March 13, 2009

Dobber Sports

2009-03-13

 

Patric Hornqvist has a goal in eight straight AHL contests. He also has three assists in that span. If he keeps up his hot play, he'll be a lock for the Preds in the fall. He still looks good for 70 points some day.

 

Kovalchuk left last night's game early with an upper body injury. From the Atlanta Journal Constitution: “We don’t want to say too much right now because we don’t know for sure,” Atlanta coach John Anderson said. “He’s day to day as we speak right now. He had a little problem yesterday and I didn’t practice him. He said he was OK to go today and obviously he wasn’t, but I’ve got to give him credit for trying.”

 

Michael Repik was recalled and scored Florida's only goal. He is up to 50th on my prospect list and will compete for a spot in the fall. My feeling is he will be another year yet though.

 

Steve Eminger was a minus-1 again. He is pointless and minus-3 in four games for Florida. Even though Peter DeBoer was a former coach of his, he can't have a whole lot of patience here.

 

Give Ryan Shannon four points in four games. Last night he played a season high of 18:43. I've grabbed onto the back end of the bandwagon that has rolled past me, and I've swung a leg up onto it.

 

The new coach was his AHL coach, which could be a factor. Chris Neil was back in the lineup and Shannon still got the ice time.

 

Jason Arnott missed last night's contest with an "upper-body injury". However, I have heard a rumor (a source from a source from a source – you know how it goes) that he is plagued with a hip problem stemming from when Alexander Radulov celebrated a little too much on a playoff goal in the spring. Incidentally, the team called that a "concussion" for Arnott – but it was really his hip. He is apparently (allegedly?) playing through the pain when he can. By the way, the same rumor also links the hip injury and Radulov celebration to Radulov leaving for the KHL – Arnott allegedly ripped into him pretty hard behind the scenes over it and Rads may have felt a little unwelcome. Again – source of a source of a source, but it was enough to get me to move Arnott at the deadline.

 

Sean Bergenheim is out with a groin injury. It is poorly-timed injuries like this that turn potential second-liners into checkers or minor leaguers. I'm a believer in the tiniest thing changing the course of a player's career: Player A would turn into a superstar if he played in a certain game and picked up his destined three points, but was injured in practice and missed the contest… later there was no room for him and he was returned to the minors. The next time he was recalled, he saw minimal ice time and failed to produce. Player A, but for that twist of fate, became a career minor leaguer. Player B posts eight points in a 10-game NHL debut at the end of a season. In training camp he is lined up on the top line and lights up the exhibition games. Three games into the season he has three points. Then he tears his knee and is out until the end of the season. At which point there is no room for him so he is back to the minors. Next season he is a victim of the numbers game. Two years later, he finds an NHL job as a checker. Just throwing some fake examples out there that change a good offensive player into a minor-leaguer or a checker before their career even gets going. These last four weeks of the season are important for Bergenheim – he was just starting to heat up and if he remains hurt he will miss out. By next year, the Isles will have replenished their forward corps and the window for Bergenheim will have closed.

 

Petr Prucha has three points in his last four games, seeing at least 19:40 in each of his last three.

 

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Joakim Lindstrom was a minus-2 last night. Speaking of windows closing…

 

Vermette has four points in three games as a Jacket.

 

Jamie Lundmark has 10 points in 13 games this season for the Flames and eight in 10 games since his call up. He has been logging 12-15 minutes of ice time and makes a good temp pick up as a depth center, even though Langkow is back.

 

The Flyers went easy on Briere last night, giving just 12:20 of ice time. I am not sure you will see a lot of points from him really, until the last week or two of the season. They are rightfully being careful. He still logged top PP time.

 

Mike Iggulden has played in four NHL games this season and has points in all four, with five in total. The big, undrafted forward is ranked 185 on my prospects list, but has been in the top 100 before. However, when he turned 26 and still didn't make the team, he sunk like a stone. Now there is room for him and he is showing he deserves to stay. As I said above, if he keeps rolling through the end of the season and ends up with 17 points in 18 games, he could be something in the NHL. If he twists his knee next game and is out for a month – would he get a real shot next year? Twists of fate.

 

Patrik Berglund missed last night's contest with a UBI.

 

Alex Steen missed the game with a LBI.

 

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UPCOMING GAMES

Mar 29 - 19:03 BUF vs N.J

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
JURAJ SLAFKOVSKY MTL
AUSTON MATTHEWS TOR
NATHAN MACKINNON COL
JACK QUINN BUF
FILIP FORSBERG NSH

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
IGOR SHESTERKIN NYR
IVAN FEDOTOV PHI
FREDERIK ANDERSEN CAR
LOGAN THOMPSON VGK
ALEKSEI KOLOSOV PHI

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency FLA Players
21.1 SAM REINHART EETU LUOSTARINEN ANTON LUNDELL
18.9 CARTER VERHAEGHE MATTHEW TKACHUK SAM BENNETT
16.3 VLADIMIR TARASENKO EVAN RODRIGUES ALEKSANDER BARKOV

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