March 22, 2014

Dobber Sports

2014-03-22

The Rangers escaped with a win in Rick Nash’s return to Columbus on Friday, but Nash didn’t seem to be in a festive mood. He got into a scuffle with Sergei Bobrovsky after a disallowed goal and later dropped his gloves for a fight. Once Nash cooled off he was able to post a team leading seven shots on the night.

 

Carl Hagelin scored another goal (empty net), but he’s starting to see less and less time with Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis these days. His minutes are way lower than the other two and he doesn’t get much power play time. That experiment seems to be done. 

 

Someone who is playing more with Martin St. Louis is Mats Zuccarello. He had a pair of assists against the Blue Jackets and did the same in his last outing against Ottawa. That could be a dangerous pair the rest of the way and heading into the playoffs.

 

Speaking of the playoffs, the addition of St. Louis has to move the Rangers up the pecking order in the Eastern Conference. If they can start finding some goal support to compliment the brick wall that is Henrik Lundqvist, they are going to be a very tough out this spring.

 

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Columbus’ playoff bid took a hit with the loss to the Rangers, but you certainly couldn’t fault Sergei Bobrovsky. He made 29 stops and has had save percentages of over .925 in two games this week. Perfect timing for fantasy owners in a playoff matchup.

 

Ryan Johansen failed to score and had just a single shot on Friday, after notching a goal and posting seven shots on Thursday. He’s still going to hit 30 goals this year and potentially 60 points, which is the breakout campaign that many have been waiting for from Johansen. Something tells me we shouldn’t expect much more than this from him going forward though. Johansen avoided any lengthy scoring droughts this season and was very consistent, so he would need to really pull off some magic next year with multi-point games to increase his totals significantly. 

 

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The Blackhawks beat the Hurricanes 3-2 and made a couple of roster moves earlier in the day. They called up Jeremy Morin and Teuvo Teravainen. Morin played sparingly in this one and Teravainen didn’t dress, but expect them to both see action as it looks like Patrick Kane is going to be out of action for a little while. Teravainen has had a lot of buzz around him and he's been almost a point-per-game player in the Finnish Elite League this season. Depending on what lines they are placed with, either could be a sleeper for a fantasy playoff run.

 

Andrew Shaw grabbed an assist on Friday to give him eight points in eight games. He was stuck in a rough slump for much of December and January, but looks to have sorted things out. He’s bounced around with a bunch of different lines this year but has seemed to have found a home with Michal Handzus and Patrick Sharp lately. Shaw is someone that could step up with Kane sidelined.

 

Corey Crawford is rounding into elite form just in time for the playoffs. He’s been just about unbeatable since the New Year.

 

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Alex Semin scored a pair against Chicago and I’m still on the fence if his signing was a smart one by the Hurricanes or not. He was a point per game player last year and has an outside chance at 25 goals this season, but he’s also getting $7 million a year. You’d probably need 35 goals to justify that kind of price for him, so if he can post that next year I’d say it’s worth it. Keeping in mind Carolina isn’t exactly overstocked with offensive weapons. 

 

One such weapon has gone dry over the last four games. Jeff Skinner doesn’t have a point during that stretch and has only managed six shots. Skinner has had a few decent point droughts this season, this one just happens to be very ill timed. 

 

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Defense was just a rumor in Nashville's 6-5 victory over Calgary.

 

Joni Ortio had such a rough night the Flames already returned him to Abbotsford. In actuality, Karri Ramo is just ready to return, but it was still a rough night for all goalies in this one.

 

Mike Cammalleri remained hot with two goals and an assist. He's been on an unbelievable run lately, posting 10 points on a six-game scoring streak.

 

Mikael Backlund added two points to give him seven points in his last six, and Mark Giordano also had a multi-point night to give him 13 points in March. Sensing a theme here? Calgary has scored 35 goals this month and have several players enjoying good runs. They may be giving up just as many, but the lowly Flames are something of an offensive gold mine right now.

 

Prospect Kenny Agostino saw his first action on Friday and played 12 minutes. He went minus-1 without a point or a shot, so don't expect major happenings from him this year.

 

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Pekka Rinne was chased after giving up four goals on 18 shots for his third bad outing in a row. He returned from injury looking very sharp, but now finds himself in a funk.

 

Shea Weber scored a pair of goals including one on the power play. That was his 10th goal of the year with the man advantage to lead all defensemen. That's a massive weapon to have on your squad.

 

Patric Hornqvist and Matt Cullen combined for seven points, and I'm going to say that was an anomaly as opposed to the start of the trend. They were playing the Flames and Nashville doesn't exactly fill the net with regularity, so no need to go rushing to pick one of them up.

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Despite picking up an assist, Michael Del Zotto played just over three minutes. I didn't see anything about him leaving with an injury and he was scratched earlier in the week, so it could just be more tough times for the blue liner.

 

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The Bruins are just dominant right now. Tuukka Rask had the night off but it made no difference against the Avs as Chad Johnson helped Boston to its 11th straight win with a shutout, clinching a playoff spot in the process.

 

Carl Soderberg scored to give him a four-game point streak and 41 points on the campaign. In a related story, Boston has a ridiculous amount of depth. They can score from so many different lines and don't rely on any one player for offense too heavily.

 

As an example, Jarome Iginla was held off the score sheet versus Colorado, ending his crazy scoring run. However, Dougie Hamilton chips in with two assists and the Bruins roll to a W.

 

Here's a reason why Iginla's goal streak was stopped.

 

 

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It's rare to see the Avs shutout with all that fire power. Part of the problem could be Matt Duchene struggling at the moment with no goals in his last five and just three in the past 13 games. If Colorado has any hope of a playoff run in the West they are going to need scoring for a bunch of different sources.

 

You could argue that this has been Erik Johnson's best season so far from a fantasy perspective. He has an outside chance at a career high in points, but has still been inconsistent. Johnson has disappeared for stretches this year right when you think he is turning a corner.

 

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The Leafs look to be getting healthier in the midst of their slump. Both Jonathan Bernier and David Bolland practiced on Friday and Randy Carlyle said he would determine their status for Saturday on game day. Reimer has had his ups and downs with Bernier out and it doesn't look like he is going to have much value down the stretch.

 

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Kyle Okposo and Lubomir Visnovsky are both day-to-day according to head coach Jack Capuano. Losing Okposo would be massive at this point in the season for fantasy owners, so hopefully it's nothing serious.

 

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Gustav Nyquist is now up to 20 goals on the campaign and that's with spending nearly the first two months in Grand Rapids. Granted, he's benefitted from a plethora of injuries to Red Wing forwards, but he still has to be considered a high fantasy pick for next season.

 

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James Neal has reportedly avoided a hearing for his cross-check on Thursday night. Neal's play can be reckless at times and it would have been a disaster for fantasy owners to lose him to a lengthy suspension at this point in the year.

 

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Great story here about what an ECHL team did for a young hockey fan. 

 

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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