Rambling about Dougie Hamilton, Louis Domingue, Jonathan Marchessault, JT Miller and more…

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It’s been a tough year for me. For most, if not all prognosticators. When the Penguins, Ducks and Lightning are three of the five lowest scoring teams in the NHL, you can probably figure that most preseason books whiffed on a lot of projections. I still feel terrible. I hate being wrong. After two or three incredibly successful years, I started getting cocky I guess. Nothing puts me in place more than this.

So while I’m waiting/hoping for things to start shifting in the direction that won’t make me look quite so bad in the end, I cherish (and cling to) any small victory I can. In the Fantasy Guide, I projected this in the Arizona goaltending area (GP, W, SO):

Domingue was there prominently because I had little confidence in Lindback and so if Smith were to get hurt, it would be Domingue who steps in. That should have put him on a lot of radars. Not draftable, but at least on your consciousness.  I followed this up last Wednesday with this:

Marc-Andre Fleury is out for one to two weeks with concussion symptoms and Mike Smith is out for 10 weeks after surgery to a core muscle injury. I’ve seen a lot of chatter about Anders Lindback this, and Matt Murray that, blah blah blah blah. Wrong.…

 …. the guy you want to get is Louis Domingue, a promising young prospect whom I’ve mentioned several times before – and for this very circumstance. Lindback will start the next game and probably the one after that. But at some point, his suckiness will overwhelm and Domingue will get his start. And when he gets one start, the second one will follow. And the third. He’ll impress. Of course, the Coyotes are not a good team so temper expectations based on the team itself. But considering the weak team, Domingue will do well.

I picked him up in the only league I was allowed, even though I didn’t need a goaltender. Domingue got a shutout Saturday, which was almost as big a victory for me as the founder of DobberHockey as Jonathan Bernier’s shutout was for him as a Leaf on the hot seat. So maybe my luck is turning? We’ll see if he keeps it up. He’s a mediocre prospect in a fantasy position in terms of depth chart and coaching. And we’ve seen how well that can work out over the years with goalies like Corey Crawford and Jimmy Howard.

In fantasy hockey, with goalies being near impossible to find on the waiver wire, Domingue’s arrival is timely. And I bet Bernier is also on the wire in a lot of leagues – and if he’s found his confidence then he could be the goalie you thought you drafted in the first place. Both are worth fliers, but keep both on the bench for this week (I did – was tempted, but Domingue is still on the bench).

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I found this interview with Jim Rutherford interesting, thought I’d share the link.

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Jannik Hansen has four points in his last four games and rookie Jared McCann has two in his last two. I’m not sure how long this arrangement will last, but the two of them are playing with Daniel Sedin while brother Henrik is sidelined with an LBI. Henrik is supposedly close to a return. So any thought of capitalizing on this situation is a risky one. But given that the Canucks are off until Saturday, after they play Tuesday – I can’t see Henrik playing that game. May as well take the full week off if it only means missing one more game.

Vancouver line combos:

#1           21.2%    BURROWS,ALEXANDRE – HIGGINS,CHRISTOPHER – VEY,LINDEN

#2           21.2%    BAERTSCHI,SVEN – HORVAT,BO – VRBATA,RADIM

#3           18.6%    CRACKNELL,ADAM – DORSETT,DEREK – PRUST,BRANDON

#4           18.2%    HANSEN,JANNIK – MCCANN,JARED – SEDIN,DANIEL

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Ryan Miller was injured in the shootout. I didn’t see the game and couldn’t find a clip. But Jacob Markstrom came into the shootout complete cold, so he took the OTL despite not having faced an official shot. But anyway, this move is a real beauty by Aleksander Barkov:

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Barkov is really heating up, with five points in his last four games. He started the season with six points in 6.5 games prior to injuring his wrist. Upon returning from the injury he managed just seven points in 13 games. If that slowdown is attributed to regaining strength and mobility in that wrist, then he’ll surprise you with his production going forward.

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New Jersey Devils, my weekly “which D is on the PP” look:

We have an Eric Gelinas sighting. Repeat – we have a Gelinas sighting. He actually led everyone in PP time Sunday (2:22), but has nothing to show for it.

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In that Devils game it’s interesting to note that Jiri Tlusty had six shots on net. The last time he did that was…not this year. In fact, his prior high this season was two shots.

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While Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat continue to be sidelined, prospect Jonathan Marchessault and sophomore Vladislav Namestnikov are taking full advantage. JM (of course the two players I want to discuss here have giant names, so…JM and VN it is) has points in four straight games. JM is a smaller player on a team that already has a smaller player with that skill set (Johnson). So “politics” have been against his success, but with Johnson sidelined, JM is showing what he can do (seven points in 17 games). VN has four points in three games thanks to the huge bump in ice time he otherwise would never have been given.

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In 23 games last year, Andrew Hammond didn’t lose a second game. But last night he lost his second game in his sixth start.

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Dennis Wideman scored his first goal of the season Sunday. He also snapped a four-game scoreless drought. In typical Wideman fashion, he can’t string together consecutive productive seasons…

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Since November 5, the line on Karri Ramo:

 17 GP, 10-6-1, 2.40 GAA and 0.917 SV%

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Dougie Hamilton has seven points in his last nine contests and has completely shaken off that slow start in a new uniform. If you managed to pick him up for cheap a couple of weeks ago, kudos to you. Hamilton is a stud defenseman with size, strength and pedigree (drafted ninth overall in 2011). So he’ll almost assuredly succeed and thrive. It’s just been a question of when.

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Dmitry Orlov has eight points in his last 15 games. After missing all but three AHL games last year, it’s understandable that he’s taken a couple of months to get rolling. But going forward he should be a 35-40 point player this season. His current pace is 31 points.

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Henrik Lundqvist got the hook Sunday after giving up five goals on 24 shots. So Magnus Hellberg made his second career NHL appearance, playing 20 minutes (he played 12 minutes his first time). In all, Hellberg has given up three goals on 10 shots in the NHL.

JT Miller has five points in his last five games. The big line has been broken up and now Miller is in Zuccarello’s place. Hre were the line combos:

#1           29%        FAST,JESPER – KREIDER,CHRIS – STEPAN,DEREK

#2           21%        ETEM,EMERSON – LINDBERG,OSCAR – MOORE,DOMINIC

#3           18.1%    GLASS,TANNER – HAYES,KEVIN – ZUCCARELLO,MATS

#4           11.9%    BRASSARD,DERICK – MILLER,J.T. – NASH,RICK

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Goalie Post Updates:

– The twice-weekly Ramblings on Goalie Post is now more prominently displayed in the top left corner

– Full goalie stats are now right there on the grid

– Game times are now right there in the grid.

– All goalies link to their goalie profile on Frozen Pool

– We have a link comparing the opposing goalies ready to auto-generate. We’re just improving the Frozen Pool Compare-a-Goalie chart first. When that’s ready, we’ll get the links in there on Goalie Post.

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