J.P. From Japer’s Rink (@JapersRink) Tweeted the exact numbers – Perreault has seven points in four “first game after recall” opportunities.

Let’s kick things off with my buddy Mathieu Perreault. Two goals, no power-play time, and 13 minutes of ice time. If he’s been recalled five times in his career (not sure), I think he’s had a point in his first game up at least four of those times (again – just a guess). He makes his impact early and often before the lack of PP time catches up with his adrenalin. Probably not worth a pick up unless you have room on your bench. I’m talking one-year leagues, of course. In keepers, he’s a must.

Crosby now has a 16-game points streak (453,125 points in that span). Man he’s on fire.

No matter how bad the Capitals played, especially in the third period… the bottom line is that there is a giant “L” beside Neuvirth’s name, thus keeping the ball in Varlamov’s court. In March, we don’t say “yeah, but that loss on December 6th wasn’t Neuvirth’s fault!” Nope, we just look down the “L” column and see the total.

Mikhail Grabovski snapped a five-game pointless drought. Whenever he picks up points after a drougth like that he goes on a ….well, anywhere from three to …about eight-game scoring binge.

Alex Ovechkin must be playing hurt. Twelve goals? Really? No, he won’t end up with just 35 this year. You won’t see that until he’s 35 years old. No, even a bad year for him would still see 40 or more.

It seems as though everyone who faces the mighty Ondrej will fall, doesn’t it?

Logan Couture has 14 points in his last 15 games.

Mathieu Garon is now 7-2-0, vs. Mason at 8-8-1. Garon got the W last night. My best guess is that Mason starts 12 of the next 20 and goes 5-7. Garon starts eight games and goes 5-3. Then Garon starts 15 of the ensuing 20 as the Jackets fight for their playoff lives.

Need a rearguard? Justin Braun. Development curve similar to Matt Carle, and making the same early impact. Bruan has five points in six games for the Sharks. Seeing time on the power play, too.

Zetterberg and Datsyuk were pointless last night and a combined minus-7.

The Kovalchuk watch: he’s minus-17 now. The one league that I own him in, it’s a keeper, and I’m in fifth place. I’d be winning if he was normal. In that league, we get half for plus/minus. Well, his 11 points… minus 8.5 for that ugly plus/minus, and he’s contributed ahhh 2.5 points for me. My best player (other than Price). What can I do, bench him? Bench Kovalchuk? I have one week when the Devils played two games…but bench him in a three or four-game week? I think I have to. Stop the bleeding. My bench wingers are not very good, otherwise I would have moved sooner.
It looks as though Ales Hemsky will be out for four weeks with his groin injury as they have decided to be extra cautious. Smart move. Another smart move would be to call up Linus Omark. But we’ll see how smart they are.

Players of the week: Crosby (first star), Ryan Miller and Taylor Hall (whoa!)

Evander Kane played 17:40 in his return to the lineup for Atlanta, but was held pointless.

Chicago has assigned Jeremy Morin to Rockford.

Evgeni Malkin – out still with a knee injury. No word on a return to action, but don’t count on him for a couple of games yet. If he takes Wednesday off against Toronto, it would give him nine days off before Saturday in Buffalo. That might be what he’s shooting for. I told you he’s been playing hurt all year.

Rich Hammond reports that Alexei Ponikarovsky is back in practice and is possible for Thursday’s contest.

Colorado prospect (and my hometown of Stratford native) Joey Hishon has 42 points in 21 OHL contests, putting him 10th in scoring despite missing eight games. He’s a two-way guy like Ryan O’Reilly, and I think similar upside (low 60s).

Frank Seravalli reports that the NHL has granted the Flyers permission to send Michael Leighton to the AHL for two more games.

Boston has sent Jordan Caron to Providence of the AHL. He had been scratched the last two games. With Marc Savard back in the lineup, Caron wasn’t getting in anytime soon.

Martin Brodeur was the backup against Pittsburgh and he plans to start against Ottawa, according to Rich Chere.

Angus has me covered for the ramblings tomorrow, since I’ll be on a plane to Vancouver. The agenda? Some meetings, followed by the Canucks/Ducks game Wednesday. And then Thursday is the DobberHockey event at the River Rock Casino Lulu’s Lounge. Deals on food, lots of hockey talk, you get to meet myself, Jeff Angus and others who are known in the community here like Crazynuck and ElevateMySoul (who since changed his forum handle, but can’t remember to what) and DAW. It will be a good time. We also have a lot of give-aways including an autographed hockey stick (Canucks’ entire team). Starts at 6pm Thursday – hope to see you there!