December 24, 2014
Dobber
2014-12-24
Why Tyler Johnson is awesome; Zuccarello looking at a big second half; Thoughts on some goalie situations; and more …
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Merry Christmas Eve everyone!
This is our last bit of NHL hockey for four days. Nice of the NHL to give us this break so that we can actually pay attention to what our family is saying to us, as opposed to checking our phones for the latest scoring summary while they drone on in the background…
With Rick Nash having the season that he’s having, being Brassard and Zuccarello owners would feel nice. Those two already have chemistry together, as they’ve shown for the past year. And now they have Nash as the third linemate. A slight upgrade to Benoit Pouliot. The three combined for seven points last night. Nash is looking like he’ll top 80 points and make me eat my words. He’s never actually done that before. Seriously, he’s never had 80 points. You’d think, after watching how fellow keeper league owners treat him, that he’s a five-time 100-point player. But nope. A one-time 70-point player.
But this year, at the age of 30, he’s looking good for reaching 80.
And playing with Zuccarello that seems even more likely. Zuke is a second-half guy and he’s on a hot streak right now with eight points in seven games.
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In the keeper league in which I’m in the 26th season, I was sitting fourth last night just 10 points back of first (points only). I own Johnson, Kucherov and Palat. Yep. Throw in some Nyquist magic and some other playing chipping in and I’m now in my rightful place.
With the hat trick last night, Tyler Johnson now has 37 points in 35 games. He’s back ahead of Stamkos, who has 36 in 36. Amazing. Very amazing, this late in the season. So is Stamkos the 85- to 90-point guy that I say he is without Marty St. Louis? Or is he the 100+ point guy and Malkin’s superior that so many other fantasy owners here and on other sites say he is? Still a little early to tell, but I’m still oh so very interested in finding out. But to be better than Malkin offensively, first thing he should do is beat Johnson ;)
What’s amazing about the Johnson – Palat – Kucherov line is their youth and inexperience. How can an entire trio who were in the AHL 18 months ago (hell, Kucherov was in junior then) step in and treat the rest of the NHL like pylons? Seriously, two of them are in the Top 15 in scoring, the third guy missed five games otherwise he’d be in the Top 50. And of the three, only Kucherov was drafted high (end of the second round). Johnson was never drafted and Palat was a Hail Mary pick in the seventh round.
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If a team can draft a Palat in the seventh round and sign an undrafted guy like Johnson…then there’s no excuse for any team in the league, really.
PS – Stamkos is minus-1 while Johnson is plus-23. Just a phenomenal year for Johnson, easily the fantasy MVP of the year so far with Voracek second and either Giordano or Tarasenko third. With MVP defined here as a combination of where he went in the summer draft (expectation) balanced with actual output.
Metter has a few streaking forwards who are under 25% owned over at The Hockey Writers.
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Stephen Weiss, who now has 11 points in 12 games this year, left the game last night with what looked like an elbow to the head. From what I see from several sources on Twitter, he says that he does not have a concussion. He also says he can’t remember the hit. And he was also reaching out and grabbing at imaginary chirping birdies that were fluttering around his head while he was being interviewed.
You tell me: