Tonight

Goalie confirmation: when it happens and what we can honestly say

A club carries two goalies and starts one, and the choice is announced by the club on the day, usually after the morning skate and sometimes not until the warm-up. There is no league feed that publishes it in advance, and this site holds no reporter source, so every goalie on this page is expected, never confirmed. The expectation comes from the same rule the goalie tandem guide uses: a rested club goes to its starter; the second half of a back-to-back goes to the backup unless the starter took both halves more than half the time last season; a goalie designated out or on injured reserve leaves the rotation; and past the seven-day window the tandem's starter is assumed, which the card marks. The share figure beside the name is that goalie's fraction of his club's starts over the season the feed is reading, so you can see whether the expectation rests on a workhorse or on a coin flip. When a start decides your week, treat the card as your first check and the club's own announcement as the last one.

Why the line is last game's, and a night behind

Line combinations on this site are not a reporter's projection of who will skate together tonight. They are observed: the trio that shared the most even-strength seconds in the club's most recent game, and the five skaters who shared the most power-play time, read from the league's shift charts by the line sheets job. That makes them honest, because they record what actually happened, and it also makes them one game old: a coach who shuffles his lines at the morning skate will not show up here until that game has been played. Most nights the last game is the best available guess, since lines change less often than the rumour mill suggests, but a card is a record and not a promise. Before the season opens every sheet is the club's final game of last season, rosters have changed since, and the card says so.

Injuries, and the difference between out and day-to-day

The injuries block lists every player on the club's injury report from our feed, with the designation it carries. A player marked out, on injured reserve or suspended is not playing and is listed first. A day-to-day designation is a warning rather than a verdict: the player may dress, and if he does the lineup decision is usually made at the morning skate, which is another reason the goalie and line calls on this page are dated rather than certain. The feed refreshes hourly, so a designation posted overnight is here by the morning, while a late scratch announced an hour before the game may not be.

Light nights and the add cap

A light night is a date when the league plays fewer than eight games, the same threshold the schedule planner uses. Most weeks those are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On a heavy night almost every fantasy roster is full; on a light night most benches are dark, so a skater on one of the few clubs playing is worth more than his season line says, because the alternative is nobody. That is the night to spend an acquisition on, and the button above the cards opens the streamers list for the night you are looking at. Most leagues cap the number of adds a manager may make, per week or over the season, and the cap is the commissioner's number rather than the platform's, so this page does not know yours; check it before a light night tempts you into three pickups in one evening.

The strip and the link

The ten nights along the top show the league-wide game count under each date, the light ones marked, so the shape of the coming week is visible at a glance and you can look ahead to Wednesday on Monday. The night you are looking at is written into the address, so a link copied from this page opens the same board for anyone in the group chat, and the streamers button carries the same date across. Before the regular season the strip shows preseason dates while they are the only games, and the season's first slate as soon as it exists.

What this page does not know

It does not know your roster or your opponent's, it does not know a scratch until the club's report carries it, and it does not know a goalie start until the game is played. Scores appear on a card once the game is under way, from the same feed as the ticker at the top of every page. If a feed is unavailable, the cards say which one rather than showing a stale sheet as though it were tonight's.

The schedule, the expected starters, the line sheets and the injury report are all our own feeds, refreshed daily or hourly as each page says; the score feed updates through the evening while games are on.