Another quick note on the site upgrades – still a couple more weeks of this. You will see things such as the sites being down for a few minutes, the DobberHockey ramblings app crashing (get the app here), etc. Little things really. But it’s for the greater good and things will be tip-top shape by November I hope. At this point, the app is working fine again and you can stream ramblings to your phone okay.

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Brad Marchand, Boston’s leading scorer last year, is starting to see a – small – amount of PP time and now ranks sixth among team forwards in PP ice time. But basically the Bruins lost one PP guy (Seguin) and gained two (Iginla and Eriksson). Sure they had Jagr, but only for a handful of games. Unless someone on this team is injured in the near future, I’m not really comfortable with Marchand getting more than 45 or 50 points.

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Mikhail Grabovski is down to the third line and his ice time is dropping. Meanwhile, Martin Erat gets promoted and hammers out three points Saturday. Erat saw nearly 18 minutes of action, which is about what he saw in his two prior games combined. Erat, like Grabbo, is legendary for his red-hot streaks and I have a feeling he’s just at the start of a nice run. Grabovski looked great there for awhile, but it turns out that he really is what he showed in Toronto – lots of promise but 50 points in the end.

If there was a way that Washington could meld Erat and Grabovski together, you would have a star 80-point forward.

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I noticed a comment yesterday with criticism for Thom not covering all 13 Saturday games in the Sunday ramblings and I just want to explain the goal of the ramblings to newcomers to the site. A few years ago, I was desperately trying to cover all games and all the news, much like your Rotoworld or even TSN, with thoughts. The ramblings were no longer fun to write, I was burning out and frankly the stuff I was saying could be found anywhere else. I felt the pressure to cover everything when other sites already do it – and they do it with a staff of a dozen or more people. I then made the decision to get back to basics. Just write my thoughts, my observations, my research into my own leagues. Back to just bantering with the reader, like we’re having a beer in a pub. I no longer tried to cover all the games (sometimes none of the games) nor all the news. What I do (and Mike, Steve and Thom as well) is just provide unique insight on whatever jumps out at us while we watch games, go through the summaries and sift through the news. Sometimes that means all games get coverage. Sometimes it means none. But the goal is to give you fantasy hockey info and opinions that you won’t find anywhere else. Since that move was made, the ramblings are easier (and far more fun) to write, and frankly they help you with your fantasy team a lot more.

I’m always open for suggestions if you have a guy you want thoughts on because we missed something. Simply leave it in the comments below, or email me, or even tweet me. I may not respond, but I do read everything and try to add it to the next ramblings I do. I’m sure Steve, Mike and Thom would do the same thing. The Marchand note above was spurred on by an email from one of you guys, and the Erat note was thanks to a comment below the Sunday ramblings. So your opinion is absolutely read and often addressed. By speaking up, you do help the site do what it does best – help fantasy teams.

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That tease Chris Stewart is back at it again. The Blues have a lot of players putting up points and everyone is healthy, so Stewart is back to where he was two years ago. Unproductive and unneeded – likely the former because of the latter. Whereas in 2012-13 he was desperately needed, so he was scoring goals. In the last three games, he saw 42% of the power-play time available:

As you can see from the above PP line combo (from Frozen Pool) breakdown, six Blues forwards saw more ice time with the man advantage.

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Jason Demers has two points in the three games that Dan Boyle has been sidelined. Yes, Boyle has only been sidelined for two games, but when he was hurt it was early in the first period. So call it three games missed. Both of Demers’ points came on the power play. A waiver wire must.

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Derek Morris has six points in seven games. Contract year. His last contract year (2009-10) he had 29 points, which was his best number in the prior five years and in the three years since.

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Mike Santorelli is doing what I said he wouldn’t do. That is, produce. He was up over 22 minutes of ice time Sunday and has six points this year. Who is he playing with? Well, I’m glad you asked. I’ll just consult the handy-dandy Frozen Pool line combos:

Whoa.

But he’s been held off the scoresheet in four of his last five games. Does Tortorella have the patience to keep going with this experiment?

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So Sunday was Backup Goalie Day. I didn’t see it indicated on my calendar, but I’m pretty sure it’s there somewhere. Fredrik Anderson, Eddie Lack, Curtis McElhinney, Carter Hutton and Jack Campbell all saw action Sunday when only six teams played. Let’s review:

Can’t really fault Campbell, as his team gave up 47 shots on goal in his first career game. Though allowing six by him wasn’t great. And Jonas Hiller got the hook after one period and Andersen got into his first NHL action stopping all 24 shots that he faced. And he got the win.

System or goalie? McElhinney gets his first start for Columbus and stops 37 of 38 shots, looking like a star. This is the same team that turned a cast-away backup goalie into a Vezina winner last year. Discuss.

System or goalie? On a team that made Chris Mason a star to the point where he continued getting contracts three years longer than he should have. And a team that made Dan Ellis actually decent for a season. And a team that now has one of the best goalies to own in fantasy hockey with Pekka Rinne. Now this team throws Carter Hutton out there and he stops 38 of 39 and he’s allowed just two goals on 61 shots in his career with them. Just…really good scouting of their goalies, right? Nothing to do with Barry Trotz. Discuss.

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Valeri Nichushkin picked up his first NHL point, an assist. But he saw just 9:22 of action. A little worried about him being handled properly, as I wasn’t impressed with how Lindy Ruff handled Grigorenko last year. I have no confidence in him putting up fantasy-worthy numbers this year. Although long term I think he’s a stud no matter who coaches him.

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Am I wrong about Teemu Selanne? A little. I did say he would have a strong October and the calendar hasn’t flipped yet. But he’s looking good and showing great chemistry with his linemates Perreault and Silfverberg.

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Devin Setoguchi returned from his healthy scratch to post an assist Sunday. He played with Evander Kane, who took a whopping 10 shots on net. But the Jets shuffled lines like I’ve never seen, with no trio playing together for more than 14% of the game.

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Seth Jones played 26:23 of ice time Sunday – his lowest of the last three games. In fact, he played 82:06 in those three games (27:22 per game).

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It sounds like Taylor Hall will be out for a little while. NHL.com reports that he has returned to Edmonton for an MRI. So Yakupov owners – your patience will pay off now.

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Michael Grabner, who is having a great year so far, is looking at a short suspension for this headshot on Gerbe:

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Bruce Boudreau must be happy with how well Cam Fowler is playing. After seeing over 29 minutes Friday, Fowler was out there for a team-high 22:37 Sunday and he picked up his second and third points of the campaign. After two disappointing seasons, he’s offering fantasy owners a glimmer of hope.

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Martin Biron has announced his retirement. In 508 games he had 230 wins and 28 shutouts. His best season came in 2001-02 when he went 31-28-10 with four shutouts. He saw 30 wins again for Philly, going 30-20-9 on a better team. But he was never really able to take that next step to secure the “I’m a true starter” reputation.

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Of note in the AHL – Nikita Kucherov has eight points in his last four games and sits sixth in league scoring as a rookie. Tampa Bay has an embarrassment of riches. You can read up on Kucherov with some great fantasy scouting notes – here.

Other names I’m watching, with their rank on the scoring list:

11. Danny Kristo (7 points, 6 games)

12. Gustav Nyquist (7 points, 5 games)

16. Mika Zibanejad (7 points, 6 games)

30. Ryan Strome (6 points, 5 games)

44. Tyler Toffoli (5 points, 7 games)

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Here is an excerpt from the NHL goal-scoring list…

1. Crosby, Steen, Marleau, Hertl, Ovechkin (tied with 7)

200. Mike Smith (tied with 120 players, with 1)

322. Claude Giroux (tide with 400+ players, with 0)

Smith scored with 0.1 seconds left Saturday. If you didn’t see it: