I'm standing in for the Ramblings today as Ian Gooding needed a well-earned rest after helping put together Dobber's Midseason Fantasy Guide for 2024 and getting it out on time.

There were just two games on Friday night as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Minnesota Wild 4-3 in overtime while the Nashville Predators spanked the Dallas Stars 6-3.

Philadelphia vs Minnesota

Joel Farabee scored two goals for the Flyers while Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett each had two points. Jamie Drysdale had one assist, two blocks and two hits in 22:09 of ice time. Drysdale was on the second unit of the power play and wasn't on the ice when the Flyers scored their lone PP goal of the game which was the overtime goal. Egor Zamula had his point shot deflected by Farabee to win the game. Zamula played 4:56 of PP time but just 15:07 overall.

I'm calling it a bit of a Tortorella bump as Drysdale has two points, three hits and three blocks in his two games with the Flyers. He's not a physical player with just 63 hits in 125 career games, but isn't afraid to block shots as is evident from the 120 he now has.

Early recipients of reduced ice time with Drysdale in the lineup are Sean Walker (17:00) and Cam York (18:29). The Flyers dressed seven defenders, which diminished their time as well.

Tyson Foerster has three points in his past four games and has played over 18 minutes in each of the past two games.

Bobby Brink was a healthy scratch as he had gone pointless in his past five games and has seen his ice time dip to around 10-12 minutes over that stretch.

Marc-Andre Fleury was denied his opportunity to pass Patrick Roy on the all-time wins list as they both are second with 551 wins. I don't think the 39-year-old Fleury will pass Martin Brodeur as he would need 141 more wins.

Brock Faber led the Wild in ice time at 28:49 with 3:16 of that on the PP, which went without a goal.

Without Kirill Kaprizov in the lineup, Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist with five shots on goal.

Nashville vs Dallas

Jake Oettinger was back in goal for the Stars after being out since December 15. He has struggled a little this season and this didn't go any better as he let in five goals on 37 shots. His GSAA was a negative 1.41 which puts him in the negative overall for the first time in his career at minus 0.70.

The Stars were without Miro Heiskanen for the fourth game in a row as Thomas Harley led Dallas in ice time at 27:07. Harley had an assist, one hit, and two blocks and was a minus-two.

Matt Duchene led the Stars with a goal and an assist, even though his line with Mason Marchment and Tyler Seguin were buried at ES with no shots for but nine against and CF of three and CA of 12.

Nils Lundkvist has three points in the four games that Heiskanen has missed.

Ryan O'Reilly and Roman Josi both had three points to pace the Predators while Filip Forsberg had two points and continues his fine season.

Nashville was without Tyson Barrie with injury while Cody Glass and Kiefer Sherwood were healthy scratches.

Kevin Lankinen got the start over Juuse Saros, who struggled in the Anaheim game. Lankinen let in three goals on 22 shots but got the win. Saros has had five RBS (really bad starts) in his past eight games and has a cumulative GSAA over that period of negative 9.65 which puts his overall GSAA at minus 3.80 which is the first time he has been below positive in his career.

Injury News

Justin Faulk of the St. Louis Blues has returned from injury and should play tonight in their game against the Boston Bruins.

Tanner Jeannot of the Tampa Bay Lightning was put on injured reserve and is expected to be week to week.

Anton Forsberg of the Ottawa Senators was put on LTIR with a groin injury and is expected to miss a few weeks. The concern when he went down was that he had re-injured his knee which he had surgery on in the off-season. It might be a relief for the Senators that it doesn't appear to be related.

Transactions

Jakub Vrana was sent back down to the AHL by St. Louis to make roster room for the return of Justin Faulk. Vrana doesn't need to clear waivers as he already cleared earlier.

Mads Sogaard was promoted to the Senators to replace the injured Anton Forsberg. Sogaard played 18 games with Ottawa last year and showed some flashes in between some inconsistencies. He's had a good year in the AHL with a save percentage of 92.0 in 16 games. Ottawa has not had very good goaltending so far this season, so perhaps Sogaard can give them a much-needed boost.

Joshua Roy was called up by the Montreal Canadiens and might get his first NHL game on Saturday. The 20-year-old 5th-round pick has 30 points in 33 AHL games in his first professional season.

Mid-Season Award Winners

Now that we are at the mid-season mark, I thought I would name the three finalists for each major award so far in my opinion.

Art Ross Trophy – Leading Scorer

Nikita Kucherov – Tampa Bay – 69 points in 42 games

Nathan MacKinnon – Colorado – 67 points in 42 games

Connor McDavid – Edmonton – 56 points in 36 games

Kucherov was running away with the scoring lead but MacKinnon has had 39 points in his past 21 games while McDavid can never be counted out as he has had 43 points in his past 22 games.

Hart Trophy – Most Valuable Player

Nathan MacKinnon – Colorado

David Pastrnak – Boston

Nikita Kucherov – Tampa Bay

This is going to be a tight race as there is still McDavid and Auston Matthews in the running.

Calder Trophy – Rookie of the Year

Connor Bedard – Chicago

Luke Hughes – New Jersey

Brock Faber – Minnesota

I think this award is Bedard's if he can play 60 games. If not, Hughes puts up better offensive numbers than Faber, but Faber is already a top-four defender and should be in the conversation.

Adam Fantilli and Logan Cooley could still have a strong second half, but college players can find the 82-game schedule a long haul.

Norris Trophy – Best Defenseman

Quinn Hughes – Vancouver

Cale Makar – Colorado

Noah Dobson – NY Islanders

It's not as if Cale Makar has come down in level, it's just that some defenders are daring to enter his stratified air. At the halfway point, I think this would go to Hughes as he has been out of this world.

Maurice Richard Trophy – Most Goals

Auston Matthews – Toronto – 33 goals

Sam Reinhart – Florida – 30

Nikita Kucherov – Tampa Bay – 28

We can't forget about David Pastrnak who had 25 goals and had 61 goals last year. I think Matthews will get to 60 and win this one.

Vezina Trophy – Top Goaltender

Connor Hellebuyck – Winnipeg

Cam Talbot – Los Angeles

Thatcher Demko – Vancouver

This would go to Hellebuyck who already has 21 wins, a .923 save percentage and a GSAA of 17.52 after 30 games.

Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark split their starts fairly evenly and might win the Jennings Trophy for the second straight season but will be hard-pressed to win the Vezina.

NHL Power Ratings – updated to January 10

I've done this for a few years now on my own, but I take my player ratings and plug them into each team's roster and then give the team an overall rating, and then break it down for wingers, center, defense and in goal. I usually like to use a period of the past two seasons, so that there is less volatility daily.

I posted this table about 12 games into the season when I last did the Ramblings. The Canucks were first then and I never thought they would continue to be there after 41 games.

These ratings are based on current rosters only, so don't include injured players (see New Jersey near the bottom). The ratings are based on current stats up to January 10.

Shaded is above the league average at that position.

Team	10/01/24	PGR	Goalies	Forwards	Center	Defence
Vancouver	1	6.529	6.75	6.52	6.53	6.51
Toronto	2	6.525	6.60	6.55	6.65	6.46
Winnipeg	3	6.512	6.91	6.50	6.56	6.46
Los Angeles	4	6.502	6.85	6.51	6.51	6.43
Pittsburgh	5	6.495	6.75	6.52	6.60	6.41
Edmonton	6	6.490	6.34	6.52	6.60	6.46
Detroit	7	6.489	6.60	6.49	6.52	6.47
Boston	8	6.488	6.87	6.49	6.48	6.42
Florida	9	6.488	6.65	6.50	6.52	6.45
NY Rangers	10	6.478	6.56	6.48	6.52	6.45
Philadelphia	11	6.469	6.47	6.47	6.50	6.46
NY Islanders	12	6.462	6.72	6.45	6.68	6.45
Seattle	13	6.457	6.95	6.44	6.47	6.42
Colorado	14	6.454	6.19	6.47	6.56	6.48
Ottawa	15	6.454	5.95	6.48	6.49	6.49
Calgary	16	6.447	6.34	6.45	6.53	6.46
Carolina	17	6.445	6.12	6.48	6.51	6.44
Vegas	18	6.442	6.37	6.43	6.50	6.47
Nashville	19	6.442	6.28	6.46	6.48	6.43
Dallas	20	6.439	6.20	6.50	6.53	6.35
Arizona	21	6.434	6.64	6.45	6.44	6.37
Buffalo	22	6.426	6.19	6.45	6.50	6.43
Tampa Bay	23	6.425	6.14	6.46	6.41	6.40
St. Louis	24	6.422	6.46	6.43	6.50	6.40
Columbus	25	6.407	6.42	6.41	6.46	6.38
Washington	26	6.407	6.55	6.43	6.42	6.35
Minnesota	27	6.395	6.08	6.45	6.48	6.34
Montreal	28	6.394	6.44	6.36	6.42	6.45
Anaheim	29	6.383	6.42	6.40	6.35	6.35
New Jersey	30	6.381	6.05	6.43	6.44	6.34
San Jose	31	6.329	6.16	6.34	6.44	6.34
Chicago	32	6.328	6.20	6.32	6.37	6.37
Average		6.445	6.444	6.456	6.499	6.421

If people are curious how each team breaks down they can check out the sheet here.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or players you'd like me to look at, please message or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.