February 17, 2015
steve laidlaw
2015-02-17
Injuries Perreault, Lehner, Stafford and others, Marty St. Louis gets a goal, Yakupov hot and more…
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Wicked game between the Islanders and Rangers last night. The energy in that arena was palpable with what seemed an even split between Islanders fans and Rangers fans. The pace was absolutely frenetic with both teams going hard after it combining for 85 shots. The shot score? 43-42 for the Islanders. TIGHT! To top things off both teams featured some 80's-esque goaltending, which just pushed it over the top.
The tone was set early when a turnover by Cam Talbot left John Tavares with an open net and the score 1-0 Islanders. That was 11 seconds in.
The see-saw affair went back and forth with the Islanders owning the first period but finishing with just a 2-1 lead. They'd push their lead to two on multiple occasions but the Rangers battled back in the third before taking their first lead of the night at 6-5. The Islanders then rang one off the post in the dying seconds. It was just that kind of wide-open game. It's also not the first game like this that these two have played this year though the Islanders did win all three previous contests by three goals each.
In case you are wondering, the Rangers and Islanders faceoff once more this season on March 10th so maybe circle that on your calendar. Hopefully, we get this as a playoff series. I think I've zeroed in on exactly what I'd like to see for playoff series this season.
Rangers-Islanders is now a must.
So is a rematch of last year's opening round between the Blues and Blackhawks.
Penguins-Capitals would be excellent for the lingering animosity between those two. Although it could be dangerous having Gary Bettman walking around for two weeks constantly erect.
Ducks-Kings would be damn good as well. Basically anything involving two of the three California teams needs to happen.
Bruins-Habs goes without saying.
Haven't zeroed in on the other three although I do know that given my three East series I want to see that leaves a Lightning-Red Wings opening round that I'd have zero issues with.
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Anyways, onto some fantasy stuff from the game. We saw bad Jaroslav Halak last night. He looked shaky throughout. Just constantly jittering in goal and coughing up fat rebounds. We know how good he can be when the team plays well in front of him or he gets into a zone. This was not either of those things. I'd expect him to settle down as he'd been doing fairly well of late prior to this shootout. Of course, he might have to play in all four of the Islanders' remaining games this week to help poolies recover from this hole he spotted them in.
Interesting power play rotation for the Islanders. John Tavares skating just about all the minutes for them while the rest of the players took turns. We've seen this before for guys like Alexander Ovechkin. Could lead to an extra push from Tavares down the stretch.
Johnny Boychuk unleashed a bomb for his first goal since January 4 and his first point since January 29. Definitely slumping. A big reason is that he has lost minutes to Travis Hamonic who looked excellent notching a pair of assists. Hamonic has been killing it for a month now but odds are if you don't score hits he's still available on the waiver wire.
Two goals for Ryan Strome last night on five shots. Starting to get the ball rolling again after scoring against Columbus over the weekend. He'd previously gone eight games without even a point. Get him back into your lineup.
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On the Rangers' side of things, Henrik Lundqvist can't get back soon enough because Talbot just isn't cutting it.
Ryan McDonagh was inhuman last night. Two goals, on six shots and probably another half-dozen other shot attempts. Just buzzing. Four goals and seven points in the last nine games for him as well. Back up to a 0.5-points-per-game pace.
The Chris Kreider–Derek Stepan–Martin St. Louis line really got going with a combined seven points. I really didn't like what I saw from St. Louis most of the night. He looked like a passenger while Kreider was flying. Then St. Louis scored the tying goal at 5-5 and finally seemed engaged. He got an assist on the winner. Not sure how as he never really touched the puck but no complaints from me. Hopefully this gets him going. First goal in 16 games for St. Louis.
Kevin Klein scored the winner last night, his ninth of the season. Up to 25 points now. Unreal. He's taking himself right out of the running for the Jeff Schultz Memorial Trophy. If you are wondering where we stand on that, I'll be updating the power rankings on a night when we don't have too much action. Usually that's Monday nights but the past couple have been packed.
No points for Rick Nash despite the six goals. He was dangerous though. Seven SOG and even had a shot go through the five hole on Halak only to hit the post. Hey, he can't catch all the breaks!
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It's a funny contrast Nash going scoreless on a night when his team scores six goals compared to Eric Staal going scoreless on a night when his team scores six goals. Both happened last night but I think that the Nash owners will accept it since he's been so good otherwise. Staal owners? They are ready to bail out.
Just for some perspective though, Nash had basically the exact same dog-shit season last year that Staal is having this year even down to the injury struggles to start the year. Nash finished with 26 goals and 39 points in 65 games but is now having arguably the best season of his career. Staal, is on pace for 26 goals and 45 points in 77 games. Both are 30 years old and Nash is actually four months older.
This isn't a perfect comparison because Nash has a lot more help in New York. He also looks a lot more spry than Staal has this season. Just pointing out that this isn't necessarily THE END for Staal. In some one-year leagues, I'd drop him though.
No Alexander Semin last night. Healthy scratch once again.
Big night for both Andrej Nestrasil and Michal Jordan scoring three and two respectively. Not all that interested in Nestrasil but Jordan has been on the radar for a while now. He skated over three minutes on the top power play unit, which is where he scored the first goal of his NHL career. Jordan never really produced at the AHL level so I'm not really high on his upside but if he's getting this kind of chance who knows?
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Bad news for the Senators as they lost both Robin Lehner and Clarke MacArthur in one collision. Both eventually skated off under their own power and could be fine but neither returned to the game. Suspected head injuries for both. You can check out the collision here if you so choose.
Craig Anderson still isn't ready to go and the Senators really don't have much depth in the system. They could be hitting the panic button even if they aren't exactly in the playoff hunt.
Andrew Hammond is currently the only healthy goalie on the roster but no I am not rushing out to grab him.
One bit of good news, Mike Hoffman scored his 20th goal of the season. First Senator rookie to score 20 since Patrick Eaves. Whether or not you decide to compare the two beyond that is your choice.
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More injury news, Mathieu Perreault left last night's game early after a hit from Jeff Petry and did not return. He eventually left the arena in a walking boot so we are probably looking at some time to be missed here.
The Jets also lost Drew Stafford to an upper-body injury last night. And on a night when he'd been promoted to the top line too. Again, no details on the severity at time of publishing.
Could be looking at a panic trade here.
Thank goodness for Bryan Little though, two goals and an assist, plus eight SOG. Big night!
Dustin Byfuglien levelled possibly the biggest hit of the year:
Richard Bachman came on in relief of Fasth who had made 42 saves in the contest. Too bad.
The Oilers also wasted a big night from a streaking Nail Yakupov. Two goals for Nail last night and six points on a five-game scoring streak. Let's not break out the confetti since he's still at just 19 points on the year but maybe some stolen fist pumps behind closed doors – progress is progress.
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