Hockey Rambling

The big news from Thursday was that Ottawa forward Shane Pinto will be suspended for half the regular season – 41 games – for a violation related to gambling but unrelated to gambling on the NHL. We will have to see what happens over the next few days (he said he’s not appealing but I’ll [...]

It was a successful first effort for the NHL with its Frozen Frenzy on Tuesday night. Despite some hiccups in Columbus, or with a couple production issues, it seemed to have gone off without a hitch. It would have been nice if they hadn’t scheduled it for the first day of the NBA season but [...]

Frozen Frenzy took over the NHL last night, with all 32 teams playing, and no two games starting at the same time. We had hockey straight from 6pm EST with the beginning of the Leafs and Capitals game, all the way to the end of the late game between the Golden Knights and the Flyers. [...]

One big offseason debate in the fantasy hockey community revolved around the Buffalo goaltending situation. The team had Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in the system, Eric Comrie signed, and prospect Devon Levi now on the roster. Levi showed well at the end of the 2022-23 season, if inconsistent, much like the rest of the team. Levi started [...]

It’s a relatively minor injury for Connor McDavid, but fantasy teams will be without his services for at least a few games. The Oilers announced on Sunday that McDavid will be sidelined 1-2 weeks with an upper-body injury. McDavid appeared to be in discomfort late in the third period of Saturday’s game and left the [...]

Jake Sanderson is off to a fast start and appears poised for a breakout. Sanderson scored a power-play goal while taking four shots, giving him goals in back-to-back games and six points over his last four games. Sanderson has also taken over the top power play from Thomas Chabot. Sanderson is also being used on [...]

Since Friday features just two games, I’ll dive into analysis of the late games on Thursday. In a seven-goal outburst for Seattle, Matty Beniers recorded his first point of the season (an assist) in his fifth game. In terms of total icetime, it’s difficult to determine which power-play unit is the top one for the [...]

Before I start on the usual fantasy hockey discussion, Dobber shared some tough news earlier in the day. https://twitter.com/DobberHockey/status/1715022525904609534 It’s not easy to find the right words when something like this happens. When Dobber phoned me earlier to deliver this unfortunate news, all I could say is that I was sorry and that I hoped [...]

Back before the 2023 Draft, I had a Ramblings that covered some of the prospects I was keeping an eye on. As always, I am not a prospect evaluator, but I do read a lot from sources I trust and try to get an idea of what each player might be. One of the prospects [...]

I am very much so a believer in the Pittsburgh Penguins this year. Most of my fantasy teams reflect that perception even pre-draft, and the results have already been born out in a small sample size. Evgeni Malkin looks engaged and dangerous, Sidney Crosby looks as timeless as always, and having a lot more depth [...]