My Midseason Guide was released Friday, get it here. If you want to see how great the guide is, you can pick up last year's edition for free here. This will have an update added (an addendum) on Friday the 13^th (oooooh).

Jeff Skinner is back taking contact in practice. Give him another week at most.

Erik Karlsson missed last night’s game with an upper-body injury. “Not serious” apparently. But the scratch was unexpected.

Mikhail Grabovski's hot streak is starting to bring Kulemin around. Kulemin had two points, three shots and was plus-1. Arguably his best game of the season. Grabovski has 14 points in his last 17 games.

Jonas Gustavsson has banged out four wins in a row, including two shutouts. Is he an NHL goaltender? I remember seeing tons of tweets and columns about how he's not one. Not seeing that now. He's 9-3-0 and finally fully healthy and in a good rhythm, which is key for goalies like him.

He's allowed no more than three goals in any of his last eight games, yet Ryan Miller is 2-6-0 in that span. But Jhonas Enroth is 0-4-2 in his last six. With Enroth, he needs five or six games in a row. But his shortcoming is that once he plays that seventh or eighth game in a row, he breaks down. So he needs lots of action, but not for too long. Delicate balance.

So after Day 1 of my Benoit Pouliot-Marchand-suspension experiment: One goal, plus-1, three shots. Good start.

Man, look who wants his job back. That job that he had for what seems like a heartbeat now. Tuukka Rask is 10-4-1 on the season with a 1.59 GAA and a 0.945 SP to lead the entire league in both categories.

Eric Fehr scored his first goal of the season. He bears watching now that the seal is broken. Very streaky.

The Horton-Krejci-Lucic line is hot again. Horton has six points in four games.

Matt Moulson has eight points in his last five games and 25 points in his last 20 games. John Tavares has 12 points in six games and he's fought his way back to nearly a point-per-game on the season.

Kyle Okposo has points in five of his last six games and has 16 points in his last 22. Okposo was moved to the Tavares line, which doesn't bode well for PA Parenteau. Parenteau had a point last night with them, but it came on the power play.

Since returning to action, Mike Smith is only 1-1-2. BUT, he has allowed just one goal in each of his last three games.

Colin Greening had three assists for the Sens. He'll have his hot streaks but I'll be shocked if he ever breaks say 57 points. He's more of a future 50-55 guy.

Milan Michalek continues his Cy Young performance, upping his record to 22-8 last night.

I have Kyle Turris in one of my keeper leagues. Man I'm glad I went after him in the summer and then stuck with him throughout. Another point, gives him eight in 11 games for Ottawa.

The league leader in shots and saves, Craig Anderson, picked up his 21^st win. That puts him second in that category. In Ottawa overall, he is 32-17-7.

Sergei Bobrovsky: 9-3-1, 2.45, 0.919

Ilya Bryzgalov: 16-9-3, 3.07, 0.891

Jerome Samson, who is a prolific scorer in the AHL but doesn't have the pedigree to get a real top-line shot at the NHL level, led the 'Canes in shots on goal with five and he scored their only goal despite just 13 minutes of ice time.

In the battle of Halak vs. Price – Halak wins. A shutout, though he faced just 19 shots. He's really turned his game around under the new coach. Unfortunately for Halak owners, Brian Elliott just won't slow down for him. Halak is 9-1-5 after starting off 1-6-0.

The last time Dwayne Roloson allowed fewer than three goals in a game was November 17 – 10 appearances ago. That's 35 goals allowed in his last nine games.

With two points last night, Casey Wellman has quietly put up six points in 10 games this season and he's a plus player. He's also been good for about two shots per game.

The streaky Viktor Stalberg was probably recently dropped by legions of fantasy owners before getting that hat trick last night. The guy posted seven points in four games and then zero points in six games, including going minus-9 in that span… and now a hat trick. I think shit like that does more harm to us than good!

Corey Crawford got the win. Man, nothing shakes you out of your slump better than a night hosting Columbus.

Grant Clitsome gets a point in each of his last two games, so he is rewarded by his new coach with a healthy scratch. Then the Jackets get their asses kicked. Great start, coach!

Back-to-back two-point games for Ryan Ellis despite totaling 26:49 in ice time combined in those two games.

I notice that Craig Smith played just 10:36 last night. The last time he played so little was … October 15. Not the greatest sign.

FOUR points for Curtis Glencross. He's not slowing down. That gives him 20 points in his last 16 games.

The latest Studs and Duds can be found here.

James Neal did indeed play, saw 16:41 but wasn't a factor for the Pens. Eric Tangradi was a minus-2 in his outing.

Tom Gilbert is out until February with an undisclosed injury.

Pavel Datsyuk missed last night's contest with a lower-body injury. Consider him day to day.

Interesting move – the Coyotes picked up Gilbert Brule off of waivers from the Oilers. Brule, who just turned 25, has been trying to find his game at the AHL and has 18 points in 27 AHL games.

Mike Ribeiro wants to play through his MCL tear. He didn't play last night, but should play soon with a knee brace.

Sheldon Souray was back in the lineup and played 14 minutes. Despite him being around, Alex Goligoski still picked up a point. Goli played 22 minutes.

Devin Setoguchi was a healthy scratch… against his former team the Sharks! Ballsy move by Mike Yeo.

Anaheim goalie Jeff Deslauriers with his first game since April 10 2010, and his first win since April 7, 2010.

Mike Smith – what a save!

Bissonnette vs. Rupp: