October 11, 2008
Dobber Sports
2008-10-11
The Fantasy Guide and Draft List are updated through to Thursday morning. You won't find that anywhere else.
The Kings signed Anze Kopitar to a SEVEN year contract extension.
The Ottawa Sun is reporting that Mike Fisher will be back in the Ottawa lineup tonight.
TSN is reporting that x-rays show that McCabe has at least one fractured vertabrae in his back. If so, he is looking at missing at least October and likely a couple of weeks beyond that.
Joey MacDonald started last night because the coach did not want to rush DiPietro back.
Jeff Tambellini did not see a second on the power play and just 12:20 of ice. The outlook is grim for his NHL star potential.
Then again, Kyle Okposo saw similar ice time and just nine seconds on the power play. Josh Bailey and Blake Comeau were healthy scratches. What kind of clown coaching is this? I thought the Isles fired Ted Nolan because he didn't give the kids a chance? Well – what the hell is Scott Gordon doing?
The only player who saw more PP time than Anssi Salmela for the Devils was Jamie Langenbrunner. I really like Salmella's odds of getting 40 points this year.
Zajac, Langenbrunner and Parise were reunited. They had great chemistry middle of last season.
Isles line combos: Comrie with Park and Hilbert; Weight with Sim and Guerin; Neilsen with Hunter and Tambellini; Comrie double shifting with Okposo and Bergenheim but Nate Thompson also spotted Comrie on this line.
Petr Vrana was a scratch for the Devils.
Kris Versteeg saw over 17 minutes of ice time last night and was on Chicago's second power play. Savard is actually giving this guy a fair shot so far. Good, cause I'm a fan.
Jack Skille saw just 9:58 of ice and was a minus-2
With Brian Campbell and Duncan Keith seeing nearly 30 minutes each, and Seabrook seeing 26, that left just 3:51 for Nik Hjalmarsson and 4:43 for Hendry.
Aaron Voros replaced Nigel Dawes on the Zherdev/Dubinsky line and the trio combined for seven points and a plus-6. Dawes played with Callahan and Korpikoski
The Rangers scratched Prucha, Fritsche and Rissmiller.
The Hawks scratched Ben Eager.
Keith Ballard was a minus-3 last night, as was Nick Boynton. Thanks Phoenix! I'm joking.
Cory Murphy was waived earlier in the week and he cleared waivers, however the Panthers threw him in there and scratched Noah Welch. He played just 11 minutes and was a minus-1.
The PP unit for Florida was Stillman, Olesz, Horton, Bouwmeester, with Ballard and Murphy sharing the other spot. Bryan McCabe was there initially but he left the game. The Miami Herald is reporting that he hurt his back and will not play today.
Despite his strong preseason, Ville Peltonen played just 9:55 and saw zero PP.
Stewart and Frolik were scratched by Florida.
Despite no power play time, Tim Gleason managed three points and was a plus-3. Considering he is only going to finish with 25 points tops…and he already has three of them now, I would hold off on picking him up. At least until he shows some more.
Carolina line combos: Brindy with Samsonov and Ruutu; Staal with Whitney and Eaves.
Clarke MacArthur is still being eased in. He played fewer than nine minutes last night.
As expected, Sekera manned the top PP and played over 22 minutes in all.
Tim Connolly did not play last night – he has a small fracture in one of his vertebrae. This caught everyone by surprise. He is out for a minimum of one week, but it sounds more serious than that to me.
Nathan Paetsch was a healthy scratch.
Chris Higgins did not play last night – groin injury.
Bad way to get some playing time: in just 9:51, Fleischmann managed to be a minus-2.
Chris Clark played just 11:45. He is no longer a part of the Washington offense.
Three points for Mike Green and the Caps d-man is well on his way to leading all blueliners in scoring this year.
Bryan Little had three points and was a plus-2 despite playing fewer than 13 minutes. He played with Kozlov and Christensen.
Schneider and Hainsey had over six minutes each of PP time. Enstrom and Havelid had just over three.
Brett Sterling was a scratch for Atlanta. Eric Fehr for Washington. Expect Fehr to swap with Fleischmann next game.
Patric Hornqvist played 15:43 in his NHL debut, but was pointless. Ryan Jones played 8:10.
Radek Bonk was a healthy scratch.
The Blues often used five forwards on the power play, with Kariya and McDonald back there. Alex Pietrangelo saw a bit of time there and it will increase with each game.
TJ Oshie played 15:34, no PP time. Berglund played 12:04 and 1:43 PP time.
There was a lot of Internet chatter about how the Blue Jackets were placing Voracek and Brassard on the fourth line with Jason Chimera, and how a 35-point player would drag down their values. Clearly they are too good, however, and in fact they dragged Chimera's value UP. Despite playing a combined 21 minutes, Brassard and Voracek tallied three points between them and helped Chimera have a two-point game. If these kids do this enough, Hitch will have no choice but to give them top-line status.
Interestingly, RJ Umberger played over 24 monster minutes last night. Always a good sign for his future under a different coach.
Loui Eriksson played nearly 19 minutes last night with over four on the PP.
Stephane Robidas played 18 minutes – over NINE on the power play and he had three points. Looks like he is covering for Zubov right now and makes a good temp pick up.
Fabian Brunnstrom was a healthy scratch in favor of James Neal, who scored his first career goal.
Patrick O'Sullivan will NOT play tonight. He will play tomorrow. Playing back to back games after missing training camp is probably not a good thing, so the Kings made the right decision.
Edmonton has waived Mathieu Roy.
Chuck Kobasew has a cracked bone in his ankle and will be out three to four weeks. He took a shot off it on Thursday.