February 13, 2015

steve laidlaw

2015-02-13

Lee is hot, Toffoli is scorching, Tampa Bay’s tough schedule and more…

That dude Anders Lee is rolling right now. Two goals for him last night. Seven shots on-goal too. Turns out that skating alongside John Tavares is a pretty good deal.

No points for Tavares the past couple of games but not for lack of trying. He fired six shots of his own last night. Just a dominant game as a whole for the Tavares line as Josh Bailey fired three shots as well. It came against the Leafs though so massive grain of salt here.

Actually, Lee's three-game scoring streak has come against the murderer's row of the Sabres, Oilers and Leafs. Not judging, just an observation.

Islanders have been changing up their power play rotation lately. Travis Hamonic and Lubomir Visnovsky have been skating the top unit minutes with Tavares, Lee and Frans Nielsen up front. Hamonic has a four-game point streak with eight points in nine games since the All-Star break. Visnovsky has yet to yield any benefit but that's because he's essentially toast.

A consequence of this shift is that Johnny Boychuk has gone cold. He hasn't scored in seven games though he has fired off 24 shots in that span so he hasn't gone useless. Interesting dynamic if Hamonic is going to be taking more responsibility from Boychuk going forward. Might reduce the Islanders' need to fork over big bucks to keep Boychuk around. Not to mention that it totally breaks this pre-conceived paradigm that I had for Hamonic as a "defensive defenseman." Something to watch for sure.

Jaroslav Halak hit 30 wins for the first time in his career last night. Can you believe that? First time to hit 30 wins? Dude has been around almost a decade but this is the first time he's had the autonomy of an uncontested #1 job on a team that's actually worth a damn.

A big part of me looks at the Leafs' total offensive collapse and wants to suggest that you buy low – across the board – but doesn't it just seem so dysfunctional and so bleak that getting out of this funk will be impossible? I mean, how do you buy low on a guy that you don't know if his best teammates will get sold for futures in the next couple of weeks?

Take James van Riemsdyk for example. He hasn't scored in six straight and has just three points in the last 15 games. He's minus-15 in that span. How daunting a buy low is that? Did I mention his shot pace has dropped below three per game over that stretch? It's totally cherry-picking to grab the 15-game sample because that's where he's struggled the most. He was red hot before this drought. All I know is I'm not making pitches for JVR. This thing seems broken beyond repair.

If I'm out of it in a keeper league I'd be making pitches for all of the Leafs though. Well, not all of them. David Clarkson is unfathomable as a fantasy asset at this point. JVR, Tyler Bozak, Phil Kessel, etc. The ones who were good under Carlyle. They're the ones I'd toss out offers for. But only in a keeper. And only if I'm out of it this year.

Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford made their Jet debuts last night against the Predators. Check out the lineup courtesy of FrozenPool:

18.15%	EV	16 LADD,ANDREW – 18 LITTLE,BRYAN – 26 WHEELER,BLAKE
16.22%	EV	85 PERREAULT,MATHIEU – 55 SCHEIFELE,MARK – 12 STAFFORD,DREW
11.97%	EV	67 FROLIK,MICHAEL – 17 LOWRY,ADAM – 22 THORBURN,CHRIS
7.34%	PP	16 LADD,ANDREW – 18 LITTLE,BRYAN – 85 PERREAULT,MATHIEU – 26 WHEELER,BLAKE
7.34%	SH	16 LADD,ANDREW – 18 LITTLE,BRYAN
6.56%	EV	21 GALIARDI,T.J. – 14 PELUSO,ANTHONY – 19 SLATER,JIM

22.78%	EV	33 BYFUGLIEN,DUSTIN – 63 CHIAROT,BEN
18.92%	EV	39 ENSTROM,TOBIAS – 57 MYERS,TYLER
13.9%	EV	5 STUART,MARK – 8 TROUBA,JACOB
8.49%	PP	33 BYFUGLIEN,DUSTIN

This game was riddled with penalties if you are wondering why those special teams shifts popped up so frequently.

So Stafford bumped Michael Frolik off the second line but Frolik scored the lone Jet goal, a power-play marker. Frolik and Stafford played together on the second power play unit meaning the real loser in all of this is Adam Lowry who had been scooping some second unit minutes with Evander Kane out. No surprise that he gets bumped though.

Myers paired up with Tobias Enstrom at evens and on the second power play unit although things got a little funky with those power play units given just how many chances the Jets got, going 1/5. Myers was hurt in this one blocking a shot from Shea Weber but he said after the game that he was fine so no worries here.

It's crazy but as big of a deal as that Kane trade was, it really seems as though nothing much has changed for the Jets, at least in terms of fantasy relevance. The five best owns on the team are still Bryan Little, Dustin Byfuglien, Blake Wheeler, Andrew Ladd and Mathieu Perreault in some order because they are the five skating the biggest minutes, particularly on the power play.

I mentioned Weber above. That man was a destroyer of worlds last night. One goal, two assists, two PIM, four SOG, three hits, four blocks, a plus-one rating and two PPP. Stats, consider yourselves stuffed.

Last night went much better for John Gibson than in his return against Florida. He stole the game for Anaheim stopping 35 of 36 shots for a 2-1 win despite his team getting doubled in shot output. But of course the Ducks won, it was a one-goal game, their specialty this season.

I don't anticipate Gibson being much of a problem for Freddie Andersen down the stretch. Andersen has been too good for the Ducks. Plus they tossed all that money at Ilya Bryzgalov to be their backup so there isn't really a spot for Gibson if Andersen is healthy. If this thing goes long term though? Holy crap, the race to the waiver wire is going to be like Best Buy on Black Friday.

Good news, Habs fans, if you make the Cup Final, the Oilers won't be there to face you. Indeed, the Oilers swept the season series again Montreal 2-0. But even if they were there the Habs probably wouldn't roll out Dustin Tokarski like they did for both contests this season. So really, shame on Tokarski.

A couple of Canadiens' youngsters made their mark last night. Christian Thomas (read more on him here) scored his first NHL goal (and point) while Jacob de la Rose (read more on him here) notched an assist for his first NHL point. Baby steps!

Oscar Klefbom is on a roll with eight points in the last 10 games. He's skating some big minutes and has his shot rate way up with 25 shots in that span but his ice time really hasn't climbed from earlier and he isn't getting more power play time. He's simply producing. I have a feeling it's a result of the Oilers playing a better game overall though.

A pair of goals last night climbs Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' shooting percentage back up to his career average of 10.5%. Combine that kind of conversion with his increased rate of shots and he'll almost certainly set a career high for goals. It's 19 now and he needs only six more to hit 20. It's kind of sad that he's going to pump an extra 25-30 shots more than he did last season and that it's only going to give him a one or two goal increase over last year.

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UPCOMING GAMES

Nov 05 - 19:11	CAR	vs	PHI
Nov 05 - 19:11	MTL	vs	CGY
Nov 05 - 19:11	BUF	vs	OTT
Nov 05 - 19:11	TOR	vs	BOS
Nov 05 - 19:11	NYI	vs	PIT
Nov 05 - 20:11	MIN	vs	L.A
Nov 05 - 20:11	STL	vs	T.B
Nov 05 - 20:11	WPG	vs	UTA
Nov 05 - 21:11	COL	vs	SEA
Nov 05 - 22:11	ANA	vs	VAN
Nov 05 - 22:11	S.J	vs	CBJ