March 10, 2015

steve laidlaw

2015-03-10

Okposo and Luongo to return, Zetterberg is hot, Grigorenko’s a bust and more…

You've got to love the complete lack of shame shown by Rogers. They are pimping the Leafs-Sabres game they have televised on Wednesday night like it's the damn Super Bowl.

"It's not about playoffs. It's about pride."

That's your slogan for Tankapalooza 2015. Bravo! When the fans are throwing jerseys and wearing bags on their heads I'm not sure there's much pride to be had.

In their defense. They got me talking about it. Any press is good press, right? Sure, they've got a better chance of selling me on getting my bikini area waxed than watching this game but they've still got me talking.

The Leafs blew a pair of two-goal third-period leads last night to the Islanders, eventually losing in overtime, 4-3.

James van Riemsdyk scored a pair of points for his first multi-point effort in exactly two months. They've been a dark two months.

David Booth scored a goal for his third straight game and a point in his fourth straight game. Someone get the devil a jacket.

Tough news for those in leagues with hits and blocks as Roman Polak will miss the remainder of the year following surgery to repair a hernia.

That allowed room for Eric Brewer (when the hell did the Leafs add Brewer?!?!) to step into 23 minutes last night. He landed five hits and three blocked shots. There's your Polak replacement ladies and gentlemen.

A pair for John Tavares including the overtime winner helped to pad his scoring lead. He's now three clear of Ovechkin and Backstrom in the race.

Tyler Kennedy made his Islander debut and skated a surprising amount with Tavares en route to his own two-point night. I can envision a scenario where Kennedy returns to relevance in deeper leagues. He was always a good asset for SOG. I'm not jumping to grab him just yet, though. He could easily get scratched for the next game.

Word is Kyle Okposo may return tonight. That would be reason enough to push Kennedy out of the lineup right there. I suspect he returns right onto Tavares' wing and Anders Lee gets pushed onto line two. That means Josh Bailey is safe, at least until he stops producing.

Two starts in a row for Michal Neuvirth. Don't be concerned, Halak owners. That's just a schedule quirk. You can be certain Halak will start tonight against the Rangers. Hopefully, that one goes more like the first three contests between those two and less like the last one, at least for your sake. Personally, I'd like a repeat of that wide open affair because it was fun as hell.

Oh boy, is that Henrik Zetterberg ever sizzling since returning from injury. Three assists last night give him seven in four games. He's been doing a decent amount of padding his stats with empty-netters though. His last two assists last night came with the cage empty.

I think that it's possible Bruce Boudreau will go with a different lineup in every single game for the remainder of the season. Check out last night's lines:

24.39%	EV	15 GETZLAF,RYAN – 19 MAROON,PATRICK – 21 PALMIERI,KYLE
21.34%	EV	14 FLEISCHMANN,TOMAS – 17 KESLER,RYAN – 33 SILFVERBERG,JAKOB
9.76%	EV	7 COGLIANO,ANDREW – 10 PERRY,COREY – 67 RAKELL,RICKARD
8.54%	EV	10 PERRY,COREY – 67 RAKELL,RICKARD – 46 SEKAC,JIRI
6.1%	EV	7 COGLIANO,ANDREW – 16 ETEM,EMERSON – 44 THOMPSON,NATE

I suppose he's working in some new faces here but Corey Perry on the third line? That's new. Perry skated on the second power play unit as well.

You can't complain too much as the Ducks did outshoot the Canucks 30-16 but Eddie Lack stood tall making life miserable for Anaheim. He even gave them a rare defeat in a one-goal game.

The one line that Boudreau seems content with (for now) is the second line with Tomas Fleischmann, Ryan Kesler and Jakob Silfverberg. I really like that line too.

James Wisniewski got into the lineup for the first time in his second go-around with the Ducks. He skated over 22 minutes, three of which came with the man advantage. No points but a good start all the same.

Nick Bonino skated for the Canucks last night despite some doubts about his health. He was one of just two Canucks with a minus-rating on the night but that can happen to a guy as relied upon for his defensive play as Bonino is. He blocked four shots last night and remains one of the best shot-blocking forwards in the league ranking seventh with 65 on the season.

Interesting discovery; I totally lucked into a unique strategy in my salary cap pool. I've managed to put together a group of some of the top shot-blocking forwards in the league including Bonino, David Backes, Antoine Roussel and Frans Nielsen who are all in the top 15. That's allowed me to field the bare minimum six defensemen and still lead my league in aggregate shot blocks.

I can't claim that it was a complete accident though. I am a huge proponent of using Fantasy Hockey Geek, especially in multi-category leagues as complex as this one. It really helps to find undervalued assets, like forwards who block shots, for instance.

Not a bad game by Arizona's Louis Domingue stopping 38 of 40 shots in an overtime loss to the Predators.

James Neal scored the winner, his first goal and point in nine games. That's one heck of a slump to break right there. I'm not optimistic but hopefully this is the start of a hot run for Neal just in time for playoffs.

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I'm sour on this whole Predator team in general. They haven't been scoring at all since making their big deadline trade with the Leafs.

The Tennessean looked at the struggles Cody Franson has experienced coming over from Toronto. I warned you before Franson was even dealt that there was a good chance he'd take a tumble with a new team. Nashville was especially not a good destination for him. Too much depth. If I was the Predators I would have rather landed Andrej Sekera but the Leaf deal also landed them Mike Santorelli.

Santorelli hasn't been much of an asset in Nashville either. He's been buried on the third line skating 10 minutes a night with next to no power play time. There goes a fantasy asset just flushed down the drain.

It should be mentioned that Franson assisted on the winning goal but he also somehow skated just 14:39 in an overtime affair and has found himself off the power play altogether. It's been a while since I bailed on Franson in one league and I haven't regretted it.

UPCOMING GAMES

Mar 18 - 19:03	MTL	vs	OTT
Mar 18 - 19:03	WSH	vs	DET
Mar 18 - 19:03	NYR	vs	CGY
Mar 18 - 19:03	PIT	vs	NYI
Mar 18 - 20:03	DAL	vs	ANA
Mar 18 - 20:03	NSH	vs	STL
Mar 18 - 20:03	CHI	vs	SEA
Mar 18 - 21:03	EDM	vs	UTA
Mar 18 - 22:03	VAN	vs	WPG