Another week of fantasy hockey and some food for thought …
.932
That's Ilya Samsonov's save percentage since November as he begins his ascent to the No. 1 job in Washington, going 11-1-1 during that span. This isn't entirely a shocking development; the only surprise is that Samsonov's managed to trump Braden Holtby so quickly. After Nicklas Backstrom's $46 million contract, it seems unlikely Holtby will return. Plenty of other teams will be lining up for him in summer, and if that's the case, why shouldn't the Caps just roll with their goalie of the future? At worst, the Caps will operate a timeshare in net, but as it stands, Samsonov's taken over the starting job and remains owned in just 56 percent of Yahoo leagues. Alexandar Georgiev (23 percent owned) is also fighting his way into the starting job for the Rangers, and as long as Tuukka Rask is hurt, Jaroslav Halak (61 percent) is also worth picking up as the Bruins' starter.
67.65
That's the CF% for the line of Paul Stastny between Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone at 5-on-5 in January, according to Natural Stat Trick, compared to 59.43 CF% from October to December. This makes Gerard Gallant's firing all the more bewildering and Peter DeBoer's job that much easier as he steps into a period where the Vegas offense continues to generate chances at a pretty high clip without William Karlsson. Chandler Stephenson, who usually centers this line when Karlsson is in
