If you are in a keeper league, then Matthew Bugg’s article Hockey Night in Slovakia is absolutely required reading. If you don’t read it, or if it doesn’t interest you, then call the commish of your league and hand in your resignation – fantasy hockey has passed you by.

Since returning from injury, Eric Staal has six points in five games. He also has 26 shots on goal in that span. The Staal we’ve come to expect may be starting to appear.

Chris Stewart has 10 points in his last eight games and is a plus-2 in that span. He is on pace for 46 points, which may be a little high for this season – I’m thinking 40 to 42. He should be a good bet to hit 100 PIM.

Is anyone else tired of Martin Erat? Three points in two games, followed by none in four. five points in three games followed by none in three. Now four points in three games. I guess right about now he’ll have three or four pointless games again. He does this every year it seems. It’s hard to set your lineup with mini-streakers. I like long-term streakers such as Fleischmann – that guy will go 6-10 games hot and then 4-6 games cold. None of this three/four games crap.

Mike Rupp had six points in seven games prior to getting shutout yesterday. He has been seeing time with Crosby (who was hurt last night – day to day). I wonder if we’ll see the creation of the next Mike Knuble or Chris Clark here – a tough, 10 or 20-point plugger who stumbles onto a line with a star and starts posting four to five times as many points as he should. Just a fleeting “I wonder”. I get a lot of those. In fact, I think today’s article will have me run through some of them.

After four points in his first 21 games, David Backes has seven in his last six.

Vladimir Zharkov has points in each of his last two games. If he continue with a point every two games up until Clarkson returns, they’ll find a way to keep him up. I’m starting to like his long-term potential as a second liner. Huge strides over the past year.

The Parse/Handzus/Simmonds line is on fire. Parse has six points in his last six games, while Simmonds has eight points in that span. Simmonds is on a six-game points streak. I had him – and still have him – labelled as an elite third-line checker, but this offensive performance is pretty impressive. I’d be surprised if he ever got 65 points, but he could be one of those covetted 50-point checkers that NHL teams love to have and are oh so rare (Handzus was a member of that club, until he came down with suckitis a few years ago). Yeah, I stole Angus’ word again…

Was anyone else disappointed to see a 2-1 game between CHI and PIT? I was hoping for 5-4.

Peter Mueller has missed three games now due to an undisclosed (probably UB) injury. I can’t help but wonder if this has contributed to his horrible numbers throughout the season to date. This may be one of those cases where you just write him off for the year and he’s in and out of the lineup trying to play through it…and then bounces back next season.

With Teemu Selanne on the shelf, the Ducks shifted Bobby Ryan back to a line with Saku Koivu and Dan Sexton (?); Joffrey Lupul returned to action on the top line with Perry and Getzlaf – that is where he has had success this season and as long as he remains there he is a threat for a point per game. He scored twice and played over 19 minutes.

No surprise here – the Caps claimed Chris Bourque off of waivers and shot him right down to Hershey.
Rick Dipietro stopped 10 of 13 shots in AHL action yesterday. It’s a start. Don’t expect him to start in the NHL for a good 10 days, and don’t expect good results until Christmas. At that point, however, he could potentially be a monster. I hate it that Pierre McGuire popularized that word, I always feel stupid when I use it now. But honestly – that’s the word I would have used anyway. Hey, I ain’t changin for anyone.

It’s been six games since Bryzgalov last allowed a third goal.

Line combos for Peter Laviolette in his first game as coach: Richards, with Briere and Hartnell; Carter with Giroux and JVR; Laperriere with Pyorala and Asham – Carcillo was kicked out of the game and Nodl/Kalinski were the other forwards.

Speaking of Carcillo, thanks to 49 penalty minutes in his last four games, he is on pace for 274 now. You should feel proud, if you picked him up about 10 days ago – the king is back!

Who’s hotter than Bryzgalov? Kipper. He’s allowed no more than two goals for seven consecutive starts now. He has three shutouts in his last 12 games and has allowed one goal or fewer in eight of his last 15. In about six weeks he has bumped his SP up from .898 to its present .927.

Not bad – Nick Backstrom, five points sans Ovechkin.

Man… I dropped this guy in September and drafted Vrbata – Eric Fehr. D’oh! Since returning from his rib injury, he has 13 points in 13 games and seven in his last four. He had a great two week run last season, but hit a wall. However, his has been four weeks now and he seems to be blossoming into that star power forward now.

Here is a big save by Kipper – everyone is talking about this huge save he made, with some calling it the save of the year…. I hope they’re talking about another save. I missed some of this game last night and this was the only big save I could pull up. But all I see here is flopping around, followed by shit luck. If it’s another save people are referring to, please let me know.

More to come later this am…