Ramblings: Barrie returns, Price flounders, Labanc’s linemates and more (Feb 13)

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Tyson Barrie was back in the lineup for Colorado and despite that, Mark Barberio still saw the most PP time (3:10). Barberio has two points in five games since being traded to the Avs, with just five shots on goal, so he’s running out of chances to prove himself. Meanwhile, Barrie managed to be plus-1 in a 5-1 loss.

Here’s the line on Joe Colborne: He had three goals in the first game of the season. Then he went 41 games without a goal and was minus-18. Then he scored Sunday.

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You may have noticed Ryan Strome’s name there beside John Tavares in the scoring summary, but the line of Anders Lee – Tavares – Josh Bailey is still intact. The PP unit involves those three plus Strome and Nick Leddy. Strome has eight points in his last seven games.

Lee has 32 points in his last 35 games.

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Carey Price is floundering. Since January 9 he is 4-9-1, with a 3.30 GAA and 0.894 SV% over 14 games. More concerning is the macro view of his numbers: he’s sitting at 0.917 SV% on the season, when the last three years he’s hovered around 0.930. Something’s wrong. Maybe the old injury is acting up? Maybe not at first, because to start the season he was definitely the Price we know and love. But lately?

In keeper leagues, I’m making a play for him. That is, if I’m rebuilding or retooling for next year (not if I’m going for first, which I am). The Price we know will be back, but I’m losing faith that it will happen this season. So in one-year leagues I’m staying away. The cost will exceed the payoff.

Not that you needed to see this stat, since you fully expected it to happen, but since Andrei Markov returned, Nathan Beaulieu has one point in eight games. He had 11 points in the 15 games prior to that including eight power-play points.

Brendan Gallagher was back in the lineup so Daniel Carr was sent down. Here were the line combinations with Gallagher back:

#1 18.1% DANAULT,PHILLIP – PACIORETTY,MAX – RADULOV,ALEXANDER
#2 14.2% BYRON,PAUL – LEHKONEN,ARTTURI – PLEKANEC,TOMAS
#3 13.7% GALCHENYUK,ALEX – GALLAGHER,BRENDAN – SHAW,ANDREW
#4 12.7% FLYNN,BRIAN – MCCARRON,MICHAEL – MITCHELL,TORREY

Of note, Danault kept his sweet spot on that top line and the Habs now have three pretty good scoring lines (so why aren't they scoring?)

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Brad Marchand has taken 35 shots over the last nine games. He’s on pace for 247 shots this season, which falls short of the 250 he got last year, but the pace is increasing and he’s going to beat it.

Ryan Spooner has seven points in eight games. He’s on the top PP unit and at ES he plays with Frank Vatrano and Jimmy Hayes. After last year’s 49-point first full season, he’s had a sophomore slump. Though it’s technically not his sophomore season (he had played 52 games before last year), I still consider it that and I believe he bounces back to 50+ points in 2017-18.

Boston recalled their top Providence goal scorer on the weekend. Peter Cehlarik made his NHL debut and after going pointless on Saturday he posted a pair of assists yesterday. He projects as a complimentary winger who will rely on his linemate quality for his production. You can read more on Cehlarik here.

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Remember last week when I explained my decision to pick up Philip Larsen for his four games and go for the homerun swing, over less risky (but no upside) Dan Hamhuis and his four games? Well the results are in – and they both sucked. Hamhuis was pointless and minus-2 in the four games. Larsen was a healthy scratch for all four games. The guy gets two points in three games and then gets scratched, go figure. I didn’t think Ben Hutton’s return would knock him out, but I should have. The team has been going with six defensemen.

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Logan Couture missed a game on February 9 and so the Sharks called up Kevin Labanc for that game. He saw a career high 17 minutes of ice time and picked up an assist. He was so impressive that even when Couture returned to action on Sunday, Labanc played with Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton. He picked up two points, though he handed his PP time back to Couture. I find things like this very promising when evaluating a new young player. And obviously, after two points, he’s going to hold his spot on that line for a couple more games.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic has 11 points in his last 18 games.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Brent Burns has 16 goals (36 points) on the road already and is the first defenseman to score 16 road goals in one season since Kevin Hatcher did it 24 years ago.

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This will be a suspension for Gustav Nyquist. Wow. How many games?

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The Wild – just as the Mikael Granlund line cools off, the Jason Pominville lines goes nutty. Pominville has 17 points in his last 12 games. Here were the line combos:

#1           23.3%    GRANLUND,MIKAEL – KOIVU,MIKKO – ZUCKER,JASON

#2           16.4%    GRAOVAC,TYLER – SCHROEDER,JORDAN – STEWART,CHRIS

#3           16.4%    COYLE,CHARLIE – PARISE,ZACH – POMINVILLE,JASON

#4           15.9%    HAULA,ERIK – NIEDERREITER,NINO – STAAL,ERIC

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Roman Josi had been off to a slow start but now has a four-game points streak (six points). He has eight points in his last seven contests.

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I had a difficult, though minor decision to make as to which player I would include in a deal – Ryan Dzingel or Richard Panik. For the past two months, I’d preferred Dzingel. By a mile. He was younger, had a shots-on-goal trajectory that was very favorable, and the fancy stats definitely pointed to him. But then Panik was back playing with Jonathan Toews on Saturday and he picked up three points. And upon closer inspection, his fancy stats had improved a lot over the last six or seven weeks. And his age? He had just turned 26 so he does still have room to grow. His 96 SOG are already a career high and he should get 150 this year because he’s trending upward. I talked myself into it, with the tie-breaker being that this league has an NHL playoffs component and as a Chicago player he can help me there.

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The Kings placed Devin Setoguchi on waivers.

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20 Fantasy Thoughts

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Everything is backwards here. Zdeno Chara with the sweet hands to deke out Alexander Radulov…

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My new favorite referee – Wes McCauley (haha)…