Good to see Jacob Markstrom doing well in the AHL. I had feared for his confidence level. But the last two games he faced 73 shots and stopped 70 of them.

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Every time I watch Cam Atkinson, my latest man crush, I come away wondering why he’s not a star yet. And I’ve seen at least six Columbus games this year. I guess, in the end, we shouldn’t have expectations that are high in his first couple of NHL seasons. But he looks so good out there. Currently he’s playing with Dubinsky and Jenner.

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Lost in Max Pacioretty‘s breakout game last night (hat trick) was the fact that David Desharnais tripled his regular season total – from one to three points. I keep saying – he only seems to be able to produce if he’s on a line with Pacioretty. So with Pacioretty injured for so long, and then when he came back he was off the Desharnais line, Desharnais was horrible. I still have no interest in Desharnais, but now at least I’m paying attention to the situation.

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And just like that, Josh Harding comes back to Earth. He gave up three goals on 19 shots and was pulled. Then Darcy Kuemper came in and gave up goals on his first two shots faced.

Good for Jonas Brodin for snapping a nine-game pointless drought. Bad for Jonas Brodin for posting a minus-4 on the night.

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Remember a couple of weeks ago in the ramblings I told you about a trade I made to shake things up. I had too many good goalies (four) and it was hurting more than it was helping because I had a tough decision every week deciding who to dress. So I traded Bobrovsky, MacArthur and Hamhuis for Brodin, Brown and Dubnyk. Since then I’ve marched up the standings. While I did upgrade MacArthur to Brown and Hamhuis to Brodin – they haven’t done anything for me yet. I’ve marched up the standings because my weekly goalie decision is easier now. And now Dubnyk is gaining fantasy value with his second straight win and fourth consecutive strong game.

With Ilya Bryzgalov now with the Oilers, everyone in your league was grabbing him from the waiver wire. Frankly, I think now is the time to target Dubnyk. You could get him for a song and my hunch is that Bryzgalov will implode while Dubnyk steps up under the pressure of losing his job.

Mark Arcobello continues to sit in the press box and after that 7-0 win I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Such a shame that his career could be over before it even starts unless a) the Oilers sustain an injury up front or b) the Oilers trade someone.

Speaking of Oilers forwards, Sam Gagner has points in three straight.

With his four-point game, David Perron has 17 in 19 games this season.

Nail Yakupov has points in four of his last five games. Igor Larionov should fly across the ocean to visit his client more often.

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Just when Dan DeKeyser was starting to raise eyebrows from fantasy owners, he suffers this shoulder injury last night. He left the game and did not return:

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Detroit continues to not score. Jimmy Howard, after four consecutive overtime losses, gave up just two goals last night but lost again. If only the Red Wings had a gifted, NHL-ready offensive player in the AHL who they could call up. Nobody comes to mind though. Ah well.

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Despite six shots on goal, Alex Steen was shut out for the second straight game for the first time this season.

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Leafs coach Randy Carlyle is recognizing the underrated Trevor Smith. Never drafted, the now 28-year-old was a coveted college free agent and he ended up signing with the Islanders. He has 12 points in seven games for the Marlies and after playing bit roles with the Leafs this year, Smith is suddenly seeing ice time and lots of it. 52 minutes of ice time over the last three games and he has points in all three of them including three points last night. He also won eight of 14 faceoffs. But Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri are both expected back on Thursday so where does that leave Smith? Do players who get five points in three games get scratched or demoted?

Smith’s play may have pushed Peter Holland right into the press box. Holland has been pretty good too.

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Get back on the Josh Bailey train. The Windex Wonder has points in two straight, so I’m guessing that’s the early portion of a six- or-seven-game hot streak. Then be prepared to dump quickly again as he hits his usual 10-game wall.

With Kevin Poulin getting lit up for five goals, look for Anders Nilsson to get his first NHL start in over a year.

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I’m getting the feeling that Paul MacLean, as a relatively new coach with his first NHL team, is losing the room the way Ken Hitchcock always lost the room after a couple of seasons. Great coach, but my gut tells me he may need to coach three teams before he figures out how to keep the room for a longer term. And each team he coaches, that team will surprise the first year. And also have a strong second year. But as I said – he’ll lose the room after that. Hitchcock has it figured out now, with St. Louis. MacLean will figure it out too. Just a hunch.

So how does this impact you? Well, Craig Anderson isn’t going to help you much this year, if you didn’t guess that already. And I doubt the Sens fire MacLean at all this year no matter how bad the team is.

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Erik Karlsson played 33:47 last night.

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The Hockey Writers review the top November performers who are under 20% owned.

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Here is an interesting story in which a fantasy owner who was killed in the World Trade Center was friends with a woman who today is dating a guy in that fantasy league – and neither one of the two knew that they knew the same guy. Anyway, this really goes to show that it’s a small world.

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The Rangers have scored three goals in their last three games. They also scratched Michael Del Zotto those three games. Coincidence? He may only have four points, but perhaps he’s creating offense and just missing out on the points for now? Or maybe they’re just not scoring, period. I haven’t seen many Rangers games. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve seen any this year, other than brief channel surfing. But maybe a Rangers fan can chime in below.

With Rick Nash back, here were the line combos for the Rangers, courtesy of Frozen Pool:

Good to see the Stepan line remains intact and I’m glad the coach is patient with that line and doesn’t knee-jerk react.

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Nathan MacKinnon got the ice time (17:47) with Duchene out, but nothing in the way of results.

Tyson Barrie had his roster spot given to him in training camp. But he was successful (relatively speaking) last year because he had to earn it. This season, he didn’t have to earn it and his numbers sucked. So he was sent to the minors end of October. He was called back up yesterday and saw nearly 19 minutes of ice time, picking up two assists. With the realization that he has to produce to stay in the lineup, he’ll start to show a little of what we saw last year.

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That’s two straight in which Ben Bishop has been rattled. He got the hook last week (three goals, 14 shots) and last night gave up five in 21 shots after two periods.

Ben Scrivens‘ shutout streak ended at 191:19. The team record was 202:11 (Jonathan Quick).

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FORUM UPDATE: The forum box on the homepage now works, giving you the latest threads. The next step we are working on is to make it so that when you register on the site, you get registered in the forum (that part broke when we upgraded the forum). When that’s solved, we tackle the four or five other bugs still outstanding. You can follow along as I provide updates on forum bugs and fixes right here.

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Tavares gets slammed into the ref. He remained in the game (both ref and Tavares):