December 05, 2008
Dobber Sports
2008-12-05
Sean Avery was handed a six-game suspension, including the two he has already missed. No word yet on Dallas' reaction. Avery is also to undergo anger management counselling.
TJ Oshie will be back in the lineup tonight for the Blues. He practiced with Perron and Berglund.
Brian Rolston's return last night cut into Dainius Zubrus' power-play time.
I didn't see this coming at all – Justin Williams returned from a torn achilles tendon and played 13 minutes last night. That, combined with a new coach, will get this team scoring again.
It would appear that Martin Hanzal is the beneficiary of Jokinen's injury. With a hat trick last night, he has seven points in his last seven games. He has played 20 minutes or more three times in that span, while he did that just once in the 18 games prior.
Florida's Gregory Campbell, who has a career high of 18 points, has 11 points in his last 11 games and is a plus-7 in that time. Last night he played 18:38 and that is his second highest ice time of the season. While I am sure this is a temporary hot run, it would be silly for me to not pay attention to him in the future. Even if he gets no more than 40 points, combine that with 85 PIMs or so and a solid plus/minus and he becomes a decent fantasy asset.
Eric Belanger, who teased us all with a hot start last season, has 11 points in his last 13 games. As will last year, he'll taper off. Last season it started around early January, so if you need a temporary depth center he is your man. For a month.
It was a night of long-awaited returns. Mike Sillinger was back last night and played 14:20.
Janne Pesonen played 5:54 last night, replacing the injured Tyler Kennedy. No word on the seriousness of Kennedy's injury.
Give Pekka Rinne another win. He is 5-0-0 and should be picked up immediately – he is going to steal the job from Ellis I just know it.
With Matt Carle on the shelf with an upper body injury (apparently not serious), Coburn, Timonen and Sbisa shared the PP duties for Philly.
Wade Redden injured his right leg and it sounds like a groin – this is not official, but I have a feeling we won't see him this weekend and probably longer.
The Sens sent Ryan Shannon down to the AHL.
I apologize for the slowness of the site these last couple of weeks. It came to a head last night when the site crashed. We are looking into it and will remove anything that is draining the speed, just bear with us for a couple of days while we sort through it.