November 01, 2014

Dobber

2014-11-01

Dobber pinch hits for Laidlaw and has thoughts on Winnik, Nyquvist, Andersen, Reinhart and more …

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Columbus has been hammered by injuries and fans and media alike are shocked at just how deep this runs. And it is surprising, but it shouldn’t be overly so. First of all – James Wisniewski and Nathan Horton are on the Board of Directors for the Band-Aid Boy Federation. If the Blue Jackets management want to pretend that they expected Horton to ever play more than 65 games for them, well I’m sure glad they don’t manage my business. And Brandon Dubinsky and Matt Calvert are proud members of the BAB. So really the team is out their top goaltender, plus Nick Foligno, Mark Letestu, Boone Jenner and Artem Anisimov – plus the usual suspects. That’s pretty bad, definitely the worst this season so far for any team. But let’s not go overboard with the whining – you have the usual guys, and then a handful of regulars who are out short term. Foligno was back last night. Calvert is supposedly back today. Both Wisniewski and Bobrovsky are back in another seven to 10 days. So whining is fair, Columbus fans. But not the shock.

The Jackets sure mailed it in Friday though. But they were playing their top unit…and then 15 AHLers. I mean, Collins and Cracknell must have been thinking back in September “Man, the only way I get into the lineup on this team is if, like, six forwards get hurt”.

In practice Thursday, the Leafs lost Joffrey Lupul. I’ve joked in the past that he’s so injury prone that he could break his hand lacing his skates. Well, almost. He did break his hand, but it was from a fall in practice – he stepped on his stick?

Lately, Lupul had been on a line with Nazem Kadri and Phil Kessel. So coach Carlyle replaced him on that line with checker Daniel Winnik. Winnik has capably subbed in scoring lines before, and he almost always makes an impact the first game or two that he does so. But the inevitably fades as perhaps the adrenalin wears off. There’s a reason he’s on the checking line. So he did it again last night, posting three points and the line combined for eight. I would only pick up Winnik at this point if there were very liberal waiver wire rules in my league. If you have limited transactions or a limiting auction system, I’d pass. Because Winnik will do well for a couple of games, but will slow all too soon.

Craig Smith and James Neal are both streaky goal scorers. The fact that they’re both scoring now has potential to something special. Neal has six goals in five games (no assists, though). Smith has three goals in two games (also no assists). I think you see Neal end with 30 goals and just over 20 assists this year, while Smith goes 25 and 25.

Michael Ferland played his first NHL game for Calgary. Little likelihood of becoming a scoring line player, but it’s possible maybe down the road. But Markus Granlund played his first game of the season for Calgary and picked up an assist – he has more potential, though nowhere near his brother’s.

This is bad timing for Brandon Pirri, as he scored a goal in three consecutive games. But he is out for a week with a concussion. Furthermore, the Panthers are also now without Aleksander Barkov (lower body). This is Barkov’s second injury in a year, so my ears have perked up. I don’t like young players getting hurt frequently like this.

The Panthers called up Rocco Grimaldi and Vincent Trocheck. Two great replacements almost to the point of being a sideways move – Trocheck is better than Pirri, almost enough to make up the gap in the Barkov-Grimaldi thing. I’m curious to see how those two do – Trocheck had tons of opportunity down the stretch last year. Grimaldi has four points in eight AHL games, Trocheck has six.

Rumors are swirling that Alex Semin will be a healthy scratch today. Well deserved, and great to see a highly-paid player being held accountable. I would expect this scratch (if it happens) to wake him up and he tears the league a new one over the next couple of weeks. He strikes me as that type of player.

The Sabres did the right thing by sending Sam Reinhart down. I had, in the Fantasy Guide, all three forwards from the Big 3 in this year’s draft going back after nine games – Bennett was injured, Reinhart sent down – and Draisaitl stays up. Surprised at Edmonton’s decision to keep Draisaitl, given that they hired Tyler Dellow to help analytics – Dellow is a pretty convincing guy who doesn’t pull his punches, and I can’t see him actually suggesting that Edmonton keep an 18-year-old on the team for…what, the fourth straight year? Not that there are a lot of options out there. But still, having him develop another year in junior and then have both he and Darnell Nurse make the jump would be beneficial to all involved. I find that, barring superstar skills (such as Nathan MacKinnon), that 18-year-olds who break into the NHL progress in terms of offensive numbers very, very slowly. What I mean is – poolies will grow impatient three years from now when Draistaitl’s best season will be “only” 50 points, whereas if he spent a year in junior then poolies would be more patient with him three years from now (because he’d only be in the NHL for two years instead of three).

We’re closing in on finishing up the Frozen Pool fixes. I have 90% of the pages the way I want and we now have narrowed down the issue with pulling the stats every night – it’s still not ready, but I feel like we’re close. Give me a couple more days to polish up this issue.

Check out Detroit fans honoring Gordie Howe, wishing him well: