Dobber’s weekly Puck Daddy article. Check it out!

Check out the photographic evidence of this past Sunday’s DobberHockey event at the Marlies game HERE

Expect Mats Zuccarello Aasen to sign with an NHL club very, very soon. I am henceforth going to refer to him as MZA, as it is much easier to type out! Not sure what his immediate upside is, but he proved at the Olympics that he can handle the physical stuff.

Dobber jumping on – just wanted to wish Mr. Justin Goldman a Happy Birthday. The master goalie analyst! So everyone go read his article and pay him a nice compliment.

I just posted the video of Henrik Sedin’s assist from last night. Wow.

Mikko Koivu is out tonight with an arm injury, per Michael Russo. I wonder who fills in for him on the top unit?

Dobber will be on The Hockey News radio show at 3:45 Friday (XM station 204) chatting puck.

We are looking for sponsors for the upcoming Playoff Pool! A great way to get thousands of hockey fans to check out your product or service!

The third annual Prime Cuts roster will be out very soon. Although there are still over two weeks left in the season, most of the important roster decisions have been made. It is fun to put together, and I hope you guys/gals can get some enjoyment reading it! Here are some links to the past two editions: 2007-08, and 2008-09. Picking the backup goalie was especially tough, because there are so many goalies in the league that have gone from backup to starter over the course of this season.

Follow me on twitter! @angus_j. I respond to fantasy questions over there as well as on DobberHockey.

Peter Chiarelli continues to display his inability to understand the salary cap. Re-signing a decent 5^th/6^th defenseman in Andrew Ference to a three-year extension that will pay him over $2 million per season is absurd. Boston is struggling to score this season because they have a plethora of overpaid, mediocre players (Sturm, Lucic, Wideman, Ryder), and Ference now joins that group. Ference's inability to stay healthy makes the contract even worse. He will play 60 games this year if he doesn't miss any down the stretch, and that total would be his highest as a Bruin. He played 59 back in 2007-08, and only 47 last season. I am not saying that overpaying for a depth defenseman by a million bucks is going to completely hamstring a team, but a few of these deals together will.

In addition to those bad contracts listed above, Chiarelli chose to keep David Krejci and Milan Lucic over Phil Kessel, which is a mistake in hindsight. He is extremely lucky that Burke made a foolish move in dealing the draft picks, as Boston reportedly wanted to deal Kessel to Nashville instead, but Phil refused to sign there. The Thomas contract was bad, but at the time it would have been tough to justify letting the reigning Vezina winner walk (although great GM's have to make those tough choices). Chiarelli also gave big money to Matt Hunwick, an unproven defenseman who hasn't shown much at the NHL level yet. He also overpaid for Chuck Kobasew, a glorified third-line winger. I am not dumping on the Bruins as a team or organization, but I just feel bad for their fans as the GM is doing his best to screw up their future. This is a team that has gone from SECOND to DEAD LAST in goals for per game over the last two seasons!

I have recently joined my first baseball pool in four years – so I’ll be reading a lot over at DobberBaseball. The forum is really picking up, so if you are in any baseball leagues, you may want to bounce some ideas off of the growing community over there. And of course, you should strongly consider picking up the fantasy baseball guide. Unfortunately I don’t contribute to it (although if you want to win your baseball pool, that probably is a good thing).

I was lucky enough to attend the Canuck game last night (in fantastic seats I may add), and here are some of my thoughts:

Ryan Kesler, one of the best skaters in the NHL, is the slowest player on his line. Both Mason Raymond and Michael Grabner can absolutely fly. Grabner's game has really evolved this season, and he is looking more and more comfortable with each game. Grabner has an astounding 43 shots in only 13 games with the Canucks this season, which prorates to 271 over an 82 game season. 35 of Grabner's shots have come at even strength too, which prorates to 221, a number that will probably only be surpassed by Ovechkin and Parise this season. Even with a shooting percentage of nine or ten (average), Grabner would be a 25-30 goal scorer with the number of pucks he is throwing at the net. He has bobbled the puck in prime scoring areas, but he isn't afraid to go to the net, and he is so fast that he gets himself in great shooting situations. Looks primed to be a regular for the Canucks next season, and he may stick around when Mikael Samuelsson returns.

