Dobber:  Midseason Guide, OUT NOW. It is a “pre-release”, meaning that there will be some editing, formatting and late-breaking updates to add for the “official” release of Saturday, but I wanted to get the info out to you as soon as possible in case of you have drafts this evening. More info on this, as well as leave feedback – here.

Andrei Kostitsyn had knee surgery this morning and is out for 4-6 weeks.

Henrik Sedin has 102 points and 35 goals in his last 82 regular season games.

Darren Dreger is reporting that Marc Savard is out for 2-3 weeks with a knee injury.

Rick DiPietro is STARTING tonight.

I wrote a pretty interesting piece on the Olympics and what kind of fantasy impact you can expect from them. Dobber and the great writing team here goes in depth on every team, in terms of rosters, trade targets, prospects, and so on.

Andrej  Meszaros is a healthy scratch tonight. He has been thoroughly outplayed by Mike Lundin and Matt Smaby on the Tampa Bay blueline.

Marc Savard left last night’s contest 28 seconds in with a knee injury, Can’t dig up further deets, but he will have an MRI today.

Benoit Pouliot scored a nice goal for the Habs. I haven’t watched them play in a while so I am not sure how he is doing, but it seems like he is producing at a decent clip. Win-win trade, perhaps? Latendresse looks completely rejuvenated in Minnesota.

I’ll post Looking Ahead by Crazynuck tomorrow afternoon.

Awesome stat I pulled off of twitter from ryanclassic. Jonathan Cheechoo had five hat tricks in 2005-06. This season, he has four goals.

Atlanta snapped their nine game losing streak with a  2-1 shootout win. Jim Slater scored the lone regulation goal, and is the only Thrasher to score over the past two games.

Toot! Yes, that indeed is the sound of me tooting my own horn. When I am wrong (trust me, it does happen once in a while), I will own up. If I don't, I'll probably have a reader call me out on it. Anyway, A few weeks back I was pushing hard that Alex Burrows was a buy low candidate. He was struggling offensively without Daniel Sedin, and was on pace for about 15 goals. Well after two consecutive hat tricks, he has 17 and looks like a lock to break the 30-goal barrier.

Henrik Sedin now has a three-point lead over Joe Thornton atop the NHL scoring race. Absolutely mind-blowing – everyone had these guys pegged as consistent 75-85 point players. Henrik already has 61 with just under 40 games to go! He is on pace for 113… I am not touching that one… but suddenly 100 points doesn't seem too far off the mark.

Patrick Marleau is on pace for 52 goals. Hey Doug Wilson, you may want to start negotiating with this one…

Drew Doughty is on pace for 59 points. He turned 20 a few weeks ago.

Sad story with Dan Ryder and the armed robbery he was charged with. I hope he is able to sort out whatever personal demons are haunting him before it is too late. I'm sure this is tough for Mike to go through as well.

Roberto Luongo is on fire right now. He got his 50^th career shutout last night, and when asked about it, he responded, "well, that is about halfway to Marty, isn't it?" A little under, but its always good to have goals isn't it. He has quietly crept up into a tie for 3^rd in wins (shared with Jonathan Quick) with 23. Last 8 games: 7-0-1, .946 SV %, 1.48 GAA, and a shutout.

Oh, and this Brodeur guy had a shutout as well. Canada should be in decent shape between the pipes.

Jimmy Howard channeled his inner Hasek tonight, making 50 saves for the win. He stopped 27 shots alone in the second period!

Blake Wheeler is quietly on fire right now. He had another two points tonight.

Something had to give with the struggling Oilers hosting the struggling Jackets. Columbus won, snapping their 13 game road losing streak. Edmonton has lost 11 of 12.

Norris favourite Duncan Keith filled up the stat sheet. He had two goals, an assist, was plus-3, had three shots on goal, and played over 22 minutes. He is on pace for close to 75 points – may be time to sell high. It is tough to say though. Keith obviously isn't a PPG defenseman (there realistically is only one of those around right now), but it is awfully tough to move a player playing so well.

Erik Johnson has gone ice cold with one assist in his last 10 games. The Blues dropped their second consecutive game with new coach Davis Payne in charge. The coaching changes sure aren't working out so far this season.

Dan Sexton had an assist after three straight pointless games. He only saw 13 minutes of ice time, but made them count. Sexton also had three shots on goal.

The injury bug takes another chunk out of the Wings. Tomas Holmstrom is out for 3-4 weeks with a foot injury. Todd Bertuzzi's numbers will continue to be falsely inflated because of extra power play time. The Wings desperately need depth back, and Johan Franzen in particular. There are few players in the league that combine skill and size better then he does.

Mike Ribeiro is out for 4-6 weeks after undergoing a tracheotomy yesterday. He got a stick in the throat and was having trouble breathing. The Stars don't really have anyone to step up and fill in on the second line. Mike Modano is on his last legs and can't play 18+ minutes any more.

The guy I have my eye on? Tom Wandell. I'd take a flier on him in your pool, Dallas has a ton of talent at wing, and Wandell is a solid player in all three zones. Wandell had 41 points last season with Timra of the SEL, but he doesn't really have a track record as an offensive producer. However, he never has been given the chance to be one at the NHL level.

Both Henrik Zetterberg and Dan Cleary returned to the Detroit lineup vs. the Kings last night, though. Cleary will probably be put in on the power play to give it some net presence, a position normally filled by Holmstrom and Franzen.

Jaroslav Halak has made a tricky situation that much worse. Instead of playing "fairly" well to build up his trade value, he is completely and single-handedly winning games for the Habs. He had a 38 save shutout last night. Does Montreal bite the bullet and deal him anyway, or do they deal prized prospect and the future franchise in Carey Price? Something has to give eventually.

Evgeni Malkin has 13 goals this season. Mike Rupp has 10. Something isn't right there…

I was a year early with Patric Hornqvist. After a year of adjustment in the AHL last season, he is showing that he can play at this level. He scored last night, and is on pace for 30. Don't be surprised if he hits it.

JVR is coming around a bit – two goals tonight for the Flyers. All young players have ups and downs, it comes with the territory.

Marc-Andre Fleury has lost five straight and was yanked after giving up four on only 15 shots.

Puck Daddy chats with Ryan Suter about the Olympics, among other things.

A few "hunches" of mine:

I see big second halves for Roy and Vanek on Buffalo coming. I think Vanek is playing hurt – he is one of the best pure goal scorers in the league and is tremendously undervalued right now. Roy is incredibly streaky and can get white hot for a 10-20 game stretch.

Blake Wheeler continues to show signs of why he was drafted so high. Once he gets the NHL game figured out from a mental perspective, he has sky-high upside. Plays similar game to Rick Nash – not same skating explosiveness or skill level, but not as far away as you may think.

Dan Carcillo was fined by the NHL for a throat slashing gesture on Wednesday night against Toronto. Too bad the Leafs don't get the money, maybe they could use it to attract a better PK coach. Their penalty kill is dead last, and is operating at a sub 70% efficiency. I looked back through the past 10 years and couldn't find a single team with a worse mark.

I watched the Washington/Ottawa game last night. Some of my thoughts…

Ottawa's PP makes my eyes bleed. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Kovalev playing like a plugger, and a bunch of pluggers trying to play like Kovalev.

Washington is hands down the most fun team to watch in the NHL. They trade chances, they give up odd-man rushes, and they absolutely hound the puck in all three zones.

Ray Ferraro brought up a crazy stat  – Washington has scored at least two goals in every single home game this season. Wow.

Jose Theodore is incredibly sketchy to watch. Even on clean looks, he fumbles the puck and looks behind him. Nice to see him play a good game, especially after what he went through last off-season. However, Washington would be foolish to not inquire about adding a goalie at the deadline – they have a great shot at going very deep this year, but obviously goaltending means so much in the playoffs.

Alex Ovechkin directed 19 shots on goal. 10 hit the net. Insanity.

Henrik to Burrows for his sixth goal in two games.

Ovechkin makes Matt Carkner look like… well Matt Carkner.

Refs blow a call in the Philly/Pittsburgh game.