NHL Line Changes & Fantasy Alerts: Saturday, Apr 6, 2019
15 games on Apr 6, 2019 produced 18 notable changes: 5 power-play changes (2 up, 3 down), 8 line moves (7 promotions, 1 demotions), 2 big ice-time swings and 3 big games. The biggest: Jan Rutta moved up to D1 with Gaunce (2 straight games).
Biggest changes
Jan Rutta moved up to D1 with Gaunce (2 straight games).
Line promotion · TBLGame reportTeam lines
Mathew Barzal dropped to L2 from L1 with Eberle and Lee (2 straight games).
Line demotion · NYIGame reportTeam lines
Conor Garland moved onto the top power-play unit with Goligoski, Cousins and Galchenyuk.
PP1 promotion · ARIPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Matt Niskanen moved onto the top power-play unit with Ovechkin, Eller and Kuznetsov, +2:43 of PP time.
PP1 promotion · WSHGame reportTeam lines
Carl Gunnarsson moved up to D2 with Bouwmeester (2 straight games).
Line promotion · STLGame reportTeam lines
Changes by team
Jan Rutta moved up to D1 with Gaunce (2 straight games).
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Jan Rutta played 21:38 (+6:11 vs his recent average) (2 straight games).
TOI spikeGame reportTeam lines
Mathew Barzal dropped to L2 from L1 with Eberle and Lee (2 straight games).
Line demotionGame reportTeam lines
Tom Kuhnhackl moved up to L1 with Bailey and Nelson.
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Robin Lehner stopped all 29 shots for a shutout.
ShutoutGame report
Conor Garland moved onto the top power-play unit with Goligoski, Cousins and Galchenyuk.
PP1 promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Clayton Keller dropped off PP1 to the second unit.
Off PP1Game reportTeam lines
Oliver Ekman-Larsson dropped off PP1 to the second unit.
Off PP1Game reportTeam lines
Matt Niskanen moved onto the top power-play unit with Ovechkin, Eller and Kuznetsov, +2:43 of PP time.
PP1 promotionGame reportTeam lines
Nick Jensen moved up to D1 with Siegenthaler.
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Johnny Gaudreau moved up to L1 with Neal and Lindholm.
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Carl Gunnarsson moved up to D2 with Bouwmeester (2 straight games).
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Martin Marincin moved up to D1 with Rielly.
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Patrick Marleau moved up to L2 with Kadri and Nylander (2 straight games).
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Connor McDavid dropped off PP1.
Off PP1Game reportTeam lines
Ryan Poehling scored a hat trick (3 G, 0 A, 3 SOG).
Hat trickPickup alertGame report
Ben Bishop stopped all 24 shots for a shutout.
ShutoutGame report
Alexander Radulov played only 14:39 (−5:27 vs his recent average) (2 straight games).
TOI dropGame reportTeam lines
How Line Watch works
- •Deployment is rebuilt from the official shift charts: the forward trio and defense pair a player shared the most 5-on-5 time with, and the power-play unit he spent most of the man advantage on.
- •Each game is compared with the player's previous five games (at least three), so a change means a change from his own recent role.
- •Changes that last only one game, come out of blowouts or move by a few seconds are filtered out. What remains is ranked by fantasy impact: first-unit power play and top-line moves first.
200 raw deployment changes were checked for this date; 15 passed.
FAQ
What is Line Watch?
Line Watch flags fantasy-relevant role changes from the NHL shift charts: players moving onto or off the first power-play unit, forwards and defensemen moving up or down the lineup, new defense partners, and big swings in ice time. Each night gets its own dated digest.
How is a line change detected?
After every game we rebuild each team's lines, pairs and power-play units from who was on the ice together, then compare every player with his own previous five games. A change only counts once the team has three games of history to compare against.
Why are some line changes left out?
Coaches shuffle lines constantly, so a one-game move is usually noise. Power-play and line moves must hold for at least two straight games (three after a blowout decided by 4+ goals). Ice-time swings must be at least three minutes, not come from a blowout, and either repeat or reach five minutes.
Where do goalie and injury alerts come from?
Goalie flips come from our starting-goalie snapshots, taken every 15 minutes: a different goalie listed, or a confirmed starter going back to expected. Injury notes come from the public injury report, matched to NHL players and limited to regular-lineup players.
Can I get these alerts by email?
Yes. Create a free account and follow as many players as you like from their player pages; you get one morning email with their changes. If you connect Yahoo, your roster's changes are included too. Every email links back to these free pages and has an unsubscribe link.