Dobber's fifth annual Midseason Fantasy Guide – out January 6 with a special addendum update for January 13. 17 days!

Right after I say that about Brandon Pirri, the Blackhawks called him up! If he sees more than 10 minutes, it will be itneresting…

Here’s a promising Alexander Radulov update from Chesnokov.

It’s very likely that Claude Giroux will return tonight. Now that he’s let three other players tie him for the scoring lead, it’s time for him to pull back ahead! I don’t think there’s enough ammo in that stick to hold off Geno though…

Both Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm left the Florida game with injuries. With David Booth out for the Canucks, that was a quite a trade… for the Vancouver/Sunrise hospitals…

I wanted to mention this because I’ve had an email per day for last few days from different people. It’s regarding my hyperlinks and to them (and most people) it would make sense if the links opened up in a new window. I agree with that completely. I write my ramblings on MS Word and each hyperlink in MS Word is set to open up in a new window. However, when I paste it into the site and publish it, that code doesn’t work. For me to set the links back to opening in a new window like I meant it, I would need to go through each one and highlight them, edit the link one by one. I know it only adds five or 10 minutes but it just doesn’t seem worthwhile. However, you will notice that any ramblings that I add throughout the day open up in a new window – that’s because I generally type those directly into the site. Sorry for the inconvenience there – and that explains why most blogs (such as Puck Daddy) do not link to a new window either. One thing I do is right click any hyperlinks and then “open in a new tab” when I’m reading blogs. Some of you may not have been aware of that trick.

Martin St. Louis has returned to practice with the team. There is no timetable on his return.

Fantastic stuff in the comments section below by Pengwin – he pulled up info that shows that Niskanen’s assists are primarily (11 of 12) second assists.

In the last 15 AHL games, Brandon Pirri tallied at least two points in eight of them. Currently he is on a three game points streak and has seven in that span. The Chicago prospect has climbed past Jeremy Morin and Kyle Beach on the fantasy depth chart. Morin seems to growing into a hardcore, hard-hitting checker/scorer – more energy than top six. Beach is still a slow developing power forward. Meanwhile, Pirri is reminding me a little of Kris Versteeg. At this point I think I would even prefer to own him over Brandon Saad and Mark McNeill.

Benn Ferriero has been recalled by the Sharks because Martin Havlat will be out for "an extended period of time". My world was spinning out of orbit, but this news just pushes it back in the right direction. To really set it straight I need Marian Gaborik injury news. Then the comfortable predictable world will be back to normal.

The NHL is looking into removing the boards because they pose a danger to players who try to hop over them to get on the ice.

Oh man, I could dedicate an entire ramblings to just Havlat jokes, but then I realize that hopping the boards safely is barely a 50-50 proposition when I myself do it.

Video clip added below – beauty goal, CHI vs. PIT

So what do I lead with, Malkin or Turris? Let's go Turris.

Turris played 16:10 in his Ottawa debut, picking up an assist and going plus-2. He was on the second PP unit. Sounds like the Sens are indeed using him properly. No spotlight, just a solid secondary role.

With five points in two games, Erik Karlsson is up to 31 in 34 now. Only once has he gone more than one game without a point, consecutively, this season.

Derek Roy has just seven points in his last 16 games on the heels of going six games with 10 points.

Guess who's back on top of the NHL scoring race (tied with a few others though)? Evgeni Malkin. His six game points streak (15 points total in that span) has vaulted him. And he's bringing James Neal along with him. Neal is up to 32 points now and at this rate he'll match last year's 45 before the halfway mark!

Matt Niskanen. Proving that Paul Martin will never be an offensive option again for poolies. Proving that Simon Despres will be fantasy worthless for this year (bright future though). But what I can't bring myself to believe is that he will be a decent scoring defensemen when Letang is around. He has eight points in six games now. My gut is saying he can be a 40-point guy with Letang in the lineup, but a 55-point guy when he's gone.

Ray Emery took a loss. The door opens a crack for Corey Crawford to kick through. Can he/will he do it? The play the Habs tonight and I bet he starts.

Marian Gaborik with four goals in two games now has 19 on the year to go with 11 assists. But the nuttiest stat of all – zero games missed. Do you want to bet 100 bucks it stays that way? Best case scenario is 77 games, which would tie his nine year high. In 77 games he'll get 40 goals and 80 points easy. But that would also drag the talented Stepan up with him.

I always found it funny how high poolies were on Brandon Dubinsky, but the Rangers were trying to force a square peg into a round hole putting him at center on Gaborik's line. He's a second/third line 'tweener' with 65 upside, but 50 likely…and if they tried to force the peg into the wrong hole than maybe they could coax those numbers to 70 and 60. But thankfully, they see that Derek Stepan is a potential No.1 center. He's a round peg that fits properly into the round hole. If Gaborik is healthy as noted above, then Stepan tops 70 points this year. Big if, but still…

Martin Brodeur somehow managed to bring his save percentage lower last night. He's a legend. A Hall-of-Famer. But if the Devils want to win more games they need to minimize his starts now. Float him a couple of easy games to get some rhythm.

Petr Sykora has five points in three games.

Patrik Elias did not play, due to illness. That bumped Zajac to the second line. Zajac scored – his first point of the season.

Marcus Johansson saw his most ice time under Dale Hunter last night 16:58. He picked up two assists for his efforts and earned a longer look on a scoring line.

I wish I could say that Sergei Kostitsyn scoring a goal is promising, but I can't. I need to see points in consecutive games now, because so far this season he's been acting like the 'old' SK again. The one that disappears all the time.

Word is that Claude Giroux will possibly play tonight. If not tonight, then by the Winter Classic for sure, at the latest.

Mike Smith left the game in the third period with a lower body injury. From the chatter, it sounds like groin and it sounds bad. Maybe just Kari Lehtonen bad, but that's still three weeks. Let the Labarbera claims begin! I wish I could recommend McElhinney, but no way. Labarbera will be fine, as long as he doesn't get hurt. If he does – I bet they do what Columbus did a few years ago and recall a player from junior on an emergency basis. They did that with Steve Mason. Phoenix would do it with Mark Visentin if Labarbera gets hurt.

Here's a great complete rundown on the broadcast coverage in Canada of the WJC.

Odds of who will be the next Montreal coach:

Patrick Roy 2/1

Clément Jodoin 5/2

Bob Hartley 5/1

Paul Maurice 9/1

Randy Cunneyworth 15/1

Guy Boucher 20/1

Michel Therrien 40/1

Pascal Vincent 45/1

Randy Carlyle 45/1

Mikko Koivu did not play for the Wild. Josh Harding got his first start since returning from injury and stopped 28 of 30. Great outing, but didn't get the win, so over to you Nik!

Interesting to see that 24/7 premiere was down 26% over last year. One suggestion? Enough with the lengthy, shitty intro with the boring guy voiceover. Another suggestion? Ease up on the shitty conclusion with the boring guy voiceover. What you had is 45 minutes of gold in the middle, sandwiched by rotten, stale slices of bread that were the intro and conclusion. Don't overdo it, or overdramatize it. Just make it quick and get to the show.

Holy Schnikees!