Ramblings: Coreau, Saad, Zuccarello, and why you should trade Toews

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The Midseason Guide is still available and can still help you! Besides the second-half projections, this beauty will also have players on the trade block (and what it means), prospects ready to make the jump for a dozen games down the stretch, the lowdown on undrafted or unsigned free agents (both in college and in Europe) and much more. Order it here

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SERVER UPDATE! The move is still on hold. Details to come as I get some. Progress finally made on Sunday though. And just a reminder – the forum is experiences issues with double-posting and difficulty with quotes and edits – but that stuff will go away when everything is moved to the new server. Hang in there, I know it’s annoying.

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I liked Laidlaw’s Brad Marchand comparison (last week) when it comes to Victor Arvidsson and I think it’s bang-on. That also means, however, that you’re looking at 50- to 55-point seasons for another five years and just when you’re ready to lock him into that range of expectation, bam – he breaks out later than most players.

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Another 7-6 game, this time between Ottawa and Columbus. I like this – especially when it’s my players doing the scoring. And hey, Curtis Lazar picked up his first point of the season (25 games). It was the sixth time in the last seven days that a game has featured at least 10 goals. According to Elias, 4.8% of games this season have had 10 goals. Last season the number was 3.2%. Things are looking up?

It was one off-game for Mike Condon, who was between the pipes for all seven goals in the OT loss. The goals brought his SV% down to 0.914 – that’s still solid for a backup, but not ideal for a starter. In the end it means an extra goal allowed every three or four games that maybe Craig Anderson stops. I suspect that towards the end of this week we’ll get word of Anderson returning to practice and within two weeks he is back as the starter. Let me try to guess an exact date (my last – and only – guess had been January 7, which was obviously wrong). I’m going to go with Thursday, February 02, after just seven days of practice. You can’t take the hunger from these athletes, as much as you want to slow them down and ease them back in – they don’t want to be eased in.

Zack Smith had three points on Sunday giving him 14 points in his last 13 games. It coincides with the heating up of Mark Stone and Derick Brassard – his linemates. Brassard has nine points in his last 10 games, and 12 in his last 15. It took him 30 games to get his first 12.

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Joonas Korpisalo hung in there for all six goals and came away with the win, but since his solid season debut a couple of weeks ago, his last two starts have been steadily worse. Sergei Bobrovsky is getting spotted every week or so to get some extra rest before the stretch drive – a clear John Tortorella strategy. And if they keep outgunning opponents then Torts will keep doing this, although maybe with Anton Forsberg instead of Korpisalo. But if the Jackets don’t win the 7-6 games then you’ll see Bob start to string together many starts in a row.

Several players who had been slumping for Columbus got back on the score sheet. Zach Werenski scored, which was his third point in 12 games. Alexander Wennberg had two points in nine games before busting out with three assists. Sam Gagner had four points in 11 games before adding an assist.

And Cam Atkinson’s version of a slump – five points in nine games – ended Sunday as well. He scored twice and still hovers close to a point per game (45 points, 46 games). Here was his OT beauty:

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One slump that didn’t end Sunday – Brandon Saad’s. He remains pointless in six games and has just one point in 10 games. This little market correction has pushed his points down to the expected number. Here is what I mean, check out his points-per-game average year over year:

0.74, 0.68, 0.63, 0.60, 0.59

Each season it’s going up just a little. This season it was suddenly going up a LOT. Fifth-year magic? Yes, but maybe it won’t be the big year that we thought. In fact, in around 0.75 sounds about right to me. Saad played with Wennberg and Nick Foligno Sunday, and even though they did well – he did not. The reason? They are on the top unit with Gagner, Saad is on the second unit.

Oddly enough, Atkinson barely got a sniff on the PP. Rest easy – he’s usually the top PP forward on the team. I guess Sunday he just got a break.

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The Rangers had been enjoying more than three goals per game over the last nine contests – and one of my fantasy squads was enjoying it right along with them. But then they scored just the one in a 1-0 win. Man, I had been all geared up to extend my lead and was looking forward to Pavel Buchnevich continuing his impact play.

Mats Zuccarello is keeping it up though – 17 points in his last 14 games.

The Rangers have been focusing on defense lately, perhaps subconsciously trying to boost Henrik Lundqvist’s confidence. By giving up just 46 shots over the last two games, they helped Lundqvist walk away from Sunday’s game feeling good about allowing only two goals in that span.

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I do like Jared Coreau as a prospect, I always felt he was better than people had been saying. And his 6-6 frame is ideal for today’s NHL. But no, he’s not going to be the goalie of the future over Petr Mrazek no matter how bad Mrazek is this season. Let’s not forget what he did last year and the year prior. And Mrazek is younger than Coreau – only a few months, but I wanted to drive the point home that Mrazek at 24 is younger than most goalies who take on a starting job. So by all means – grab Coreau. I’m sure he’ll help you this season as much as a .904 SV% can help. But for future seasons I’m firmly on the Mrazek wagon.

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Top 10 defensemen in scoring since November 27 (run the report here):

Yes. That name at the top is very interesting…

Bryan Rust is flying on the Crosby line. I hinted recently that he could be another Chris Kunitz, but slightly lesser. Kunitz was a 55-point player who briefly became a 75-plus player with Crosby. Rust is more of a 45-point player who could briefly become a 65-plus player next season or in 2018-19, if he manages to hold onto this gig. Rust has seven points in his last four games.

Conor Sheary is a different animal altogether. He gets knocked around a lot, but his talent is very high-end. On a lot of teams, he wouldn’t get enough opportunities to even crack the lineup and his short leash would ensure a quick trip to the AHL. That was even true with this team, but he forced the coach to keep him in the lineup because he looked good in limited ice time. That eventually landed him a shot on the Crosby line – and now he doesn’t need to be big, he just needs to keep up. And he does. And now he’s flourishing. And it will only get better, as long as he stays healthy. This year his pace is for 65 points and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets 68 or 69. But next season – much more to come. And once he gets a couple of big, productive seasons under his belt then he can continue producing even without Crosby and on a different team. Because coaches love a good track record and if they see 70 points on your stats history page, they’ll give you first-line ice time and the best linemates. Sheary has nine points in four games.

Evgeni Malkin (0-2—2) posted his 16th multi-point game of the season to extend his point streak to a season-high seven games (6-5—11)

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Jonathan Toews had a season-high four points against the Canucks. He had four points in nine games prior to that outburst. But don’t expect that to continue more than another two or three games and if you own Toews this is a great time to shop him for the premium price that his name combined with a four-point game would garner. He was taken off the power play and he was playing with Ryan Hartman and Richard Panik. I look at this as more of a promotion for Hartman and Panik, who had been playing well, than as a demotion to Toews. But Toews is on pace for 47 and I feel he won’t get many more above 50.

The new line obviously boosts the value of Hartman and Panik. Hartman was blazing hot a couple of weeks ago but has since gone five games without a point.

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If your league counts hits, keep an eye on Vancouver defenseman Nikita Tryamkin. He had six of them last night and has 19 in his last five games. He’s not getting any PP time though, so temper expectations on point production.

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PK Subban is pointless so far since returning to the Nashville lineup two games ago.

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Mikko Koivu was out sick on Sunday, so the Wild shuffled the lines:

#1 29.9% COYLE,CHARLIE – NIEDERREITER,NINO – STAAL,ERIC

#2 17.8% GRANLUND,MIKAEL – SCHROEDER,JORDAN – ZUCKER,JASON

#3 17.3% HAULA,ERIK – PARISE,ZACH – POMINVILLE,JASON

#4 11.2% GABRIEL,KURTIS – GRAOVAC,TYLER – STEWART,CHRIS

To me, Haula is the winner here and he has four points in his last four games too.

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20 Fantasy Thoughts

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Milestones on Sunday: 

– Brian Campbell (500th assist)

– Kyle Turris (500th game)

– Peter Laviolette (500th win)