Fantasy Hockey Ramble – March 19, 2009

Dobber Sports

2009-03-19

 

Francois Beauchemin has been back on the ice for the past week doing some light skating and shooting pucks. I can see him back in the lineup for the final week of the season.

 

Sergei Samsonov has 41 points in his last 53 games. When he started the year with just three in 18, it scared a lot of people off. But the bottom line is, for the last 53 games he has been a 63-point player. He'll get at least that in 2009-10.

 

Todd White has already set a career high with 63 points. He is also on track to play all 82 games for the first time in his career. It just goes to show – you can study and study and study this stuff, breaking out the spreadsheets and drilling down into the data – but there are always some things in fantasy hockey that you are just at a loss to explain. Billions of people on this planet and not one of them would have said last summer that Todd White would get 70 points in 80 games this year.

 

Rod Brind'Amour is a plus-4 in his last 18 games. He was a minus-30 prior to that. He has nine points in his last seven games.

 

An old Dobber favorite, who admittedly has been a bit of a letdown over the past two seasons, Ryan Callahan has six points in his last six games. It seems as though they just needed to clear the logjam of second/third line wingers (i.e. Dawes, Fritsche and Prucha)

 

Steve Ott has 28 points in his last 29 games. It's time to start considering him in points-only keeper leagues. At 26, he is only just entering his prime and he was a top scorer in junior. The only problem is – he is injury prone. Still, you can't ignore his production. I can see him posting 60 points in 73 games year in and year out.

 

Ray Whitney has 19 points in his last 15 games. He's on pace to top 70. In six weeks he turns 37. Who would have thought he would be such a prolific scorer well into his 30s?

 

Alexei Ponikarovsky has nine points in seven games since the deadline. Nik Antropov has six in seven. Just who was helping whom when they were in Toronto?

 

It's approaching playoff time, so that must mean it's time for Johan Franzen to step into a phone booth and then seconds later emerge as a superstar. He has 14 points in 14 games since his hand injury, so he is definitely heating up.

 

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Nashville grinder Joel Ward is really playing well with JP Dumont. Never more than a 40-point player in the AHL, he is translating that to the NHL already. He has 11 points in his last 11 games. This is surely a blip, but he could be eligible for both wings in your league and may keep this up for another week or two yet.

 

Cory Murphy has a broken foot. This guy can't stay healthy and it's hurting his career. TB now has Ranger, Meszaros, Malik and Murphy on the shelf. If Matt Lashoff can't produce under these conditions (where he is practically the No.2 defenseman now), then give up on him.

 

With Fabian Brunnstrom, Mark Parrish and Jere Lehtinen all back in the Dallas lineup between yesterday and the day before, James Neal saw his ice time drop to less than 12 minutes.

 

St. Louis' farm club Peoria has signed Jori Lehtera from over in Finland. Lehtera is a good offensive prospect with an upside in the upper tier. Of the 600 or so prospects in my spreadsheet, he is one of 60 or so with an upside of 85 points or more. What was holding him down to his current ranking of 177 was the question of whether or not he would come to North America. Question answered. He moves up.

 

Carolina rearguard Anton Babchuk has 11 points and is a plus-12 in his last 14 games.

 

The 'Canes signed their sixth rounder from 2008, goaltender Mike Murphy. He was 40-9-4 this year for Belleville of the OHL. He is ranked 91 on my goalie list, but moves up with this news. It wouldn't surprise me to see him as their AHL starter next season.

 

Finally – here are some pics taken at DobberHockey night at the Marlies from March 7 – a great time was had by all. Thanks to Keith Murray for the photos.

 

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UPCOMING GAMES

Nov 25 - 19:11 T.B vs COL
Nov 25 - 19:11 NYR vs STL
Nov 25 - 19:11 CAR vs DAL
Nov 25 - 19:11 FLA vs WSH
Nov 25 - 19:11 PHI vs VGK
Nov 25 - 19:11 N.J vs NSH
Nov 25 - 19:11 OTT vs CGY
Nov 25 - 19:11 NYI vs DET
Nov 25 - 20:11 MIN vs WPG
Nov 25 - 22:11 ANA vs SEA
Nov 25 - 22:11 S.J vs L.A

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
KENT JOHNSON CBJ
JOSH MANSON COL
AARON EKBLAD FLA
KIEFER SHERWOOD VAN
DMITRI VORONKOV CBJ

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
KAREL VEJMELKA UTA
JOSEPH WOLL TOR
JOHN GIBSON ANA
UKKO-PEKKA LUUKKONEN BUF
PYOTR KOCHETKOV CAR

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency SEA Players
20.3 CHANDLER STEPHENSON DANIEL SPRONG JADEN SCHWARTZ
16.1 JARED MCCANN ANDRE BURAKOVSKY MATTY BENIERS
16.1 EELI TOLVANEN YANNI GOURDE OLIVER BJORKSTRAND

DobberHockey Podcasts

Keeping Karlsson Short Shifts – Regicide

Jeremy and Shams are here to break down all the new injuries and update timelines as well. After all the injury news they close out the show covering all the cold Kings players giving actionable fantasy advice on each one. Lastly, they close out the show the latest hot Russian forward for Columbus that is only 1% rostered on Yahoo right now.

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