Ramblings: Bishop/Budaj fallout, red-hot Bruins, Klefbom finding his way (Feb 27)

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Server Update: Disappointed, and I’m sorry to share with you that the server move failed. Too many things broken. The current server has so much garbage on it that sifting through it all is taking a lot of time. If you’ve been with me for 11 years, then you remember my first incarnation was Microsoft Frontpage. Then I went to PHP Nuke, with commenting. Then I went to Joomla, with a Joomla messageboard. Then I switched the messageboard to Vbulletin and the shop went to Magento. And you’d of course remember the forum upgrade to version 5 that was such a failure (we switched to version 4, the current version). And today the site is Word Press with a shop that runs Woo. The point is – all the older stuff is still on the server (including the baseball and football sites). And we can’t just wipe out all those old folders because it might break something. Long story short, it’s a lot of housekeeping and we’re evaluating whether or not to keep trying to fix – or re-launch the website again with a different and clean/fresh look. I’ll make a decision on this during the week. So we’re still on the current server for the foreseeable future!

The forum is on the new server, so that one won’t be sluggish or crash. There is still a ‘double posting’ issue that we’ll have to look at fixing now that the server move for the rest of the sites has been delayed.

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The NHL’s Trade Deadline Day is on Wednesday. For the last 11 years I’ve been breaking down the deals as they happen. DobberHockey isn’t the first site to post a trade, but I’m pretty quick and thorough with the breakdown from a fantasy standpoint. So be sure to check in on Wednesday. And if the site is sluggish then please be patient – traffic will be nuts.

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The Ben Bishop trade doesn’t make sense to a lot of people (myself included) but I get the feeling that much of the reasoning was that it takes a top goalie away from Calgary, a team that Los Angeles is competing with for a playoff spot. No, the Kings aren’t going to turn around and flip him. He’s security for Jonathan Quick in case the latter suffers an injury. It would be the first time that I’ve ever seen such a thing at the trade deadline – acquiring a top goalie and then flipping him two days later midseason.

On a personal note, the trade impacts me because in one league I own Quick, Bishop and Budaj. Go figure. I was shopping Budaj, too. But I really like him with Tampa. If they still want to take a shot at the playoffs, then I have a hunch that Budaj steals the starting job from Andrei Vasilevskiy (and perhaps earns a contract to stay, in the process). If the Lightning want to just get Vasilevskiy more experience and just run out the clock…then I guess Budaj sits on the bench. To start, I can see Vasilevskiy getting some early work but on a short leash. If Budaj wins his first start – then they’ll ride him.

Our breakdown of the Bishop deal is here.

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Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand each tallied three points last night. For Bergeron, he has nine points in seven games since Claude Julien was fired. For Marchand – also nine. Other notable player production over Boston’s last seven games:

David Backes – seven points

Ryan Spooner – six points

David Krejci – eight points

Frank Vatrano – seven points

David Pastrnak – seven points

Torey Krug – eight points (to Zdeno Chara’s three)

The team is 6-1-0 with 29 goals scored (4.14 per game). The B’s are on fire, folks!

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With Patrick Eaves gone, here were the line combos for Dallas last night:

#1 23.9% FAKSA,RADEK – KORPIKOSKI,LAURI – SPEZZA,JASON

#2 18.4% ROUSSEL,ANTOINE – SEGUIN,TYLER – SHARP,PATRICK

#3 17.9% BENN,JAMIE – EAKIN,CODY – RITCHIE,BRETT

#4 12% HUDLER,JIRI – MCKENZIE,CURTIS – SHORE,DEVIN

Jiri Hudler also got back onto the top power play and scored, though his overall ice time was limited to 10 minutes. I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in him as he gets the ‘Sam Gagner treatment’ as a PP specialist.

Tyler Seguin has 10 points in his last six games and is back on an 80-point pace now.

Kari Lehtonen gave up six goals last night. He’s clinging to a 0.900 SV% and believe it or not he’s the only goalie in Dallas or on their farm team Texas with a SV% that doesn’t start with an ‘8’.

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Since his latest recall, Columbus prospect Oliver Bjorkstrand has five points in five games. He’s playing with Alexander Wennberg and Nick Foligno and the line is clicking. In fact, with that line going the other lines seem to be rolling now too. I don’t want to say that this is because of Bjorkstrand, but there is a domino effect here. The Jackets had been struggling to score. They have 21 goals in the five games, but had just eight goals in five games prior to that.

With all the goals that Columbus has scored, it had me wondering about my buddy Cam Atkinson. He’s just been chipping in with a point here or there and this is because he’s still playing with Brandon Dubinsky and Boone Jenner. Atkinson had been scoring just ‘modest’ points at even strength with that line. His bread and butter had been the power play, where he has 20 of his points. BUT – his last power-play point was on January 7. He had gone 21 games with a point on the power play after getting 19 of them in 38 games (i.e. one every two games, for those without a calculator). So he’s been relying on ES points for the past six weeks. That ended last night when he finally scored a PPG. Hopefully that opens things back up for him.

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Just when you think Henrik Lundqvist has it all figured out again he puts up a stinker like Sunday. He had gone 14 games without having giving up four goals, but then gave up five on Sunday to push his SV% back down to 0.912. Meanwhile Antti Raanta keeps putting up wins…

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What can be said about Filip Forsberg? The guy is in the zone and the Predators are surging because of it. ‘Just’ one goal Sunday, but it comes on the heels of three consecutive three-point games. So 11 points in five games, for those keeping track. His production pace is now for 61 points and almost back on track (he had 64 last year, 63 the year prior). The crazy thing is that 10 of those 11 points came at even strength. He’s not even getting the benefit of power-play help for this.

PK Subban has 12 points in his last nine games. Never doubt a proven stud. Subban had some injury woes, and returning from the injury was slow. But he’s back and rolling now. He was on the second PP unit Sunday though, as Roman Josi was the lone defenseman on the first unit. Josi has 14 points in his last 10 games.

For those keeping score, Subban now has 30 points (46 games) and Shea Weber has 34 points (62 games).

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Two more assists for Oscar Klefbom. He’s finally getting it. After getting thrown out there time and time again on the power play and not doing anything with it…and after being given a ton of opportunity with Connor McDavid and not doing anything with it…he’s finally doing something with it. He’s only 23 so he can be excused for taking a few months to get going. But now he seems to have found “it” and I suspect he’ll be a top producing defenseman going forward. If he stays healthy. He’s basically now everything that I thought Adam Larsson would be back when the Oilers coughed up Taylor Hall for him. Klefbom has eight points in the last seven games and 16 in his last 25.

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The biggest surprise in terms of thinking he was done but he’s actually not, for this year, has to be Radim Vrbata. My goodness. I can’t believe what he’s doing – on such a bad team, no less. He has 11 points during an active nine-game points streak. And the last time he was held to fewer than two shots on goal in a game was January 13…and he had three assists that game! He has 22 points in his last 21 games after starting the season with 24 in 40 games.

The Coyotes actually played with 11 forwards yesterday thanks to the late Martin Hanzal trade. Here were the line combos without Hanzal:

Don’t forget to check out our trade breakdown of the Hanzal deal here.

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Brian Elliott has won all three games that he’s played with Michael Stone, including the last two stellar efforts (just three goals allowed on 60 shots). Stone has two points in four games with Calgary and is plus-4. Here’s a Stone shot-block, followed by a Johnny Hockey setup to Ferland:

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A lightweight match between Ryan Dzingel and Reilly Smith: