Some injury news that I’m sure you’ve heard – Ryan Smyth’s UBI will keep him out of the lineup for as long as a month. This will keep Dustin Brown on that top line and as such will hurt what Scott Parse and Jarret Stoll have been doing. This also frees up some more ice time for a talented winger (hello Teddy Purcell!).

Brian Gionta has a broken bone in his left foot and is out indefinitely. His absence already gave A. Kostitsyn a 17-minute game that resulted in a goal. This is the door that has opened for AK – he just needs to walk through it.

Official: Dobber Nation will be up tomorrow late afternoon. GUESTS: Aaron Portzline is on to discuss the Nikita Filatov situation and outlook. Also, Dallas Stars’ former GM (and current director of scouting and player devel.) Les Jackson is on, as well as yours truly (Dobber), plus our keeper league feature. We will also have an episode out next week, our regularly scheduled time. This one was late because our producer was knocked on his ass for a week with an illness and then our host Andrew Walker was knocked on his ass for a week with an illness… and then I got slammed myself with an illness (just getting out of the woods today, thankfully). Our sponsors – I thank you. New2You Buy and Sell in Hamilton, The Caulking Guy in the GTA.

Carey Price has definitely found his mojo now, sporting a 3-2-0 record over his last five contests, stopping 161 of 171 shots in that span. Now he just needs to hang onto it, and not lose it in January like he did last campaign.

Our Puck Daddy friend, Chesnokov, of course is on the scene as he is whenever anything major happens to a Russian player. Here is his interview with Nikita Filatov. Essentially, Filatov sees things the way his fantasy owners see things – he’s scoring when he plays, but he doesn’t play…and when he does it is with fourth liners. He is adamant that he will be back in camp next fall. How he does will depend on Hitchcock.

Shanny has retired. Brendan Shanahan has given us over 650 goals and 1300 points, which are obviously HOF numbers. But what a fantasy stud he was over the years. To Shanny!

Devin Setoguchi is back on the shelf with his leg injury. Looks as though he came back too soon. Do not expect production out of him for at least the rest of November, because it seems even when he does play he is not rolling on all cylinders.

Steve Sullivan scored in his second straight game, lending credence to my hunch earlier in the week. I had said that he will go on a hot run… so far so good.

With three points last night, David Legwand has seven in his last nine games after kicking off the campaign with just a point in 10. Linemate Joel Ward has eight in his last nine.

Alexander Semin has a wrist injury, although the team is saying “undisclosed”. The injury is bad enough to see him sent home to see a doctor. I don’t have any “insider” reasons for this, but it is looking like we won’t see him for at least a week – and this could be one of those “3-6 weeks” things.

Brooks Laich is still rolling – on pace for 35 goals and 77 points. I think he’ll reach that goal total, but the points are bound to slip. Look for 65. He’s more of a goal-scorer now that he’s learned to shoot (a lot) more.

Viktor Stalberg has seven points in six games for the Marlies. Unlike Stoa…and even Shirokov to an extent, Stalberg is continuing to show strong progression.

Since being put back on Kessel’s line, Matt Stajan has four points in three games. I don’t know why he was taken off of it in the first place after one game – Phil Kessel had 10 shots in his first game…and somehow Ron Wilson felt taking Stajan off the line would help Phil score more? I understand that he wanted more size on that line, but the first instinct should have been to remove Blake and insert Ponikarovsky… not remove Stajan and insert a hustling checker. What would really work on this line? The aforementioned Stalberg with Stajan/Kessel.

Don’t be too down on Stajan and the fact that he is not a No.1 guy. He reminds me of three other “not No. 1” guys: Langkow, Morrison and Horcoff. Sometimes, if the situation works and you click with a player or two, you produce over your head. Morrison did it with Naslund and Bertuzzi and you saw seasons of 67 and 71. Langkow did it with Iginla and you saw seasons of 77 and 65. Horcoff did it with Hemsky and you saw seasons of 73 and 50 (in 53 games). In all of those cases, you have a second liner with an upside of 60 or 65 points giving you two seasons of unexpected numbers. Stajan is a similar player in a similar situation, and I think you can get two good years from him. But he has to stay on that line. So far so good.

Here is an interesting find by James Mirtle – a Sharks’ co-owner says that Jim Balsillie should be an NHL owner, the Phoenix situation is a “joke” and that he is 100% certain that Balsillie will be an NHL owner in the future. He also implies that NHL owners are not against Jimmy Balls.

This one is for Mr. Rusty Pickles, in our forum – With more than a point per game so far, JVR is bound to be a Top 3 Calder Candidate. Yes, he has the size and skill to continue his 90-point pace even as a 20-year-old rookie, but the odds are against it. That being said, picking up 70 points in 75 games is nothing to sneeze at and that is where I think he will end up. JT, Varlamov and JVR are my Calder picks in that order. This changes from the Fantasy Guide, in which I had Varlamov first, JVR ninth and Nikita “KHL” Filatov third. Jamie Benn was my other decent call – I slotted him fourth.

Matt Carkner gives Colton Orr some massive head-butts right on his fists: