January 19, 2010
Dobber Sports
2010-01-19
From the Tennessean: Trotz has said that putting Jerred Smithson on David Legwand's line always seems to spark Legwand. So now that Smithson has a game under his belt, it would be no surprise to see him back on the Legwand line soon. Legwand has zero goals, two assists and a minus-4 rating over his past seven games.
Brent Burns has been cleared to practice. He will join the team tomorrow for the first time. I would hold off on activating him, as I don’t see an offensive impact early on. And I do see the potential for another injury.
The Dispatch is reporting that Brassard had his best game of the season – he was 10 of 12 at the dot, had five shots plus an assist. Look for Hitch to possibly start (finally) giving him more ice time. You can still get him pretty cheap in your league I have no doubt.
John Carlson has been sent down to the AHL – but not before impressing more than one expert to the point where they believe he is NHL ready. Look for him on the team in the fall. I’m thinking 30 points to start. With Green in the lineup, Carlson may be several years before getting past the 50-point mark, but he will definitely get there.
Stephen Weiss has an undisclosed injury that caused him to miss last night’s contest and only play a few shifts on Saturday. Dominic Moore moved up to the first line in his place.
Rookie Dmitry Kulikov will return to the FLA lineup at some point this week.
Somebody was eager to get back. Daniel Alfredsson has peeled off back-to-back three-point games in a row. And he’s taking Mike Fisher along with him. Fisher has five points in those games.
Matt Moulson has six points in seven games, despite not playing with John Tavares at all. The team currently has Josh Bailey on the wing with JT at center and Okposo on the other wing, putting all their eggs in one basket – but it’s the Moulson egg that’s performing right now. His continued production will get him back with
JT in no time, I’m sure. Bailey is best fit on the second line at center.
Rick DiPietro started again for the Isles and the golden boy didn’t let them down – a shutout. The Isles will ride him as long as they can and as I said yesterday in the forum – my over/under on how many games he plays before getting hurt again is 11.5. Who’s got the over?
Jovanovski and Michalek were each a minus-5 for Phoenix last night.
Because I mentioned Marcel Goc’s 15 points in 22 games yesterday, I have to take note of his goal last night.This is a pretty good team – scoring by committee. Arnott, Dumont, Sullivan, Hornqvist, Legwand, Erat and now Goc – all with the ability to put points on the board if two of the other lines are contained.
Steve Downie has 10 points and 37 PIMs in 12 games – that’s like Sean Avery or Daniel Carcillo in their hey-day!
Miro Satan has three points in seven games this season for the Bruins. Look for another 18-20 in the last 34 games.
Patrice Bergeron was indeed back in the lineup and played 17 minutes. He played with Recchi and Whitfield.
Sergei Samsonov was back in the lineup (played 11 minutes) so the ‘Canes returned Bowman to the AHL.
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