A few injuries from last night: Paul Stastny was drilled from behind by Bryan Bickell - it doesn't sound serious, though (stiff back/neck). Erik Johnson left the Blues game with a leg injury. It looked a bit more serious and he didn't return. Lecavalier returned last night, to the surprise of [...]
Matt Stajan will be back in the lineup to face his former team the Leafs - look for him to step it up. Pekka Rinne is "really close" to returning, according to the Tennessean. He had a solid practice today and I'm thinking the weekend is a possibility. Sergei Kostitsyn was back [...]
As you may have read in the Ramblings, we have a team in our Pro Tier (in the DobberHockey Invitational) that is in dead last. As can sometimes happen when love fantasy hockey so much that you get into far too many leagues, life catches up with you and some of your fantasy squads suffer as a result. This is one of those situations. I have nine volunteers to take the reins of this squad and try and turn it around. If the person who takes the team over, gets it into the Top 5, that person will immediately become a part of DobberHockey lore. A legend, if you will. If the person can somehow win the league - then to me that's instant DobberHockey Hall-of-Fame Induction. No waiting period, no voting, no hurdles - just straight into the HoF for the pure awesomeness of it.
The Christmas break is fast approaching, so this week we’ll just take a look at what’s been going with each of the Western Conference teams.
Goldie Says: Here's why I think Nabokov still belongs in the NHL, preferrably in a TBL uni. Ellis and Smith insight included. I'll have a pulse on this until TB announces they are "confident" in Ellis/Smith. Which they shouldn't be. I agree about NSH's defensive system. But Mitch Korn still produces amazing "NHL ready" goalies [...]
For the Week of December 13th. Elliotte Friedman’s weekly 30 Thoughts column on the CBC website is currently the best read in hockey. Friedman is insightful, articulate, knowledgeable, fair, and most importantly, interesting. He has sources and contacts in the hockey world that most could only dream of. He has an ability which is rare in this day and age - providing a balanced and reasonable opinion on the league, the players, and all 30 of the clubs.
Each week I will post my own observations (I couldn’t completely steal Friedman’s idea so I’ll pick a number other than 30) – with a heavy emphasis on the fantasy side of hockey, of course. Prospects, goalies, sleepers, busts, it will all be covered each week.
A goaltender’s ability to kill a penalty is an important part of not only tracking their performances, but quantifying their potential short and long-term success. Within a game, killing a penalty forces a goalie to increase their focus, awareness and timeliness. They also have to exert more energy, deal with more traffic and usually make those extremely tough lateral post-to-post pushes.
Turco gets the start against the Avs tonight. A mediocre performance means this thing drags on for another week (again). A horrible performance shifts the starting job firmly into Crawford's court. A great performance probably shifts it slightly into Turco's direction. Jody Shelley got two games for the hit I show below. [...]
Welcome back to An Expert’s Audit. Every month we’ll take a look at a reader’s keeper league team in the hopes of helping him toward a championship. If you’re interested in getting an audit for your own keeper team you can begin the process by emailing Dobber about it.
Michael Frolik took a massive hit from Jordin Tootoo, that may have been shoulder to chin. I stuck the clip at the end. Anders Lindback earned his first career shutout, and he'll still be posting the big numbers for another two weeks or so, as Rinne recovers. Evgeni Malkin is targeting Tuesday [...]
