Thursday fantasy hockey tips - NHL picks, matchups, more

There is a fantasy equivalent to pulling the goaltender and this is the time of year to consider it as an option.

As of Thursday morning, there are four days left of hockey that will determine which teams in your head-to-head league make the playoffs in default ESPN formats. Maybe you adjusted the schedule and it's not this week; fine, but the principle to be discussed here still applies.

Pulling your goaltender is an act in which an NHL team throws caution to the wind in an attempt to secure victory. They know the odds are low, but they also know that losing by one goal is the same as losing by two in the record books.

How do you pull this off in fantasy? You drop J.T. Miller and add Tommy Novak. You drop Morgan Rielly and add Jake Sanderson.

Blasphemous? That's pulling the goaltender — on this particular head-to-head week in fantasy leagues if you are on the verge of missing the playoffs. Will another team pick up Miller and Rielly potentially using them to bury you in the playoffs later? Yes, probably. But you never know unless you get there.

Those are no random examples, either. The Nashville Predators and Ottawa Senators play three games between Thursday and Sunday and, if you add up the goals against per 60 of their opponents, are among the top three in best schedules among the 10 teams that play three times. The Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs only play once between now and Sunday, and their opponents have the lowest goals against per 60 of the three teams that only play once.

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So if you are fighting for that playoff spot in head-to-head leagues and are at risk of missing