The team I’m keeping a close eye on this week is Edmonton, in particular Dustin Penner and Patrick O’Sullivan. Penner had six points in three games last week and had five points tonight, playing with Ales Hemsky and Sam Gagner. O’Sullivan has three in his last two games and is a streaky player. Note that the flu is going through the dressing room but I expect to see a productive week from the Oilers potent offense.
Not even ten games in and players with track records are being dropped in many leagues. I am not immune to the impatience of slow starts by some proven players, but I am very reluctant to drop a player who is an established performer. There may come a time to cut your losses, but that time isn’t now. It’s been said that the NHL season is not a sprint, but a marathon. Where you are in the standings right now is irrelevant as long as you are in first place at the END of the season. This week, we’ll go on a whirlwind tour of the Eastern Conference.
Sergei Kostitsyn - AWOL. He bolted from Hamilton and the rumor is that he is on a plane to Russia. Full story here. If he's gone - then I have to think he's gone for good. The Pens have confirmed - the wrist is broken and Gonchar is out 4-6 weeks. That's 28 to [...]
If you are a "tweener", then the last team you want to go to is Boston. A tweener is a young player who has not established himself yet in terms of a second-line producer or a third-line checker. Anyway, Boston has about eight or nine "top six" forwards, so for a tweener like Danny Paille [...]
The word on Lucic is - 4-6 weeks after he underwent finger surgery today. The Kings will scratch Alex Frolov tonight. More on the story HERE. Frolov will be a UFA this summer. He's already cancelling his earlier order of that second boat. Jason Arnott - out one to two weeks. Will Cal [...]
According to TSN, the Bruins have traded winger Chuck Kobasew to the Minnesota Wild for Craig Weller, Alexander Fallstrom and a second-round pick in 2011.
So how does a 25-year-old fringe NHLer creep under everybody’s radar to thrive in a plum role on a line with an up-and-coming superstar? And will Matt Moulson continue to thrive or is he destined to fizzle?
The Habs have recalled Marc-Andre Bergeron, who had six points in three games in his AHL stint. I can see Bergeron flourishing until Markov returns - and he is a very big points producer if the coach can overlook his defensive liabilities. Seven games into the season and Eric Staal has but two points. [...]
My debut picks for the 2009/10 season went better than expected. It is always tough to gauge a team by their preseason results (see Vancouver). For my first week selections, I went with coaching matchups with a lot of my picks as well as goalies that seemed to be in midseason form (see Miller). My record for the first week was 7-4. Within those seven wins, I got two plus (+) predictions correct to hopefully increase your payouts if you wagered some of your hard earned cash.
Looking at the NHL schedule for week three...
