Angus here – I’ll be hoping on the radio at 9:30 PST tonight to chat fantasy hockey (Monday). Go to 1040 on your AM dials, or you can listen live.

Announcement – I have decided to hold the December 9 fantasy hockey gathering at the River Rock Casino in Vancouver!

Adrian Dater reports that Craig Anderson was out there taking shots today. Looks like another week at most for him.

Katie Strang, the Islanders beatwriter, reports that the team has fired head coach Scott Gordon. As you know more often than not, a new coach gets players producing for two or three weeks – real well. So I would expect a bump from players like John Tavares and Matt Moulson. Boom or bust – Blake Comeau and PA Parenteau – they’ll either get going or they’ll get going – outta there.

Jamie Langenbrunner is targeting a Thursday return to the lineup. He crashed head first into the boards last Wednesday. They call it upper body stiffness.

I’ll give Anthony Stewart some credit – I thought he would have stopped producing, or even been scratched by now. He’s up to 11 points. His ice time has declined for three consecutive games though, to around 15 minutes now, so I think the second-line production will stop and the third/fourth line production will take over for him.

I was asked yesterday who I picked up after dropping Brent Johnson. I haven’t dropped him in the Expert League yet – but I will on Thursday and I’ll be picking up a forward. This week he is on the bench. As I explained in the ‘Dobber’s Take’ section of the forum, I traded for Bobrovsky… and had plucked Pavelec off the wire. So I own – Rinne, Bobrovsky, Leighton, Pavelec, Niemi. Once you get screwed in goaltending, it’s HARD to climb out of the hole. But I think I did it.

One thing about my goaltending problem – carrying so many of them forced me to drop Bryan Little. I think Little will have a rebound season, but with his concussion I didn’t know when he would return and my IR was full. He’s back now, he scored twice on Sunday, and he’s seeing 18 minutes per game.

Pavelec took the loss, but he stopped 15 of 16 shots by the Caps, after coming on in relief of Chris Mason (12 of 16 shots). Mason has allowed eight goals in the last 51 minutes that he has played. Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Pavelec isn’t getting the wins – but his numbers have been stellar. In eight games he’s stopped nearly 93 percent of his shots. He’s getting used more and more.

Andrew Ladd is still a point-a-game player 18 games in. That’s not for real, but I think the 70-point production is. He’s a little above and beyond right now. I think for this year 65 is fair. He’s a sell-high.

If you need penalty minutes with decent across the board numbers, look at Matt Hendricks. He has six points and is a plus-4, and he has 30 PIM.

Nik Antropov played just 12 minutes and was a minus-3. He’s minus-13 on the season, thus hurting you more than he is helping.

So Turco took the loss and Crawford, the next day, got the win. This is the result I expected a month ago. Crawford has put together two strong outings in a row. I think we’ll see him play every third game for the next month, before the Hawks start leaning on him more and more (as Turco’s suck-o-meter continues to move upward)

If you own Corey Perry and Kris Letang both on your roto-league team…you have to be winning. You just have to be. Their numbers from top to bottom are just awesome for their position.

Mathieu Perreault turned some heads with a six-assist performance in the AHL last night. I don’t know how some experts peg him as a third-line energy player. He’s second line or bust in the NHL, there will be no gray. Underrated talent who will constantly surprise, just like Cal O’Reilly does/did in Nashville.

With seven points in his last three AHL games, Oskar Osala now has 15 in 18. He may have a future as a second-line power forward, but he needs to continue with production like that at the AHL level before he can hope to do it in the NHL. He’s progressing slowly, but he’s still only 22 (he turns 23 next month)

Jared Staal is getting scratched by the Checkers (AHL).

Jonathan Bernier will get the start against the Sharks.

Here’s an update on the Brayden Schenn situation. He is stuck at the eight-game mark and the team needs to decide about that magical 10th game.

Scott Parse remains on the first line for the Kings and he has three points and is a plus-4 in four games there.

The Avs sent Colby Cohen back to the AHL yesterday.

That shot that hit Jonas Hiller in practice – he was fine. He played last night (with a shiner and a bandage)

I got to try out Easton’s new Synergy EQ50 stick, where you can adjust the balance and the weight of the stick by adjusting small weights at the end. Well, I got to hold it, fiddle with it, and fool around with it – but I’m a left shot and the stick was for righties. Fortunately I have a buddy who was glad to take it off my hands and try it out in our beer league. Anyway, I’m no pro and neither is he, but we both impressed with the feel and he claims to be a better player with it – this is the Mike Cammalleri stick BTW. Anyway, thanks again to Easton for this, and for the jackets that we gave away last week.

Don’t forget Vancouverites – I’ll be in Vancouver and looking to meet you on December 9. Make sure you make it out to (still not decided yet) the River Rock Casino or Cieli’s Irish pub.

Dustin Brown’s penalty shot:

Oilers vs. Rangers brawl, incited by Mr. Sean Avery. He really got under everyone’s skin with this cheap shot. I still love him, though. Always makes me smile, and that’s all a person needs for me to love them haha.