Here it is – the Top 20 Fantasy Hockey Events of the past decade, as decided by yours truly along with your input.

Ryan Smyth – to return Saturday. Kopitar owners rejoice

Jordan Staal took a puck off the face last night and was bleeding profusely. He left the game, but was in practice with a full shield today.

Brian Boucher left last night’s contest with a laceration on his right ring finger and he received “more than a few” stitches according to philly.com. The team has recalled Johan Backlund from the AHL. Leighton will get the start tomorrow and I would expect Boucher to be out for at least a week, possibly two or three.

Mathieu Garon faced just 23 shots but still allowed five goals last night. He didn’t win, so I figure he’s not “in” (re: Ken Hitchcock’s new “win and you’re in” strategy).

Jason Arnott will return to the lineup either today (game-time decision) or Saturday, according to John Glennon.

Cory Stillman is shooting for a return this weekend.

Tarik El-Bashir is reporting that Semyon Varlamov flt a tweak while working out on the recent road trip. He was in practice, albeit late, yesterday though. He is aiming to return December 30th.

Hot line alert – Upshall, Lombardi and Doan combined for 10 points last night, finally giving the Coyotes a line combo that has truly taken off. If this line can keep rolling it will have a domino effect on other lines as teams would have to focus more on shutting them down. However, Lombardi is a streaky player and a lot of the line’s success will ride on him.

Give Vrbata nine points in his last 10 games.

Weiss, Horton and Frolik – what more can I say? All three are on fire. On their own, I think Frolik can be a 90-point player, Horton an 85-point player and Weiss a 75-point player. Together, I think you can add five or 10 to each of those numbers ala Naslund/ Morrison/ Bertuzzi. But that won’t be until next year, as they took too long to start rolling this year.

I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate Martin Brodeur for shutout number 104. That’s remarkable over 17 seasons and I think he’ll eventually top the 120-mark.

We’ve seen these streaks from him before so we know he can do it – Alex Steen had four points last night. He saw the most PP ice time for the Blues last night, other than Carlo Colaiacovo (eh Leaf fans?). The Blues are desperate for offense and coach Andy Murray may be looking at Steen in a whole new light now. It wouldn’t surprise me to see more ice time and responsibility over the next few games. He may be worth a waiver pickup. However, he is still playing with Winchester and McClement so if that doesn’t change you’ll be dropping him again in a hurry. The first PP unit was: Steen, Boyes, McDonald, Tkachuk and Colaiacovo. The next unit was Backes, Berglund, Kariya, Oshie and EJ.

Viktor Stalberg has two goals in two games since his recall, once again making an early impact.

Make it back-to-back starts for Jaroslav Halak, who has stopped 87 of 90 shots in those two games. It would appear that the team is showcasing him for a trade, but in my opinion they will play hardball for an extremely good deal – Price is not quite ready to shoulder the entire team and needs the push of a good backup.

I hate when I’m wrong about players and I hate when I don’t understand the production of players. So I’m not the biggest Tomas Plekanec fan. With four points last night, he now has more points than he did ALL of last season. Do we have another Vinny Prospal on our hands? 47 points; 69 points; 39 points; and what looks to be 75 points. It’s still early, but if I can pigeonhole his production into the anomaly that is Vinny Prospal, then it will make me feel better about the situation.

Andrei Kostitsyn update: 17 points in his last 15 games. My THN article on Saturday was on Kostitsyn. If you missed it, you can find it here.

Speaking of The Hockey News, I’ll have part one of a two-part series up today. The series is on the Top 20 Fantasy Hockey events of the decade. I’ll post the link to it later today when it is up.

Marc-Andre Bergeron played 12 minutes last night and was the Habs’ PP specialist. He scored a pair of goals. I was a huge fan of his in the summer after he was traded to the Islanders, since he had 21 points in 23 games I thought the world of his potential. However, he sputtered out of the gates with 18 points in 46 games with some healthy scratches and then a trade to Anaheim. So I don’t trust his hot streaks and I don’t trust his hold on a roster spot.

Tobias Enstrom is on a six-game points streak and has nine points in that span. He’s on pace for 67, but I would pencil him in to flirt with 60.

John Tavares has gone five games without a point for the first time in his career. His career is half a season long. Crosby went five games without a point for the first time in his career just a month ago. His career is over four seasons long.

That four-point game last night puts Ryan Malone back on track for over 75 points this season. His career high is 51 and it looks like he’ll reach it with 25 games still left in the schedule. Because he has missed 40 games over the last four years, I wouldn’t count on more than 72 games this season and thus pencil him in for 65 points with upside. Funny how playing with Stamkos is helping him more than playing with Malkin, but with power forwards they take longer to hit their prime. If he were still playing with Malkin I can’t imagine how the two of them would be rolling.

The December edition of Dobber Nation is up. I’ll have the introductory article up later this morning, but you access it right now via the Radio Show page. Lots of great discussion on WJC notables with several guests for all you keeper league owners. I also give my take on a wide range of topics.

Countdown to the release of the Midseason Guide: 18 days

One more plug – DobberBaseball’s Top 150 Keeper League Pitchers is now updated.