December 17, 2011
Dobber Sports
2011-12-17
Kyle Turris has been traded to Ottawa for David Rundblad and a draft pick. Analysis coming soon. Great job by Don Maloney to get a big return for a player who obviously didn’t want to be there.
With four points Friday, Zach Parise is up to 16 in his last 10 games. A big question asked of me over the last 18 months – Parise or Kovalchuk? I’m proud to have gotten the answer right.
Adam Larsson had two assists last night despite zero PP time.
Kyle Palmieri has a point in each of his last two games, finding his groove now. Seeing a bit of PP time, but his overall ice time is still conservative at around 11 minutes.
And one final reminder re: Jason Pominville – his home production is far superior to his road production and his home games played is heavily weighted versus road. Until now. Over the next month, the Sabres on the road for most of it. So Pominville (and probably Mr. Four-Points Last Night Vanek, too) is in for a slowdown. Last night’s home game ended a home-heavy run the first 2.5 months of the season.
Jacques Martin has been fired by the Canadiens. For now, Randy Cunneyworth is the coach. Bottom line is, I think this team will see a boost in offense with most other coaches. Normally, I would also think that this would hurt Price, but then I look at his backup and I can’t see any situation where Price suffers. Angus will break this impact down for you later today.
Some Wild news – Koivu is out for today, Bouchard is “likely out” and prospect Charlie Coyle has decided to leave Boston U and play some junior hockey in Canada.
A chink in Dobber favorite Richard Bachman’s armor last night – gave up six goals on 31 shots. That was his fourth start in a row, though. And the Stars aren’t exactly rushing to put Andrew Raycroft in. Bachman is still a great one for the long term, because he’s probably ahead of Raycroft on the depth chart and behind only Kari Lehtonen – a Band-Aid Boy who may have been fixing that image but now has the label slapped right back on him. The situation fits.
I had noted this on Twitter, but I was very happy to see that Drayson Bowman saw 19 minutes the other night. During my “Maurice Fired” piece, I had noted that the three kids Bowman, Boychuk and Dalpe would see nice minutes when they were recalled now, instead of the silly three or four minutes that they were getting.
Alex Goligoski, not unexpected, is still snake-bitten. Despite 50 minutes of ice time the last two games, he’s still looking to put up a point. With that hand, I don’t think he’ll get anything more than a second assist over the next week yet. But the Stars win/loss record with him vs. without him is amazing.
The Oilers have rightfully sent Magnus Paajarvi down. As soon as Hall returned they should have done that. The guy was on pace for like 10 points. Come on. If he’s going to be a star, he needs to get re-accustomed to scoring at will, and he’ll do that in the AHL.Leave him there for the season and try again next fall.
In case you were out of the loop the last 36 hours, Chris Pronger is out for the season and playoffs – and his career is in jeopardy. In fact, some reports say that he has been stumbling at times, and occasionally forgetting things. Very serious stuff. The only reason he may play next year is his competitiveness, because from a ‘life’ standpoint he should probably retire.
Beleskey quick to jump to his teammate’s defense here:
Corey Schneider stops Drayson Bowman from getting his first hat trick: