cylinders, and at some point Bedard (seemingly soon) and Jarvis will return to the active roster.

Likely the biggest surprise of the season so far is Gus Chychruns starting 0-2. And not just 0-2, but in this fashion: the fewest points in Week One and the second fewest in Week Two. Ben is known for putting up massive point totals, and I know the league isn't anywhere close to counting him out yet.

Gus C had a couple of storylines worth pointing out, including a three-game point streak from the number one overall pick, Gavin McKenna. If he keeps it up, he could be one of the best steals of the draft. The other was an uncharacteristically negative goalie performance from Blackwood. Blackwood is no stranger to shaky outings but has found success in Colorado. Then again, what goalie wouldn't? Ben also had the Avs' other netminder, Wedgewood. Not a bad strategy.

Rebuilding Since 2019 (Matt) vs. Singin' the Blues (Justin)

After Matthews' massive 43.27-point effort, it's hard to believe Singin' the Blues isn't the victor here. But virtually everyone else on the roster fell short, including last week's hero, Sorokin, and Leon Draisaitl. The kicker: both only played two games.

Rebuilding Since 2019 was in the enviable position of having deep, steady scoring. Aho led the way with 38.64 points, and Rantanen, Pastrnak, and Connor each chipped in between 21 and 26. That kind of balance could make Matt a tough opponent all season.

The interesting story here is that, unlike most of the other matchups, goalies didn't play a major role. StB got 11.67 points between the pipes and RS2019 put up 18.38 in the blue paint.

Obviously Matt doesn't put too much stock in his goalies. He's ending Week Two with zero on his roster. Clearly something is working for him, though. He surpassed 200 points, putting up the third most this week.

And that brings us to:

For Week Two, we're focusing on NHL players instead of our fantasy managers because it's just too tempting not to.

Our Bozo of Week Two is Brady Tkachuk. After forcing his way out of Ottawa and relinquishing his "C" to head down to Sunrise, Brady has yet to register a point five games into the season. For many players, you could let this slide. Not so much for Brady, who is being given every opportunity to succeed (including a spot on PP1) and just can't cash in. You gotta love when bad things happen to bad people.

Those who know me will know that I never miss an opportunity to put that loser down.

That said, if Brady goes off after this segment, I'm taking credit and DUBBING it the Bozo Bump.

This week's honorable mention for Bozo of the Week: Connor Hellebuyck.

Many of you will have seen the fan-created website tracking how much salary Hellebuyck has lost since skipping training camp and getting suspended. If not, enjoy.

Next week, I expect one of the managers will make a boneheaded move that puts them back in the Bozo of the Week spotlight. Or was it Dipshit of the Week?

Power Rankings

Two weeks in, and the standings only tell part of the story. These rankings factor in record, points for and against, and a healthy dose of Commish intuition about who's built to last.

Three Stars of the Week

Our three stars are completely different from Week One's, which is always fun to see. As mentioned in the NGGT recap, two of the top three point-getters play for Andy and helped him comfortably dispatch Kim Kardashian. Those two accounted for 42% of the team's total.

We also saw Matthews return as a fantasy king. He was fine last year, but nowhere near the heights of three years ago. Can he figure things out in his second year without his buddy Mitch Marner?

1) Jake Oettinger, DAL (47.08 points, Not Gavin a Good Time)

2) Auston Matthews, TOR (43.27 points, Singin' the Blues)

3) Tim Stützle, OTT (40.29 points, Not Gavin a Good Time)

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

This week's wizard is Alan, who grabbed Cole Perfetti Monday morning, cut Bobby McMann to make room, and got 13.57 points out of him, the most of any pickup in the league. Alan wasn't done, either. After cycling through Colten Ellis and Jacob Fowler (who lasted all of one day and 0.41 points), he landed on Pyotr Kochetkov, who turned in 11.76 points in a single start. It took three tries, but he found his guy. Not enough to beat Brian, but a little magic nonetheless.

