February 16 2015
Dobber
2015-02-16
Carlson vs. Green; Johnson vs. Stamkos; Comeau vs. the numbers game and more…
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I had a brief little five-day trip to Jamaica – sans kids – and I’m back feeling refreshed. And you’ll get to read Ramblings from the perspective of a fantasy-hockey guy who was somewhat out of the loop for several days, and then suddenly digests everything at once. That being said, I did read the Ramblings every morning from the perspective of a regular reader and I must say – very entertaining and insightful. Thank you Rick Roos and Steve Laidlaw. Other than the Ramblings (each morning when I woke up), the box scores, and the Evander Kane bombshell, I stayed unplugged. I also pretty much stayed in the lounge chair (other than to refill my beer mug). So I leave 27 degrees in Jamaica and arrive Saturday night in Toronto to “feels like” minus-40. So the ol’ 67 degree temperature swing that nearly killed me with shock.
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Thanks to forum member islefan31 for pointing this one out – the Islanders play five games this week in what is an extremely rare event. In my experience, you see something like this maybe two or three times per year across the entire league? Just from setting my own lineups, this week strikes me as a week of extremes – with the Islanders playing five and many other teams playing four… but then LA and ARI playing just two. But you can get all this stuff in our Looking Ahead feature, that’s been rolling weekly since 2008. Here is the latest one.
Anders Lee had four assists on Saturday and has been absolutely flying since joining the Tavares line. He has 15 points in his last 15 games. I’ve maintained all along that he’s been the best fit with JT (other than Okposo, of course). And now we’re seeing it. We won’t have to worry about this for awhile, but I’m curious as to whose place will be taken by Kyle Okposo when Okposo returns – Lee or Josh Bailey?
Bailey has been hot as well, posting 15 points in 16 games.
We’re 58 games in and Tyler Johnson is still ahead of Steven Stamkos in the scoring race 54-53. This, despite just six points in Johnson’s last 12 games. Sure, Stamkos is going to catch him. But do you remember me suggesting that it would be a fun game to try and guess how deep into the season Johnson can go with the lead? That was around the 15-game mark.
Ben Bishop has had four pretty rough games in a row, but that was put to a stop Sunday (33 saves, 35 shots). He’s been killing me in my one league and with Craig Anderson as my other goalie I was forced to make a move. And overpay. Badly. But I pulled the trigger and got it done. I tossed the details of that move up in the forum and you can find it here. Too much to regurgitate here, so I’ll just link to the thread.
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Poor Alex Stalock. He’s played more than one game in a row this season just once. And since mid-December he’s getting one out of every five or six games. Some goalies do well that way, but Stalock needs consecutive starts. So even though Antti Niemi is 1-3-1 in his last five, Stalock will come in cold and put up another stinker. At this point he’s just being set up to fail, but he hasn’t done anything to force the matter the way he did last season.
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With two goals (four points) last night, Alex Ovechkin leads the NHL in goals with 36. And with two assists last night, Nicklas Backstrom leads the NHL in assists with 43. How about that.
Andre Burakovsky scored twice after being put back on that big line. Maybe now Barry “Rookie-Lover” Trotz will stop scratching him. Burakovsky was scratched from six of the last nine games. The two goals have to buy him an extended run on that line. Right?
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Matt Beleskey left last night’s contest with an injury. Devante Smith-Pelly ended up playing on the Getzlaf and Perry line and he picked up an assist.
Speaking of Getzlaf, look at what he had to say about Ovechkin and his alleged diving:
“I didn’t know he was going to dive tonight the way he did all over the f—ing ice. That part of it's a little (more) embarrassing, pardon my language. He's a great player. He's going to score goals and make plays. That other stuff's embarrassing. The slash on me. The slash on his hand. When we ran into him and he dove down. All those things. It’s embarrassing to the game."
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I’m getting asked a lot of John Carlson vs. Mike Green questions lately. Carlson has just three points in his last 10 games while Green has seven in that span. Carlson is still getting the bulk of the ice time, and he’s still lost the bulk of the PP time to Green – which is nothing new. We all know that Green can produce at an elite level in spurts. We don’t know that about Carlson (yet). But I think Carlson is Trotz’s pet (ice time, the ‘go-to’ guy) and is therefore in the best place to succeed. So give me Carlson for the remainder of the season, if I had to choose. Carlson with a ton of ES time and secondary PP time over Green with primary PP time and middling ES time. Carlson is just reliable. Yes, Green gets all the Off. Zone Starts (60.4% vs. 47% for Carlson). Yes, Carlson gets the toughest competition while Green is full-on pampered. But I trust the consistency of Carlson this year.
Either way, we’re talking about 15 points in 25 games for both – give or take two points. That’s not a situation where I would waste my time trading one for the other. But if I had to keep one or the other on my team, it would be Carlson.
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Zach Bogosian had 11 hits for the Sabres last night. Did anyone catch that? The entire team had 39.
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Hey! Matt Read finally stopped hitting the snooze button and decided to get up and at her. Points in four straight games now after never before getting points in three straight (this season). He’s not playing with anyone different (Simmonds and Couturier again last night), so I don't expect this hot stick to continue.
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My take on the Franson trade, if you missed it.
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I know I’m late with the Prospect Rankings and I hope to have it up today. The 10th was when my flight took off and though I made some changes before then, I didn’t get it done. And Sunday was just bonding with my little girls and catching up on emails and the Franson write-up.
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Have you ever seen the refs change their mind about a penalty call? Wow…