January 31, 2009
Dobber Sports
2009-01-31
Rankings glitch fixed. February now updated (it was still January's until now)
Mathieu Garon will make his Pens debut tonight starting against – you guessed it – the team that everyone dresses their backup for (it seems that way – please don't email me Leaf fans it was a joke!) – Toronto.
Tomas Kaberle has a broken bone in his hand. He will be out for 3-4 weeks. Look for Ian White to take advantage, and for Anton Stralman to get a better look.
The rankings later today will feature the return of "winners and losers".
To listen to the radio show while you surf, CLICK HERE . To inquire about advertising on this great show and reach the full attention of 10,000 sets of ears, CLICK HERE .
New WAS line combos, according to Tarik El-Bashir's Blog: Fedorov, with Ovy and Semin; Backstrom with Fleischmann and Fehr; Nylander with Laich and Kozlov.
Dan Fritsche played just under 12 minutes last night in his Wild debut. He was matched on several lines, but was mostly with Peter Olvecky and Pierre-Marc Bouchard.
Backstrom gave up three goals on 11 shots and was yanked. He is 2-3-0 in his last five and has seen his GAA increase by .06 and his SP slip by .02 in that span.
Brett Sterling has just 26 points in 36 AHL games, seemingly taking his demotion hard. I'd be tempted to give up too, if I dominated the AHL for two years and then make the NHL under my AHL coach…then score in minimal ice time… and then get demoted for not scoring again in limited minutes. My guess is, he'll be off to Europe this year. The Thrashers have recalled Colin Stuart and Joe Motzko over him (yesterday). Time to cut bait here.
Speaking of giving up, Janis Sprukts has. The Panthers have released him to play for the Latvian National Team. Okay, that's not really giving up, but since Sprukts has given up before…I'm not convinced he will come back.
The Coyotes have recalled Alexander Nikulin.
Further to my ramblings Friday, Krejci was given a "maintenance day" yesterday and he will be in the lineup.