Eastern Edge

Only Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin average more ice time amongst Pens forwards than Jordan Staal, who averages over 19 minutes of playing time each night. No one on the Pens logs more short-handed minutes than Staal. Unfortunately for his fantasy hockey owners, he only receives the eighth most average power play time. That makes Staal more valuable to the Pens than on your fantasy squad.

This week I’ll take a look at a pair of Steve’s, both sets call the State of Florida home.

First off, an apology to the Dobber faithful. The plan was to provide an update at the end of October, but there was a slight hiccup along the way. While out in Vancouver for work, the memory stick that had my end October standings and write up were stolen along with several other valuable items (good old Van City!). The good news is that some of the property was recovered, including the memory stick. Now, on with the update!

In keeping with my Western counterparts theme this week, I’ll take a look at some Eastern Conference players that could be considered busts at this point in the season. I will also give you my slant on what to expect for the remainder of the season.

Mike Fisher is in the midst of his tenth NHL season. This year he has delivered some unexpected lofty offensive numbers (22-10-11-21). He sits tied with Mike Richards and is ahead of both Vincent Lecavalier and Pavel Datsyuk in the scoring race, three centres who would have been drafted much, much higher than Fisher in your hockey pools this season. In his last year of major junior hockey, Fisher recorded 106 points in 68 games for Sudbury of the Ontario Hockey League. He’s really found his offensive groove under Cory Clouston. It appears that he will obliterate his career high of 48 points, but beware; Fisher has a history of missing the odd game or two (dozen) due to injury.

Carolina is winless in their last 13 games (0-10-3) and have only seven points in 17 games (2-12-3) on the season, good for last place in the entire NHL. They look nothing like the team that eliminated the third seed New Jersey Devils and one seed Boston Bruins in last year’s playoffs.

Not even one full game. That’s how long Ottawa training camp standout Peter Regin stayed on the second line. It’s a story replayed in every NHL city. You’ve got to love the patience of NHL coaches who need to win if they want to stay employed. They are never far away from being the General Managers scapegoat of convenience.

Ah the exhibition season, full of promise and exciting prospects. Will those players who wowed us in September peter out and wilt under the harsh glare of the regular season lights or will they blossom into full-blown fantasy hockey studs? Now that the silly season is behind us and the regular season is all set to begin, we are about to find out.