The Tea
Nobody Told Them to Stop
DeMan DeSmith DeLegend pushed their win streak to ten, Don't Trust Aho posted 115 for their ninth straight win, the West's entire top three fell in the same week, and Anton Forsberg — yes, that Anton Forsberg — delivered a shutout. The league is separating, the streaks are compounding, and nobody at the top appears to have been briefed on when to stop.
By Nina Rivera • Staff Writer
The Matchups
Don't Trust Aho (115.0) def. Lachimolala (36.9)
Calling this a matchup feels generous.
Don't Trust Aho posted 115.0 points, the highest score in the league this week, with the kind of roster depth that makes opponents check the scoring settings. Seven players finished above 6.0. Martin Necas led with 11.6 on three goals, three assists, and 12 shots. Wyatt Johnston added 9.7 on three goals in just two games played. Beckett Sennecke contributed 8.8 with four assists and eight hits. Behind them: Eberle (7.3), Horvat (7.2), Zuccarello (6.5), Aho (6.2). The roster didn't have a tier. It had a chorus.
Don't Trust Aho scored 38.4 on February 28 alone. Lachimolala scored 36.9 for the week.
Lachimolala was not in a position to compete with this. Cole Caufield was excellent, posting 9.0 on three goals in two games, and deserved a better matchup. But beyond Caufield and Korczak's quiet 5.7, the roster collapsed. Four goals from skaters across 25 games played. The depth isn't there, and an eight-game losing streak is no longer a drought. It's a climate.
Verdict: Zero acquisitions used. 115.0 points scored. Nine straight wins. The scariest version of Don't Trust Aho is the one that doesn't need to change anything.
What's Dunn is Dunn (88.8) def. Candy Canes for Hurricanes (86.4)
Matt Boldy looked at the matchup and decided subtlety was optional.
Boldy posted 17.0 points, the individual performance of the week by a margin that isn't close. Three goals, four assists, four power-play points, a shorthanded point, 18 shots on goal, and five blocks. Most players don't fill that many columns in a month.
What's Dunn is Dunn needed every decimal of it. Jesper Wallstedt posted -5.4 goalie points, the kind of number that usually ends a matchup before it starts. They won anyway. Taylor Hall (8.1 on two goals and three assists), Buchnevich (7.6), Holmstrom (7.3), and Eriksson Ek (6.6) made sure Boldy's performance didn't go to waste.
Candy Canes for Hurricanes had the firepower to win this. Bouchard was excellent with 11.3 on two goals and four assists. Keller added 8.4, Byfield 7.8, Larkin 6.9. But Jack Eichel played one game and posted 0.1. Grubauer posted -2.6. The margins in a 2.4-point matchup don't forgive absences, and the final day told the story: a 13.9-to-6.3 scoring edge on March 1 sealed it for What's Dunn is Dunn.
Verdict: One player posted 17.0. Another posted -5.4. What's Dunn is Dunn won by 2.4. Four-game streak. The math worked because Matt Boldy decided it would.
Net Results (88.7) def. My Little Kraklings (84.6)
The Forsberg Redemption Tour started with a shutout.
Last week, Anton Forsberg posted -4.4 points and cost Net Results a matchup they lost by 0.6. This week, the same goalie posted 12.8: one start, one win, zero goals allowed, 29 saves, and a shutout. Without that performance, Net Results finishes at 75.9 and loses by nine. With it, they took down the West's top seed.
The skaters did their part. Jake Walman had a quietly dominant week with 8.5 points on three goals and four blocks. Mattias Ekholm added 7.4 with four assists and five blocks. Pageau (6.9 on two goals), Crouse (5.6), and McBain (5.5 with a shorthanded point) kept the middle alive. Net Results didn't need a headline player. They needed the Edmonton blue line to become an offensive weapon, and it did.
My Little Kraklings have dropped two straight, and the explanations are getting thinner each time. Draisaitl was Draisaitl: 9.5 on two goals and three assists with three power-play points. Guenther (7.1) and Bedard (6.8) showed up. But Mark Stone managed 0.6 in two games. The bottom half of the roster combined for less than Forsberg's shutout alone. The gap between the Kraklings' stars and the rest of their lineup is widening at exactly the wrong time.
