January 17, 2012
Dobber Sports
2012-01-17
My Midseason Guide was released January 6 and then an addendum was added Friday the 13th, get it here. If you want to see how great the guide is, you can pick up last year's edition for free here.
The Sens have recalled Andre Petersson, an underrated prospect who is adapting well to the AHL in his rookie year – he’s leading Binghamton in scoring. Petersson is ranked 142 on my Prospects List and has been steadily moving upward. He’s still a couple of years away, and when he does arrive he’ll be a few more years putting up the points. That’s often the case with smaller players (he’s listed at 5-9).
Today’s studs and duds can be found here.
Greg Wyshynski notes that Ilya Bryzgalov’s pre-universe speech record is 14-5-2, 2.74 and his post-universe speech record is 2-5-1, 3.97.
Adam Henrique (groin) is still not ready to return and the Devils have recalled Jacob Josefson.
Here is my Puck Daddy column from yesterday. My THN column from yesterday is here.
Jordan Leopold: minus-4. Mike Weber: minus-4. Marc-Andre Gragnani and TJ Brennan: even. MAG's ice time was up to 14 minutes, but we're still not there. Give him four games at 90% of the PP time and let's see what he can do. Half-ass it and it won't work. Again I refer back to Moneyball when the manager continued to play the young star first baseman over the converted catcher that the GM wanted him to play. He wasn't used 100% the way the GM intended and they were losing. The GM trades the first baseman and forces the manager to use the converted catcher and good things happen. Anyway, from a fantasy standpoint I have no faith in MAG succeeding as a fantasy asset. The skills are there, but doesn't have the all-around game to earn the situations he needs. His only saving grace would be to take what little ice time and PP time he gets and produce.
Nate Gerbe is another one. Just 10:53 and no PP time. So what's the 5-4 little guy putting on the jersey for? To check? Asinine.
Anyway, onto some good things. Ian White was plus-3 last night and moves to plus-26 on the year.
Todd Bertuzzi has five points and is plus-5 in his last two games. If you want to go back further – he has 16 points in his last 18 games and is plus-16 in that span.
Johan Franzen saw just 13 minutes of ice time. He scored and was plus-3, but not sure why the low ice. He did have five shifts in the third, so perhaps the game was just well in hand. Datsyuk had 13 minutes as well, just resting the line no doubt.
Ryan Miller got the hook and Jhonas Enroth stopped all 12 shots he faced. Enroth hasn't had a lot of work in the past month, but his last four appearances dating back to December 31 have been excellent with 131 saves on 138 shots.
Patrick Berglund has two points in his last 10 games and has seen at least 17:10 in each of them. I don't know what to think about this guy other than it's looking like a Vinny Prospal up one year/down the next type of career.
Jaroslav Halak with two shutouts in three games, but he's faced just 41 shots in those two shutout wins.
Patrice Bergeron has 37 points in his last 36 games. After missing so much time with a concussion, the return to form has been slow but he appears to be back on track to being his 70-point self again. I had written him off as returning to that kind of player, but he and Tyler Seguin have been money.
Tomas Fleischmann was shutout despite seven shots on goal. He's clearly doing everything he can to shake this slump but is pointless in five now. He has four points in his last 15 games and minus-13 in that span. Ouch!
Kris Versteeg not much better – two points in nine games and minus-9.
Benoit Pouliot has 10 points in 12 games and is plus-10 in that span.
Tobias Enstrom took a season high six shots on net Monday and scored his second goal. He has nine points in 14 games since returning from injury.
Mike Smith has gone five games in a row allowing two or fewer goals. Actually, four of those games he allowed just one goal. And they weren't softies either, he faced 39 shots yesterday and 42 shots in a game last week.
Kris Letang will not play tonight, but he will practice with the team today and it sounds like he'll be back within a week. Finally some good news out of Pittsburgh.
In his third game with Columbus, Gilbert Brule picks up two points. He has six shots on net in three games, but saw just 10 minutes of ice time. He's looking like a great pickup for the energy line, but his offensive upside has probably wasted away for good (thank you Columbus!).
After one point in six games, Ray Whitney picked up two last night and was plus-3. Generally these come in waves for him, so hopefully this kicks off a nice little streak. I own him in one of my leagues (hell, I own most players in one league or another).
Kevin Poulin took the loss yesterday and was later sent back to the minors – Al Montoya is ready to return now.
For Sergei Kostitsyn, give him eight points in his last seven games. Another streaky player, but if he puts forth the same second-half surge that he did last year look out.
Mike Ribeiro is out until February with that knee injury.
Rich Peverley missed last night's contest attending to a personal matter. He's probably back tonight.
Mike Green is to have abdominal surgery and he'll be out for 4-6 weeks. As I noted yesterday, the Caps should lean towards the six and not the four. Give him the full chance to recover properly. No more one-and-dones please.
Ryan Suter left Monday's contest with an upper body injury and he will probably miss Tuesday's game.
Malkin's natural hat trick Sunday: