February 25 2015

Dobber

2015-02-25

Kassian on fire; Neuvirth a sneaky-good pickup; another Kane is out; Hayes on top line and more …

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Look what Gary Bettman said yesterday, per Joe Haggerty –

Bettman: “[A Capgeek site] isn’t something that seems to be driving fan interest as much as perhaps the interest of people in [the media]”

Once again, Bettman has his finger on the pulse of things. You people don’t miss Cap Geek at all, right? I know what you’re thinking: Wut? What’s a Cap Geek?

I’ll open with Zach Kassian today, because the guy has been on fire on the Sedin line. With another goal last night (the game winner), he’s up to 10 points in his last 10 games. He just turned 24 and seems to be finally coming into his own. He’s not at the level yet where he can go to a different line and keep producing – he’s still very much reliant on the twins. But he’s keeping up with them and this frees up the Canucks to put Radim Vrbata on another line. Vrbata can still produce on the second line, just not as well (obviously), and certainly much better than Kassian could on that line. So there’s a tangible net gain for Vancouver’s offense.

Jacob Markstrom was called up and as an emergency call-up he didn’t have to go through waivers. He backed up Eddie Lack, who had a fantastic game stopping 39 of 40. For those keeping score, he’s stopped 67 of 68 since Ryan Miller left with an injury. Miller is out for 4-6 weeks at minimum. Lack is probably going to be gold for the next month. And no, the Canucks won’t be adding a goalie before next Monday. They’ll go their second consecutive March with a Lack/Markstrom tandem. But this year will be better than last.

Since Jhonas Enroth was traded, Michal Neuvirth is 2-2-2 and has stopped 220 of 231 shots (0.952). It’s early, but what he’s doing right now reminds me of Luongo back in his first stint as a Panther. Just a bad team and a good goalie facing a ton of rubber. Suddenly, he may be worth the add in your league, especially if the focus is on saves.

Patrick Kane left last night’s game after this:

If you look at the 52-second mark you have a good angle on his left wrist. But his shoulder really rammed into the boards at an awkward angle and his other arm came around in a weird way too. The talk around the dressing room, per several sources, is that he could be out for weeks. That being said, Kane has on several occasions been coming back from supposed long-term injuries in half the time. So I’d be taking the low end of whatever official range is given later today. Here are some quotes from late Tuesday: From beatwriter Chris Kuc: “Source says injury to Kane is “not good. At all.”” From beatwriter Mark Lazerus: “Hearing Kane’s injury is “significant”. No timetable yet.” From Elliotte Friedman: “Word is concern with Kane is shoulder/collarbone. No one wants to put a timeline on it, but doesn’t look good.” * The Blackhawks put Scott Darling between the pipes and he didn’t disappoint, stopping 34 of 36. I wish I knew what Chicago was planning here, but I really have no idea. I suspect that after three or four games, Raanta will be back up. But why would he be sent down to get in some games…when clearly there was a start available in the NHL? I “think” we’ll see him back in a couple of weeks. Here is Raanta, answering questions in Rockford, one of which is “did the team tell you why you were sent down?” <iframe width="560″ height="315″ src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8_Zgxdv-nKQ" frameborder="0″ allowfullscreen>

The Kane injury was early in the game, so Quenneville had to do some mixing and matching with the line combos:

#1	18.2%	RICHARDS,BRAD–SHARP,PATRICK–VERSTEEG,KRIS
#2	15.9%	HOSSA,MARIAN–SAAD,BRANDON–TOEWS,JONATHAN
#3	15.5%	KRUGER,MARCUS–NORDSTROM,JOAKIM–SMITH,BEN
#4	4.5%	BICKELL,BRYAN–SHAW,ANDREW–VERSTEEG,KRIS

So four of the five worst teams in the NHL won their last game. Someone needs to get them the handbook on tanking. Maybe they could borrow Arizona’s copy. The Coyotes have lost seven in a row and are suddenly just a point ahead of the Oilers and six up on Buffalo.

Mark Arcobello has four goals in six games for the ‘Yotes though. So there’s that. So far I’m not seeing any indication that he is being or will be used in an offensive role.

Keith Yandle is pointless and minus-8 in his last five games. As a Yandle owner in two leagues, I’m on my knees here begging – please, please trade him out of Arizona!

Man, it’s already one o’clock, I’m 1000 words in and I’m barely halfway through my notes from tonight. I gotta make some cuts, sorry. I have an early appointment.

Rick Nash sat out of his first game of the season last night due to neck spasms. It sounds like a short-term issue. Kevin Hayes jumped into his spot on the Derick Brassard – Mats Zuccarello line and he scored the only goal of the game. I speculated in the forum that it would be interesting if Alain Vigneault kept the new line intact with Nash returned, and then Nash gets reunited with Stepan and St. Louis. If so, Hayes’ recent hot play will take a turn for the better.

Emile Poirier played his first career NHL game last night. He saw 8:10 of ice time and had no impact on the score sheet. Read the scouting report on Poirier here.

Johnny Gaudreau has seven points in his last 12 games and is minus-10 in that span.

Is Alexander Semin awakening? He had two assists last night and fired seven shots on goal. He has three points in two games.

Carey Price, the top goalie to own in a keeper league according to the Goalie Rankings I posted Sunday, won his ninth straight on the road. That’s a franchise record, and that’s quite a statement considering what franchise we’re talking about here.

PK Subban has 31 points in his last 36 games. Just when you thought things were getting crowded among the d-men scoring race, look who suddenly appears:

1. Letang 47

1. Giordano 47

3. Karlsson 45

4. Subban 44

4. Josi 44

Blake Wheeler, who rarely misses a game, missed one last night with an LBI. Here were the line combos without him, courtesy of the original line combo tools (Frozen Pool):

#1	34.8%	FROLIK,MICHAEL–LADD,ANDREW–LITTLE,BRYAN
#2	25.7%	SCHEIFELE,MARK–STAFFORD,DREW
#3	23%	GALIARDI,T.J.–LOWRY,ADAM–THORBURN,CHRIS
#4	3.5%	KLINGBERG,CARL–PELUSO,ANTHONY–SLATER,JIM

The blank on the second line indicates Byfuglien, who is tracked as a defenseman in the program. Frolik saw 21:24 of action and scored a goal on five shots. In fact, Frolik has 23 SOG in his last seven games.

Well would you look at that. Devan Dubnyk finally lost to the Oilers. He held them to one goal in each of his five wins against this year, but let in that magical second goal last night and the Wild lost.

Jordan Schroeder, formerly a top fantasy prospect, has five points in his last six games with the Wild and last night he had five SOG.

Nail Yakupov has really been rolling lately, with eight points in his last eight games. But then he had to go and get himself hurt. He missed last night’s contest with a groin injury.

Sean Bergenheim was traded by the Panthers to the Wild last night. He was moved, along with a 2016 seventh rounder for a third-round pick. Bergenheim is a solid, versatile depth option for Minnesota. And if they get into the postseason, we all remember Bergenheim’s massive 2011 playoffs with the Lightning. In fact, in his last 23 playoff games he has 12 goals and 17 points. I don’t expect him to have any regular season fantasy value though.

Nashville is 26-3-1 this year at home. Take another look at that number, in case you scanned past it, and give it a moment to sink in.

UPCOMING GAMES

Dec 22 - 12:12	NYR	vs	CAR
Dec 22 - 17:12	T.B	vs	FLA
Dec 22 - 17:12	UTA	vs	ANA
Dec 22 - 17:12	WSH	vs	L.A
Dec 22 - 20:12	EDM	vs	OTT
Dec 22 - 20:12	COL	vs	SEA