Verdict: Fantasy hockey is a game of grudges, and Anton Forsberg just settled his.
Honorable Mentions (a.k.a. Games That Still Counted)
The Em-VPs (112.7) over Teenage Mutant Ninja Hertl (86.8): The week's second-highest score, and it wasn't particularly close. Dustin Wolf posted 13.8 goalie points, and the rest of the roster followed his lead. Marek Schaefer had 14.5 for Teenage Mutant Ninja Hertl, the second-highest individual score of the week, and it didn't matter at all. The Em-VPs are 12-7 on a four-game streak, and the teams ahead are running out of reasons to ignore them.
DeMan DeSmith DeLegend (83.9) over McDaddy Issues (81.0): The win streak hit ten. Alex Tuch (9.7) and Alex Nedeljkovic (7.4) led the way in a 2.9-point grinder against McDaddy Issues, who had Bennett (9.9) and Makar (8.3) doing everything they could. DeMan DeSmith DeLegend is 14-5, one game back in the East, and their last loss is becoming a historical artifact.
Panarin Bread (66.6) over Smashville Puckheads (65.4): A 1.2-point upset that Smashville will replay for a while. LaCombe and McNabb each posted 9.1, Kaprizov added 8.7, and Panarin Bread's bottom-of-standings roster pulled off the week's quietest heist. Smashville drops to 12-7, now tied with three other teams in the East's most crowded neighborhood.
Elsewhere, Tkachuk Around And Find Out (73.5) handled Nose Face Killah Crew (61.6) behind Logan Thompson's 11.4 to retake sole possession of first in the East. Strome Alone (75.8) dispatched Delaney's Daring Team (35.8) as McDavid posted 10.3. Hugh(es)SUCKS (92.5) steamrolled The Spoked Bae (38.3) on the strength of Arturs Silovs' 19.2 goalie points, the biggest single-position performance of the week. And FORMERLY Papi's Princesses (80.6) topped Stay in the Net (56.2), their best score in weeks.
Team of the Week
Don't Trust Aho earns it with the kind of week that makes other managers reconsider their rosters. 115.0 points. Zero acquisitions used. Seven players above 6.0. Necas (11.6), Johnston (9.7), and Sennecke (8.8) headlined, but the middle of the lineup is what separates this team from everyone else. Four more players scored between 6.2 and 7.3 without anyone noticing until it was too late. The midseason trades that brought in Schmaltz and Horvat continue to compound. Don't Trust Aho is 15-4, second in the East by tiebreaker only, and nine weeks of winning has a way of making the tiebreaker feel temporary.
Coldest Team of the Week
Lachimolala posted 36.9 points this week, extending their losing streak to eight. The skaters combined for four goals in 25 games played, which is the kind of stat that looks like a typo. Cole Caufield had three goals and 9.0 points, doing his best to carry a roster that couldn't meet him halfway. Beyond Caufield, nobody cleared 5.7. The schedule hasn't been kind, the roster is thin, and eight straight losses start to feel less like a streak and more like a season finding its level. It's hard to point to one thing that went wrong when the issue is that not enough things went right.
Transactions & Trades
The McDaddy Overhaul and Other Business
McDaddy Issues treated this week's waiver wire like a checkout counter with no line. Five add/drops plus a trade. In came Ryan Poehling, Jamie Drysdale, Alex Newhook, Devon Toews, and Pavel Mintyukov. Out went Connor Murphy, Beck Malenstyn, Adin Hill, and Kasperi Kapanen. The roster is being rebuilt in real time, which is either a championship blueprint or a cry for help. At 12-7, the benefit of the doubt leans toward blueprint.
DeMan DeSmith DeLegend made two quiet moves: Teddy Blueger early in the week, then swapped Cody Glass for Peyton Krebs at the buzzer. Quiet, purposeful, consistent. Which is also how you'd describe a ten-game win streak.
Net Results added Dylan Holloway and dropped Braeden Bowman. One move. The roster that beat the West's top seed needed exactly one adjustment.
Don't Trust Aho dropped Kailer Yamamoto. When you're scoring 115, trimming dead weight is just housekeeping.
