October 15, 2013

Dobber Sports

2013-10-15

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In a slightly surprising move, James Reimer gets the start tonight for Toronto. Jonathan Bernier had been on a nice run, but he did give up five goals on Saturday.

 

James van Riemsdyk is questionable with an unspecified injury.

 

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Not all that shocking, but it appears Chris Pronger’s playing days are officially done. Paul Holmgren confirmed it to The Hockey News. Pronger hasn’t played since November 2011 because of ongoing concussion issues.

 

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The scouting report on the Edmonton Oilers goaltending at the moment is shoot the puck on net. Jason Labarbera got the start on Monday against Washington for a struggling Devan Dubnyk, but he gave up a brutal four goals on 20 shots. In recent years the Oilers defense was in large part to blame for many of the goals conceded, but in a couple of Edmonton games I've watched this year there have been some awful goals given up. Nazem Kadri's opening goal from Saturday and Joffrey Lupul's game-tying marker come to mind.

 

Nail Yakupov was a scratch for the second straight game Monday. Dallas Eakins has done this before with young players to send a message, like Kadri when they were together with the Toronto Marlies, and they usually get the point. It might be frustrating for fantasy owners in the short-term, but Eakins' ability to work with young talent will pay off in the long run.

 

A couple of Oilers were impressive in Monday's loss to the Capitals. David Perron had a strong night picking up an assist and five shots, while going plus-2.

 

Boyd Gordon also scored his fourth goal in six games to start the season.

 

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Braden Holtby finally picked up his first win of the campaign for the Capitals, stopping 28-of-30 shots.

 

Nicklas Backstrom had three helpers on the night and Alex Ovechkin continues to be on a torrid pace. He notched a goal, an assist, four shots, and five hits. Ovechkin hasn't had a game so far this season where he didn't record at least four shots. This was a nice bounce back performance after being held pointless against Colorado.

 

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Jarome Iginla had a strong showing in a losing cause for the Boston Bruins on Monday against Detroit. Despite not picking up a point, he recorded four hits and five shots in over 21 minutes of ice-time. Iginla leads the Bruins in shots and with all the talent on that roster, the goals and points will be there at the end of the season if he stays healthy.

 

Loui Eriksson has now scored in two consecutive games for the Bruins after being held pointless in the first three.

 

Johnny Boychuk gets an honourable mention for his night that included one assist, two blocks, three shots, and three hits.

 

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The Red Wings are getting acclimated to the Eastern Conference quite nicely. Niklas Kronvall and Jonathan Ericsson are becoming a nice shutdown pair for the squad and they were on full display Monday. Both played over 25 minutes and Ericsson had three shots and two hits, while Kronvall added four blocked shots.

 

Stephen Weiss picked up his second goal of the campaign, but he's still struggling. That was only his second point in 2013-14 and he is a minus-5 in his last three outings. He barely got 14 minutes against Boston on Monday.

 

Henrik Zetterberg scored again for Detroit and he now has three goals and four points in his last two contests.

 

Jonas Gustavsson looked very solid in goal stopping 28-of-30 shots. He might make another start on Tuesday against the Blue Jackets as Jimmy Howard continues to deal with a hand injury.

 

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One of the most compelling races we may see all year is who will get their first win of the season quicker, Buffalo or New Jersey? We might have to wait a while. The Sabres blew a chance on Monday losing 2-1 to Minnesota. No one from the Sabres had more than three shots on the night.

 

Mikhail Grigorenko played less than nine minutes and has yet to pick up a point in six games this year. The Sabres have been botching the development of Grigorenko since the strike shortened season, when they kept him up for just 25 games, which wasted a year of his entry-level deal. Another season in junior would have been more beneficial.

 

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Jason Pominville fittingly scored the winning goal for the Wild in his return to Buffalo.

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Zach Parise failed to score for only the second game this season, but still led Minnesota with five shots on the night.

 

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Mike Green does his best Torii Hunter impression.

 

 

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David Broll has had an intriguing start to his National Hockey League career during his first two games with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The rugged winger has chipped in with an assist to go along with two shots, and five PIM. The interesting thing about Broll is who he has been playing with. Randy Carlyle has had him skating almost exclusively with Nazem Kadri and Joffrey Lupul in the two games he has been up with the big club. The problem is he's barely averaging eight minutes a night.

 

Broll is benefiting from the David Clarkson suspension and the Nikolai Kulemin injury; otherwise he probably wouldn't even be up with the Leafs to begin with. He has proven he can produce offense as well as bring physicality while in junior, scoring 17 goals and 54 points in 2012-13 with Sault Ste. Marie. That's the type of player Carlyle usually favours, which bodes well for Broll in the immediate future as far as him seeing time with the second line. However, he can only add value to your squad in the very short-term until Clarkson returns.

 

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Anton Khudobin will be placed on injured reserve for Carolina with a lower-body injury that he suffered Sunday afternoon against the Phoenix Coyotes. Khudobin wasn't likely to vulture many starts away from Cam Ward anyway, so this shouldn't really alter anything in the Hurricanes net, other than the fact that Ward may play several games in a row for the foreseeable future. Justin Peters has been called up to replace Khudobin as the backup.

 

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Speaking of goalies heading to injured reserve, the Dallas Stars have placed Kari Lehtonen on the list also. Jack Campbell is going to get called up to fill in and could make his NHL debut this week. Campbell is the flashier name, but Dan Ellis is probably the better add if Lehtonen is out for a while, or even if he isn't. Lehtonen has a knack for finding injuries, so even if this stay on IR is brief, there is a strong chance he will miss more time at some point in 2013-14. Ellis has put up respectable numbers for Carolina and Anaheim over the last two campaigns as a backup.

 

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Rick Nash is headed for injured reserve with a head injury, which is likely a concussion. Nash was playing well with Brad Richards and Derek Stepan before the Rangers started giving up six goals a night. Mats Zuccarello and Ryan Callahan have moved up with Stepan and Richards for periods of time in Nash's absence.

 

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The Rangers have placed Aaron Asham and Martin Biron on waivers. It's tough to imagine either of them get claimed, especially Biron who has a $1.3M cap hit and is 36-years-old. Not to mention he has a 7.61 GAA and a .763 save percentage in just 71 minutes of action this season. You can thank Tomas Hertl for most of that.

 

Biron beat out Johan Hedberg for the backup goalie job in training camp and the Rangers may be rethinking that decision at this point.

 

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The Blue Jackets will be without forward Matt Calvert indefinitely because of an abdominal injury that will require surgery.

 

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Here's Laidlaw's Puck Daddy piece from yesterday. I'll be making my debut there next week.

 

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In case you missed it from last week, solid read here from Sean McIndoe of Grantland on advanced stats and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

 

 

Michael Amato is an Associate Editor for DobberHockey and a News Editor for theScore. You can follow him on Twitter at @amato_mike

 

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