Honorable mentions go to Kevin, whose Dylan Strome pickup netted 12.38 points, and Ben, who swapped Brad Marchand for Dylan Holloway and got 11.79 points for his trouble. Matt also gets a nod for a reunion: after dropping Podkolzin in Week One, he scooped him back up on Tuesday and got another 9.64 points out of him.

Now for the dark arts. Last week's wizard, Myles, apparently decided the magic needed a reset. On Monday, he dropped Joey Daccord (yes, the same Daccord who earned him the title) for Linus Ullmark. Ullmark gave him 13.16 points... and was dropped the next day. What followed was a full-on goalie carousel: Bobrovsky, Silovs, Adin Hill, Stuart Skinner (rostered for about four and a half hours), and finally Clay Stevenson. Those five goalies combined for -9.27 points. Six goalie moves in five days. Myles is leaning into the speed dating.

And a special shoutout to Pavel Zacha, who was dropped by Matt on Tuesday, then spent 76 minutes on Seider House Rules' roster Sunday night before Brent cut him for (who else?) Linus Ullmark. Nothing says commitment like that.

Putting on an Elliott Smith 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 Toronto fans every May.

Matt led the league with 56.56 points on the bench, and it wasn't one big blunder so much as a slow leak all week. Steven Stamkos (15.20 across two games), Morgan Geekie (12.68), Elias Pettersson (7.80), Nick Schmaltz (7.70), and Bryan Rust (6.83) all scored from the pine. Matt still won comfortably, so he can sleep at night. Had he maximized his lineup, though, this one would've been a blowout.

Justin can't say the same. He lost to Matt by 29.82 points and left 46.62 on his bench, including the biggest single bench performance of the week: Alexis Lafrenière's 21.49 points on Tuesday. Roope Hintz (11.55) and Jesper Bratt (10.95) piled on. A Blues-on-Blues loss that stings twice.

And in the interest of full transparency (again)... Seider House Rules came in third with 38.25 points on the bench, most of it on Saturday, when Nico Hischier (15.46) and Jimmy Snuggerud (12.25) both lit it up from the bench. It wouldn't have closed the 67-point gap against the Big Macs, but it sure wouldn't have hurt.

On the other end of the spectrum, Alan and Brian set their lineups better than anyone. Alan left just 1.30 points on the bench all week. But that doesn't bode well for his team as he only managed 132 points for the week. My guess is Alan is wishing he had left 56 points on the bench just to show he has the firepower.

Here's the full breakdown.

Week Three Preview and Commissioner Picks

There's a lot of drama in store this week with some interesting matchups.

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

I'm not feeling confident in my team this year and expect to start the season 0-3. Singin' the Blues has had two very consistent weeks and it appears that Matthews could be gearing up for a long point-streak. If Draisaitl does his normal thing, I don't know how I can compete.

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

I'm taking Geri-hat-tricks in this Week Three matchup. Had these two teams faced off in Week Two, it would have been a heavyweight bout, with nearly 410 points combined. We'll see if they can find themselves back in that position.

Both teams had some surprise performances last week, and I'm ultimately taking Brian because the 47 points from Oettinger aren't likely sustainable and I don't know where Andy makes it up.

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

I'm predicting Ben picks up his first win this week against an Alan team that's still looking for its footing. These were two of our best managers last year and they've struggled early. I think they'll make necessary adjustments as the season progresses, but Ben is better positioned to make that jump this week.

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

Big Macs tops the power rankings in Week Two and I think he's going to continue to roll right through the competition. While he'll forge ahead without Shesterkin for the rest of the season, I don't think he'll have trouble putting up big points week after week.

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

Matt has a strong team and sits near the top of the power rankings because of it. He had the third most points in Week One and only lost because he played the mighty Big Macs. He eclipsed 200 points in Week Two and could do it again in Week Three, even without a goalie. Myles will have success in the weeks to come.

I promise no more new segments unless one comes off. Still figuring out what people will like.

Signing off for now.