Eastern Edge

The Buffalo Sabres are 8-1-2 in their last eleven games and sit only two points back of the Eastern Conference leading Washington Capitals. The NHL’s most tenured Head Coach, Lindy Ruff has no true superstar to rely on, but he seems to be able to squeeze the most out of his charges year in and year out. This season, Buffalo’s best forward so far has been Tim Connolly and the top defenseman has been the rookie Tyler Myers.

Superstar-in-waiting John Tavares is mired in a horrendous slump. After recording 19 points in his first 21 games, the well has run dry and he recorded only ten points over the next 26 contests.

Don’t look now, but even with all their injury woes, the Bruins are heating up with six wins against only two losses in their last eight games.

It appears that the famous story has been updated...

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.