January 19, 2015

Dobber

2015-01-19

The Midseason Guide – if you haven’t picked it up yet, get it here

Don’t forget – today’s games start at 1pm EST…

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If you don’t mind the plus/minus, Buffalo’s rookie rearguard Nikita Zadorov has seven points in his last 16 games. He’s seeing top PP time and loads of ice time for a rookie. He saw a total of 30 minutes in the first three games of the season…and these days he’s seeing over 20 per game. In fact, eight of his last 11 games have seen his minutes top 20. You can read more on Zadorov here.

Hopefully you haven’t been activating Jhonas Enroth lately. Horrible numbers. Eighteen goals allowed in the last three games – that’s on 94 shots.

Back-to-back two-point games for Gustav Nyquist gives him 15 points in his last 13 games. Tomas Tatar has been equally as hot, with points in five straight games (eight in that span). I’d say the torch is being passed in Detroit…but I can’t. Not when Henrik Zetterberg bangs out a four-point game last night.

Petr Mrazek was pulled after giving up three goals on seven shots – and then the Red Wings won 6-4. I’d say Thomas McCollum led the charge and saved the day, but he faced just eight shots and the goal he gave up was pretty weak. McCollum doesn’t have a future in fantasy hockey in my opinion. Not because of that game, but just in general I’ve felt that way. It’s hard to believe he’s 25 now. He was a first-round pick in 2008.

McCollum was drafted 30th overall. And 91 picks later, Detroit drafted Nyquist.

After going pointless in his first two, David Perron is settling in nicely with the Penguins. He has six points in the last three games. He’s signed for next year, too. Out of Perron, Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz, Beau Bennett, Blake Comeau and Pascal Dupuis – I would rather own Perron. In both one-year and keeper leagues. This is a James Neal situation, in which a 60-point player gets turned into 80-plus. As opposed to a Dupuis situation in which a 40-point player gets turned into 65. The other players I mentioned fall somewhere between the two.

Perron just seems to be getting used to how Crosby works. And the scary thing is – he’s probably only halfway to that full understanding.

Here were the Penguins line combos last night:

#1	28.4%	CROSBY,SIDNEY – KUNITZ,CHRIS – PERRON,DAVID
#2	13.3%	BENNETT,BEAU – MALKIN,EVGENI – SPALING,NICK
#3	10%	ADAMS,CRAIG – GOC,MARCEL – SILL,ZACH
#4	9%	ARCOBELLO,MARK – BENNETT,BEAU – MALKIN,EVGENI

Malkin will be playing with Hornqvist and Comeau within about a week (likely). Bennett needed to put up some offense there, and he hasn’t been. So the door opens back up for Comeau.

Kris Letang has seven points in four games and three consecutive two-point efforts.

Corey Crawford has been facing a ton of shots lately. In seven of the last eight games he’s been peppered with at least 33. After giving up five goals Sunday, I’d like to think that the coach will give him a break. Antti Raanta was pretty horrible his last outing, but he’s another one of those guys who needs regular work in order to thrive. He’s better as a starter than a backup. Which basically means that unless Crawford suffers a long-term injury, Raanta is not going to get where fantasy owners need him to go while he’s with Chicago.

After four points in 10 games, Brandon Saad now has six in his last four. Saad is on pace for 57 points (as you can see in his profile page), but will probably settle in at around 50 or 52. In the Midseason Guide I have him at 50.

Cody Eakin was a beast for the Stars Sunday, with three points – including a PPG, an SHG and an assist on an ENG. He’s too good in all areas and too reliable on all lines to stick on a scoring line. Lindy Ruff keeps putting him out there on whatever line is struggling, and he gets them going. That’s great for Ruff, but not so good for fantasy owners. If he can’t get that role to change, and find some chemistry with a top gun on this team, then he’ll be doomed to a 45-point ceiling.

Alex Goligoski isn’t shooting the puck. Maybe because Trevor Daley has emerged or John Klingberg has arrived, but Goli is barely getting one shot per game – and he has one goal this season to show for it. He’s normally not a big shot-taker anyway, but he has 57 shots this season and that number should be closer to 75 if it were to match his career levels. I wish I could say that he’ll shoot more, but I don’t believe that. I think he’s changed his game a little now that Daley and Klingberg are around.

The Coyotes scratched Martin Erat after his back-to-back ‘minus-2’ performances. He looked like he might be turning the corner in late December, but January hasn’t been kind to him. Then again, the Coyotes are in full tanking mode (see my trade analysis on Dubnyk), so maybe they should play the hell out of him.

Injury notes – Mikael Granlund is back practicing (broken wrist), but I get the impression that he’s still another couple of weeks away. And Darcy Kuemper is cleared to play, but my sense from that article is that he will go to the AHL for conditioning…and thus give Devan Dubnyk more time to get a foothold on the starting job. Sure, Mike Yeo is saying all the right things and pretending that it will be difficult to juggle three goaltenders. He can say that all he wants. But the reality is, Niklas Backstrom has no business on NHL ice anymore, so really it’s just two goaltenders.

Shane Doan has six points, eight PIM, 19 shots in his last four games.

The Jets, without Mathieu Perreault, juggled their lines thusly:

#1	24.8%	FROLIK,MICHAEL – KANE,EVANDER – SCHEIFELE,MARK
#2	24%	LADD,ANDREW – LITTLE,BRYAN – WHEELER,BLAKE
#3	15.2%	HALISCHUK,MATT – LOWRY,ADAM – THORBURN,CHRIS
#4	9.6%	GALIARDI,T.J. – PELUSO,ANTHONY – SLATER,JIM