Rambling about the Ducks on fire, the hot new Jets line combo, tips for the Habs and more…

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Updates:

Edmonton has picked up Adam Clendening off of waivers. I think Clendening has a 1% chance to thrive at the NHL level…and he just went to the team where that 1% chance lies. Now we just see how well things work for him. Couldn't be worse than Schultz!

Breaking – the Ducks have sent down Shea Theodore. I hope it's just for the All-Star Break and that he's back up. But don't panic. He's too good to be out of the NHL for long.

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A devastating blow to fantasy hockey owners yesterday when word came out that Shawn Horcoff was found to have banned PED in his blood and was subsequently suspended for 20 games. I know what you’re thinking – there had to be a reason why Horcoff has been so lights-out this year, and now we know. He’s a cheater! Without the PED help, there’s no way he’d get 10 points in 45 games!

Alright, I admit the joke wasn’t even remotely funny and not worth all the space I just took up writing it. Moving on…

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Stan Bowman signed a three-year extension with the Blackhawks. Well deserved. He did a great job of winning Cups with teams that Dale Tallon put together.

That was only partially tongue-in-cheek, actually. He did do well in preserving this team’s place among the elite. Generally, when a team wins a Cup it’s almost impossible to keep it together. He’s done well to juggle that. So much of his check will he be sharing with Artemi Panarin? Because without Panarin coming on board, the Hawks are a bubble playoff team today.

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Anaheim has won five out of six games and scored 23 goals in those six games (3.83). The scored 78 goals in 41 games before that (1.90). Let the comeback begin.

Usually ‘being patient’ requires you to make it through October. Wait on that slumping player, or that team on which you have several players. November will be better. Sometimes you’re sweating. Your trigger finger is getting itchy as things get to mid-November. But you held faith and it worked out for you. Well this kind of puts a whole new spin on ‘being patient’ doesn’t it? Mid-January?

The key has been the Ryan Kesler and Jakob Silfverberg line. Those two have been flying. And then the addition of David Perron to the team (and the line) four games ago sure kept it going. With two points last night, Perron has five with the Ducks already. Kesler has 11 points in his last 11 games. Silfverberg has 11 in his last eight including five two-point games. Silf is starting to get power-play time so that’s a great sign. Man, I knew that playoff performance wasn’t a fluke. Silf’s season up until now was almost as confusing as Crosby’s October/November.

It looks like Shea Theodore is really getting comfortable out there. Points in five of his last six. All of these elements are really working for the Ducks right now. Bruce Boudreau has finally found the winning combination, and all it took was a small trade and a prospect recall. Theodore is owned in just 2% of Yahoo! leagues and I insist that you change that. He is a must own right now. Hey, you trusted me with Shayne Gostisbehere, trust me on this one too.

Simon Despres was (finally) back in the Anaheim lineup. But he’s lost his PP time to Theodore now, so don’t expect him to continue the hot production that he had late last season after he joined them.

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Max Talbot played 7:42 last night and was a minus-4 and he was also on the ice for a shorthanded goal. Think about that. The guy stepped on the ice, watched the Ducks score, and then went back to the bench. Pretty much. And that happened five times.

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Derrick Pouliot in his second game with the big club this year picked his first assist. His ice time was just 11:34 and he had no PP time so I’m not ready to recommend him in one-year leagues. Yet. But we all know how I feel about this guy for the long term.

Carl Hagelin, the other half of the aforementioned Perron trade, has points in four straight for the Penguins. All assists, of course, because he has no hands. But that speed, with the talent around him, is really working here. Like I said on Monday – fluky assists. If he could go with that though, use it…then watch out. I’ve never been a big Hagelin guy, but I’m also not blind. I see what’s happening here and I see it working.

Sidney Crosby is on a seven-game points streak and all is forgiven. Okay, not really. Make this streak longer than Kane’s streak and all will be forgiven.

Patric Hornqvist has 14 points in his last 12 games. Phil Kessel has nine in nine.

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Since December 11, Eddie Lack:

8-3-2, 2.21, 0.924

Not so bad now, eh? You can grab those stats for any time window instantly by using our handy goalie calculator over at his profile page. Try it!

Jordan Staal has 11 points in his last 11 games. His PP time is still secondary so this production just reminds me of his Pittsburgh days. Very good for a third-line center on that team, but on this team it’s very good for a second-line center. Enough to tease (just like in Pittsburgh), but that’s about it. Ride the wave while it lasts.

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Corey Crawford was pulled after one period, and Patrick Kane was shutout for the second time in three games. So somebody has finally thrown a bucket of water on the fire. Those two were as hot as it gets.

