Ramblings: The Avalanche, Silfverberg, Getzlaf and more around the fantasy hockey world (May 15)

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I’ve seen a lot of Colorado Avalanche fans who are truly sour over losing the first (and hell – second) overall pick in the lottery. And rightfully so – if you’re a fan of the team with the fewest points coming off a horrible seasons, you should be pissed if they don’t even get a Top 2 pick. But when I see things like “the worst team should get the first overall pick, period” – I get annoyed. To me, the worst team in the NHL did get the top pick. The Devils are the worst. They may have an answer to MacKinnon with Hall, and Rantanen with Zacha – but they don’t have an answer for Landeskog or Duchene. Or Barrie. Or even Johnson. The Devils can’t solve their problems by having a couple of injured players return, plus sign two bottom-six forwards and No.3 defenseman. Because that’s all the Avs need. They’ll get healthy, and with three smart free agent signings they’re back in business. Oh, and they probably need a different coach. But man, the Devils…what a horrible team. Taylor Hall is a start. Goaltending is fine. Pavel Zacha looks like he’ll eventually meet expectations. But the bottom really drops out quickly. Is Damon Severson going to get it together consistently? He’s still a question mark. No – give the Devils this pick for sure.

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Stop saying Jakob Silfverberg will be left exposed by the Ducks. Team brass loves Ryan Getzlaf first. Then John Gibson. Then Cam Fowler. Then Hampus Lindholm. Then Silfverberg. That’s the order. They’d rather lose anyone else – even Corey Perry (can’t be exposed anyway due to his NMC) or Sami Vatanen – before Silfverberg. I’ve seen from several sources that he’s going to be exposed, with the logic that the Ducks would never expose Vatanen. Well, they would. I’m sure they’ll try to get rid of Bieksa’s no-move contract somehow and avoid it, but failing that – they’ll lose Vatanen. I generally subscribe the idea that goalies are the most important on the team and toughest to fill, followed by defensemen. Which means forwards are the “least” valuable. So that goes to show you just how important Silf is in real hockey – defensively, offensively, and of course in clutch situations.

With the goal last night, Silfverberg has 13 goals and 36 points in his last 36 playoff games.

It’s interesting to see Brandon Montour, time and again, seeing more ice time than Shea Theodore. He was drafted a year later as a 20-year-old, is a little smaller, drafted later (55^th overall versus 26^th overall in their respective years) and has half the career regular season games under his belt. I may to re-evaluate Theodore’s standing in the grand scheme of things. Montour hadn’t played his first NHL game until December 29^th so up until then he was just this promising, high-scoring AHL defenseman who was buried behind a deep blue line. Theodore had played 39 games before Montour even saw NHL ice. Theodore still holds the edge in PP ice time, but I think Montour is eating into that. Randy Carlyle loves Montour and Randy Carlyle, after this postseason, is obviously not going anywhere. So we fantasy owners must also love Montour. I’m not quite ready to love him over Theodore, but I’m starting to get swayed.

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Ryan Getzlaf has 52 points in his last 38 regular season and playoff games. Full-on beast mode down the stretch and he’s bulldozing through the postseason. This team is nothing without him. During that stretch the Ducks are 26-10-3 (Getzlaf missed a game).

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Ryan Johansen on Ryan Kesler after the game:

“He just blows my mind. I don’t know what’s going through his head out there. His family and friends watching him play, I don’t know how you can cheer for a guy like that. It just doesn’t make sense how he plays the game. I’m just trying to go out there and play hockey and it sucks when you have to pull a stick out of your groin every shift.”

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There have been 25 overtime games this year, just three off the record set in 1993 when John Leclair scored a million OT goals I think. That was an example of a Montreal team that really wasn’t all that strong, but had fairly lucky playoff matchups and they snuck out a Cup with their clutch goal-scoring. Now, by no means is Pittsburgh a “lucky playoff matchup” for the Sens. In fact, that team is the best of the best. But they didn’t take Ottawa seriously and if they get put in a hole that they can’t dig out of, then Ottawa could shock the hockey world. It would be cool if they do it in a year that sees the OT record broken – one that was set in a year in which another team surprised the hockey world. Both Canadian teams, at that.

It would also be awesome if Ottawa took Canada out of its drought. Ottawa. I mean…the Oilers have been building this mighty team for the future, and damn if the Leafs haven’t done well at the same thing. And the Habs have the best goalie in the world. But Ottawa gets it done. Ottawa!

Is J-G Pageau this year’s John Druce? Jean-Gabriel Druce? I can’t remember if I did that joke for Pageau yet…

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The Grand Rapids Griffins are already in the AHL semi-finals, but it’s two young studs who are really making their mark. Tyler Bertuzzi has 10 points in eight games and will make a strong case for getting on Detroit’s roster in the fall. Evgeny Svechnikov has nine points in eight games and will also have a real shot in the fall. Both of these players have been so impressive since being drafted. Really rising above expectations year after year. I’m not sure if you can count on either for a full season in the NHL next year, but I’d put good money on 30 or 40 games each. And then full time the following year.

DobberProspects has now profiled Vadim Shipachyov, if you want more background on the second player to ever belong to the Vegas Golden Knights. Check it out here.

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If you think the Capitals will lose Philippe Grubauer to expansion, then I think Pheonix Copley is making a case for the backup job for next year. Copley has been outstanding for Hershey in the postseason. On Tuesday they could put out the Providence Bruins to go to the semi-finals. Copley has stopped 263 of 282 shots for a 0.933 SV% (nine games) when it matters most. Easily the best performance of any goalie playing at least five games.

EDIT: Copley is out for the series with an injury, and Vitek Vanecek played the last game. Stick tap to Pat Quinn, DobberProspects Washington scout for the update in the comments

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If you missed this goal check it out, it’s really cool – Gibson lost the puck so badly that James Neal just took his time. The only good angle here is the original one at the start. Gibson was still facing forward while Neal is stickhandling right behind him…