NHL Line Changes & Fantasy Alerts: Saturday, Mar 20, 2021
13 games on Mar 20, 2021 produced 13 notable changes: 2 power-play changes (2 up, 0 down), 4 line moves (4 promotions, 0 demotions) and 7 big games. The biggest: Neal Pionk moved onto the top power-play unit with Perreault, Copp and Ehlers, +1:35 of PP time (2 straight games).
Biggest changes
Neal Pionk moved onto the top power-play unit with Perreault, Copp and Ehlers, +1:35 of PP time (2 straight games).
PP1 promotion · WPGPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Phillip Danault moved onto the top power-play unit with Weber, Anderson and Drouin, +0:53 of PP time.
PP1 promotion · MTLPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Jonathan Drouin moved up to L1 with Anderson and Suzuki.
Line promotion · MTLPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Nick Suzuki moved up to L1 with Anderson and Drouin.
Line promotion · MTLGame reportTeam lines
Tomas Tatar moved up to L2 with Gallagher and Danault (2 straight games).
Line promotion · MTLGame reportTeam lines
Changes by team
Neal Pionk moved onto the top power-play unit with Perreault, Copp and Ehlers, +1:35 of PP time (2 straight games).
PP1 promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Phillip Danault moved onto the top power-play unit with Weber, Anderson and Drouin, +0:53 of PP time.
PP1 promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Jonathan Drouin moved up to L1 with Anderson and Suzuki.
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Nick Suzuki moved up to L1 with Anderson and Drouin.
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Tomas Tatar moved up to L2 with Gallagher and Danault (2 straight games).
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Derick Brassard scored a hat trick (3 G, 0 A, 3 SOG).
Hat trickGame report
Philipp Grubauer stopped all 31 shots for a shutout.
ShutoutPickup alertGame report
Jack Campbell stopped all 31 shots for a shutout.
ShutoutGame report
Filip Zadina moved up to L2 with Gagner and Namestnikov.
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
David Perron had 4 points (1 G, 3 A, 3 SOG).
Big nightPickup alertGame report
Ryan O'Reilly had 4 points (1 G, 3 A, 2 SOG).
Big nightGame report
Anton Khudobin stopped all 21 shots for a shutout.
ShutoutGame report
Chris Driedger stopped all 21 shots for a shutout.
ShutoutGame report
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.
191 raw deployment changes were checked for this date; 6 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.