January 3, 2015
steve laidlaw
2015-01-03
Giroux’s near miss, Staal heating up, Koivu too, bailing on Skinner and more…
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The 2014-15 edition of the Mid-Season Guide comes out on January 12th! Remember to pick it up for that second-half boost you need to win your pool. More people than ever will have it in their hands this year thanks to the Draft Kings promo from the summer, so don’t be left behind. Only $9.99! Get it here.
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Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! That was a close one. Claude Giroux took a skate to the back of the leg and was cut in a very similar way to Erik Karlsson. He left the game and did not return, which had me assuming the worst. However Giroux spoke after the game saying that he is fine and is probable to play tonight.
So I can delay the Flyers eulogy for another day and let me tell you it wasn't looking good. We could have lost a whole team's worth of fantasy relevance if Giroux went down.
Now, the Flyers aren't actually that high scoring of a team if you look at the rankings where they sit 15th in goals per game. But that's a bit misleading as their 2.78 goals per game is closer to ninth (Vancouver, 2.86 goals/game) than 16th (Los Angeles, 2.69 goals/game). They also boast a lethal power play that ranks in the top 10. Giroux is at the center of all of that. They cannot lose him, though I do wonder how Jakub Voracek would have fared in his absence. I actually think he'd have performed better than you'd think.
The Flyers managed just one goal last night from Chris VandeVelde, assist to Vinny Lecavalier's statue!
Steve Mason has now lost five in a row but he hasn't played horribly in that stretch.
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It looks like Jordan Staal sitting out on New Year's Eve was just a maintenance day as he was back out there against the Flyers. He was right back on a line with his brother Eric Staal and that duo is now 2/2 this season with Eric scoring a goal in each game with Jordan picking up an assist.
Eric actually has a three-game goal scoring streak on the go so here comes his classic second half push!
Jeff Skinner sat out last night due to illness but honestly, who cares? Skinner had such a horrible December that I think we all need to make a resolution to just dump him until the Hurricanes put him on a line with someone named Staal. Skinner's December numbers: three goals, five points, 14 games.
Skinner did manage 45 shots in December (over 3.0 per game) but that's old hat for him. Skinner always teases with big shot totals and rarely produces. One big factor missing for Skinner has been the power-play goals. He scored 11 last season on his way to a 33-goal season. This year he has none and is on pace for just 18 for the season.
Skinner's power play time has dropped from 3:05 per game, predominantly on the top unit, last season to just 2:23 per game this season, with less minutes on the top unit. But Carolina's power play efficiency has jumped from 14.6% to 17.0% so there is an argument for the Hurricanes to leave him on the outside looking in.
Oh, who am I kidding? I have Skinner in one league and I'm totally going to hang onto him in hopes he can get it going although that probably says as much about the dregs available on the waiver wire than my belief/disbelief in Skinner.
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Ben Bishop gets a maintenance day against Buffalo the other night and then gets chased by the Penguins last night giving up three goals on 10 shots in the first period. He's been awfully mediocre this year, winning more because of the quality of the skaters ahead of him than because of his own excellent play.
That's not me saying Bishop has been bad, because that's not true. He's been merely average. You can win a Cup with a goalie like that (see Marc-Andre Fleury for the Penguins) but it's more of a challenge. More importantly, Bishop hasn't been as excellent as he was last season, which earned him a fat (but short extension)
We've seen Andrei Vasilevsky a couple of times already this year and he's been excellent. Don't be surprised if Vasilevsky is the back up next season and pushes Bishop for the starting spot, contract be damned.
This is more about how good Vasilevsky is because, again, Bishop has been fine. Bishop is more than capable of tapping into that brick-wall-esque ability he showed last season. If it's more of this, though? Well that's where Vasilevsky can make a push.
It's early to be making these declarations however. Bishop could rain terror in the second half and we'll all forget about this average start. A lot of Bishop's job security will depend on how Tampa Bay does in the playoffs as well.
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Nazem Kadri was absent for the Leafs last night and won't go tonight either as he's got a lower-body injury. Leo Komarov jumped up to the second line to fill in.
Those hoping to catch a glimpse of Greg McKegg in Leaf uniform better have arrived in time for the warm up because McKegg and the rest of the fourth line were glued to the bench. McKegg saw just 4:22. This is nothing new for McKegg who skated 3:43 against the Senators in his first NHL game last February.
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Nick Bjugstad scores again last night, his 14th goal of the season. If you eliminate his horrible month of October (eight games, one assist) he has scored 21 in 28, a 60-point pace. He's basically re-enacting Ryan Johansen's breakout from last season but with dreadful linemates like Tomas Fleischmann (absent last night because of a lower-body injury.)
Check out Bjugstad's most frequent linemates this season:
Even Strength Line Combinations
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Freq |
Line Combination |
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29.5% |
BJUGSTAD,N – FLEISCHMANN,T – HUBERDEAU,J |
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27.9% |
BJUGSTAD,N – BOYES,B – HUBERDEAU,J |
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18.7% |
BJUGSTAD,N – HUBERDEAU,J – UPSHALL,S |
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13% |
BJUGSTAD,N – HUBERDEAU,J – TROCHECK,V |
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10.9% |
BJUGSTAD,N – HUBERDEAU,J – PIRRI,B |
It's pretty clear that he and Jonathan Huberdeau are a tandem that Florida wants to see work out. If Huberdeau gets his shit together, look out.
Back to Bjugstad. I didn't understand him settling for such a team-friendly long-term deal when he's replicating the Johansen performance. He totally could have bet on himself and taken less money short-term in order to max out sooner. It would be one thing if he at least held out and got into the $6 million per year range that the young guns in Edmonton were able to snag. Instead he signed the deal that the Blue Jackets were pushing like crazy for Johansen to sign.
I'm no agent. Nor am I a money manager. And I certainly don't know Bjugstad's financial situation enough to give him advice. All I know is that Bjugstad was never going to run out of suitors at the rate he's currently at and for a little bit of short-term pain (in so far as getting paid millions is pain) he could have made some long-term gain.
I'm all in on the Bjugstad train, by the way. He's Jeff Carter 2.0 if Johansen hasn't already claimed that title.
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I pulled off a pretty nice move in the UHL cap league swapping Gustav Forsling, Oskar Lindblom, Nate Guenin and a late pick for Alec Martinez. That would be an irrelevant move to most of you but Martinez, at his salary is an awesome asset in a cap league.
The big takeaway is that I was able to parlay some strong performances by Forsling and Lindblom on the big World Junior stage to land a player who can help me win now, which is something we should all strive to do.
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Some more World Junior talk:
Kasperi Kapanen has been anonymous for most of the tournament but scored a brilliant goal against Sweden yesterday: