January 3, 2015

steve laidlaw

2015-01-03

Giroux’s near miss, Staal heating up, Koivu too, bailing on Skinner and more…

The 2014-15 edition of the Mid-Season Guide comes out on January 12^th! Remember to pick it up for that second-half boost you need to win your pool. More people than ever will have it in their hands this year thanks to the Draft Kings promo from the summer, so don’t be left behind. Only $9.99! Get it here.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! That was a close one. Claude Giroux took a skate to the back of the leg and was cut in a very similar way to Erik Karlsson. He left the game and did not return, which had me assuming the worst. However Giroux spoke after the game saying that he is fine and is probable to play tonight.

So I can delay the Flyers eulogy for another day and let me tell you it wasn't looking good. We could have lost a whole team's worth of fantasy relevance if Giroux went down.

Now, the Flyers aren't actually that high scoring of a team if you look at the rankings where they sit 15^th in goals per game. But that's a bit misleading as their 2.78 goals per game is closer to ninth (Vancouver, 2.86 goals/game) than 16^th (Los Angeles, 2.69 goals/game). They also boast a lethal power play that ranks in the top 10. Giroux is at the center of all of that. They cannot lose him, though I do wonder how Jakub Voracek would have fared in his absence. I actually think he'd have performed better than you'd think.

The Flyers managed just one goal last night from Chris VandeVelde, assist to Vinny Lecavalier's statue!

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Steve Mason has now lost five in a row but he hasn't played horribly in that stretch.

It looks like Jordan Staal sitting out on New Year's Eve was just a maintenance day as he was back out there against the Flyers. He was right back on a line with his brother Eric Staal and that duo is now 2/2 this season with Eric scoring a goal in each game with Jordan picking up an assist.

Eric actually has a three-game goal scoring streak on the go so here comes his classic second half push!

Jeff Skinner sat out last night due to illness but honestly, who cares? Skinner had such a horrible December that I think we all need to make a resolution to just dump him until the Hurricanes put him on a line with someone named Staal. Skinner's December numbers: three goals, five points, 14 games.

Skinner did manage 45 shots in December (over 3.0 per game) but that's old hat for him. Skinner always teases with big shot totals and rarely produces. One big factor missing for Skinner has been the power-play goals. He scored 11 last season on his way to a 33-goal season. This year he has none and is on pace for just 18 for the season.

Skinner's power play time has dropped from 3:05 per game, predominantly on the top unit, last season to just 2:23 per game this season, with less minutes on the top unit. But Carolina's power play efficiency has jumped from 14.6% to 17.0% so there is an argument for the Hurricanes to leave him on the outside looking in.

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Oh, who am I kidding? I have Skinner in one league and I'm totally going to hang onto him in hopes he can get it going although that probably says as much about the dregs available on the waiver wire than my belief/disbelief in Skinner.

Ben Bishop gets a maintenance day against Buffalo the other night and then gets chased by the Penguins last night giving up three goals on 10 shots in the first period. He's been awfully mediocre this year, winning more because of the quality of the skaters ahead of him than because of his own excellent play.

That's not me saying Bishop has been bad, because that's not true. He's been merely average. You can win a Cup with a goalie like that (see Marc-Andre Fleury for the Penguins) but it's more of a challenge. More importantly, Bishop hasn't been as excellent as he was last season, which earned him a fat (but short extension)

We've seen Andrei Vasilevsky a couple of times already this year and he's been excellent. Don't be surprised if Vasilevsky is the back up next season and pushes Bishop for the starting spot, contract be damned.

This is more about how good Vasilevsky is because, again, Bishop has been fine. Bishop is more than capable of tapping into that brick-wall-esque ability he showed last season. If it's more of this, though? Well that's where Vasilevsky can make a push.

It's early to be making these declarations however. Bishop could rain terror in the second half and we'll all forget about this average start. A lot of Bishop's job security will depend on how Tampa Bay does in the playoffs as well.

Kapanen is one of those ones you probably don't want to sell right now. For one, the return might not be as strong as you'd like considering Kapanen's poor tournament performance. Another reason is that Kapanen is a really good scorer in the Penguins' system. We haven't seen them develop a forward to click with Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby yet but it doesn't mean they can't do it.

One concern, Perron has another year left on his deal, which leaves the Penguins' top-six completely loaded as Pascal Dupuis will return next year as well so we'll be waiting on Kapanen for at least a couple more years.

Teuvo Teravainen has been called up by the Blackhawks to fill in for Kris Versteeg. We’ll see how he is deployed but I’m not sure Teravainen is quite ready to put up numbers.

Mark Spector discusses how Slava Voynov's legal situation has left the Kings in limbo.

You can follow me @SteveLaidlaw.