October 12, 2010
Dobber Sports
2010-10-12
The Sharks have placed Thomas Greiss on waivers. I can see Atlanta having interest, but otherwise I don’t know of a team that would go after him. Which is a shame, because he is an underrated netminder.
It’s not official, but it sounds as though at the very least Pekka Rinne will be the backup in Wednesday’s game, recovering from his lower body injury.
Martin Erat has missed a couple of practices with a back injury, so he is questionable for tomorrow night.
Here it is, I dug it up – Getzlaf is pointless in three games this year, he had just three points in seven games to start off last year, and he managed just one point in six to kick things off in 2008-09. You could pretty much set your watch to it, with this guy.
I find it interesting that, three games in, Mike Green has just one point despite logging a ton of power-play time. Meanwhile, John Carlson has four points with secondary PP minutes. I told you – his talent is at a level where opportunity, or lack thereof, will not stop him from succeeding.
Peter Regin found himself on a line with Ryan Shannon and Alex Kovalev. He also saw his ice time dip below 12 minutes and his PP time slide to almost nil. He still managed an assist, but this is why I caution you that 50 points is probably not in the cards this season. It COULD be, but don’t bank on it. What he needs is an injury to Milan Michalek (just wait a minute) – that guy sucked up all the PP time on him (seven minutes worth).
So the Devils actually played with just nine forwards yesterday. Unbelievable. That kinda rips off the fans who bought tickets to see a team and not three-quarters of one. But it also rips off the four players who should have been called up from the AHL – you know…”jobs”. Why the NHLPA isn’t going nuts about that is beyond me. What would they do if another guy got hurt – play with 14? Where is the line? Should Chicago have hung onto Byfuglien and just went with a smaller roster all year?
Pittsburgh’s leading scorers – Goligoski and Martin have three points each, and Letestu and Letang have two each. In the league that I own Malkin in, I’m doing pretty well. I can’t wait until he shows up and puts me over the top.
Marc Letestu is an excellent waiver pickup right now as a No.4 center in a lot of fantasy leagues. If you’re struggling with depth in that position, grab him. He’s producing fairly well and is seeing time with Malkin. The Pens as a whole aren’t scoring goals though. The coach needs to loosen up. Am I right fantasy owners?
There was an obsene amount of penalties in the Anaheim vs. St. Louis game and Alex Steen saw over 14 minutes of power-play time. How he saw that much PP time and failed to record a point is beyond me, but he led the Blues’ forwards in ice time and PP time by a wide margin, which tells me what the coach thinks of him. Great sign.
Carlo Colaiacovo is the other point-man on the power play, which left Erik Johnson and Alex Pietrangelo on the second unit.
Ryan, Perry and Getzlaf are still looking for their first points. I believe, if I’m not mistake, we go through this crap every year with Getzlaf for about five games. People get antsy and start writing in, asking me if I think he’ll turn it around. Then somehow he managed to end the season with 90 points. So relax! Yes, he’ll be fine – go grab him from an impatient owner!
Nick Leddy got his first career NHL point for the Hawks.
Another good under the radar player is Tomas Kopecky. He has three points in three games now playing on the top line.
Sergei Bobrovsky is now 2-0-0 in his NHL career.
Rich Hammond is reporting that Andrei Loktionov practiced on a line with Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown. He’s a very underrated prospect, particularly in fantasy circles.
John MacLean broke up the Parise, Kovalchuk and Zajac line yesterday later in the game and stuck Langenbrunner back in there instead of Kovy.
On the Forecheck reports that Pekka Rinne “hopes” to practice today, so that sounds promising for an early return.
Semyon Varlamov is practicing hard and shouldn’t be too much longer getting back between the pipes for the Caps.
The Sharks have sent down surprise camp standout Tommy Wingels. He was an offensive star in the US college circuit, so there is some potential here. It won’t happen this year though, unless a key forward gets hurt.
The Bruins have signed tough guy Brian McGrattan. no word on when he will make his debut.
Jason Pominville was hit hard by Nick Hjalmarsson (who was kicked out of the game). Pominville left on a stretcher.
He sustained a concussion. Here’s the footage:
What is Wisniewski trying to say to Sean Avery?