First off, I apologize if any of these ramblings come out incoherent. I spent the day reffing elementary basketball, which was mentally and physically draining. Came home to basketball on TV all night too. Thank goodness the Oilers-Sabres game was on… NOT. Seriously, of all the games for TSN to show, how was this the game? Was this their draft lottery preview show?

 

But in all seriousness, I love basketball, especially March Madness so I'm not really complaining. Just making pre-emptive excuses.

 

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Zach Parise skated in New Jersey for the first time in almost two years. He scored a power play marker and landed six shots on goal. He has been hot with nine points in 10 games since the break.

 

Mikael Granlund scored a goal of his own and has nine in the last 10 as well. This pairing is definitely working. A lot of people want to know where exactly Granlund's upside lies. I think he's got a 30-goal, 85-point season in him. It all depends on getting some puck luck and landing in a spot where he has guys to distribute to. I don't know that he gets there with Minnesota as currently constructed. They are a bit too reserved offensively but as we've seen in St. Louis this year that defensive game can eventually lead to offense.

 

What' important is that Granlund has finally grabbed that top power play unit slot, which is what will allow him to explode offensively. It'll be interesting to see if Mikko Koivu grabs the spot back when next season starts and he's back at 100%.

 

The Wild power play has been running just about as effectively with Granlund as it was with Koivu, which is right about middle of the pack – currently 15^th in the league at 18.2% – so this could go either way.

 

Ilya Bryzgalov got his second straight start for Minnesota after shutting out the Islanders earlier in the week. This game did not go nearly as well. They really should have known better.

 

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I found Martin Brodeur's comments on Parise returning to New Jersey for the first time very interesting. I'm not much a fan of taking things out of context so I will just post the link.

 

My personal opinion is that Brodeur is headed elsewhere this summer. He's such a fierce competitor that he genuinely believes he can still get the job done. Maybe he can but Cory Schneider is CLEARLY the better goalie in New Jersey so Brodeur is left as the backup. I don't know that New Jersey can justify paying Brodeur the money he deserves as a legend, nor can they promise him much playing time.

 

If Brodeur really thinks he has something left in the tank he needs to find a new home. I think we'd all just as soon see him retire and go out a Devil but I'm not sure that narrative means much to a player if he genuinely believes he still has it.

 

Schneider got the start and hung on for the overtime win despite a late push from the Wild.

 

Patrik Elias and Adam Henrique led the way with three assists each. These two have been sizzling since the Olympics. Elias has 15 in his last 11, while Henrique has 14 in 11 despite a four-game drought.

 

Jaromir Jagr has it on cruise as well with 11 in 11.

 

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Speaking of cruise, the Flyers, holy mackerel. I recently visited with my old college roommate who is a diehard Flyers fan. He told me he couldn't even handle watching the games this year. They were playing so dreadfully that it just stressed him out. Couldn't watch. He's currently on cloud nine.

 

Claude Giroux is obviously the lynchpin. Good on those of you who bought low on his early struggles. I couldn't because he was owned by #28 fan boy I just mentioned. But those of you who could are reaping the rewards. He's currently second in scoring since January 1^st. Ondrej Palat and Tyler Seguin are tied for third, which is just bonkers. But more on them later.

 

The emergence of their second line has helped as well. First it was Scott Hartnell, Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds just slaughtering but now they've moved Hartnell up to the top line and have Vinny Lecavalier skating in his place.

 

Lecavalier hasn't done much but that line has been effective and Hartnell and Simmonds have kept rolling as part of the top power play unit. I wonder if Lecavalier can't salvage this last part of his career with a permanent move to the wing.

 

I'll bet injuries stifle any momentum he generates in the future but there's always a chance he has one or two more significant runs left in him.

 

And full credit to Steve Mason. I think his numbers have been dogshit – only a 0.900 save percentage since the Olympics – and I don't think he's a legit #1 but he's winning, which is all that matters for the Flyers.

 

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Tim Thomas got the start for Dallas and couldn't do much. He's now lost three in a row after starting off 2-0 for the Stars.

 

That was really some dreadful luck what happened to Kari Lehtonen getting concussed. And then he comes back to get shelled by the Penguins. I left him on the bench, myself. Instead rolling with Ben Scrivens. That hasn't been much better but more on him later.

 

Lehtonen was looking like he might be one of the best goalies to ride into the fantasy playoffs and now it's up in the air. I need to see him make one good start before I have confidence again.

 

Jamie Benn had two goals in the loss. Seven shots too. He's right behind Seguin on that list of top scorers since January 1^st.

Seguin got two assists and seven shots of his own. Good luck ever getting him cheap in a pool again.

 

Valeri Nichushkin found his way onto the fourth line skating just over eight minutes total.

 

Alex Chiasson took his spot on the top line and got an assist. Maybe we see another little run from Chiasson here. He was productive in this spot to open the season mostly because of the two studs he was skating with.

 

Wouldn't be worried about Nichushkin long term though. Demotions happen to rookies.

 

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The Montreal Canadiens probably need to figure out that Carey Price isn't some veil they can drape over themselves to cover all their mistakes. He'll cover most but the team still has to play in front of him. Price stopped 37 of 40 shots in a losing effort.

 

I do like the potential of this top line Thomas Vanek, David Desharnais and Max Pacioretty. They combined for another goal last night – though Desharnais wasn't officially in on the scoring.

 

It pushes Brendan Gallagher back onto a line with Tomas Plekanec but I'll tell you those two could make a really feisty line to play against. Think a lite version of Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand in Boston.

 

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Huge win for Columbus to keep pace in the Wild Card race.

 

Please remind me to grab Sergei Bobrovsky for the second half next year. He's looking like a H2H playoff dynamo.

 

Ryan Johansen scored the clutch game winner, a real beauty.

Johansen also fired seven shots and got nine PIM after getting into his first NHL fight.

 

RJ Umberger was scratched last night and there were several complaints on Twitter last night:

 

 

#CBJ 0 for 8 on the power play. R.J. Umberger – a healthy scratch tonight – lead the Blue Jackets with eight power play goals this season

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) March 21, 2014

 

 

 

Cam Atkinson drew back into the lineup but was held scoreless. He did land five shots on goal, which might be enough to save his bacon but as the tweet above indicates, the Blue Jackets were dreadful on the power play and Atkinson skated over six minutes with the man advantage. Not getting it done.

 

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The Lightning hung on for a 5-4 win against the Senators last night.

 

I keep saying it but the way the Lightning are defending, especially with the lead, Ben Bishop is in tough to post good stats. Still, he's won five in a row. It's infuriating because I'm facing him in H2H this week and somehow he's sweeping me in the goalie categories. That's got more to do with my goalies however.

 

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Meanwhile, Robin Lehner is getting roasted in Ottawa. He hasn't won since before the Olympics and has been a sieve allowing no fewer than three goals in every start. I still think he's the future in Ottawa but that future ain't now.

 

At least the offense is humming.

 

Ales Hemsky has eight points in seven games with the Senators. He hasn't looked this good in what feels like a decade. Look at the mitts on this guy:

 

 

Milan Michalek has experienced a bit of a rejuvenation as well with six points over those seven games.

 

Jason Spezza takes the cake with 11 points over seven games splitting those two. He didn't really need much of a spark as far as fantasy numbers go but he probably needed a kick in the butt all the same.

 

Erik Karlsson doesn't get nearly enough love. He's running away with the defenseman scoring race and now has 62 points in 68 games. He's 21^st in the league among all skaters. Best of all, he's not going to turn into a pumpkin like Mike Green did.

 

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As I mentioned before, my goaltending has been just dreadful this week, credit Marc-Andre Fleury for that. His playoff form is something to marvel at. That said, hard to blame him on this one:

 

 

I realize it's March Madness time but did the Penguins really need to attempt the alley-oop to Evgeni Malkin there?

 

Fleury makes the initial save but the rebound somehow pinballs off the defenseman sprawled in front and back towards the net. 

 

I've watched this replay about 50 times (because I'm a masochist) and I still can't tell whether it goes off Maatta's head or his stick or his skate but I know the odds of this are about one in a million.

 

Then the puck rolls over the line with 0.4 of a second left – because, again, it's March Madness time, of course there was a buzzer-beater.

 

I hate fantasy hockey.

 

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Malkin couldn't complete the alley-oop but he did score two goals and fire seven shots ending a three-game scoreless drought. He must have been happy to have his binky James Neal, back in the lineup.

 

Neal, notched two assists and landed 10 SOG in his second game back from a brief injury reprieve. Even with the injuries Neal is rotisserie gold.

 

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Daniel Alfredsson got credit for the game-winner giving him two goals and one assist for the game. He also landed seven SOG. Did he get credit for two shots on that pinball wizardry? All I know is you can't teach that.

 

Gustav Nyquist got a couple of points in this one and has five points in his last three after a three-game drought. He's been a feast or famine since Pavel Datsyuk went down but the overall production is right around a point per game.

 

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As I mentioned, Scrivens got the start for Edmonton tonight against the Sabres. Starting him was a no-brainer. He stopped 33 of 36, which is pretty good but apparently only Edmonton can lose to this stripped-down Buffalo team.

 

Jordan Eberle missed this one with a knee injury. Word was he would get an MRI but apparently that's not happening. The good news is that he's not expected to be out for long:

 

 

“There was no MRI and we don’t feel a need for one right now… We’re hopeful he won’t be out very long.” – Coach Eakins on Eberle’s knee

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 20, 2014

 

 

 

Nail Yakupov also missed the contest with an ankle injury.

 

With all these injuries the Oilers called up Tyler Pitlick for his first game since October. He's an intriguing prospect but doesn't necessarily have much offensive upside. He skated only 10 minutes in this one.

 

The Oilers also leaned heavily on the top line of Taylor Hall, Sam Gagner and David Perron with the trio skating over 25 minutes apiece. Hall played a Ryan Suter-esque 27:10 and opened the scoring with a goal but looked gassed by the end of this one, which should come as little surprise.

 

I think the Oilers should ride that trio more often – although maybe not the Gagner part – because Hall and Perron are the best Oilers BY FAR. Why not skate them to death? They've got young legs. 

 

Just don't do it so much this season, when the team has NOTHING to play for but pride (if they have any left).

 

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Cory Conacher was flying all night long and scored two goals in a three-point effort. Not sure he gets much credit for doing this against the Oilers but he's now up to five points in seven games with the Sabres. Needs more of this to earn a roster spot next year.

 

Tyler Ennis notched another assist. By now he and his point-per-game ways have been snapped up off the waiver wire but his linemate Drew Stafford may still be kicking.

 

Stafford suffered through over a year of terrible luck but is finally coming around. After scoring a goal last night he has 18 points in his last 20 games including 11 of his 15 goals this season.

 

I'd be looking at Stafford for a bounceback season next year. That only means like 50 points but in a deep pool that has value. He fires the puck a ton too, including seven shots last night.

 

Matt Hackett made his Sabres debut and played excellently stopping 35 of 36. Lots of potential options for the Sabres in goal but for my money Hackett's the guy to bet on whenever this team returns to prominence.

 

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See now that's more like the Phoenix Coyotes we have grown accustomed to. 2-1 victory over the Panthers and another solid performance by Mike Smith. He is making me awful sorry I dealt him for Jonas Hiller. But what were the odds of that backfiring!?!?!

 

Smith has quietly brought his save percentage up to 0.915 and his goals-against average down to 2.67 it was hovering in the Devan Dubnyk zone (sub-0.900 and plus-3.00) for a good portion of the season while the Coyotes played some of the most wide-open hockey I've ever seen a Dave Tippet team play.

 

By the way, fans of The Wire, doesn't Smith's NHL.com photo look like Jimmy McNulty?

 

WHO TRADES McNULTY? I want a redo.

 

Martin Hanzal has points in both games since returning from injury. If for some reason his owner dumped him, time to jump on him.

 

Martin Erat isn't good for much but he has 14 hits in five games for the Coyotes. He's especially worth playing when the Coyotes are in Phoenix because their scorers have been awful friendly with the hits this year.

 

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What do you make of Roberto Luongo in Florida? 

 

Probably good for him long term but he's had two strong games out of seven since landing back with the Panthers – a shutout against the Sabres and that miracle 52-save performance against the Sharks – otherwise he's been below .910 save percentage in every game.

 

Small sample size to be sure but I'm not on board. Not too many opponents where I'm feeling comfortable playing Luongo. 

 

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Frederik Andersen got the start for Anaheim and put up a pretty good fight before a late goal gave the Sharks the edge in a huge California clash. The Sharks are now up two points on Anaheim but the Ducks have a game in hand and a massive lead in the tiebreaker (regulation plus overtime wins).

 

I expect to see Andersen a lot down the stretch because Hiller is playing some mediocre hockey. But really it's the whole Ducks squad that is slumping.

 

It doesn't help that the Ducks now have some injuries with Cam Fowler looking to be out for the next month. Nick Bonino missed time as well but is considered DTD.

 

With Bonino out Mathieu Perreault jumped on to the top power play unit and scored a goal as well. If Bonino stays out look to grab Perreault for a short boost.

 

Meanwhile, Hampus Lindholm grabbed Fowler's spot on the top unit. He was held scoreless. In fact, he was held shotless. I've been impressed with Lindholm but I'm not quite sure he's ready for this role yet. I think Francois Beauchemin makes more sense right now.

 

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Brent Burns had himself a monster of a night scoring the late winner, adding an assist, a plus-two rating, seven SOG, five hits and two blocks. It was looking a bit dreary when he got bumped down to the third line for a bit but now that he's back on the top line it's hammer time.

 

That's because Joe Thornton is still a playmaking genius. He got a goal and two assists last night bringing him into a tie with Sidney Crosby (who went scoreless by the way) for the league lead in the latter category (58 assists apiece). Thornton also jumped into the top 10 in scoring with 69 points, and is actually in a five-way tie for sixth.

 

Remember yesterday's discussion about how passing skill tends to age well? Yeah, that's a thing.

 

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The night ended with a tie between Kings and Capitals but apparently the Caps only get one point while the Kings get two. Noodle scratcher I tell ya.

 

The Caps really needed two points to keep pace for the wild card with basically every team ahead of them grabbing two points last night. The Caps are pretty much kings of the "loser point" though having pushed 16 games to the shootout now and winning half of them. Life by the sword, die by the sword.

 

Jaroslav Halak has made Braden Holtby obsolete in Washington giving them the most reliable goaltending they've had in a year. Of course, I blame the Caps coaches for messing with Holtby's mechanics earlier but in any case it's taken the gun out of Holtby owners' hands. Or at least removed the bullets from said gun.

 

It was really disappointing to see Alex Ovechkin finish with neither a PPP nor a minus. He's currently got 34 PPP and is minus-31. I'm having fun musing that he'll finish with more minus than PPP. You think he can do it? Skating with Jay Beagle should get him there!

 

Evgeny Kuznetsov skated a career high 17:32 last night. The caveat here is that this was an overtime contest. Still, he was up on a line with Nicklas Backstrom and Troy Brouwer, which is excellent company. He notched an assist too, his fifth in six games. Already more productive than I expected, but let's see if this keeps up.

 

Chris Brown was called up again and got into the lineup for just over 10 minutes. Not expecting much here but I like Brown long term in leagues that count hits.

 

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The lone Kings goal came from Anze Kopitar with assists by Marian Gaborik and Justin Williams. That line is starting to click, which bodes well for Williams who has struggled this year.

 

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Sean McIndoe takes a deep dive explaining on-ice percentages. I use on-ice shooting percentage quite frequently in the ramblings to help identify players you should buy-low or sell-high on. This is a good read for those of you unfamiliar with this very useful stat.

 

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In case you aren't aware yet, Nate Silver recently launched his stats website FiveThirtyEight attempting to parse out many of life's mysteries, including those in sports. Silver had an interesting article from a year ago on why no Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup in two decades.

 

I also enjoyed this piece on why Wayne Gretzky had it easy.

Save percentage rapidly increased during the so-called dead-puck era of the 1990s and early 2000s. It's no coincidence that over that period, the NHL's rate of scoring also dropped sharply. A lot of fans blame strategies such as the neutral-zone trap and left-wing lock for triggering the dead-puck era, but more of the blame belongs to better goalies.

 

Damn goalies…

 

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Part three of Eric Tulsky's look at aging curves touches on Corsi percentage:

There is a widely-held perception that defensemen take longer to mature than forwards do, but it’s not entirely clear that this is true. It is true that fewer defensemen are in the NHL at ages 19-20 (by a factor of about 50 percent), but the peak observed performance does not appear to be later.

 

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The Coyotes have signed St. Lawrence College's Greg Carey to an entry-level deal. You can find info on him if you picked up the Mid-Season Guide and the boys at DobberProspects will surely have a profile up soon enough.

 

You can check for an updated list of college free agents here.

 

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You can follow me on Twitter @SteveLaidlaw.