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I commented in Laidlaw’s Ramblings yesterday that Cam Atkinson is as streaky as it gets. Sure enough he followed up his hat trick with a two-point night Tuesday. One of these streaks will be that big, long breakout we’ve all been waiting for (I just know it!).

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Thanks for coming out, Ben Scrivens: 0-4-0, 3.85, 0.873

Man, the Habs really have to do something. The goalies aren’t stopping beach balls right now. They need to start trying any and every goalie they can until they get some wins. Before the playoffs start getting out of reach. First, try Eddie Pasquale. Two games. Then try Zach Fucale for two games. Then acquire Anton Khudobin. One of them will have the magic. The lucky hot streak. You know, like we saw last year with Andrew Hammond (I still think he’s a minor leaguer who got hot at the right time). But you can’t keep trotting out Scrivens and Condon.

Just look at the Blue Jackets. They kept trying goalies. And now they found the one with some magic. Joonas Korpisalo, last six games:

4-1-1, 1.82, 0.946 (there’s that goalie calculator tool again!)

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Five points in six games for Cody Ceci, who is now seeing regular power-play time. He’s on pace for 23 points now, which would top last year’s 22. But I’d expect him to hit 30.

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It took a game against his former team to do it, but Robin Lehner has his first win of the season. He’s been very good though, other than his first game back. In three games since then he’s stopped 109 of 115 shots.

The Sens actually tied the game…but only if the game was 60 minutes and two-tenths of a second long. But their goal didn’t count as the clock hit 0.0 as the puck was on its way in, but didn’t yet cross the line.

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With two more goals last night Jack Eichel now has 20 points in his last 18 games. I do hope you hung onto him. This streak didn’t start until mid-December (see my spiel on patience, above) so I can see most poolies in one-year leagues dropping or trading him.

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Four-game points streak for Reilly Smith thanks to two more against the Leafs Wednesday. Ditto for Brian Campbell.

But the real story is Jaromir Jagr. The Panthers score five goals and Jagr gets zero points. In fact, he has just one point in his last six games. In two weeks he turns 44 so let’s cut him a little slack. But now we see why he doesn’t want to play the three-on-three at the All-Star Game. Jagr’s ice time has been cut to around 15 minutes per game from what was close to 18, so the coach is noticing and is trying to help him out.

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Mathieu Perreault was placed on the IR with an LBI. He may be back after the ASG. But the impact of this move may have opened things up for the Jets. He’s out, Mark Scheifele was back in. And the lines were juggled. Here were the line combos:

#1           25%        EHLERS,NIKOLAJ – SCHEIFELE,MARK – WHEELER,BLAKE

#2           24.5%    LADD,ANDREW – LITTLE,BRYAN – STAFFORD,DREW

#3           23.6%    ARMIA,JOEL – BURMISTROV,ALEXANDER – THORBURN,CHRIS

#4           11.3%    COPP,ANDREW – HALISCHUK,MATT – PELUSO,ANTHONY

This caused Blake Wheeler to move down to the third line – or rather, it moved the guys on the third line up to the first line? Whatever. It worked. Nikolaj Ehlers scored his first career hat trick and the red-hot Wheeler assisted on all three.

This also took Wheeler away from Ladd and Little. Would they put Wheeler back there when Perreault returns? It’s hard to imagine, after seeing what Wheeler-Ehlers did together. I’d be inclined to ride that magic out. The Ehlers hat trick:

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Semyon Varlamov was in court yesterday for his civil suit. So he was unable to dress last night. And with Reto Berra hurt, the Avs were short some goaltenders. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, the full story on the civil suit is here.

Illness is making its way through the Colorado dressing room. Beware of that – some Avs may be missing a game or two, unless they’re extremely good at quarantining players. Mikhail Grigorenko missed last night’s contest, while Erik Johnson and Calvin Pickard ‘almost’ missed it. Earlier in the day, it looked like they would. And with Varlamov’s day in court, the Avs were looking at Roman Will (who?) getting the start.

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The last of the Hartford Whalers has retired. Craig Adams made it official and hung up his skates yesterday after a lengthy and completely non-fantasy-worthy career.

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The audition continues at DobberProspects, Edric Joseph tried his hand at the Ramblings over there yesterday.

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Rick Roos gives you his weekly list of buy-low and sell-high players over at Sportsnet.

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Did you notice? Our new comments system. Should be less of a hassle for you to comment now. (hint hint)

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Coming in less than 24 hours…

An old friend returns. One night only. DobberHockey Ramblings.

Angus Unleashed!

Watch for it tonight

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And…ah, what the hell. Three months ago DobberHockey turned 10. So I’m still feeling a little nostalgic.

Next week you readers are going to be bitten by a Maaasquito!