February 10, 2015

steve laidlaw

2015-02-10

Mike Smith showing signs of competence, Eberle scoring, too many darn injuries and more…

Some big happenings with Minnesota's win over Vancouver last night. That was a four-point game for the Wild costing the Canucks two points, while gaining two themselves. According to SportsClubStats that win pushed the Wild 6.8% closer to a playoff spot, while the Canucks' playoff odds dropped by a similar amount.

You'd think that this would have helped the playoff odds for teams also in the hunt like Dallas or Colorado but their odds actually went down simply because the Wild put up points and stand between them and a playoff spot in the standings. That's why it's so hard to jump multiple teams even if the point disparity is low.

Really the only outcome that would have helped Dallas or Colorado is for Minnesota and Vancouver bludgeoning one another to death. And in a bit of good news, that sort of, kind of, happened last night.

Nick Bonino left in a walking boot after blocking a Ryan Suter shot. He left the game early skating just 7:42. I suppose it was only a matter of time being one of the league's premier shot-blocking forwards caught up to Bonino. Still stings me as a fantasy owner. No word on his status at the time of writing.

This could mean a small boost for Linden Vey who jumped onto the second line with Radim Vrbata and Shawn Matthias once Bonino went down. Nowhere near the boost Vey got early in the season skating with the Sedins on the top power play unit though.

For Minnesota, last night saw them lose Jason Zucker and Ryan Carter early. Apparently they were run a bit ragged by skating down two forwards for much of the contest, which could come back to bite them going back-to-back against Winnipeg tonight. Take note gamblers/Jet goalie owners. Actually, gamblers would have sufficed there.

It would be kind of hilarious if the Wild went into Winnipeg exhausted after last night and tossed Darcy Kuemper to the wolves as he makes his return to the Wild lineup. Kuemper got called up over the weekend. No surprise there as time was running out on his conditioning stint.

Anyways, word is that the decision on whether or not Devan Dubnyk or Kuemper would start tonight would be based on how hard Dubnyk was worked last night. Dubnyk had his worst game (statistically) as a member of the Wild so it would make some sense to start Kuemper, the poor guy.

Of course, this is a really important game for the Wild as well with another "four points" on the line. Dubnyk has hardly a blemish on him in green. You wouldn't blame the coach if he chose to ride the hot hand.

Back to Zucker and Carter, Mike Yeo said after the game not to expect either one back in the lineup in the near future so here come the call-ups!

The Zucker injury is the big one here because he had been soaking up minutes in the Minnesota top-six for the past while but not being all that productive with them having scoring just three points (all goals) in the past 13 games. He was typically skating with Jason Pominville and Mikko Koivu.

Those two were joined by Nino Niederreiter last night following the Zucker injury and that group went off. It may have just been the result of Ryan Miller's off-night or the Canucks' poor penalty killing but Koivu notched three assists (two on the power play). Pominville added a power-play goal and Niederreiter scored one of his own. Could be a nice boost for all involved if it clicks.

I should mention that the Canucks scratched Adam Clendening last night. Certainly not making the hefty impact I suspected he might.

Well, well. The Kings get three goals from their second line (DEPTH SCORING!) and win their second straight on the road. They laid a real whooping on the Blue Jackets too outshooting them 44-26 in a game that the score was close for its entirety.

Jeff Carter got a couple of points, ending a four-game drought for him. It's been fits and starts for Carter the past month though so no guarantees he gets rolling now but working in his favour is that Tyler Toffoli has scored goals in two straight. Get Carter a linemate on a roll and we've got a real line.

Still not sure they've got enough juice to claw back into the playoffs though. This team is really hurting on defense with Alec Martinez now out with a concussion. He got rocked by Cedric Paquette over the weekend and did not travel to Columbus opting to head home instead. This was the last game of the Kings' road trip though so perhaps Martinez returns sooner than later.

You be the judge, goal or no goal:

When I first saw that it looked like it clearly crossed the line. Now I can't tell. That was the difference between a Blackhawk win and heading to the shootout where they eventually lost. Millimeters! That's crazy.

That one point probably won't matter come season's end but if it does and a one-point disparity is what gives us a Blues-Blackhawks first round rematch, I won't begrudge that getting ruled no goal. Probably some salty Antti Raanta owners out there though.

Marian Hossa scored both goals for Chicago giving him four in the last two. He's got the hot stick!

That controversial call above saved Mike Smith's bacon though, let me tell you. What a ludicrously bad bounce/rebound control. I'll tell you what though, Smith now has four straight games with strong numbers here in February. He's bordering on competence at this point, which is somewhat terrifying.

When I look at Coyote box scores I start to get the feeling that Tobias Reider is another Cam Atkinson. Reider fired off another seven SOG last night to bring him to 122 on the season. He's tossing out damn near three shots per game, impressive for anyone, let alone a rookie. Only eight goals though so it's more about shot volume for Reider right now.

I'm definitely growing concerned with Jaromir Jagr's dwindling minutes. He did have a four-game scoring streak going but that ended last night in a game in which he saw exactly zero power play time. This has been a growing trend. The past eight games Jagr's power play time is down to an average of 1:22, just 41.3% of the available minutes. He's down about a minute per game and 10% of the team's minutes from usual.

Jagr has skated just 16:08 in the past eight games as well. That's down two minutes from his typical 18. There are rumours that Jagr could get dealt but you wonder if he isn't too run down at this point to make a difference. If he can't get prime minutes on this Devils team, how's he going to do it on a contender? Could it work the other way with Jagr skating fewer minutes in a smaller role but with better teammates thus making him more productive? All I know is I'm not buying Jagr at any price in any format.

No Benoit Pouliot or Taylor Hall for the Oilers again last night. Hall was actually sent home from this road trip for further testing on his injured ankle. They don't play at home again until next Wednesday so either we could be looking at some significant time missed, although he could always fly out to rejoin the team on the East Coast. We are reaching that point in the season where speculation about shutting it down for the season becomes real but I have a tough time seeing what was originally diagnosed as a bone bruise being season-ending. Of course, it's the Oilers so what are the odds they got the initial diagnosis wrong?

Teddy Purcell was up on the top line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle last night notching an assist. Can't rule out a small boost here through sheer proximity to Eberle. Eberle has found his scoring touch in 2015 with 16 points in 18 games since New Year's. The whole proximity thing hasn't really worked for Nugent-Hopkins though so I wouldn't hold my breath for Purcell.

With Steve Mason getting hurt over the weekend the Flyers have recalled Anthony Stolarz (read more on him here) from the AHL. I was all prepped to talk about how Stolarz getting the call over Rob Zepp is really telling about the Flyers' mindset at this point but it turns out that Zepp is also injured right now so Stolarz is the top option available.

Even though Ray Emery isn't an inspiring option I can see the Flyers going with him rather than using Stolarz. He just isn't ready as a first-year pro. His AHL numbers leave a lot to be desired. And we all know how unforgiving Philly can be for goaltenders.

Mason, will have arthroscopic surgery on his knee so this could amount to a season-ender for fantasy owners though I haven't seen a timetable yet. Likely won't have one until after the surgery. I could definitely see Mason pushing to come back for some starts at the end of the season just to have confidence going into the summer. Also to showcase himself for the World Championships if that's something he's interested in doing again.

The Sharks have acquired Evgeni Nabokov from the Lightning for the purposes of having him retire in teal. You normally see these moves during the offseason but with the writing on the wall here Nabokov wants to retire immediately. Good move for all parties. I hope he gets his number retired at some point. And so we bid farewell to another former fantasy stud.

Jimmy Howard returns to the Red Wing lineup on Wednesday but Petr Mrazek will start. No goalie controversy though, says Mike Babcock. Enjoy these last couple of starts for Mrazek while you can, Jonas Gustavsson will have to get called back from his conditioning assignment soon enough and that it's back to the AHL for Mrazek.

Freddie Andersen is day-to-day after getting hurt on Sunday in Tampa Bay. I'm not too worried about his status though.

The Bruins have flipped their backups back with Niklas Svedberg returning to the big club while Malcolm Subban (read more on him here) is sent back to the minors. Considering Subban didn't see a lick of playing time this was nothing more than the Bruins seeing a spot in the schedule to ride Tuukka Rask and wanted to keep Svedberg fresh by getting him some games in the minors.

The Bruins have a really thin schedule ahead with only two games this week and nine the rest of the month, not to mention only one back-to-back coming the final two days of February. Wouldn't shock me if we didn't see Svedberg until then although I'm hearing rumours that Svedberg will go for Boston tonight.

Holy mackerel, a lot of goalie news today!

Kimmo Timonen hasn't even started skating yet, and already there is speculation that he might get dealt to a contender. If I were a buyer at the deadline I'd want to see Timonen in an NHL lineup before committing valuable cap space and assets to acquire him but you have to figure a good Timonen would be near the top of a lot of teams' shopping lists.

I was thinking that it might be better for Timonen's fantasy prospects if he stayed with the Flyers but they've really dropped offensively the past while. They now rank 16^th in the league at 2.70 goals per game. Considering Timonen wouldn't surpass Mark Streit on the depth chart anyhow a trade could be the best outcome for all involved.

It's time to get the Kings on the phone.

The Blues have sent Ty Rattie (read more on him here) back down to the AHL. Speculation is that with Rattie getting sent down Jori Lehtera is ready to return from his concussion tonight.

That would mean sweeping effects for fantasy managers. Paul Stastny has been riding a nice hot streak with points in seven of his last eight games. That's at least partially thanks to centering Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz while Lehtera has been out. Lehtera likely returns to his spot between the two young wingers moving Stastny elsewhere. Of course, Stastny's really been hot since early December having scored 24 points in his last 28 games and Lehtera was around for a lot of that.

That's not to say that Stastny couldn't slump again. After all, the Kevin Shattenkirk injury hurts everyone in that lineup save for maybe Alex Pietrangelo.

In any case, I'll be interested to see how all of the lines shake out but me thinks that Stastny is headed toward the land of the giants with Patrik Berglund and Dmitri Jaskin.

Darren Dreger reports that Dion Phaneuf has had a setback and is looking at missing another week.

It looks like David Clarkson is headed towards another healthy scratch tonight against the Rangers.

Bob McKenzie talks Evander Kane trade possibilities and "Kane-ventional" wisdom.

For what it's worth, I don't see a trade going down until the summer. Way more flexibility and way more suitors if they wait until that time. It is interesting that the Jets sit in a playoff spot though. Kane amounts to the best single asset any potential deadline buyer could offer up in a trade.

Our friend at The Hockey Writers, Anatoliy Metter has five forwards who are on fire.

You can follow me @SteveLaidlaw.