January 31, 2015

steve laidlaw

2015-01-31

Sabres showcasing Stewart, Patrick Kane on his way to the top, why he Hurricanes aren’t giving up on Semin and more…

Cory Schneider, man, bake that guy a cake. The Penguins hosed the Devils 43-14 in shots but Schneider stood on his head for 41 saves in an overtime loss. At least he made the Penguins work for it.

Schneider won't be there for the wins but he's playing well enough now to start him without fear. He's now tied for sixth in save percentage among starters at 0.922. That takes consistency.

Steve Bernier scored the lone Devil goal and has four goals in the last five games but just seven goals total on the year. Keep him on the waiver wire.

Had a question about Eric Gelinas the other day. He has been fully dog-housed. Another healthy scratch gives him just two games played in 2015 with just 24 minutes total between those two games. DROP!

That Kris Letang, has had a nice run of it in 2015. Obviously his five-assist night after the All-Star Game was a big factor here but after assisting on both goals last night he has 16 points in the past 11 games. He now finds himself two points back of Mark Giordano for the defenseman lead in scoring.

He'll probably pass Giordano soon enough but I don't know that he stays healthy enough to pull ahead of Kevin Shattenkirk who sits in second with 40 points. Shattenkirk has a history of slowing down in the second half but I think that has more to do with the Blues in general running of gas in past seasons. This team has more scoring depth than ever before, which could give them enough juice to keep Shattenkirk productive. But really, my concern here is that Letang gets hurt too much. He could do it though.

Christian Ehrhoff missed last night's game with concussion symptoms. You never know how many games a guy might miss with that sort of injury.

Beau Bennett was a healthy scratch last night. I can see it. He's young, the Penguins are starting to get their wing depth back healthy and Bennett has just one point in the last eight games. I can actually see him getting scratched quite frequently if the team ever gets back to full strength.

Speaking of which, Patric Hornqvist has just one point in three games since returning. I've been keeping him on my IR though. Not a panic move, I just don't see bringing Hornqvist in until the Penguins get both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin back. Crosby is back but Malkin isn't yet. I won't make any judgement on the Penguins' players until I see how the lines shake out with the two big centers around.

Dreadful showing by Anton Khudobin ceding goals on two of the first three shots he faced. That earned him a quick hook and Cam Ward came in and stopped every shot the rest of the way to help the Hurricanes tie things up and force a shootout.

Khudobin had won six in a row and his streak stays alive as Ward was officially on the hook for the shootout loss. Just a strange set of affairs for Khudobin. These six straight wins come after starting the season with 10 straight losses. He's been on a roll since late December though. I'd treat him as a buy, even after last night's poor showing.

Alexander Semin got another night off. Yesterday I linked to an article from TSN showing how Semin's season hasn't been as bad as it seems. More support heading Semin's way comes from Hurricanes GM Ron Francis:

"Alex is a part of the Hurricanes and we'll continue to work with him and try to help him be the player we think he can be," Francis said. "Things are different now in the way we are running things and what we expect. Our job is to continue to work with him and get the message through.

"We think we can do it. We're not giving up on him at all."

I think that this is more a reflection that the Hurricanes have no choice but to stick Semin since they have little recourse to rid themselves of him. I'd agree that Semin hasn't been as bad as it seems but he still hasn't been good. More to the point, that contract is a problem. Even if Semin were producing the Hurricanes would have trouble moving him. $7 million a year is just a tall order. So yeah, the Hurricanes won't give up on him, because they can't.

The Hurricanes only got one power play chance last night but Ryan Murphy was out there with the top unit and scored his first goal of the season.

Without Patrik Berglund or Jori Lehtera the Blues had Ty Rattie up. He skated just 9:01 even with the game hitting overtime but he did see nearly a minute on the power play, which is solid considering the team only saw one opportunity.

Count Semyon Varlamov in with Cory Schneider as having achieved reliability after a bad start to the season. He's up to a 0.920 save percentage after a rare shutout of the Predators. Varlamov is more volatile than Schneider though because of how many more shots the Avalanche allow. He can boast a solid save percentage but still rock a high goals-against average.

The Canucks were in action last night but their latest acquisition, Adam Clendening, was unable to join the team. So if you are wondering why he had no impact, there you go. Check out our trade analysis piece on the Clendening pick up if you haven't yet.

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The Canucks did get some big scoring up the board though because, well, Sabres…

Nick Bonino notched a power-play goal skating on the top power play unit with the Sedins. I have little faith that Bonino will continue to skate on that unit but if I did I'd push all in on Bonino. He put up big power play numbers last season in Anaheim so we know he has the skills. The Canucks have been happy looking elsewhere with guys like Alexandre Burrows and Linden Vey skating minutes there. I like Bonino best. I hope he sticks.

Ryan Miller made his first appearance against the Sabres and snagged a win that has to feel extra good.