Quick Note: A ton of trades have happened thus far this week, so check out the trades in the "news" tab. Teams mostly play divisional teams this week. Also, here's the Week 2 Recap thread if you missed it: https://www.leaguegaming.com/forums/index.php?threads/s30-week-2-recap.275509/ Games of the Week Sunday June 24th - 9:00 PM EST Philadelphia Flyers at New York Rangers The Flyers are just a single point ahead of the Rangers at the start of Week 3. A win here either allows the Rangers to leapfrog the Flyers to start the week or gives the Flyers a bit more of a lead to face the rest of the week with. With how tight it looks like the Metro will be, every point matters and there's no time like the present to cash in some wins. Monday June 25th - 9:00 PM EST Boston Bruins at Washington Capitals Some trading partners this weekend will meet at another 9 o'clock game, so all you old guys will be able to maybe catch the beginning before you fall asleep. Boston is still fighting it out in the middle of the Atlantic while Washington seems to have fallen on some hard times and needs to make up a little ground this week. Both have some new additions, WSH acquired @HazeeHype and BOS acquired @PieR Talent @Meestah Don @Soapy412 and @PaulyChunks . No telling if any will play in this game, but both would like a better week to show that their trades paid off. Tuesday June 26th - 11:00 PM EST Saint Louis Blues at Chicago Blackhawks The Hawks made a bit of a resurgence last week and are now tied at 21 points with the Blues. Maybe by Tuesday, the standings will look a little different, but defeating a division rival has to feel good regardless of the standings. right? The Blues made some personnel moves exchanging @Volt x and @OFs for @PIZZA ROMO and @Gary Garoo . Similar to many of the other teams that made trades this weekend, a good week for the Blues would definitely make the trade look better for them, and the Hawks would like nothing better than to continue their climb up the standings. Wednesday June 27th - 10:00 PM Buffalo Sabres at New Jersey Devils Buffalo is at 17 points and 6th in the Atlantic, and New Jersey is at 15 and 8th in the Metro. Both teams should probably view this game as a must-win game as they're facing a team that has relatively the same point total, especially that they're both outside the playoffs currently (I know, I know, it's just Week 3). Even if both these teams fail to make up ground this week, at least a strong performance for the last game of the week might set the tone for the following week. Players to Watch: #Trades Edition (These may not be final destinations for these players, but what I say here is likely true for any other team they go to before Week 3 starts.) @drally20 (G) It's no secret that any goalie through Winnipeg's first two weeks was going to need to stand on their head to give the team a chance, and @drally20 had a hard time trying to do that. However, after being traded for @MNWebby and Vancouver's 3rd round pick (at the NHL level), he'll get to play behind one of the more talented group's in the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks have had their own problems defensively recently leading to them falling to 4th in the Pacific. So, @drally20 will definitely have his chance to shine here, let's see if he's up to the task. @JJ-Finesse- (C/LW) A couple of big contracts got moved this weekend, and here's one of them. @JJ-Finesse- was traded not once, but twice this weekend. The Devils traded @I3rissette to the Wild for @JJ-Finesse- and Minnesota's 1st round pick, then the Oilers traded @MiDi x 39 to the Devils for @JJ-Finesse- and Vegas's 3rd round pick. Time will tell who will benefit most from this trade, but seems like every team essentially got a scorer with a different playstyle. JJ is two seasons removed from scoring 52 goals, and his production dipped some last season, though he accumulated more wins going 21-6-1. He'll probably slot in with @Capitalize x94 , so we should see his production pick up on an Edmonton team that's had a hot start and has been scoring at will it seems. Only question is, will he be able to outproduce the guys he was traded for, but Edmonton won't care as long as they're winning. @ICExCREAMxTRUCK (LD) In a shocking move, the Golden Knights traded @rickchel and their own 2nd round pick for @xTheos l7l from the Maple Leafs to facilitate their next trade: @xTheos l7l @JEEEEEEBS and their 1st round pick for @Ethos Jinx and @ICExCREAMxTRUCK . Vegas was better defensively last week, but they may have been looking to acquire a big ticket defenseman since week 1, and they got that in @ICExCREAMxTRUCK . He was 3rd in the league among defenseman in points in S28 and 8th in S29; he was also 3rd in takeaways in S28 and 2nd in takeaways in S29 among all players. He struggled a little last season on the Los Angeles Kings who ultimately missed the playoffs, but 14 wins tied him for most on the team. So far on NJD he had 4 of their 5 regulation wins and 9 of their 15 points in the standings. Based on their needs, it definitely seems like they got what they wanted in this trade, now all they can do is hope @ICExCREAMxTRUCK continues to perform at a high level while he's a member of the Golden Knights. Milestone Watch Points: @xxIArmy0f0neIxx is 3 points away from 400 career points @SoY LoS 19 is 2 points away from 400 career points @Tom 0 is 4 points away from 700 career points @Tendy is 2 points away from 900 career points Games Played: @TypicalPlayer33 is 1 game away from 300 career games played @Xx LoL xX 9 is 2 games away from 300 career games played @Lazy Pedestrian is 3 games away from 300 career games played @Th3 l AnD 0n1y is 3 games away from 500 career games played Saves: @LEG3NDz R41Nz is 7 saves away from 2000 career saves @l Wall x 31 l is 17 saves away from 1000 career saves @How lts Dunne is 19 saves away from 1000 career saves @Big Wet May is 20 saves away from 1000 career saves The Hot Seat Washington Capitals - @o S m i i t t y There's a lot of obvious choices for this, so I'll ignore them for this week. Maybe one not so obvious is @o S m i i t t y and the Capitals. The Capitals are currently 7th in the Metro with 15 points and winning the tiebreaker with the New Jersey Devils. They might not have looked like a guaranteed cup contender to start out the season, but the expectation was that their big guns would come out firing. The top line has definitely had some bad luck and rough performances thus far, and the other lines haven't been able to win or force overtime enough to remedy that fact. Still, it's just week 2. They tried to add some offense bringing in @HazeeHype who had 25 goals and 53 points last season in exchange for @PaulyChunks who Boston acquired to play with their own new weekend acquisitions. Their other recent trade sent @DONNYWOOD to the Capitals who, at 1-1-1 this week, we'll need to wait to see how beneficial that trade was. This early in the season five points isn't a huge deficit, but a good week would definitely give Caps fans a little peace of mind as the Caps attempt to capture a postseason berth in S30.
