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Adding to New Jersey’s woes (noted below), Brian Rolston left last night’s contest with a lower back injury, and Leblond (video below) will receive at least a one-game suspension. So the Devils barely hanging on with 20 players… are now barely hanging on with 17 players – and no cap space to bail them out. I’m just gonna sit back, sip my coffee, and watch how Teflon Lou weasels his way out of this one without making a trade or putting a high salary in the minors.

The word on Pekka Rinne (noted below) is not very helpful. Terms like “day to day” and “lower body injury” don’t help us much, but that’s what he have to work with. If he misses four games, then Mark Dekanich will get a start I’m sure, otherwise it will be all Anders Lindback.

Chris Pronger could play Monday for the Flyers.

Cam Fowler got his first NHL point Saturday. That gives him one point in two games, which is more than Perry, Getzlaf and Ryan combined.

John Tavares left last night’s contest with a concussion. He’ll be re-evaluated, but to my knowledge the diagnosis implies that he will miss a week. Judging by Saturday’s game after the incident, Doug Weight picked up the added ice time. The result was three points for Weight. If you need a one-week injection of points, the veteran may be the guy to turn to. I’m sure he’s available in most leagues.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Mike Ribeiro has seemingly rebounded (three points in the first two games). After all, he sorely missed Brenden Morrow last season and struggled with his own injuries to boot. Now healthy, and with a healthy Morrow, Ribs should return to 70-80 points.

Interesting to see Blake Comeau play 21 minutes. Some of that was Tavares gone, but it’s very promising – his drawback was his ice time. I feared he wouldn’t get enough to maintain any consistency, but so far so good.

If I were to state the biggest criticisms of my Fantasy Guide, it is that 1. I projected high on too many defensemen and 2. I projected high on too many rookies. In fact, I had two rookies reaching 70 points and a handful of them topping 45. But I think this year is a strong rookie crop, and so far we’re seeing that play out with the performances of Derek Stepan, Jordan Eberle, Tyler Ennis, John Carlson, etc.

So did Carlson just get a goal, two assists, plus-1 and 12 penalty minutes? What’d I tell ya 18 months ago? Money in the bank, and the presense of Mike Green was/is not going to stop him.
The aforementioned Green tallied zero points on Washington’s seven goals.

Derek Stepan’s first NHL game resulted in… a hat trick. He wasn’t playing with Marian Gaborik, folks. That’s allll Stepan, baby. And frankly, I think he’s more of a set-up man than a goal scorer, so the hot stick bodes well.

Marty Turco had an average first game, but a pretty weak second game. And the moral of the story is he didn’t win either of them. I’m picking up Corey Crawford, just a sec… there, the bid is in.

Sure, Radim Vrbata had three points yesterday. But he had four points in the first two games of the year in 2009-10… and look how he ended up.

Pittsburgh is playing Zzzzzz hockey. They need to play more up-tempo, they have the firepower. Bylsma’s system works, as it got them the Cup… but I do believe that he has made that system even tighter over the last year or so, and it’s keeping the goals down.

Benoit Pouliot is only getting 12 minutes a game, but he has two points in two games. This what he needs to do – produce with minimal ice time, so that he can earn more of it.

Speaking of players who need to do that – Patrick O’Sullivan. Bail. I was wrong about him. I was right in that he is talented, but he doesn’t give a shit so why should poolies? He’s getting the least ice time of any Carolina forward and he’s half-assing plays by reaching out with his stick, or dogging it back to his own end…whatever he can do to get a prime seat in the press box, he’s doing it. Talent, wasted. And when he gets a second lease on his career, too. I own him in all four of my leagues, plus my pool. Getting him dirt cheap each time (thankfully). So if I’m bragging about how I’m right (above), then I have to take my medicine on this clown. Two games in and we already know – bail.

The jury is still out on the Paul Martin, Alex Goligoski, Kris Letang debate. So far they have two, two and one in terms of points, respectively. Goli is getting the top PP ice time so far.

Tomas Kopecky is playing with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews on the top power play, much to the dismay of Troy Brouwer owners (like myself in two leagues). However, Brouwer is still holding his own with two points in two contests.

Alex Steen was in on both St. Louis goals Saturday, so he has picked up where he left off from the second half last season. He’ll top 60 points this year, barring an injury.

NikoLAY Zherdev (he insists on the proper spelling of his name) is pointless in two games and averaging 12 minutes per. How many of your leagues saw him getting drafted ahead of Ville Leino? All of them? It says here that Leino beats him.

If anyone knows how to get a hold of Alex Kovalev, tell him to hurry up – the season is starting.

Kovalev – pointless in two games, minus-2 Saturday, and his ice time slipped to under 13 minutes.

Erik Karlsson was pointless and minus-1 in each of the games so far. Not a good sign, but I still call him a slam dunk. For this year. 50 points.

The Thrashers called up Drew McIntyre, as Ondrej Pavelec will be sidelined indefinitely as you know. They say it is a concussion, but everyone is confused as to how it happened. He just fell to the ice, out of the blue. The play was dead and everyone was on the other side of the rink, and Pavelec just collapses. There is something more to this, absolutely.

This is the worst thing that could happen to the Devils – a player breaks his nose. Volchenkov is not injured enough to go on the IR, so he remains on the cap. Yet he may miss a game or two. The Devils are clinging to a 20-man roster to get under the cap. How long can they continue just eking by?

The Wild have sent Casey Wellman and Anton Khudobin to the minors. Wellman is expected to be back up within a week, as he just needs some ice time. But it’s looking like we won’t see much out of him in terms of good numbers for the first couple of months of the season.

Brandon Pirri played nine minutes in his first NHL game for Chicago last night. He was minus-1. I’d love to see them give Igor Makarov a similar chance, and I think they will. As well as Kyle Beach. The team will probably rotate the three of them here and there until someone steps up big in a game.

Buffalo prospect Luke Adam had four points in his first AHL game. Adam is a valuable prospect to own because he has size and toughness – and the Sabres aren’t known to have a lot of that. Next year.

Carolina has sent Brett Carson, Bobby Sanguinetti and Justin Pogge to the AHL.

Eric Staal’s fantasy hockey team includes his taking Jeff Skinnger in the 14th round. That implies that he believes his teammate will be at least in the top 174 scorers this year. So there you have it.

Pekka Rinne left last night’s contest in the third period after a collision in front of the net. He did not return. Undisclosed injury. Anders Lindback would be a wise pickup.

Take away the first period of the first game against the Leafs, and Carey Price has been excellent in the five periods since. Very promising for Price owners.

Tough guy Leblond takes on tough guy Marcus Johansson…er…rather, he cheap shots the not-so-tough rookie Johansson. A fine and investigation is forthcoming: