March 27, 2013

Dobber Sports

2013-03-27

The DobberBaseball Fantasy Guide is fully updated through Tuesday

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Jussi Jokinen has cleared waivers.

Boston claimed Kaspars Daugavins, per McKenzie

Mike Keenan dropped a bombshell on the FAN590 this morning. He believes that Miikka Kiprusoff will play these last 30-odd days for the Flames, and then pack up for Finland. He says that when he negotiated the contract with Kipper, that Kipper had no intention, at the time, of playing the final year – he’s set to make just $1.5 million. He honestly believes that Kiprusoff will go back to Finland after April.

At this point, I tend to believe him. And I am liking Karri Ramo for next year, more and more…

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Bob McKenzie reports that New Jersey’s top prospect defenseman Jon Merrill has decided to turn pro and will join Albany of the AHL for the balance of the season. An injury to the NJ lineup could see him get a look.

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Kris Letang has a broken toe. No word on how long he will be out – but he also re-aggravated his lower-body injury, so he will miss time for sure.

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Joffrey Lupul has been red hot. Phil Kessel …not so much. The solution? Reunite them. In the third period Lupul replaced JVR on the Bozek/Kessel line and after a lengthy wait while they re-familiarized themselves, they scored a goal. And by “lengthy wait” I mean 22 seconds. And then they scored again three minutes later. Lupul has seven points in his last four games.

Ben Scrivens stopped 40 of 42 shots and boasts a 0.918 SV% – which is exactly the same as James Reimer. It puts them in a tie for 16th in the league, among goalies with 10 or more appearances. So maybe a shade above average. Still, much better than we expected.

Jake Gardiner has been back for five games now. He has two points and is plus-1. Meanwhile, in that span Cody Franson has one point and is minus-3. So I stand corrected, Franson is hurt by the arrival of Gardiner. He’s still getting 20 minutes of ice time per game, so there’s hope.

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Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots and the Penguins won the game 1-0… but Fleury did not get a shutout. D’oh! Fleury was hurt, looked like a possible concussion, and he left the game after two periods. Tomas Vokoun, who you should pick up immediately (just in case), shut the door in the final frame. I put the clip of the injury at the bottom.

Line combos for Pittsburgh with Brenden Morrow in the lineup:

Kunitz – Crosby – Dupuis as expected

Morrow – Jeffrey – Neal

Cooke – Sutter – Kennedy

Bennett – Adams – Glass

Not good news for Bennett owners. Morrow played just 12:55. Until Malkin returns, we’ll never know if Morrow’s fantasy output will surge or not.

Kris Letang was back and played 24:20

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John Carlson has quietly put together a four-game points streak. As Mike Green continues to struggle, Carlson has picked up the offense. Green’s past makes it impossible for me to drop him in the two leagues I own him in…but he’s pretty comfortable on my bench. I can’t bring myself to drop him.

Marcus Johansson has eight points in his last seven games and is plus-6 in that span.

Troy Brouwer has 21 points in his last 25 games. I’m liking the 27-year-old for a breakout season next year. This has been a real nice step forward for him in which he’ll match last year’s 82-game production in just 48 games.

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Jordan Staal has five points in his last 14 games. It’s driven his stats down enough to put him in tough to reach 30 points this year. Eric isn’t doing much better lately – one point in three games and minus-5.

Jussi Jokinen was placed on waivers yesterday and was a healthy scratch last night. His numbers are terrible, but that was expected since he was knocked out of a scoring role. If I remember correctly, the Hurricanes grabbed him off waivers from Tampa in the first place. He is worth picking up, because I have a hunch he’ll be claimed and if so – he’ll make an impact early on before fading

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Ottawa placed Kaspars Daugavins on waivers.

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I can’t remember ever seeing this:

Evander Kane – 4 points

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The rest of his team – 6 points.

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A great way to have a disappointing team pick up a win? Have them play another disappointing team. So the Rangers beat the Flyers… and now they’re in the Top 8. I think they’ve turned the corner, which means Carolina and Washington are in tough.

A big part of the reason is that they’re secondary scoring is starting to return. Derek Stepan had four points last night, giving him 16 in his last 14. Michael Del Zotto has five in his last four. These two guys are key.

Forget Gaborik, who has just two points in his last eight games. The passion’s gone. Maybe he doesn’t want to play for Torts. Maybe he’s hurt. But I don’t expect a turnaround this season. He’ll bounce back next year, especially if he gets moved.

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Since returning from his rib injury – early, I might add – Matt Read has just one point in the eight games.

You can’t blame Sean Couturier for the Flyers sucking this year. But if he repeated what he did last season… the Flyers would be in the playoff picture. Pointless in his last 14 games and minus-10 in that span. He is minus-13 on the year after posting plus-18 in 2011-12. To be fair, he’s been stuck on terrible lines with the likes of Joe Cement-hands and Tommy No-talent.

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Not sure why Cory Conacher saw just six minutes of ice time. He assisted on the first goal. But something to keep an eye on. Meanwhile, Killorn saw over 19 minutes for the second straight game under the interim coaches. Jon Cooper will take the helm Friday.

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With two solid starts in three games and now coming of a shutout, it is looking like Nikolai Khabibulin will have another one of those runs in which he gets a heavier workload than Devan Dubnyk.  From February 9-25 he started five times, and going back to last year he had runs of December 17 – January 21 in which he played 11 to Dubnyk’s seven, as well as from October 17 to November 30 in which he played 16 to Dubnyk’s seven.

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Kevin Shattenkirk has six points in his last 20 games. Market correction in a huge way after he began the year with 13 in 12.

Jake Allen got the hook after giving up three goals on just seven shots. Jaroslav Halak came in and shut the door, stopping 12 of 12.

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Chicago kept Michael Frolik with Jonathan Toews and Brandon Saad last night, thought Frolik was blanked.

Ray Emery is 12-0-0. At what point do you let the guy ride it?

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If you need hits, take a look at James Sheppard. He had six hits last game and has 47 on the year despite missing/scratched for eight games and seeing minimal ice time.

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DET, ANA, NSH, EDM, STL and TB are the main contenders for college free agent d-man Danny DeKeyser. His coach is former Blues coach Andy Murray.

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 I missed this tidbit – Calle Järnkrok will join Grand Rapids until the end of the season. Because the Griffins really needed a blue-chip prospect forward on their team… Man, I can’t wait to see how this all shapes up between Nyquist, Tatar and Järnkrok. Will all three hold a prominent scoring role for Detroit in three years?

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The Marc-Andre Fleury injury:

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Down goes Brown:

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