Tkachuk Around And Find Out dropped Anthony Duclair. Candy Canes for Hurricanes listed Tony DeAngelo as "likely to trade," one week after adding him. Whether that's a signal to the league or a signal to DeAngelo, both would be effective.
Translation: McDaddy Issues is building something. Everyone else is maintaining. The gap between those two approaches is about to matter.
Trade Activity
Hugh(es)SUCKS ↔ McDaddy Issues
Hugh(es)SUCKS sends: Lane Hutson, Mon D
McDaddy Issues sends: K'Andre Miller, Car D + Sean Walker, Car D
Lane Hutson is a premium young defenseman, and McDaddy Issues just added him to a roster that was already reshuffled top to bottom this week. Two established defensemen go back to Hugh(es)SUCKS, who also dropped Radko Gudas as part of the deal. This is a textbook buyer-seller split: McDaddy Issues (12-7) is consolidating talent for a playoff push, Hugh(es)SUCKS (5-14) is collecting pieces for whatever comes next. Whether Hutson's upside justifies two solid D remains the kind of question that only the next few weeks can answer. But when you're 12-7 and the West's top three all just lost, the window feels like it's opening.
Two trades in two weeks. The league has decided that waiting is for managers with safer records.
League Landscape After Week 19
East: The division is separating into tiers, and it's not being gentle about it. Tkachuk Around And Find Out and Don't Trust Aho are alone at 15-4, both winning this week. Tkachuk Around And Find Out holds first via tiebreaker. DeMan DeSmith DeLegend (14-5) sits one game back on a ten-game win streak that nobody seems equipped to interrupt. Net Results (13-6) climbed into fourth with a statement win over the West's top seed. Then the traffic jam: Smashville Puckheads, The Em-VPs, and What's Dunn is Dunn are all knotted at 12-7, with the Em-VPs and What's Dunn is Dunn both riding four-game streaks. Four teams, two games separating them from the tier above. The runway is disappearing.
West: The kind of week that would make a division therapist clear the schedule. All three contenders lost. My Little Kraklings (14-5) dropped their second straight, this time to a Net Results team they outranked by two spots. Candy Canes for Hurricanes (13-6) fell to What's Dunn is Dunn by 2.4. McDaddy Issues (12-7) lost to DeMan DeSmith DeLegend's streak by 2.9. When the contenders stumble together, there's nobody below to trade places with. Just less margin and fewer weeks to recover it.
The projected playoff bracket tells the rest of the story. As it stands, three of the four Winner's Bracket spots belong to the East: Tkachuk Around And Find Out, Don't Trust Aho, and DeMan DeSmith DeLegend. The West sends only My Little Kraklings. Candy Canes for Hurricanes and Net Results are both 13-6, one game back of DeMan DeSmith DeLegend for the last spot — but catching a team on a ten-game win streak requires them to lose first, and they haven't gotten that memo. Playoffs start March 16. The projection is still just a projection, but the clock to change it is getting loud.
Moral of the Week
The two longest win streaks in the league belong to teams that weren't in first place when they started. The best goalie performance of the week came from the same man who ruined one seven days ago. The season doesn't pause for the stories we tell about it.
Haiku of the Week
Ten straight wins, no rest
The West's top three fell at once
March keeps the receipts
Current Standings
East Division
Tkachuk Around And Find Out
15-4-0
Don't Trust Aho
15-4-0
DeMan DeSmith DeLegend
14-5-0
Net Results
13-6-0
Smashville Puckheads
12-7-0
The Em-VPs
12-7-0
What's Dunn is Dunn
12-7-0
The Spoked Bae
4-15-0
FORMERLY Papi's Princesses
4-15-0
Delaney's Daring Team
4-15-0
West Division
My Little Kraklings
14-5-0
Candy Canes for Hurricanes
13-6-0
McDaddy Issues
12-7-0
Strome Alone
10-9-0
Teenage Mutant Ninja Hertl
9-10-0
Stay in the Net
8-11-0
Lachimolala
5-14-0
Panarin Bread
5-14-0
Hugh(es)SUCKS
5-14-0
Nose Face Killah Crew
4-15-0