The big news of the day, that’s rocked the fantasy hockey world to its very core, is that the DobberHockey Forum has finally completed the upgrade and re-launched. A process started in mid-November and began with a failed VBulletin 5 upgrade, is now complete as a successful VBulletin 4 upgrade. The forum looks as it always did, logins and registration all seamless, and I look forward to finally enjoying the boards again.

The other news – Dobber Sports is having an event in Toronto Friday at the Sports Centre Café. Details here.

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Oh, and that Olympics thing. If you want to see how your team is doing in the Olympics Pool, click here. Me? I’m not doing well. Nine points, 566th place. Already lost Zetterberg.

I find it fantastic that the members of the Los Angeles Kings are going nuts on the scoreboard at this level. It really says a lot about their coach. Sorry Mr. Sutter, you won a Cup and congrats for that. But that style only works once – you have to actually score some goals in order to win games. And you can’t use the “lack of personnel” excuse, as you can plainly see. But all the poolies care about is – will Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown and Drew Doughty keep it up when they get back to the NHL?

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Michael Grabner has five goals in the tournament to lead the way. He’s on a hot streak. He gets those. Doesn’t change my outlook for him in the least. He’s a 20-goal, 35-point penalty killer.

Olli Maatta, on the other hand, is really impressing. Not just in Sochi (four points so far), but throughout the NHL season. Each game he gets better – and the improvement is on the offensive side of the puck. And that’s where us poolies want to see it. And another Finnish defenseman Sami Vatanen is justifying my faith in him from the last two years. He’s absolutely flying.

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It was hinted Saturday that Alexander Radulov would be scratched Sunday. Apparently not:

Still – what an attitude. If we only knew about this reputation when he was a prospect, we could have stayed clear! (By the way, the Olympics are pretty damn tight with their hoarding of rights, so it wouldn’t shock me if the above clip disappeared soon).

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Sidney Crosby is averaging 15:43 per game. That’s low, but he’s behind only Toews in that department. The bigger question mark is John Tavares only seeing 12:31. There’s a guy who can make a difference in an awful hurry. Four minutes a period?

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Phil Kessel leads the Olympic Tournament in scoring with seven points. In fact, since December 1, no player has more NHL/Olympics points (he has 48, Crosby has 42+2=44). Here are the top scorers since Dec.1 courtesy of the Report Generator over at Frozen Pool:

Rank	Name	Pos	Age	Yrs	Team	GR	GP	EV	PP	SH	PPG	Total
1	CROSBY,SIDNEY	C	26	9	PIT	24	30	28	14	0	1.40	42
2	KESSEL,PHIL	C	26	8	TOR	22	33	27	14	0	1.24	41
3	GIROUX,CLAUDE	R	26	7	PHI	23	33	24	15	0	1.18	39
4	HALL,TAYLOR	L	22	4	EDM	22	33	29	8	0	1.12	37
5	TAVARES,JOHN	C	23	5	NYI	22	32	23	13	0	1.13	36
5	GETZLAF,RYAN	C	28	9	ANA	22	30	27	9	0	1.20	36
5	OKPOSO,KYLE	R	25	7	NYI	22	32	27	9	0	1.13	36
6	SHARP,PATRICK	R	32	11	CHI	22	32	22	12	0	1.06	34
7	KANE,PATRICK	R	25	7	CHI	22	31	22	11	0	1.06	33
7	SEGUIN,TYLER	C	22	4	DAL	24	32	21	12	0	1.03	33
8	VANEK,THOMAS	L	30	9	NYI	22	33	22	10	0	0.97	32
8	ST. LOUIS,MARTIN	R	38	15	T.B	24	32	22	10	0	1.00	32
9	WHEELER,BLAKE	R	27	6	WPG	22	32	24	7	0	0.97	31
9	OVECHKIN,ALEXANDER	L	28	9	WSH	23	30	18	13	0	1.03	31
9	BACKSTROM,NICKLAS	C	26	7	WSH	23	32	13	18	0	0.97	31
9	HOSSA,MARIAN	R	35	16 📢 advertisement:	CHI	22	32	19	9	3	0.97	31
9	PERRY,COREY	R	28	9	ANA	22	31	21	10	0	1.00	31
10	TOEWS,JONATHAN	C	25	7	CHI	22	32	23	5	2	0.94	30
10	SIMMONDS,WAYNE	R	25	6	PHI	23	33	20	10	0	0.91	30
10	DUCHENE,MATT	C	23	5	COL	24	33	22	8	0	0.91	30
11	KREJCI,DAVID	C	27	8	BOS	25	30	18	11	0	0.97	29
11	PAVELSKI,JOE	C	29	8	S.J	23	33	20	8	1	0.88	29
11	SKINNER,JEFF	C	21	4	CAR	24	31	17	12	0	0.94	29
11	NEAL,JAMES	L	26	6	PIT	24	24	19	10	0	1.21	29
11	HARTNELL,SCOTT	L	31	13	PHI	23	33	16	13	0	0.88	29
12	ZUCCARELLO,MATS	C	26	4	NYR	23	32	20	8	0	0.88	28
12	LANDESKOG,GABRIEL	L	21	3	COL	24	33	25	3	0	0.85	28
12	KARLSSON,ERIK	D	23	0	OTT	23	33	16	12	0	0.85	28
12	KUNITZ,CHRIS	L	34	10	PIT	24	30	19	9	0	0.93	28
12	IGINLA,JAROME	R	36	17	BOS	25	30	18	10	0	0.93	28
12	VORACEK,JAKUB	R	24	6	PHI	23	33	18	10	0	0.85	28
12	MACKINNON,NATHAN	C	18	0	COL	24	33	19	9	0	0.85	28

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I’m surprised that Blake Wheeler is getting five minutes per game. He’s better than half the wingers on the team who are seeing more.

I think Canada is wise to roll four lines the way they are and run through the defense pairings the same way (unless your name is P-K…or Dan). I think it will really pay off down the line. Team USA on the other hand, under Bylsma, is being run like an NHL team. The top line gets top minutes, the depths line not so much. It will be interesting to put the two strategies to the test against each other in a meaningful game.

If you have anything you want me address next ramblings, ask away below. I swapped days with Steve this week so he’s got Wednesday and I have Friday, so make sure the Q’s aren’t time sensitive!

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Don Cherry – Price “unbelievable”, Doughty – “nobody in this tournament as good as him”:

UPCOMING GAMES

Nov 07 - 19:11	NYR	vs	BUF
Nov 07 - 19:11	CAR	vs	PIT
Nov 07 - 19:11	OTT	vs	NYI
Nov 07 - 19:11	FLA	vs	NSH
Nov 07 - 19:11	BOS	vs	CGY
Nov 07 - 19:11	N.J	vs	MTL
Nov 07 - 19:11	T.B	vs	PHI
Nov 07 - 20:11	DAL	vs	CHI
Nov 07 - 20:11	STL	vs	UTA
Nov 07 - 20:11	WPG	vs	COL
Nov 07 - 22:11	L.A	vs	VAN
Nov 07 - 22:11	S.J	vs	MIN