November 12, 2014

Dobber

2014-11-12

Thoughts on Boychuk, Koivu, McDavid, Ben Bishop, Antti Niemi, and more …

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Back-to-back shutouts for Jaroslav Halak and two goals allowed over the course of three wins. His numbers have almost gone through the full market correction.

Johnny Boychuk came roaring out of the gates with his new team with six points in three games. But he has just four in 11 since then. However, I like his shot total and I think Capuano will come around to the fact that Boychuk is the better option to Visnovsky for the PP. Visnovsky has cannibalized some of Johnny’s PP time since returning from his back injury. But last night Boychuk was out there quite a bit on the power play (5:45) again and picked up a point. You may start to see a shift back to his getting points again.

Here were last night’s line combinations for the Islanders (finally got the ‘in game’ tool working again on Frozen Pool):

19.39%	EV	86 KULEMIN,NIKOLAY – 21 OKPOSO,KYLE – 91 TAVARES,JOHN
18.03%	EV	15 CLUTTERBUCK,CAL – 84 GRABOVSKI,MIKHAIL – 51 NIELSEN,FRANS
17.35%	EV	53 CIZIKAS,CASEY – 89 CONACHER,CORY – 17 MARTIN,MATT
14.63%	EV	27 LEE,ANDERS – 29 NELSON,BROCK – 18 STROME,RYAN

And as I write this I’m told that the full season scan and fix will run Tuesday overnight – it will pick up any missing data and fix accordingly, for Wednesday.

20 BROUWER,TROY – 65 BURAKOVSKY,ANDRE – 90 JOHANSSON,MARCUS

10.49%

92 KUZNETSOV,EVGENY – 46 LATTA,MICHAEL – 87 O’BRIEN,LIAM

The Winnipeg Jets are doing pretty well. In the standings. But they’re not scoring goals. The Wheeler – Little – Ladd trio have reasonable points, as well as Enstrom. But the team has clearly changing things to better implement a defensive system. That’s great for Ondrej Pavelec owners (where were you last year Pavelec when I predicted big things??), but terrible for owners of any Jets skaters. Scheifele was looking like a strong 60-plus candidate, Evander Kane and Dustin Byfuglien should be up there as well. Frolik and newly-added Perreault should be 45-point players this year with some of us hoping for 50. Jacob Trouba was supposed to take the next step. But it’s not in the cards. In fact, the trio that leads this team is on pace for about 55 points.

Speaking of Byfuglien, he had seven shots on goal and seven hits last night against the Habs. So at least he’s helping in other categories…

Prospect news – the big one. Connor McDavid injured his hand in a fight last night and could be out for several weeks. Details are sketchy at this point, but Team Canada’s WJC squad is awaiting information anxiously. Here is the fight:

* I jumped in over at <a href="http://www.dobberprospects.com/">DobberProspects</a> with some <a href="http://prospects.dobbersports.com/Prospects-Rambling/prospects-november-11-2014">ramblings</a> – some thoughts on Derrick Pouliot, as well as two defensemen you may not have heard of, and why you should stick them on your radar. Austin will have a ramblings up later Wednesday morning, with another one Thursday. And Brendan tells me he has a wrap-up of the Super Series for Friday’s ramblings – so a nice run of four consecutive days of prospect ramblings over there. ‘Smack’ checks in with some reflections about the goaltending from Monday’s games. This is over at <a href="http://www.goaliepost.com/">Goalie Post</a>, the new ramblings feature there. * But another Penguins prospect who has returned from injury and is doing well is <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=3291&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Beau Bennett</a>. He has five assists in two games for the Baby Pens. * <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=1229&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Sergei Gonchar</a> – don’t bother rushing out and grabbing him, his production would be the same regardless of Dallas or Montreal. Laidlaw didn’t think the trade to Dallas (for Moen) even worthy of a breakdown article yesterday, and I’m inclined to agree. * I saw this weird word on the scoresheet, perhaps you could tell me what it means. What exactly is a “Fleischmann”? * Don’t look now, but the leading scorer of the Florida Panthers is – <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=4083&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Aaron Ekblad</a>. * <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=3621&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Tomas Hertl</a> is slowly waking up, just as <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=2503&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Tommy Wingels</a> falls asleep. Hertl has five points in his last five games. Wingels – pointless in four. * <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=1867&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Antti Niemi</a> has lost three games in a row. With Stalock coming off a win, this is a chance for him to make his mark. The first chance of the season – the first of what will be several opportunities. I expect Stalock to take the No.1 job, but not until later in the season. * So <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=3294&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Vladimir Tarasenko</a> is still going nuts, and he’s truly taking his old KHL linemate along with him. <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=2680&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Jori Lehtera</a> had his first career hat trick, with Tarasenko setting up two of them. Tarasenko is looking more and more like a Top 10 scorer to stay, and if that’s the case – Lehtera’s final point total will shock you. * Are we believers in <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=1956&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Ben Bishop</a> yet? Can you imagine being a Bishop owner when he was with St. Louis, and sitting on him throughout his journey through Ottawa…and then you get the news of the trade to Tampa Bay? How great must that feel today? I mean – 85 games with Tampa now and he’s 49-19-10. That’s not a typo. And with a SV% hovering around 0.921. * Also, Happy Birthday to one of our senior columnists Russ Miller, who turned 29 yesterday for the 10th or 15th time… * Here is <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=1956&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Ben Bishop</a> grabbing <a href="frozenpool_profiler.php?players=2538&sent=go&games=2014-2015%3AR">Ben Smith</a> and slamming him to the ice – and drawing the penalty! Well done, sir… <iframe width="560″ height="315″ src="//www.youtube.com/embed/k2Xl1CV6ETQ" frameborder="0″ allowfullscreen>

UPCOMING GAMES

Dec 22 - 12:12	NYR	vs	CAR
Dec 22 - 17:12	T.B	vs	FLA
Dec 22 - 17:12	UTA	vs	ANA
Dec 22 - 17:12	WSH	vs	L.A
Dec 22 - 20:12	EDM	vs	OTT
Dec 22 - 20:12	COL	vs	SEA