Sami Salo is one of the best defensemen in the NHL. He simply never loses puck battles, and always makes smart plays in all three zones. It’s a shame he has always been so injury prone.

Andrew Raycroft was fantastic. He has been everything you could want in a backup goalie this season.

Henrik Sedin's pass on Alex Burrows' goal was unbelievable. I'll link to it when I can.

Troy Bodie is huge. I have no idea what he is listed at, but he was towering over everyone on both teams.

Darcy Hordichuk and George Parros had two beauty scraps. Best sign of the night – "Parros is the kind of guy Hordichuk fights on the way to a fight." Earned a chuckle or two.

Speaking of Samuelsson, expect him back sooner than the three weeks that was originally thought. He could play next Tuesday against Phoenix.

The Ducks lack the swagger they had a few years ago. So much talent/depth lost at both defense and forward will do that.

Sorry for the Canuck-heavy ramblings, I had a great time at the game and felt like sharing!

Vancouver signed 2008 draft pick Prab Rai to a contract. He has a long way to go before making the NHL, but he earned the deal with an impressive 41-goal campaign this season for the Seattle Thunderbirds. Seattle’s next highest scorer had 21 goals, and after that 13.

Ryan Getzlaf left the game last night after Henrik Sedin fell awkwardly on his ankle. He wasn't skating that well before the incident – it is obvious that he is playing through that same injury he suffered before the Olympics.

Scott Bowman gives his thoughts on Montreal's goaltending situation: ""Don't trade Carey Price."

Price seems to have the absolute worst luck this season. He had another stellar start, stopping 40 of 42 shots last night. However, the Sabres prevailed 3-2 in the shootout. The bottom four teams in the Eastern Playoff race appear to be fighting for futility. It will be very interesting to see if the Thrashers can climb into the picture. Imagine an Atlanta-New Jersey first round matchup!

Marian Gaborik had a huge three-point game last night for the struggling Rangers. With Quick and Fleury as my goalies in my H2H league (first round of the playoffs is underway), I'll need all the offense I can get this week!

Pavol Demitra missed his second straight game dealing with a personal issue. Not really sure what is going on there – he left the team a few weeks ago because his wife was sick, so perhaps she hasn't gotten better yet.

Erik Christensen had two helpers and played four minutes with the man advantage. If you are desperate for goals or assists, he may be a guy to pick up during the final stretch here.

Sidney Crosby's shootout move last night was absolutely sensational. I'll get a video up when I can.

Jose Theodore is an unbelievable 17-0-2 in his last 19 starts. I had a hunch before the season started that he would be the guy for the Caps down the stretch, and it looks like that is going to be the case. Theodore's unbeaten streak is the longest by a goaltender in the past decade!

The key to Detroit having a successful playoff run is going to be their secondary scoring, as they took a big hit losing Samuelsson, Hossa, and Hudler. The most important player for them aside from the stars is Valtteri Filppula, and he has struggled for most of the 2009-10 season. However, over the past few games he has been absolutely fantastic. He had three points last night against the Blues, and now has eight points in his last three contests. He could be a 70 point guy next season if he plays in an offensive role.

Eric Fehr scored again, and is continuing to produce despite limited minutes. He played under 12 minutes last night, and has averaged that mark for his past 10 games. He still has an impressive six goals during that span though.

Last night marked only the second time EVER that Roberto Luongo has not started at home for the Canucks (while healthy). The last game that he sat on the bench for was all the way back in January of 2008.

A beauty from Marty two nights ago – check it out. He is a lock for my Prime Cuts team, set to be released over the coming weeks. It’s a shame he doesn’t play in a more visible market – he truly is one of the most purely talented players in the world. His ability to get one-timers off from anywhere is extremely impressive.

Daniel Sedin gets out his six iron for this one:

No… this wasn’t me:

A jaw-dropping pass: