The DobberBaseball Fantasy Guide is out now and fully updated – tell your baseball fan friends, I promise they’ll love this guide and how thorough it is.

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Hey, look what’s back – Brent Burns playing forward! I didn’t see the game, but judging by the screwed up line combos for San Jose over at Frozen Pool, it looks like he played with Logan Couture and Joe Thornton. He scored (and Scott Gomez drew an assist so I assume he played shifts with him as well). He may be given W/D eligibility.

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No Malkin, no problem. Beau Bennett, the subject of my Hockey News article Monday (read it here) picked up another assist to give him six points in his last eight games.

Dammit! I turned off the TV with about nine minutes left in the Penguins game. They were getting stonewalled and I wanted to get a jump on the ramblings. I go back and see that they stormed back from 2-0 to win 3-2. Hate when that happens, I get so restless if it’s low scoring.

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Teemu Selanne picked up his first point in six games last night and has just three in his last 12. The Ducks may give him the odd night off going forward – something to watch.

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The ridiculous and crazy Shawn Horcoff stat continues – he’s been back for two games and the Oilers have won both of them. What is it about him that makes such a difference? Suddenly, I think he’s worth that contract!

Magnus Paajarvi has five points in six games, with his two last night. He’s shooting the puck now – 18 shots in his last six games – and he’s plus-5 in that span.

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Jake Muzzin has seven points in his last five games. I picked him up last week and have been enjoying it – in fact, I did a trade on the weekend and told the guy I accept his offer but had him take out Cam Fowler from his offer because I didn’t want to drop Muzzin. He has nine points in his last nine games.

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Andrej Sekera has four points in his last three games and we’ve seen him post big numbers during a 20-game run before back in 2011. It teased us into thinking he would be a big producer, but then the Sabres ruined it by signing Ehrhoff. The point is – Sekera could be starting a nice little run here, and don’t think he can’t do it.

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Sergei Bobrovsky: 4-0-1, 0.81 GAA and 0.973 in his last five games. His numbers are now very good overall. I’ll leave Flyers fans alone, other than to say I’m sorry.

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Derick Brassard has points in four of the five games since his return from a brief UBI.

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Riley Nash is starting to show what both Edmonton and Carolina saw in him. Frankly I had my doubts, but the Canes felt he could be a third-line center capable of chipping in 40 points. In 11 games he has six points and is plus-4, so far so good. Two goals last night, without playing with any stars. Here are the Carolina line combos:

Semin – E. Staal – Tlusty

Jokinen – J. Staal – Skinner

Bowman – Nash – Dwyer

Get all of last night’s line combos here. Free. And you can access these in the future via the “line combos” link along the top menu.

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Alex Killorn with two more assists last night, he has 10 points in 16 games on the campaign. While Cory Conacher has cooled off, Killorn is taking his ice time.

Brett Connolly has 52 points in the AHL, good for seventh in scoring. So if Killorn is successful, Conacher is successful…and Connolly is successful, then how does this team look in terms of offense? And also don’t forget that Panik and Palat looked good during their call-ups.

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I have a slew of video clips to show you, there were just too many to pick from. So I’ll break them up a bit.

Kris Versteeg returned from injury (chest) on Friday… and Kris Versteeg left with another injury last night. Here’s the hit to his knee that puts him out so soon after returning:

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Antoine Roussel came from out of nowhere in the summer and I didn’t give him a second thought. I mean – Dallas signed him as a free agent on July 2, 2012. I knew that they signed him as a free agent in July 2, 2012. And yet, I made the conscious decision not to even mention it in the ramblings. Why mention an undrafted career minor leaguer being signed? Meanwhile, the guy has nine points in 16 games, to go with 40 PIM – and he has five points in his last six games. Jeff Angus has a great post on him here.

Dallas line combos with Ray Whitney back in the lineup, but Brenden Morrow and Jamie Benn out:

Whitney – Roy – Cole

R. Smith – Eakin – Jagr

Roussel –  Vincour – Eriksson

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The Red Wings have sent Tomas Tatar down – and recalled Gustav Nyquist. I have a feeling that they team will play one of these two until he slumps, then they swap them. In theory, this should keep them both at full hustle, hungry to stay in the NHL. Tatar had seven points in 18 games, but just one in his last seven. Nyquist has been the leading AHL scorer, but has since slipped to third. Who do I like better? I like them both, but I like Nyquist better for my fantasy squad.

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For those who read my article on Advanced Stats and their role in Fantasy Hockey, the point that I was trying to make was, in a nutshell – I like them, I think all owners should look at them, but keep perspective and understand that they are not gospel. And then I give reasons.

A great example backing this up is this piece by JP over at Japer’s Rink. The advanced stats for Wojtek Wolski are telling. Yet the coach doesn’t care. Scratches him anyway. Gives him poor zone starts. Adam Oates even said their “play” when explaining the decision to scratch Wolski and Mathieu Perreault, but advanced stats don’t back up his statement that their play wasn’t up to snuff. These stats tell you what a coach should do in order to optimize the probability of the best result. But a) it’s only an improved probability, it’s not a guarantee and b) the coach doesn’t have to listen.

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The Wild have sent Mikael Granlund back to Houston. It’s for the best, as he was getting scratched. And so goes my Calder Trophy pick.

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This is nothing to write home about, but better than it was before – Craig Smith has seven points in his last 11 games and is seeing his ice time inch upwards. He had two assists last night and his ice time was his fourth highest of the season.

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The heavyweights – the 6-0, 209-pound Zenon Konopka who fights all the time, versus the 6-4, 225-pound rookie Patrick Maroon who doesn’t fight very often but certainly has the reach to hold his own:

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Jason Zucker gets hit by Corey Perry and stays on the ice after hitting the boards awkwardly. Could be out for awhile. The commentating is annoying, just as a side note. Perry was ejected from the game and if he gets suspended I’ll, well, do nothing. But he shouldn’t be suspended.

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And I meant to put this in yesterday, but because I had to cut the ramblings short, I forgot to. But everyone is talking about it, in case you missed it. Kaspars Daugavins with a nice attempt here, has my full support. And good on Tuukka Rask for knowing all about the move and staying with it.