December 4, 2014
steve laidlaw
2014-12-04
Why Versteeg is legit, Byfuglien heating up, Brodeur to debut tonight and more…
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Exciting opening and ending in Minnesota between the Wild and Canadiens but what a horribly dull game otherwise.
The Wild controlled much of the match outshooting Montreal 35-19. That's not particularly surprising given the statistical trends of these two teams.
We also got to witness over 10 minutes of Minnesota Wild power play action, which was as horrible as it sounds. They went 0/4 including failing to record a single shot on goal during a five-minute power play.
The Wild power play continues to click at less than 10% and while they can blame last night's struggles on the absence of Ryan Suter (out sick, the team is hopeful that it is not the mumps) the season-long trend is that they simply have no clue how to score up a man. It's particularly disheartening because they were a league-average team last season. What's interesting is that they have actually generated more shot attempts on their power plays than they did last season so you could sell me that they have simply been extremely unlucky so far.
If it turns out that Suter is out for a while with the mumps, Jared Spurgeon is your immediate replacement. He skated over six minutes on the top power play unit last night.
The Wild scored 19 seconds in, which was the exciting opening. It was Jason Zucker's 10th goal of the season. He is on pace for over 30 while shooting 18.9%. I think Zucker will be lucky to get to 25 as his shooting percentage is likely to drop. I'm a fan of his game but 14 minutes a night with limited power play time just isn't enough to make a hefty fantasy impact. Maybe next year.
Mikko Koivu assisted on that goal. I talked about him last week in the ramblings and everything I said there still holds true. He's starting to see a turnaround with a three-game point streak to get him up to 10 points in 24 games. Still time to buy low.
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The exciting end came with the Canadiens pressing down two and with their net empty. They managed one goal with 58 seconds remaining to make things interesting. That's basically all the offense the Canadiens were able to generate all game though.
Alex Galchenyuk was the lone goal-scorer for Montreal as he extended his scoring streak to three games.
Montreal only got one power play chance last night but it was spoiled 26 seconds in as Jiri Sekac took a penalty of his own. Sekac was indeed back out there on the top unit as the Canadiens continue to experiment with power play configurations. I wonder if he didn't cost himself another chance with the top unit next time out because of the penalty.
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It was strange but watching the Blues-Blackhawks game I found myself heavily rooting for the Blackhawks to shell Jake Allen and chase him from the game. I wanted to catch a glimpse of Martin Brodeur. He'll go either tonight or Saturday so we'll see him soon enough but I just find him compelling. As much as I have ragged about his inability to stop the puck at league-average levels the past few years, I am still very interested in seeing the old man tend goal.
Byfuglien got a couple of points last night giving him six points in the last eight games. Still not great, mind you, but his first quarter of the season was dreadful. If I can get six points every eight from here on out, I'd be psyched. It would be enough to get Byfuglien up to the 50-point mark I drafted him for.
Jacob Trouba is flashing some signs of life as well. With three points last night he's got seven in his last six games and is up to 10 points on the season. I'd be more excited if this didn't coincide with Tobias Enstrom's injury, although you could argue that Trouba has done enough to earn a bigger role even when Enstrom returns.
I won't make that argument though. Enstrom is back skating and could return shortly, which should spell an end to Trouba's hot run.
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With every passing loss I get more riled up with anticipation about the panic moves the Oilers might make. I mean, every day that I've got coverage on the site I'm checking TSN, Twitter, and NHL.com 100 times just to see if they've pulled the trigger on something. Everyone should be walking on egg shells except Andrew Ference. He's the only guy with a no-movement clause of any kind though to be perfectly honest, I'd want out if I were him.
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More juicy nuggets in Elliotte Friedman's latest 30 Thoughts:
7. Apparently, the forward generating the most interest is Brad Boyes. Pittsburgh is believed to have interest in him, needing a winger with a good number ($2.625 million). The problem is, Tallon may not want to trade him. Boyes is signed for one more year and playing in a prime offensive role.
8. What kind of winger is Pittsburgh looking for? Guys like Pascal Dupuis, Patric Hornqvist and Chris Kunitz; smart enough to recognize that playing with Crosby and Malkin means straight lines, simple plays and recognizing you need to go where they need you to be. Watch Blake Comeau's first two goals last week against Toronto. He goes to the net and stays there. The problem is, "it's not as easy as you'd think," to find them, one exec said.
I included a couple of related thoughts there because this Penguin situation is extremely interesting. With all these injuries the Penguins looked punchless for a lot of their game against New Jersey. I think they are growing more and more comfortable winning these low-scoring games but it's still unnerving to see a team with Crosby and Malkin struggling to produce offense.
Boyes is an interesting option there because we've seen him produce oodles of offense in the past. I also wonder if his right-handed shot couldn't displace Kunitz on the top power play unit. Probably not, but it is fun to think about.
I really like the point about Comeau. Combine that anecdote with the all the injuries up front and it becomes easy to see Comeau sticking in the top-six for most of the season. He's on pace for 52 points now and could certainly get there if the status quo remains. Heck, even a trade wouldn't push him out at this point.
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Alec Martinez signed an extension to stay with the Kings for another six years. The contract was for, you guessed it, $4 million a year. If you can skate and chew gum at the same while playing defense you get $4 million.
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Not really surprising but the Stars finally waived Anders Lindback to call-up Jussi Rynnas. I'm not really high on either goalie but Rynnas has some value if Kari Lehtonen gets hurt and the Stars start living up to their potential. That might be asking a lot though.
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Sean McIndoe goes retro with a hilarious piece on the recipe for winning the Stanley Cup.
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Make sure you cast your votes in our latest Cage Match Tournament, a tradition that I'm very happy has lived on.
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Kane, he's good:
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You can follow me @SteveLaidlaw.