May 11 2015

Dobber

2015-05-11

Thoughts on Rask/Subban; the Devils; and of course the Flames, Ducks, Rangers, Caps and more …

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Rangers pushed things to a Game 7 after a nail-biter last night. I won’t bore you with a rehash of the game, I’ll leave that to other sites and I’m sure you saw it anyway. But Girardi, Klein and McDonagh combined for 20 blocked shots so you have an idea of what their game plan was defensively. And given the fact that the Caps still got 45 shots through, it’s probably not the most effective plan.

Chris Kreider has three goals in two games and now boasts 16 in 52 career playoff games. He just turned 24 and he’s already played 52 playoff games. Amazing that it nearly matches one-third of his regular season total (169 games). It’s a 24-goal pace over 82 games which tops his actual regular season high of 21.

For the second time this series, Yandle was held to under 14 minutes of ice time. He has just 14 points in 32 games as a Ranger, which isn’t horrible…but it’s still a step down.

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I was just looking up the contract statuses of a couple of Rangers’ defensemen when I noticed – five of them will be making at least $4.5 million next year. Five. At one position. Lucky for them, Arizona swallows about half of Yandle’s contract.

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The Rangers have shut down Alex Ovechkin for four consecutive games. Again – I’ll feel for him if his team gets eliminated again. He’ll shoulder all the blame, no question. Twice during the regular season he was shut out of four straight like that. One time it got to five games (back in October).

Ovechkin last night: "We're going to come back and win the series."

Great run by Calgary though. Imagine if they had Mark Giordano?

Don’t overvalue Kris Russell‘s seven playoff points. Those were non-Giordano playoff points. When Giordano plays, Russell’s production drops.

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Didn’t see this coming. Niklas Svedberg has signed to play for Salavat Yulaev Ufa of the KHL. The Boston backup wanted to be a starter, obviously, and didn’t see that happening anytime soon behind Tuukka Rask. Svedberg played 18 pretty solid games for the Bruins – and that was all he played despite having pretty similar numbers to Rask. It definitely pays to be a Golden Boy – Rask played 70 games and posted his worst numbers in four years. If Svedberg wasn’t getting 25 starts under those circumstances, then things weren’t going to get any better.

So now the door swings open for Malcolm Subban, who could actually use another year in the AHL but is by no means completely unready for the NHL. He can step in as a backup and get 20 starts, plus the odd stint in the minors to get in some extra action. But I suspect that the Bruins will sign a backup goalie for one year and give Subban the time he needs.

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Did I read this correctly? Was Ray Shero’s first act as New Jersey GM to sign Jordan Tootoo? New Jersey’s root weakness is the player loyalty. Working hard to keep the same non-playoff team together is as dumb as it gets. Granted, of all the free agent Devils to earn another contract, it’s probably Tootoo (and possibly Scott Gomez). But if you’re trying to fix your badly broken team you do everything you can to do a complete overhaul. No exceptions. Tootoo-types are a dime a dozen – if, after you put your team together, you decide you need a Tootoo, then you sign one then. Hell, the actual Tootoo would still be available I’m sure. This smells like Lou doing one last favor before he goes.

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Junior players of note who have been eliminated and recalled to their AHL team over the weekend include: Jake Virtanen, Jared McCann (Vancouver – read up on them here), Nick Ritchie (Anaheim – here) and Darnell Nurse (Edmonton – here).

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Last week I launched the Draft Kings promo of the Ultimate Fantasy Pack. If you’ve never signed up for Draft Kings before, you can do so and for $10 you get my Ultimate Fantasy Pack. Details here. Later this week I’ll be adding the packs to those accounts who have gone with this deal. I’ll do them all at once rather than a few here and a few there. No rush, since the first guide in the pack isn’t out until June 1.

I’ll release the regular Ultimate Pack for those who are already with Draft Kings later in the week as well. The Fantasy Prospects Report is out in three weeks.

 

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