January 15, 2015

Perry’s hat-trick, Booth concussed, dumping Desharnais, and more…

 

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I know that Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry do this to everyone but my goodness did they ever just run over the Leafs last night. An excellent job of line matching by Bruce Boudreau gave the Ducks' dynamic duo (along with Patrick Maroon) some favourable matchups to exploit. Perry finished off the hat-trick with an empty-netter at the end.

 

Freddie Andersen notched an assist on Perry's empty-netter to go along with his shutout. If your league doesn't count points by goalies it's a stupid league. Full disclosure, I do compete in a couple of leagues where goalie assists don't count and yes, they are stupid leagues.

 

Matt Beleskey was a healthy scratch after going minus-two in back-to-back games. We'll see if this gets the puck gods to smile on him again as his shooting percentage has slipped to (gulp) 16.7%.

 

The latest Duck riding the puck luck gravy train is Kyle Palmieri who scored again last night. He's now got eight goals in 20 games while shooting 23.5%. Maybe Boudreau's strategy is to just keep mixing and matching lines while scratching any depth winger whose shooting percentage falls below 20%. That way he's constantly extracting the most from his lower lines.

 

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That's two straight blankings for the Leafs but they've both come on the dreaded California road swing so I don't think this is a referendum on the Peter Horachek era. I did warn that the new coaching staff would likely see the Leafs become a lower scoring team but it's not like I was calling for the next ice age so this is a bit unexpected.

 

I'll be waiting a while longer before firming up any conclusions on what to expect from the Leafs going forward but so far no one seems to have benefitted much from the coaching swap.

 

Poor David Booth took an elbow from Sami Vatanen in the third period and left looking rather concussed. Sorry to say but this is reaching the point where Booth might have to hang them up just for long-term health reasons.

 

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Tons of goodies in Elliotte Friedman's latest 30 Thoughts:

 

16. One scout on David Desharnais: "Watch his even-strength usage. 

Among all Montreal forwards, he remains slightly above Tomas Plekanec for second on the club, but it is dropping. In the Canadiens' last 10 games, he's hit his average of 14:44 just four times. He had 11:38 in regulation last Saturday against Pittsburgh and 12:10 Jan. 2 in New Jersey.

 

I think that Desharnais' days of being a fantasy asset are somewhat numbered now that Alex Galchenyuk has been moved to center full time and given Max Pacioretty as a winger. Now Desharnais isn't even skating on Montreal's new top power play unit.

 

Just one point in the last seven games for Desharnais. I normally hate to sell low but this is one where you just need to abandon the sinking ship.

 

By the way, the Canadiens clicked on three of seven power play chances last night so perhaps there is something to these changes. Pacioretty went off for two goals on seven shots. No surprises there.

 

Check out their most frequent power play combos from last night courtesy of FrozenPool:

 

Frequency	Strength	Line Combination
32.26%	PP	11 GALLAGHER,BRENDAN – 67 PACIORETTY,MAX – 14 PLEKANEC,TOMAS
16.13%	PP	51 DESHARNAIS,DAVID – 81 ELLER,LARS – 27 GALCHENYUK,ALEX
16.13%	PP	51 DESHARNAIS,DAVID – 11 GALLAGHER,BRENDAN – 67 PACIORETTY,MAX – 15 PARENTEAU,PIERRE
9.68%	PP	27 GALCHENYUK,ALEX – 67 PACIORETTY,MAX – 14 PLEKANEC,TOMAS
6.45%	PP	51 DESHARNAIS,DAVID – 14 PLEKANEC,TOMAS – 22 WEISE,DALE
6.45%	PP	81 ELLER,LARS – 27 GALCHENYUK,ALEX – 14 PLEKANEC,TOMAS

 

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I know that Kevin Connauton is riding some unholy hot streak for the Blue Jackets but I'm not buying it at all. He's Kevin Klein 2.0 riding a huge shooting percentage (20.4%) to an intriguing point total despite limited usage, particularly on the power play.

 

Connauton's usage has increased since joining the Blue Jackets but not enough to sell me. He's averaging like 16 minutes a game with limited power play time. Not good enough for me. So yes, I am poo-pooing this 10 in 16 run that he is on.

 

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I could spend another thousand words talking about why Drew Doughty makes for such a good fantasy asset this season like I did on Tuesday or I could just show this clip from last night:

 

 

Doughty, he's good.

 

Martin Jones got another start after blanking the Leafs on Monday. This one did not go nearly as well as the Devils chased him midway through third with a quick barrage of goals. Jonathan Quick did not fare much better in relief.

 

Two games and no action now for Nick Shore. I guess he's just up as window dressing, which is great work if you can find it.

 

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Both Jaromir Jagr and Tuomo Ruutu missed last night's contest with the flu. Lou Lamoriello doesn't think that we'll see Jagr on this California road trip so it might not be until next Wednesday against Toronto.

 

Steve Bernier grabbed Jagr's spot on the top line and flourished scoring two power-play goals. Maybe snag Bernier if you are desperate for an injury replacement but the Devils only play twice over the next week (Friday and Monday) so the situation isn't optimal. Considering how the Devils keep turning back the clock with some of these characters though, it wouldn't shock me if Bernier ended up one of this week's three stars. Actually, unlike most of his Devils' teammates, Bernier's not even a has-been, he's a never was.

 

Probably just an aberration but Adam Larsson has four assists in his last five games skating some big minutes for the Devils. Not much in the way of power play time though, which tells me to temper excitement here but I'm honestly just happy that Larsson's getting 20 minutes a night in any role.

 

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Very little to report on from the Flyer-Capital game.

 

Braden Holtby got the shutout but I feel like I've talked about how hot he is about six or seven times since 2015 began.

 

Flyers rookie Scott Laughton did leave the game with what I'd guess is a concussion after getting drilled by Matt Niskanen: