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kikiskeysgame · 6 years ago

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Kiki’s Game Preview to the Chicago Blackhawks-Dallas Stars Game (04\05\2019)

Previously in the Blackhawks’ Last Game: The Blackhawks defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-3 in a shootout on Wednesday night; they have finished their second series against the Blues with a record of 4-1-0. They have also improved their shootout record to 3-1 on the year, currently pace all NHL teams with 24 overtime games played this season and have scored a goal in each of their last 8 periods.

Jonathan Toews scored his 35th goal of the season, making it a career high for goals in a season for him, surpassing his previous mark of 34 goals (back in the 2008-09 season).

Toews became the third Blackhawks player this season to score at least 35 goals (along with Patrick Kane, who has 42 goals and Alex DeBrincat, who has 41 goals).

Toews, Kane and DeBrincat became the first Blackhawks trio since the 1987-88 season (where Denis Savard had 44 goals, Rick Vaive had 43 goals & Steve Larmer had 41 goals) to each score 35-plus goals in a season.

Patrick Kane had a multi-point game with his 42nd goal and his 65th assist of the season on Toews’ goal, reaching a career high of 107 points (with 42 goals & 65 assists), surpassing his previous total of 106 points (with 46 goals & 60 assists) in the 2015-16 season.

Kane’s 107 points are the most by a Blackhawks player since Jeremy Roenick (who had 107 points with 46 goals & 61 assists) back in the 1993-94 season. Kane’s 65 assists on the year are also a career high, which is five more than his previous mark of 60 assists back in the 2015-16 season.

Artem Anisimov scored his 15th goal of the season; Anisimov has scored at least 15 goals in four consecutive seasons and currently 7th on the team in goals.

Drake Caggiula got his 9th assist of the season on Toews’ goal, making his first game as a Blackhawk where he has gotten points in back-to-back games.

Dominik Kahun got his 24th assist of the season on Anisimov’s goal; Kahun currently leads all Blackhawks rookies in points, goals & assists, and is currently 8th among NHL rookies in points.

Dylan Strome got his 36th assist of the season on Kane’s goal, making it his second consecutive point in two games; Strome is currently 5th on the team in points.

Duncan Keith got his 33rd assist of the season on Kane’s goal; Keith is currently 2nd among Blackhawks defensemen in points, goals & assists.

Brandon Saad got his 23rd assist of the season on Anisimov’s goal; Saad is currently 6th on the team in points.

Dennis Gilbert made his NHL debut in the game, making him the sixth Blackhawks player to make his debut in the 2018-19 season (along with Dominik Kahun, Henri Jokiharju, Alexandre Fortin, Luke Johnson and Jacob Nilsson). Gilbert led all Blackhawks skaters with 6 hits and blocked one shot during the game.

Cam Ward was the winning goaltender; he made made 37 saves out of 40 shots on goal during the game. Ward has posted at least 15 victories in 11 of his 14 seasons in the NHL.

Blackhawks vs. Stars: Tonight will be the last time this season that the Blackhawks and the Dallas Stars will be playing against each other; the last time both teams faced each other back on March 9th, the Blackhawks defeated the Stars 2-1 with goals scored by David Kampf and Alex DeBrincat; Corey Crawford made 26 saves out of 27 shots on goal during the game.

The Stars will be coming off a 6-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night with goals scored by Jason Dickinson (who had an assist), Esa Lindell (who had an assist), Alexander Radulov (who had two goals and two assists), Tyler Pitlick and Blake Comeau. Tyler Seguin (who had 2), John Klingberg (who had 2), Mats Zuccarello, Radek Faksa and Roope Hintz each got assists; Anton Khudobin made 32 saves out of 34 shots on goal during the game.

Players to Be Aware of:

Tyler Seguin (who currently leads the team in points, goals & assists; he has gotten 6 points with 2 goals & 4 assists in his last 5 games; he had a multi-point game with 2 assists in the Stars’ last game; he has gotten 77 points with 31 goals & 46 assists so far this season)

Alexander Radulov (who is currently second on the team in points, goals & assists; he has gotten 9 points with 5 goals & 4 assists in his last 5 games; he had a multi-point game with 2 goals & 2 assists in the Stars’ last game; he has 70 points with 29 goals & 41 assists so far this season)

John Klingberg (who currently leads all Stars defensemen in points & assists; he has gotten 3 points with 3 assists in his last 2 games; he had a multi-point game with 2 assists in the Stars’ last game; he has 44 points with 10 goals & 34 assists so far this season)

#chicago blackhawks #dallas stars #game preview

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blindbatalex · 6 years ago

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Omg thank god u’re writing something after that 🤯😱🤬 Dallas game cause a day after the fact I’m still torn between all my “can’t believe how shitty that reffing was” “wow the stars all need to be punched in the kissers by angry McQuaid” “someone wrap them all in bubblewrap pls” “💯!!!!” feels & I don’t know what to do with myself~ I actually moped around on tumblr after the game & was hoping against hope u’d write sth about it so !! Thank u!! (Yes this is emoji anon if u can’t tell hahaha)

oh my god emoji anon (u r my favorite anon) you came back to me, i read this ask at around noon and thought ah yes i shall answer it with the said fic. but since then alas life (but really work) got in the fucking way. i hope i do get to finish it tomorrow.

that game was such a mess tho- it was cursed, bergy was being an absolute dumbass (but they were also in the box together?? marchy going after faksa was incredible?) and i was so worried the entire time. you sum it up very well.

thankfully and at least today helped and we won a game! we did it! with half the roster gone.

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royaielfroot · 7 years ago

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Hey! Im a Bolts fan who is fully intent upon following Bishop to the stars next season. What would a new stars fan need to know?

hey! sorry it took me ages to answer this! i’m so glad to hear that you want to learn more abt the stars! ! i’m putting this under a read more so that ppl can be spared from me going on abt the stars for forever!

anyways DALLAS STARS intro ish the 17/18 season

! as all teams,and esp because stars had a p shitty season, stars are shuffling rosters and coaching a bit!so i can’t know for sure if everyone’s gonna be here when the season starts but still!we hired ken hitchcock who’s replacing lindy ruff as head coach for the 17-18 season! hitchcock actually coached the stars to their cup 1999! so he’s a familiar face to the franchise!

and ofc u know that we signed ben bishop (and i bet you know more about him than me! so i’ll just say that i’m really excited)! we’ve been struggling a bit with our goaltending (kari lehtonen, our 16/17 starter, gets more shit than he deserves tbqh,but he might not be the starter we need. he’s a gr8 guy and a good goalie and he saved us a bunch of times last season!)

we also recently traded for marc methot! who we need to fill out our messy defense, hopefully he will bring us some veteran experience and solid defense! and vet experience we need ! because stars are a pretty young team! or at least our d is!(i’ll get back to that)

i’d say our “core” group of players,aka the ones we protected, who won’t be moved this summer are:

jamie benn! captain! #14, wingerreally gr8 drafted 129th(!) overall 2007! went extremely underrated for a while but he worked really hard and he’s loved by the stars org and fans! he won the art ross 14-15 (that’s how good he is!) he’s been bothered by injuries for a couple of seasons but hopefully he’ll be back on top after the summer!also has a brother who played for the stars until the deadline this season ): jordie benn is now playing for the canadiens!here he is mic’d up !tyler seguin #91 , centerreally good hockey player,drafted 2overall by the bruins 2010, traded to us after the 13-14 season. a great center! has 3 dogs he posts abt on social media a lot, they’re called cash,marshall and gerry so he’s automatically blocked and idk him. no but he struggled a bit w media and stuff when he was younger, around and before the trade,there’s a lot on tht out there and in his tribune article! he made some mistakes when he was a teenager,and the stars have waited him out for several seasons now so i wouldn’t be surprised if they give him the A, and honestly imo he deserves it by now,he’s been gr8 with the community and with younger playerswatch this + tribune ! good read!

jason spezza! alternate captain #90 , centerteam dad !!! nhl vet ! amazing with rookies (i still have *** dreams about the spezza-valeri-mattias janmark line, they’re all still stars so I hope they’ll be able to reunite tht line this season), has an amazing laugh i love him!!!

radek faksa #12 c/lwjust watch this video ! he made it so far and fought so hard to get to the nhl! he’s really good! only 23 so there’s a lot of potential with him! owns a turtle !

antoine roussel #21 LW! one of 2 french players in the nhl ! known troublemaker and the loml, underrated because ppl thinks he only fights! he had his best season yet last season and did really well for france at worlds! if u google him you’ll only get stuff abt his on ice stuff,off the ice he’s a really sweet guy, he does a lot of charity work and he has a cat called minou! he also called jamie out during an interview,announcing to the world that jamie has a diabetic cat…which remains a mysteryhere’s a vid abt his journey to the nhl!

john klingberg #3 Di could go on forever abt him lbr, he’s a good offensive dman , heavily criticized last season when stars for some reason expected him (24) to play on the top d pairing with esa (21) w/o any struggles. he’s dumb af and i h8 him ! no but lbr if he gets some stuff together he’ll be one of the better offensive dmen in the league,he’s a big part of the Stars Future™ which takes us to the rest of our Dhe once said that he’d rather be bad at hockey than a virgin,which is rly embarrassing.he won gold w tre kronor at worlds! and got two teeth knocked out…which he has since replaced than godhere’s a vid abt his journey and 1st season!here he is …narrating the casino night,, and accidentally asking why tyler carries around two dicks…unfortunate

esa lindell #23 D! a gr8 Guy! big ! almost paler than klinger i bet they switch sunscreen brands in the locker room… transitioned from the AHL to the NHL really quickly last season played big minutes ! he’s a good two way dman! stars just signed him to a two year contract! and he’ll probs be up with us all season this season too.THERE’s an iconic interview with him in finnish that klinger crashes my yelling esa’s name rly loudly 0 chill,it’s so messy i love it

kari lehtonen #32sat on top of the goal once,the world won’t let him forget it. part of the now dead finn goalie tandem. he’s been with the stars for a good while! i love him and i think he’s getting too much shit, but i do agree that he might not be a starter

ALSO a big mf shoutout to VAL NICHUSHKIN , you’re gonna hear shit about him because he’s playing in the KHL right now to develop his game and ppl are bitter about us protecting him! but he has the potential to be really good! and he’s really young too, he had some contract agreements that says either the NHL or the KHL, no AHL, so stars let him sign with KHL for two seasons, he still has one season left on that contract but we kinda want him back, and we MIGHT get him! he’s rly sweet and ! iconic !

we also protected stephen johns, brett richie !

i’m not going to talk about all the players but we have a lot of young guys, (julius honka, remi elie,mattias janmark, brett richie), and i love them all!they’re hopefully going to be parts of the future of this team! and even with them mentioned i’ve skipped a bunch of dudes, - I KNOW it can be hard learning about the stars with tyler and jamie (love them but still,) blocking up the tag! but there’s so much gold ! especially in the casino night vids (15/16/17)!- ALSO wow! big shout out to any content julie dobbs is in! she’s the main media personality for the stars and she’s so amazing! - the stars youtube page is dead af so i recommend the website for videos and stuff!!!

extra info:- GOAL SONG- video abt rich peverley, a player who collapsed during a game 14/15 season,it’s rly great and it makes me cry so warning abt that.

also the stars are rly good with extra af videos and content like THIS vid that makes me cry and THIS vid tht makes me emo

OK ! I’m gonna shut up now! Sorry for making this so long i just love this team a lot! I can recc u some stars blogs or answer any other questions if you want to!

#aaaa this is so long and messy hhh sorry!!!#i hope it helped some!!!#ask #anon #dallas stars #stars #also sorry abt spelling/grammar mistakes !

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j-klingers · 7 years ago

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Stars and caps

Stars ✨

Favorite: Radek “The Love of My Life” Faksa y'all 🙌🏼

Least Favorite: I pretend it’s Klinger but it’s probably Pateryn. He kind of seemed…annoyed? when he got traded to the Stars and it sort of left a bad taste in my mouth.

Caps 🇺🇸

Favorite: Probably Ovi but I really like Burakovsky too. He’s a cutie ☺️

Least Favorite: Niskanen. He knows what he did.

#send me a team and i'll tell you my favorite and least favorite players #my anons best anons

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thrashermaxey · 6 years ago

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Frozen Tools Forensics: Low-Profile Rookies

Some rookies this season finished more strongly than expected and are worth keeping an eye on for next season. We’ve highlighted a few that perhaps haven’t yet caught most people’s attention.

Anthony Cirelli – Tampa Bay Lightning

Cirelli played 18 regular season games with Tampa Bay in 2017-2018 and scored five goals and six assists, followed by 17 games in the playoffs with two goals and one assist. With 19 goals and 20 assists in 82 games in 2018-2019, this 3rd round pick in 2015 has cemented the third line center spot on a powerhouse team. In the last quarter of the season, Cirelli had 8 goals and 7 assists in 20 games. Looking to next season, there is no reason that Cirelli shouldn`t be able to at least duplicate this season. He`s not going to climb the depth chart to first or second line for a few years, so there is a ceiling of 40-50 points for now, barring injury to either Steven Stamkos or Brayden Point.

Roope Hintz – Dallas Stars

Hintz finished the season with six goals and seven assists in the last 20 games and saw his TOI increase to over 16 min/g, also playing over 2 min/g on the PP. Next season could see him as the second line center if he can beat out Radek Faksa and conceivably hold that last-quarter pace over a whole season and break 50 points.

Taro Hirose – Detroit Red Wings

Hirose was a free agent signing out of Michigan State and managed to play 10 games and get one goal and six assists in his brief exposure to the NHL. These numbers are most likely a little inflated for what he could give you next season as he will be hard pressed to make Detroit let alone prorate his pace to a 57-point season. His CF% was drawn from a very small sample size but shows he struggled a little at 37.5. I would pick him up in a deeper keeper pool and hold as he is 22 years old and will get a shot in the NHL sooner than later.

Rudolf Balcers – Ottawa Senators

Acquired from San Jose in the Erik Karlsson trade, Balcers at 22 years old did enough in the last quarter of the season to prove he might stick on a depleted Ottawa roster next season. He was able to move up to the third line and produce at a pace of 35-40 points and he got some time on the PP as well. Defensively he is a bit of a gamble, but he is skilled enough to score over 30 points in a full season.

Sam Steel – Anaheim Ducks

Steel made the Anaheim lineup out of training camp and played 13 games, scoring a goal and two assists before being sent down to the AHL where he racked up 39 points in 51 games. The 30th overall pick in 2016 was called up at the end of the season and played very well, scoring five goals and three assists in his final seven games. There is no reason to think that Steel can’t win the second line center spot in Anaheim next season, and if he does, a 45-55 point campaign could be in the cards.

Brett Howden – NY Rangers

Howden was the 27th overall pick in the 2016 draft, three spots ahead of Sam Steel. Much like Steel, the second line center position could be his for the taking in 2019-2020. He did have his struggles this past season, such as going without a goal for 35 games, but he closed the season out with two goals and six assists in his last 16 games, which would be a 40 point pace. He is likely to improve to 30-40 points over a full year.

Andrew Mangiapane – Calgary Flames

It’s difficult to see how Mangiapane will play anywhere else but the 4th line in Calgary next year. He is skilled and can skate, as evidenced by his highlight-reel goal in his first playoff game against Colorado. He improved as the year went on and increased his point production along with his shot totals. His ceiling is limited by the players in front of him in the lineup but he could be a 25-35 point player.

Filip Hronek – Detroit Red Wings

Hronek quietly had an excellent first year and steadily established himself by averaging over 22 min/g in the last quarter and being on pace for over a 40-point season. Not bad for a 170lb defenseman who was taken in the 2nd round in 2016. Looking forward to next season, with all of Detroit’s injuries on defence this year, it’s hard to tell where he will end up but I would think he’s a lock for at least 30 points.

There are a few other rookies that we could have included, but hopefully most of these players are still available for you to consider.

If you would like me to profile a player on your fantasy team or have a topic that you want to have discussed, please let me know and follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/frozen-pool-forensics/frozen-tools-forensics-low-profile-rookies/

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thornburgrealty · 6 years ago

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He was thrown to sparingly, collecting 38 catches for 432 yards through four seasons with the Tigers.

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yahoo-puck-daddy-blog · 7 years ago

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What We Learned: Can Columbus right the ship?

It won’t take a lot to get this very good, talented-at-every-position team back into the playoffs, but it shouldn’t have taken anything in the first place. (Getty)

The Blue Jackets won on Saturday night, and did so convincingly.

They not only put up six on New Jersey, a team with which they are ostensibly competing for a playoff spot, but they also put up 50 shots on goal. This after games in which they put up 37, 39, and 49.

The difference then was that they lost those three games, as well as 15 more of the previous 24. And if you took OT wins out of the equation, their only regulation wins in that stretch were against the Coyotes on Jan. 25, Stars on Jan. 2, Leafs on Dec. 20, and Islanders on Dec. 12. That is, they’ve now won five games in regulation in their last 26 tries, after starting out 19-10-1 in their first 30.

Which is what makes their season so confounding. Last year was, of course, a bit of a fluke in terms of what kind of regular-season results they pulled, but they got better in the summer and should have probably learned a few lessons from what happened. Whether they did is up for debate, but early in the season, it certainly seemed as though they had things figured out; they were winning a bunch but all the underlying numbers supported a pretty strong setup.

If we want to take that first 30 games as the point at which the season started to turn sour, and run the splits, well, they’re not pretty.

In those opening few months, the Blue Jackets scored almost 56 percent of their goals at 5-on-5 on an expected-goals number of 54 percent, so not too out-of-whack with what they should have done, especially given the talent level (i.e. high-skill players and great goalies often outperform expected-goals numbers and Columbus has both those benefits).

Since Game 31, Columbus has been perfectly good (51ish percent of most underlyings, and almost 52 percent of the goals) but that’s a sharp step down, and it’s gotten worse as time went on:

The red line here indicates what percentage of the goals they should have scored based on the quality of shots they took and gave up. If you really want to drill down into this, it’s a situation where the team has suffered a decline in both shot generation and shooting percentage, even while the save percentage has remained extremely high.

It’s worth noting that a lot of this likely has to do with the spate of injuries Columbus suffered at that time of year, with guys like Cam Atkinson, Alex Wennberg, Brandon Dubinsky, Murray, and Werenski, all missing at least a decent amount of time (Murray is still out, in fact). But the results didn’t straighten themselves out when almost all of those guys got healthy again. It’s fair to say injuries can put you behind the 8-ball, but after this long? Probably not so much.

Of course, anyone who watches Columbus at most points this year isn’t seeing a team that struggles too much at 5-on-5. The special teams are rotten to the core, of course, at least in terms of results. They have the worst power play and fifth-worst kill in the league.

The numbers suggest they “should have” scored about eight more goals on the power play than they have, which may not sound like a lot but Columbus could use another two or three points in the standings here. Call it bad luck, especially given the talent level of the guys on this team, but one wonders if the loss of Sam Gagner is that a big factor here, or if it’s just that the system got figured out after that freak start last year. Either way, doesn’t seem like anything has been done to address it, and a team with this much skill shouldn’t be fifth from the bottom of the league in expected goal generation on the power play.

Meanwhile, the PK has been awful no matter which was you slice it, but unlucky here as well, with opponents scoring more than four additional goals above the expected rate. I have a theory here, though: Check the PK TOI leaderboard for Blue Jackets defenders. No. 1? Yeah, it’s Jack Johnson. Of course it is. No. 2? David Savard for some reason. No. 3? Seth Jones, who wow, he’s actually good. No. 4? Ryan Murray, and he’s played fewer than half of the team’s total games. Then at No. 5 you hit Zach Werenski.

Of course, you can make the argument that if you’re gonna apportion only 23 minutes a night to a guy like Werenski, you want him spending more time at 5-on-5 and on the power play than on the penalty kill, that’s fair and reasonable. He is, however, averaging less than a minute a game killing penalties for the fifth-worst penalty-killing team in the league and he’s really good. Maybe you run him out there to see what happens. It can’t reasonably be worse than the current results (they’re currently 20th in expected goals against per 60 on the kill, and 28th in actual goals against). Even the idea that you would continually give Jack freaking Johnson big PK minutes is absurd on its face.

I’ve long said that play at 5-on-5, which makes up the vast majority of your ice time in any given game, is sort of set-it-and-forget-it in terms of coaching. You’re not going to make too many tweaks to a system during the season unless things are going very wrong for you.

But if the power play or PK isn’t working — and folks, neither is — then you have plenty of room to experiment, because when you’re not getting results, well, you might as well go in a different direction. And to be fair, Columbus is 8 of its last 38 on the power play (21.1 percent) since the new year, so things are getting back on track a little there.

The PK, however, remains horrible, going 18 for 32 (56.3 percent) over the same stretch. And folks, you’ll never guess who the ice time leaders on the kill are since then: Jack Johnson, David Savard, Seth Jones and Zach Werenski (but again, that’s only because Ryan Murray is still out).

Is this a fixable problem for Columbus, which is still mostly playing well but seeing the wheels come off on their playoff push? Tough to say, but in terms of the penalty kill, it seems like John Tortorella has tried nothing and is all out of ideas.

This is a team that is currently outside the playoff picture, having been surpassed by Carolina of late, for what seems to be a perfectly deal-withable reason. It won’t take a lot to get this very good, talented-at-every-position team back into the playoffs, but it shouldn’t have taken anything in the first place.

What We Learned

Anaheim Ducks: The Ducks won two straight after losing three straight after winning three straight, so they’re a little streaky right now and that’s fine as long as they keep winning and the rest of their division remains kinda iffy. This team should be good but I’m not sure I buy their playoff prospects.

Arizona Coyotes: Pretty shocking that a team with very little skill is also not good at special teams. Crazy. Weird.

Boston Bruins: I think I said it last week, but as much as I love Patrice Bergeron and as much as he may be having his best season ever, but he’s not the best player on his own line, so I can’t listen to this “Bergeron for MVP” stuff. It’s all a bit much.

Buffalo Sabres: Jack Eichel is out indefinitely with a high ankle sprain but the good news is the Sabres are now active for a high tank-le chance.

Calgary Flames: For the Flames’ third line to disappear wouldn’t it need to have first appeared? Just asking.

Carolina Hurricanes: They’re in a playoff spot and things are looking real good all of a sudden.

Chicago Blackhawks: Losers of five straight, hmm. No way to have seen this coming.

Colorado Avalanche: I wouldn’t want to be too diligent about keeping track of the team’s record without Nathan MacKinnon. It’s gonna get depressing in a hurry.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Hey, it happens.

Dallas Stars: Radek Faksa is not the reason they’re winning all these games lately. C’mon man.

Detroit Red Wings: One thing that I absolutely love is that a few guys in the Red Wings’ front office are guys who were on the team in the mid-2000s. Worked out great for the Oilers.

Edmonton Oilers: The Oilers are gonna trade Patrick Maroon, which is fine, but he’s also like the No. 6 guy they need to trade.

Florida Panthers: I saw some people making noise about “could this team go on a playoff push?” and it’s like “of course not.“

Los Angeles Kings: Is it good if you make a big push against the best team in the league and at the end of the game they’re like, “Yeah that was pretty embarrassing for us, to do that.”

Minnesota Wild: Devan Dubnyk getting on a heater would be, like, really good for these guys.

Montreal Canadiens: Boy Brendan Gallagher is a big talker after his team gets humiliated again.

Nashville Predators: On Saturday night, crack gonzo journalist Colton Teubert got to the bottom of this question.

New Jersey Devils: Ya don’t say.

New York Islanders: The Calder race is officially over.

New York Rangers: Get ready for plenty of these takes in the near future.

Ottawa Senators: The Senators organization is honestly embarrassing. This column highlighting why is b-l-e-a-k.

Philadelphia Flyers: If Brian Elliott is HYPERLINK “http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/sports/local/flyers/goalie-brian-elliott-injured-in-shootout-victory-over-coyotes/article_1d5c0f38-aef8-5545-a3c2-799e9788f4e1.html”out for any length of time, you can call the playoff push a bust.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Crosby up to 401 goals in fewer than 900 games. Come on, bud. One of the three best, all-time.

San Jose Sharks: Joakim Ryan’s dad is in town. He scores his first and second career goals. But his dad isn’t there because he was too sick to go to the game. What a bummer!

St. Louis Blues: Shoulda started Hutton.

Tampa Bay Lightning: This is the save of the year, maybe the decade.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Keeping JVR is just a smart course of action for this team. But trading him would be too. Not a bad situation for the Buds.

Vancouver Canucks: “I’m not allowed to.”

Vegas Golden Knights: A Vegas goalie is injured? No way.

Washington Capitals: Do you really need five years of Lars Eller?

Winnipeg Jets: It’s rare you see guys say, “please don’t trade for any deadline help,” but here we are.

Play of the Weekend

We have two Elite plays this weekend and I can’t decide between them so you get both. One is top draft prospect Quinn Hughes scoring a gorgeous one for Michigan. The other is Tampa-drafted QMJHLer Otto Sompi scoring a lacrosse goal. Bless these children, for they are both my sons.

What a goal from @umichhockey’s Quinn Hughes!!

Wow. We have no words for this one from Otto Somppi. #HighlightReel #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/UvLDvf6Irs

— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) February 11, 2018

Turned in the No. 3 play on @sportscenter’s #SCTop10! #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/XgcZk17SeI

— Michigan Athletics (@UMichAthletics) February 10, 2018

Gold Star Award

Crosby hit 400 goals on Sunday. I just looked it up and Ovechkin is now nine away from 600. How blessed are we to see these guys play live????

Minus of the Weekend

Wow it’s so crazy that any time there’s an issue of racial abuse directed toward PK Subban, everyone’s like “Oh jeez I had no idea that the racist thing I was saying was racist.” Pretty crazy that this one coincidence keeps happening over and over again.

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week

User “DALLAS90” is in great shape.

OTT: Nylander, Liljegren, Kapanen, 1st Round TOR: Karlsson

Signoff

You call hamburgers “steamed hams?”

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

#_revsp:21d636bb-8aa8-4731-9147-93a932d2b27a #_uuid:bc6c0341-9ab3-39da-b74c-fd7058b42f6a #_lmsid:a077000000CFoGyAAL #_author:Ryan Lambert

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rotoworld-yahoopartner · 8 years ago

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Dose: Pens Mightier than Caps

It was Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States and there was a whole slew of afternoon games, making my afternoon of lying on the couch and just watching hockey into a tough work day.

Well, not really. I can’t imagine too many jobs (believe me it is not work) that give you as much enjoyment as writing for Rotoworld.

Editor's Note: Rotoworld’s Season Pass is now available for the low price of $19.99. You get plenty of extra articles including the minor league report, the junior report and much, much more. Buy it now!

Don’t forget, for everything NHL, check out Rotoworld's Player News, and follow @Rotoworld_ HK and @mfinewaxhockey on Twitter.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS 4 BOSTON 0

For the first time in the history of the franchise, the New York Islanders have shut out the Boston Bruins in Beantown!

The Bruins are in big trouble as far as making the playoffs are concerned. Although they are in second place as far as the Atlantic Division is concerned, they are three points up on Toronto and Ottawa and both teams have six games in hand.

The usually reliable Tuukka Rask was spotty on a goal but it wouldn’t have made a difference as Thomas Greiss turned aside all 32 shots in the lowly Islanders win.

Rask was pulled after the second period as he gave up three goals on 15 shots. Zane McIntyre gave up the shorthanded goal as the Islanders had 12 shots

Nikolay Kulemin scored twice while Josh Bailey (the goal Rask looked bad on) and Jason Chimera shorthanded, also found paydirt.

The line of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand were all minus-three in the contest.

Casey Cizikas had two assists and was a plus-three.

BUFFALO 4 DALLAS 1

You cannot get a much better return to action than Tyler Ennis on Monday. The Sabres forward played his first game since November 7 as he was out with a groin injury and he scored 19 seconds into the game to give the Sabres a lead they would never relinquish in a 4-1 win.

It must be tough on poolies if you have either Dallas goalie and you may want to look for another sport to play fantasy if you have both Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi as the duo have been terrible this season.

It was Lehtonen’s turn on Monday and he didn’t disappoint unless you started him, as gave up three goals on 28 shots to see his record fall to 9-12-4 with a 2.88 GAA and a .898 save percentage. His peripherals have been poor for the last three seasons including this one but his record was terrific (34-17-10 and 25-10-2) before this season’s catastrophe.

Jack Eichel scored a pair of goals including his 10th of the season while Jake McCabe also scored, his first of the season.

Radek Faksa ruined the shutout bid of Robin Lehner who stopped 31 shots. Lehner is 10-12-5 with a 2.48 GAA and a .922 save percentage.

DETROIT 1 MONTREAL 0

The leg of Thomas Vanek was enough to give the Detroit Red Wings a 1-0 win over Montreal.

Danny DeKeyser’s shot from the point deflected off the leg of Vanek past Carey Price at the 18:14 mark of the second period for the lone goal of the game.

Jared Coreau had to make only 18 saves for his second NHL shutout and second in four games as he saw his record go to 5-1-1. His peripherals are not great with a 2.70 GAA and a .911 save percentage but he has had a few bad games while standing out in the rest.

Price took the loss despite giving up only one goal on 20 shots. He had given up 15 goals in his previous three games so at least he is back on track. Price is 21-8-4 with a 2.29 GAA and a .922 save percentage as his recent efforts have knocked him out of the Vezina talk.

TAMPA BAY 2 LOS ANGELES 1

It was Ben Bishop’s day to shine in Los Angeles as he turned aside 31 shots in leading the Lightning to a 2-1 road win over the Kings.

Bishop gave up a goal to Kyle Clifford on the Kings second shot of the game and then made 30 saves in a row to pick up his 11th win against 10 losses and two overtime defeats. He lowered his GAA to 2.67 and raised his save percentage to .910 with the victory. He looked bad on the goal as he misplayed the puck but quickly made up for it with his play the rest of the way.

Peter Budaj gave up a couple of goals on 29 shots in the loss. The Kings number one goalie at this time is 20-12-3 with a 2.09 GAA and a .917 save percentage.

The Kings best goalie, Jonathan Quick is still out of action and GM Dean Lombardi stated on Sunday when asked, that Quick was still ‘a long way off’. Look for Quick to return in four-six weeks barring any setback.

Tyler Johnson with his 13th and Brian Boyle with his 11th (and the game winner) scored for Tampa Bay. It was Boyle’s seventh goal in his last 12 games. Not a bad pace.

Anze Kopitar missed the game with an illness while Victor Hedman sat it out with an illness as well. Hedman is questionable for Tuesday’s game in Anaheim.

SAN JOSE 5 WINNIPEG 2

Martin Jones made 26 saves and Timo Meier, Joel Ward and Chris Tierney each had a goal and an assist to lead the Sharks to a 5-2 home ice win over Winnipeg.

Jones won his 22nd game of the season and has a 2.25 GAA with a .916 save percentage.

The Sharks got off to a good start when Joel Ward scored the only goal of the first period on a shorthanded effort.

They boosted their lead to 3-0 by the end of the second when Meier and Brent Burns found the back of the net. It was Burns 18th goal of the season as he leads all blueliners in goals and points.

Tierney made it 4-0 11:41 into the third and then the Jets struck twice as Mark Scheifele set up Josh Morrissey and then scored an unassisted goal with only 19 seconds to go.

The Jets pulled Mike Hutchinson but Joe Thornton scored his third into the empty net. All three goals scored by Thornton this season have been into the empty net.

Hutchinson made 27 saves in the loss. He is 4-10-3 with a 3.23 GAA and a .894 save percentage. Where are you Ondrej Pavelec?

PITTSBURGH 8 WASHINGTON 7 (Overtime)

In the wildest game of the season it was not a night for the goalies as Washington and Pittsburgh combined for 15 goals on only 65 shots in an 8-7 overtime victory for the Penguins.

Evgeni Malkin had the hat trick, Conor Sheary had a couple of goals including the overtime winner and Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists to lead the Pens.

Braden Holtby stopped 21 of 26 shots before he was replaced at the 14:37 mark of the second and Philipp Grubauer took over, giving up three goals on 11 shots.

Matt Murray picked up the win despite giving up seven goals on 28 shots. Surprisingly, Holtby’s save percentage of .808 was the best of the night in Pittsburgh.

Bryan Rust had a goal and an assist while Nick Bonino also scored. Justin Schultz had four assists with Trevor Daley picking up three.

Lars Eller scored twice with T.J. Oshie had a goal and two assists. Andre Burakovsky had one of each with Brent Connolly, Nicklas Backstrom and Justin Williams each contributing one.

Alex Ovechkin and Matt Niskanen each had two assists. Ovechkin was a minus-four on the night with Backstrom and Niskanen each a minus three.

Eller was a plus-three for the Capitals.

EDMONTON 3 ARIZONA 1

Jujhar Khaira scored his first career goal in the NHL and it turned out to be the winner in the Oilers 3-1 win over the Coyotes.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins opened the scoring in the first with his ninth of the season and Leon Draisaitl made it 3-0 in the second before Radim Vrbata ruined the shout bid of Cam Talbot with his 10th of the season, a power play effort.

Alexander Burmistrov played his first game in an Arizona uniform and collected an assist on Vrabata’s goal.

Cam Talbot made 21 saves and is 23-12-6 with a 2.42 GAA and a .918 save percentage. It was the Oilers second straight win over Arizona after the Coyotes had run off a 21-0-4 over the previous 25 games against Edmonton.

Mike Smith, who was 15-2-1 against Edmonton heading into action on Monday, took the loss as he stopped 24 shots.

Connor McDavid regained the scoring lead with an assist on Draisaitl’s goal as he now has 51 points, one better than Crosby.

#_uuid:9c96b37a-a24d-3fde-92d0-2eb3777ea4dd #_revsp:rotoworld.com #_author:Michael Finewax #_lmsid:a077000000MEFaHAAX

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j-klingers · 7 years ago

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Stars, but you can't use Faksa for the fave. And pens but no Crosby

Ah, good old stipulations! I like it, Anon!

Muthaheckin’ Star Boyz 💚✨

Favorite: Y'ALL KNOW but there are rules soooo…Tyler! He got me into hockey. That should count for something!

Least Favorite: Can I still go with Pateryn? If not then probably…honestly I love them all…but if I HAD to pick probably Hamhuis. But still no I love him.

Party Hard Pens 💛🐧

Favorite: (I almost said Flower. Well this just got depressing) It’s between Geno and Jake. If I had to choose I’d say Geno just because I’ve known him longer 😁

Least Favorite: Sestito! I can’t pick another! There IS no other I love them all like they’re my children 😂

#send me a team and i'll tell you my favorite and least favorite players #my anons best anons

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thrashermaxey · 6 years ago

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Ramblings: Tavares, Stamkos, Murray, Campbell, Dahlin, Barn Burners, & College Signees (March 26)

Monday’s schedule was chalked full and Pittsburgh and New York got things started in an early affair. The lottery-bound Rangers jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead off the sticks of Brendan Lemieux and Vinne Lettieri.

That was all the waking up the Pens needed as they rattled off five straight to take this one 5-2. Matt Murray stopped 33/35 for his third straight victory, and fifth straight quality start. The 24-year-old limped through the first 11 contests of the campaign with an 0.877 save percentage. Since that time, he’s 23-7-4 with three shutouts and a 0.931 save percentage mark.

All is well with Murray.

Jared McCann grabbed an assist on the fifth goal to give him 13 points in his last 15 contests. The 22-year-old former first-round selection is on his third organization but appears to have found a fit. McCann has great wheels, a heavy release, and loads of tenacity. He’s finally cracked the second power-play unit, but 31 of his 34 points have come at even-strength or while shorthanded.

There remains some intriguing upside with this player, especially if he maintains his space in the top six moving forward. He skated alongside Phil Kessel in this one

Freddie Andersen has been an unmitigated tire fire during much of the fantasy hockey playoffs. Monday night’s games represented either the first or second week of the Championship matchups. Freddie owners were praying to the Hockey Gods to get their number one netminder back.

The Leafs took on a flailing Panthers squad with hopes of righting the ship. They scored two goals on their first four shots and chased Samuel Montembeault. The first frame in this one has been clipped and sent to Webster’s Dictionary to be placed next to ‘firewagon hockey’. It wrapped with the Leafs up 4-2.

If either coach gave their dressing rooms an earful after 20 minutes to get back to some tight-checking affair, it didn’t work. The final result was a 7-5 victory for Toronto. Andersen stopped 31 of 36 – not exactly the result that was hoped for.

John Tavares owners weren’t mad though. The first-year Leaf scored four goals for the first time in his 10-year career. His 45 goals on the season trail only Alex Ovechkin. His 86 points are one behind a career-high.

Not a bad first act.

A trio of goals plus one for the road.

What a game and @Enterprise hat trick for @91Tavares! pic.twitter.com/eVv7ZLVIzE

— NHL (@NHL) March 26, 2019

Jonathan Huberdeau tallied two goals in this one to give him 19 points in his previous 10 contests. He’s just three goals away from setting career-highs in goals, assists, points, shots, power-play goals, power-play points.. you get the point.

If the Leafs-Panthers game was a barnburner, the Bruins and Lightning were must-see-tv. The top two teams in the Eastern Conference met in Florida on Monday and got at it.

Steven Stamkos scored two first period goals sandwiched between a Brad Marchand tally. The Bruins then scored three second period goals to head into the final 20 minutes up 4-2. Seems like a fairly safe lead, no?

No.

Victor Hedman brought the Bolts to within one, and then Nikita Kucherov did was Nikita Kucherov does. Absolutely snipe one while coming down the off-wing.

Snipe. @86Kucherov pic.twitter.com/QkVxTxbIDw

— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) March 26, 2019

That tied things with seven minutes left to play. All that remained was an Anthony Cirelli tally with under a minute remaining to steal win number 59. That places them as the third-most prolific team in NHL history. One win away from the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, and three shy of the 1995-96 Red Wings.

Granted, the Bolts have had the benefit of overtime and the shootout but their 53 regulation victories would still put them as a top-15 club. They have five games left on the schedule to push for history.

Stamkos added two assists in this one as well. He’s now up to 93 points on the season, and the Lightning boasts three players with at least 90 (Stamkos, Kucherov, and Brayden Point). It's been seven long years since Stammer has been in the 90-point zone. It's good to have him back.

The Bruins top line each contributed two points in this one. Despite the loss, that trio is as deadly as they come.

Another start and another victory for Jordan Binnington as the Blues defeated the Golden Knights 3-1 on Monday. The 25-year-old stopped 24 of 25 to improve his record to 21-4-1 with a 0.930 save percentage. This is some crazy mumbo jumbo that going on in Missouri these days.

I’m up on back-to-back ramblings this week, so expect a bit of dive into Binnginton tomorrow attempting to evaluate him heading into drafts next fall.

The Kings left Ilya Kovalchuk at home to work with the skills coach but brought their game with them to Calgary. LA knocked off the Western Conference leaders 3-0 with Jack Campbell grabbing the shutout with an impressive 42 stops.

Campbell hadn’t posted a victory since February 5th, but that’s not such a damning portrayal of him as it is the Kings in general. The 27-year-old has outplayed Jonathan Quick despite receiving some of the worst run support in the league.

Campbell: 8-13-1 0.926 SV%

Quick: 15-21-6 0.891 SV%

It’s not as if the Kings are throwing softballs to Campbell. His last five starts have been against Calgary, Winnipeg, Arizona, Tampa Bay, Washington, and Boston.

Who knows where the Kings go from here (they’re hoping right into welcoming Jack Hughes), but the crease situation is a clear as mud heading into 2019-20.

Cory Schneider made a season-high 45 saves, and Pavel Zacha scored a goal an added two helpers as the Devils defeated the Sabres 3-1.

Rasmus Dahlin grabbed a primary assist at even-strength to improve his total to 41 points in 75 contests. That ties him with Bobby Orr for the second most points by a U19 blueliner in the history of the NHL. He trails only his coach, Phil Housley’s 66.

It’s been a remarkable season for the youngster. I’m not sure many people will be betting against him breaking the 50-point plateau next season. Maybe we should be talking about 60?

Juuse Saros made 29 stops, Ryan Johansen scored a shorty, and the Pred blanked the Wild 1-0 to clinch their fifth consecutive playoff appearance.

The Wild are digging themselves a hole. With five games left on the schedule, they sit two points out of the final wild-card spot. They’ve also played more games than Arizona and Colorado – the two teams they trail.

To give some positivity to the realm, I’m quite enjoying the trio of Jordan Greenway, Luke Kunin and Ryan Donato. Those three have been lining up together at even-strength and on the team’s second power-play unit.

All three possess decent multi-category upsides.

Tyler Seguin and Radek Faksa each scored two goals as the Stars beat up the Jets 5-2. Dallas was the better team in this one – which unfortunately has been something of a common theme for Winnipeg’s opponents of late.

Connor Hellebuyck made 32 stops – a few bell ringers to keep this one ‘close’. Jacob Trouba continues to be leaned on heavily on a backend that sorely misses Dustin Byfuglien and Josh Morrissey. Trouba logged a game-high 26:37 while chipping in an assist, two shots, two hits, and two blocks.

Of note, Byfuglien took part in the morning skate on Monday. He was wearing a non-contact sweater, but it’s a good sign. He’s apparently closer to returning than Morrissey, but it’s difficult to imagine the coaching staff rushing either back. Perhaps a game or two before the playoffs would be ideal, but they need them at full health for the second season.

Despite controlling much of the play, the Sharks continued their recent slide by falling to the lowly Red Wings 3-2 in the late affair. That’s six straight losses for San Jose – four of which came at the hands of non-playoff teams. They're missing Joe Pavelski in a big way, and we haven't heard much on his condition.

Brent Burns was a minus-one but peppered nine shots on goal over 29 minutes.

Don't look now, but recently signed college free-agent Taro Hirose has four assists in his four NHL games while bouncing around the bottom six. He's been seeing a few seconds of second unit deployment as well. The 22-year-old tied for the NCAA lead with 50 points in 36 games this season, so he knows how to find the scoresheet.

He'll be an interesting one to watch in camp next fall to see if he can plant himself a secure job in the top nine and maybe even push for top six opportunities.

Some prospect talk:

Tis the season for university squads to say farewell to their top prospects. Most schools hope and expect to hold onto a real asset for two seasons – three if they’re lucky. But every now and again, we see the one-and-done kid.

That’s exactly what happened on Monday when Flyers’ top prospect, Joel Farabee signed his entry-level contract. The most recent 14th overall selection is expected to rehab an injury in Philadelphia before heading to the AHL for the Phantom’s playoff run. His NHL deal will kick in next fall.

Farabee had a tremendous freshman campaign, taking home Hockey East Rookie of the Year honours after producing 36 points in 37 contests. That mark was the third highest for any first-year skater. He also led all freshman in shots (131) and shorthanded tallies (3).

Making these totals even more impressive was the fact they were accomplished on a Boston University squad that struggled for most of the season.

Those in keeper leagues should have Farabee firmly on their radar. The 19-year-old is already an accomplished two-way player which should allow him to see NHL ice quickly. His upside screams productive, top-six winger.

Joel Farabee, ladies and gentlemen! Wow. #GoBU pic.twitter.com/qeeAol3ebX

— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) March 3, 2019

Farabee wasn’t the only Terrier to exit BU today. Dante Fabbro (NSH), Jake Oettinger (DAL), and Chad Krys (CHI) all signed pro deals.

Fabbro signing in Nashville is big. Rumours had long swirled that the 17th overall selection from 2016 may consider playing his senior season and opt for unrestricted free agency rather than attempt to climb the gauntlet that is the Predators’ backend. Nashville is sure happy he didn’t.

Oettinger, the 27th overall pick in 2017 wrapped up a junior season where he stopped 92.6 percent of the shots he faced over 36 games. He’s the clear option for the Stars long term and has definite upside.

Krys, a 2016 second-rounder is an offensive, left-shot defender who will try and navigate the Hawks’ depth chart. He needs a good amount of seasoning.

Follow me on Twitter @Hockey_Robinson

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-tavares-stamkos-murray-campbell-dahlin-barn-burners-college-signees-march-26/

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thrashermaxey · 6 years ago

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Ramblings: FanDuel Partnership; Senators; Updates on Arvidsson, Schenn, JvR; Shot Rates – November 6

A week after the MGM partnership announcement, the NHL has announced another partnership, this one with FanDuel, the daily fantasy sports site. Beyond advertising, the partnership will include things like contests for ‘experiences’ like the Winter Classic.

From someone who plays a lot of DFS, all I have to say is, “lol.” FanDuel is horrific for NHL contests. No site is perfect, but their problems over the years have run from things like egregious mis-pricing of players, incorrect positions for players, players missing from the player pool for games on end, and there was one night they listed Jamie Benn as his brother Jordie and vice versa. This isn’t ancient history, either, as this happened on Sunday night for the Columbus/Anaheim game:

They literally priced everyone on Columbus last night at min price in their single game contest. High quality right there too.

— Troy Rapson (@TRap1680) November 5, 2018

Maybe an official partnership will force to get FanDuel to fix their myriad problems with the NHL offerings. Then again, we’re talking about the NHL, and accurate numbers is not something we’ve grown accustomed to from them, either.

Good on the NHL for realizing they need to get into the DFS and gambling spheres but choosing FanDuel as an official partner is like deciding to go on a diet and getting all your salads from Wendy’s.

Washington moved Jakub Vrana to the fourth line and Dmitrij Jaskin to the top line for their game Monday night. The Tom Wilson Shuffle continues.

The Flyers are going to have Brian Elliott examined to see exactly what is wrong with him when they return from the road trip. For now, it’s Calvin Pickard or bust, I guess.

The Rangers have called up prospect Lias Andersson:

Here at Barclays, but I see #NYR recalled Lias Andersson from @WolfPackAHL

Brett Howden got dinged up last night.

— Jim Cerny (@JimCerny) November 5, 2018

Where he slots remains to be seen, or if he even gets in the lineup. We shall see.

It looks like James van Riemsdyk should be back in the next couple weeks.

Viktor Arvidsson was placed on the injured reserve by the Predators on Monday afternoon with a lower-body injury. We have nothing further right now. Kevin Fiala remained on the top line for most of the last game with Calle Jarnkrok taking Arvidsson’s spot on the top PP unit.

Brayden Schenn is dealing with what Mike Yeo called “soreness” but that “soreness” caused him to miss the end of St. Louis’s last game and practice on Monday. Something tells me that’s more than just soreness. Here were the lines without him:

#STLBlues lines today without Schenn: Schwartz-O'Reilly-Tarasenko Fabbri-Thomas-Perron Sanford-Bozak-Steen Maroon-Barbashev-Sundqvist extra: Soshnikov

— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) November 5, 2018

Just as a small aside here: if you’re a Thomas Chabot owner in a one-year league, now would be the time to explore a trade. He’s currently sitting with 11 secondary assists, which is three more than any player in the league. His pace for the season is 64.4 secondary assists. For a reference on how absurd that is, Claude Giroux led the league in this regard last year with 35 and Shayne Gostisbehere led all defencemen with 27. If you can trade Chabot as if he’s a top-10 or top-15 defenceman, do it.

Speaking of the Senators, this is easily the funniest thing I’ve seen in the NHL this year. Probably in the last couple years:

‘I haven’t paid attention in three weeks’: Sens players caught knocking coaches, laughing about team on video https://t.co/rNNSNjDjsd pic.twitter.com/toWFPhw5fx

— Ottawa Citizen (@OttawaCitizen) November 6, 2018

There’s going to be some fallout from this one.

Tim Thompson (@b0undless on Twitter) made a wonderful homage to the Montreal Canadiens. Tim used to do the opening montages for Hockey Night in Canada (you remember how good those used to be? That’s who did them). It’s as good as anything he’s done, and that’s saying a lot considering the person who made it.

Sometimes, things work out perfectly.

New Jersey was in Pittsburgh for a Monday night tilt and it was Pittsburgh’s ‘Hockey Fights Cancer’ night. Not only did Brian Boyle score, he scored twice… and then a third time. Brian Boyle, cancer survivor, scored a natural hat trick on that night in Pittsburgh. Truly a special moment for a genuinely good man.

Will Butcher scored his first of the season and added a pair of assists helping the Devils to a 5-1 win. Keith Kinkaid started this one, stopping 34 of 35 shots, so it looks like Cory Schneider will go on Tuesday in Ottawa.

The fourth line did most of the damage for Washington in their 4-2 win over Edmonton as Jakub Vrana and Devante Smith-Pelly both scored in the first six minutes of the game. TJ Oshie and Alex Ovechkin added the others.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl replied for the Oilers.

Not for nothing, but the Oilers third line of Lucic-Strome-Puljujarvi looked pretty good. If they had a left winger who could score, it’d probably be a dangerous line.

Max Domi continued his solid start for the Canadiens, posting a goal and an assist in the team’s 4-3 shootout win over the Islanders. He now has 8 goals and 15 points in 14 games in the Bleu, Rouge, et Blanc. Jonathan Drouin had the same stat line and now has 10 points on the year.

Drouin had six shots on goal as well, only the third time he’s managed that many in a game in a Habs uniform. He’s now averaging nearly 2.5 shots per game, which is about where he should be.

Boston skated away with a 2-1 overtime win against Dallas. The first two goals of the game came on the same power play as Radek Faksa scored short handed while David Pastrnak tallied with the man advantage. More on Pastrnak later.

Brad Marchand scored the overtime goal, his fifth goal of the year.

Jake DeBrusk, by the way, is now on the top PP unit for Boston. He assisted on Pastrnak’s goal. My dreams are coming true!

Update on the late game in the morning.

We’re a little over a month into the NHL season. As this point, fantasy owners should be looking at year-to-date stats to help us with our roster decisions. Everything from trades to waiver claims to which player to drop should now be informed, at least in part, by stats accumulated this year.

For these Ramblings specifically, we will be looking at changes in shot rates. Remember that last week I wrote in a Ramblings that the overall shot rate league-wide had changed very little from last year to this year. Any changes to a specific player, then, should not be attributed to some sort of league-wide increase. That is just not the case.

Let’s start at the top of the spectrum. Here are the top-20 shot rate increase from last year to this year. The cut off for this season is 125 minutes played and the rates are expressed at all strengths, not just five-on-five.

Data from Natural Stat Trick.

Micheal Ferland

The former Calgary Flame has been skating almost all year on the top line with the Hurricanes. In fact, he’s only played about 35 of his 232 minutes of ice time away from Sebastian Aho. But that doesn’t really explain the entire reason his shots per game have nearly doubled from last year despite just over 90 extra seconds of ice time per game. The Hurricanes are an absolute buzzsaw offensively.

As of Monday afternoon, Ferland is on pace for 65 points this year, which would be by far a career high. Most people would assume there’s something unsustainable going on. About that…

On the season, Ferland’s all-strengths shooting percentage is just under 13 percent after posting consecutive seasons over 14 percent, so that’s in a normal range for him. His individual points percentage (IPP) is 61.1 percent, posting 59.4 percent last year and 67.6 percent the year before, so his IPP is also normal. His on-ice shooting percentage (the rate at which the team scores with him on the ice) is 9.8 percent, a year after a 10 percent season and two years after 8.8 percent. Again, that’s well within his norms. Given that his personal shooting percentage, on-ice shooting percentage, and IPP are all completely normal, this 65-point pace is for real.

Of course, “for real” assumes constant line mates and role. Were the Hurricanes to hit a skid and he’s moved down to the third line or something, this would change. As long as he’s skating with Aho and is getting power play time, I wouldn’t expect much to change. Ferland is a true 60-point potential player.

David Pastrnak

I won’t dig into this too much. He’s just worth a mention because he was a guy whose shot rate declined a fair amount last year compared to 2016-17 and it was difficult to gauge exactly where he would land this year. Well, that question has been answered as he’s among the leaders in shot rate (fifth in the league) and his shots per game are well over 4.00. Consider all shot concerns squashed.

Alexander Kerfoot

The now-24-year old Kerfoot had a solid rookie campaign, posting 19 goals and 43 points in 79 games. The problem was he managed just 81 shots in those 79 games. That’s very poor and really hurt his value in roto leagues. He’s managed to turn that around a bit with 25 shots in 14 games this year. Not where we’d want a top-end fantasy option to be, but an improvement nonetheless.

What makes hit shots/game mark look a little better is that he’s still earning just over 14 minutes per game. His shot attempt rate (12.39) isn’t very far off from teammate Gabriel Landeskog (12.37) to give you an idea of how much more he’s shooting this year compared to last.

There is one area of concern with Kerfoot and that is his IPP. Not that it’s outlandish, but it sits just under 77 percent right now. Last year it was 71.7 percent. The question is what his true talent level for involvement is. Elite players are always involved in scoring and guys between 75 and 80 percent in 2017-18 are mostly elite players like Benn, Stamkos, Kuznetsov, Giroux, Duchene, Marner, Pastrnak, Gaudreau, and Malkin. Kerfoot could be having a one-off year or establishing himself as a top-tier playmaker.

I suspect that Kerfoot’s assist rate will slow down. Don’t expect a 45-50 assist season. On the other hand, Kerfoot’s zone entry/exit numbers in 2017-18 were excellent:

That graphic from CJ Turtoro's viz site.

Fantasy owners shouldn’t dismiss out of hand that Kerfoot can’t have a season similar to what Ryan Johansen did in 2017-18 – somewhere around 15 goals and 40 assists. But there won’t be much for peripherals and fantasy owners need to decide what their specific team needs are.

Filip Forsberg

Forsberg, like Pastrnak, will only get a brief mention here because of his shot rate decline last year. In fact, he had declined in consecutive seasons going into 2018-19. He’s seen a huge ice time boost, though, as he’s clocking in at 19:17 per game, a career high and nearly two full minutes more than last year (17:28, but to be fair, about half that increase has come on the penalty kill). But he’s also taking a career-high in shots per 60 minutes, landing a career-high in shots per 60 minutes, and that, in conjunction with the added ice time, has led to his 10-goal start to the season. I mean, shooting 20.8 percent doesn’t hurt either, but even if that declines to his career norms around 13-14 percent, he’d still be on a 40-goal pace for the year. As long as the ice time doesn’t decline, and he keeps shooting as he is, he is a true threat for 40 goals this year. Let’s just hope he stays healthy.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-fanduel-partnership-senators-updates-on-arvidsson-schenn-jvr-shot-rates-november-6/

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thrashermaxey · 7 years ago

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Ramblings: Brent Burnt, No Longer! (Dec 8)

I’d be more concerned if the Blues weren’t running over people, but we should probably discuss the changing situation on the St. Louis power play. After a couple of games of running Vladimir Tarasenko on both units, he was pushed exclusively to the second unit last night. Except, whichever unit Tank is on is the first unit. These guys also got the lion’s share of the power play chances. That means your top PP unit in St. Louis is now:

Tarasenko – Paul Stastny – Patrik Berglund – Vladimir Sobotka – Colton Parayko

There’s a short-term boost for the latter four. However, it should be mentioned that Tarasenko needed an empty-netter to end a six-game goalless draught. He has just two points in the past five games. Not even enough to call it a slump.

Meanwhile, despite having their usage cut, the now second unit still combined for a power-play goal, from who other than Brayden Schenn. It certainly helped that the Stars gave the Blues seven power play chances. There were minutes for everyone in this one. That now second unit, by the way:

Schenn – Alex Steen – Jaden Schwartz – Dmitrij Jaskin – Alex Pietrangelo

What a windfall for Jaskin who has been an anonymous third-liner skating 11 minutes a night. He does have five points in the last eight games, and has some value in deep leagues if these combos stick.

Three-game assist streak has come to an end for Jamie Benn. His goalless streak is now up to nine games, which is a rather fancy achievement for a player who was almost universally a first rounder. As such, you know not to panic. Guys that talented are too good not to figure it out. It’s a good time to test the will of the Benn owner in your league.

Radek Faksa’s hot run is dwindling. He has gone back-to-back games without a point. His minutes are up to over 15 per game in each of his last six, but almost none of those minutes have come on the power play. It’s simply going to be difficult for him to be a consistent producer without even regular use on the second PP unit. However, rumour on the street is that Faksa will be flanked by Benn and Alexander Radulov in upcoming action, which could vault his stock even without PP time.

After going up 3-0 on the Sharks after one period, I am pretty sure the Hurricanes were visited by C-3PO during the first intermission as they eventually coughed up the lead before falling in overtime:

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BRENT BURNS, I NEVER DOUBTED YOU <a href="https://t.co/wdbvEp6rm6">pic.twitter.com/wdbvEp6rm6</a></p>— Stephen Laidlaw (@SteveLaidlaw) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveLaidlaw/status/939012389336264704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2017</a></blockquote>

Two-point night for Brent Burns, who has seven points in his last eight games. Paul Martin did indeed return to the Sharks’ lineup and was paired with Burns, but neither of Burns’ points came with Martin on the ice so I am not chalking this up as a victory for my theory that Martin would open up Burns’ game.

Interesting nugget demonstrating San Jose’s PP struggles:

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">First time since Oct. 17 that Sharks have multiple PPGs in one game</p>— Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) <a href="https://twitter.com/KKurzNHL/status/939010030900207616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2017</a></blockquote>

The outlook for their star players changes if this gets sorted out.

Joe Thornton had a three-point night, giving him nine points in the last eight games. Five of those nine points have come with the man-advantage. This is a positive trend.

New line combos for Carolina:

#1 25.6% SKINNER,JEFF – STAAL,JORDAN – WILLIAMS,JUSTIN

#2 23.2% AHO,SEBASTIAN – RYAN,DEREK – TERAVAINEN,TEUVO

#3 21.2% LINDHOLM,ELIAS – MCGINN,BROCK – RASK,VICTOR

#4 15.6% DI GIUSEPPE,PHILLIP – KRUGER,MARCUS – NORDSTROM,JOAKIM

This is a good spot for Jeff Skinner and Justin Williams, although Skinner is going to put up 30 goals no matter who they skate him with.

Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen were handed the Derek Ryan ball-and-chain. They faired well with Aho scoring two goals on six shots. I dumped Aho in one of my shallow leagues for a hotter option, as his scoring pace has teetered right on that edge where he isn’t quite worth universal ownership during his slumps. His 240-SOG pace is awfully intriguing, however. Definitely not a guy to cut in leagues with 12+ teams. That shot volume gives him a high floor.

Breakout night for Matt Duchene with a goal and an assist. Both of his goals since joining the Senators have come on the power play. They are giving him every opportunity to succeed using him on the top unit instead of Derick Brassard whose hot start is fading in the rear-view mirror. Mind you, Brassard’s success hadn’t come on the PP anyhow, but he has joined in on the time-wide funk with just two points in 11 games since the team got back from Sweden.

Has Duchene turned the corner. I’m not there yet. I need another strong showing before jumping in here.

Erik Karlsson’s 10-game scoring streak came to an end. Did you make a pitch to buy low? In two leagues I offered up Shayne Gostisbehere and in one I offered up Kris Letang. No bites, but you can’t force these things to happen. All you can do is try.

Alex Galchenyuk is back in the dog house. He skated just 9:18 last night and I didn’t see him all third period. Apparently, he got one shift, which I must have missed. All the momentum of that hot run with eight points in five games seems to be lost. Maybe there was no momentum to begin with.

Sam Bennett has put together a hot run with seven points in his last six games. He has even scrounged some power play time, although not consistently. He got some run on the second unit last night with Jaromir Jagr out again with injury and Matthew Tkachuk suspended for one game. I am not prepared to buy any Bennett stock. If I’m grabbing anyone off the third line it’s Jagr, who sees regular use on the second PP unit, but if I have to roll with one of the kids on that line Mark Jankowski is a better player.

I was intrigued by Alex MacLean’s note on Dougie Hamilton in his latest Capped piece, highlighting that his career numbers have jumped from below a point-per-game in October-November to above a point-per-game December-March. Will he have the same second half surge? I remain confident. Hamilton is skating 2:16 per game on the second PP unit, which is exactly how much PP time he was seeing last season.

It is worth discussing expectations for Hamilton. After a couple of seasons in the low 40’s, he broke out with 50 points last season. Low 40’s is the floor. He should get back there, barring injury. A slower start puts him behind the eight ball for another run at 50, especially with his usage, but that second unit will perform better. Hamilton has ranked out at least 10 goals, 14 PPP, 185 SOG, and 40 PIM for three years running. His floor is real and it is spectacular.

Bo Horvat is out for six weeks with a broken foot. It’s worth diving into their line combos from last night to see who is getting that coveted exposure to Brock Boeser:

#1 27.4% GAUNCE,BRENDAN – GRANLUND,MARKUS – VIRTANEN,JAKE

#2 22.6% ERIKSSON,LOUI – SEDIN,DANIEL – SEDIN,HENRIK

#3 22.6% BAERTSCHI,SVEN – GAGNER,SAM – VANEK,THOMAS

#4 12.9% BOESER,BROCK – BURMISTROV,ALEXANDER – GOLDOBIN,NIKOLAY

Those combos made me crinkle my nose like I smelt a fart, but guess what? The Brock Boes Monster cannot be contained. He scored his 14th goal of the season anyway.

More intriguing than Alexander Burmistrov is Markus Granlund taking Horvat’s minutes on the top power play unit. He probably isn’t good enough for a pickup in most leagues, but there’s some daily fantasy potential here. It’s also worth mentioning that the Canucks have next week’s most favourable schedule with four games on the Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Sunday track.

Strange move by the Canucks recalling Thatcher Demko yesterday. No reason was given for the move, and the team has no upcoming back-to-backs where they might want to squeeze him in for a start. It’s not much of a stretch to jump to the conclusion that there may be a trade brewing. Demko is a top-notch goalie prospect, excelling in his second season of pro hockey. I’d hate to see him rushed into a backup spot, but he is a threat to take over should an injury pop up.

The Canucks did actually swing a deal last night, but it's not one of much fantasy relevance:

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> have acquired forward Nic Dowd from the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoKingsGo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoKingsGo</a> in exchange for defenceman Jordan Subban <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NHL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NHL</a></p>— SiriusXM NHL Network (@SiriusXMNHL) <a href="https://twitter.com/SiriusXMNHL/status/939023710656258049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}

No information on Johnny Boychuk’s exact injury, but he was out of the lineup last night. He has faded from relevance outside of deeper multi-category leagues, but his absence opened up 20 minutes a night on the top pairing alongside Nick Leddy. Up steps Ryan Pulock, who folks have been waiting on for a breakout for some time. He skated 20:42 last night with his usual usage on the second power play unit. He notched an assist ending an 11-game draught. I am intrigued in deep leagues if Boychuk misses extended time.

Nothing came of it, but scary collision between the Islanders’ two best players:

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Both were fine, but how close did the Islanders' season come from going up in smoke? <a href="https://t.co/ssbhukVxjJ">pic.twitter.com/ssbhukVxjJ</a></p>— Stephen Laidlaw (@SteveLaidlaw) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveLaidlaw/status/938961881267605504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2017</a></blockquote>

The Penguins recalled Frank Corrado yesterday to replace the injured Justin Schultz. I don’t know how they pulled off the Schultz-Letang body swap, but I am all for it.

I enjoyed this snipe by Phil Kessel:

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Phil Kessel now has points in six straight home games (5G-5A). <a href="https://t.co/LBis9Ik5YD">pic.twitter.com/LBis9Ik5YD</a></p>— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) <a href="https://twitter.com/penguins/status/938955967894622208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2017</a></blockquote>

Gabriel Landeskog jumped right back into his slot alongside Nathan MacKinnon after returning from suspension. He scored his 10th goal of the season, putting him on pace for a career-high 34. Even if Landeskog fails to crack the 30-goal plateau he is primed for a bounce-back with MacKinnon emerging as a superstar.

Tyler Johnson has run up five points in three games since being elevated to Steven Stamkos’ wing.

Yanni Gourde was supposed to take a hit dropping to the third line, but he has four points in three games despite his ice time falling below 14 minutes per game. If this team weren’t absurdly loaded perhaps he would suffer, but right now they can do no wrong.

David Krejci is flying under the radar because of the injuries he has been battling through, but he has six points in the last five games and 12 in 14 overall. Not bad for a guy not even seeing time on the Bruins’ top PP unit. I’d be more interested if he was getting regular usage with that top unit, but there’s enough talent with Krejci and Charlie McAvoy to get some value out of those second unit guys.

Clayton Keller last scored a goal on November 6. He has now run up 15 straight games without a goal. He has only six points in that stretch. His shot volume has also fallen off with just 30 SOG in those 15 games. 2.0 SOG per game is a fine pace, but he had thrown up over 3.0 SOG per game over the first month of the season. Scoring woes, reduced shot volume, horrible plus/minus – that’s a trend for waiver fodder in one-year leagues.

Keller is still on pace for 60 points and has a good chance of getting there, but he’s not even on the short list for Calder candidates any more.

Eric Comrie’s first start of the season did not go well ceding five goals on 35 shots. He has now given up nine goals in two career NHL starts, which is not very inspiring. He remains an intriguing prospect, but he doesn’t appear close to unseating Connor Hellebuyck.

Given how terrible the Panthers are defensively James Reimer is a woefully unsatisfying option in goal, but in a league where simply getting starts has merit Reimer is an option. It’s a shame the timing of this Roberto Luongo injury. I’d surely like to be riding a fill-in like Tristan Jarry instead of Reimer, but I was forced into the Reimer option with the waiver wire already picked over.

Nick Bjugstad has been dropped from the top PP unit in favour of Denis Malgin. Bjugstad is still skating on the top line, but is less enticing an option without the top unit minutes. Malgin, skating with Vincent Trocheck on the second line and top unit is suddenly the juicy option. Both have scored a pair of goals in the past three games. I prefer Malgin’s situation, but you have to note what a rubber slinger Bjugstad is averaging over 3.0 SOG per game.

Tyler Toffoli bakes up a tasty apple pie served on a silver platter for Tanner Pearson:

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tyler. Toffoli. WOW, WOW, WOW! <a href="https://t.co/9wNtXZZwva">pic.twitter.com/9wNtXZZwva</a></p>— NHL Daily 365 (@NHLDaily365) <a href="https://twitter.com/NHLDaily365/status/938989550013054976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2017</a></blockquote>

You can tell he used those real hand-picked, organic apples. YUM!

Not that he is of universal fantasy relevance, but the Ducks placed Hampus Lindholm on IR. Just when you thought they were getting healthy.

Both David Perron and Marc-Andre Fleury are nearing their returns from injury.

Perron had been great before his concussion, headed towards a 60-point season. He may fall a bit short, especially if he loses effectiveness.

Fleury seems like a good bet in goal, especially with so many top-flight options out with injury. We’re all still expecting Vegas to come crashing back to earth at some point, but there are wins to be banked in the mean time.

For more World Junior coverage check out Cam Robinson’s latest prospect ramblings. I don’t want to speak for the Dobber Prospects gang, but with the World Juniors approach I’d expect a lot of heavy coverage over the next month.

I hopped on the Roto Hockey Show on Wednesday night to discuss some of this seasons surprises, both positive and negative. Give that a listen when you get a chance, those gents host a great podcast. I always have a blast chatting with them.

Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Twitter @SteveLaidlaw.

from All About Sports http://www.dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-brent-burnt-no-longer-dec-8/

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yahoo-puck-daddy-blog · 7 years ago

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Are Dallas Stars and Hitchcock worthy of the hype? (What We Learned)

(Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.)

Sometimes it’s tough to project what’s going to happen under a new coach. And when it comes to Dallas this year, it’s very tough.

Last season under Lindy Ruff, the Stars were one of the worst defensive teams in hockey. Just about any per-60 stat at 5-on-5 you looked at, they were ugly-to-horrid. They finished 26th in shot attempts against, 20th unblocked attempts and goals. They were 28th in scoring chances, 24th in high-danger chances. Oddly, their shots-against number was middle of the pack, league-wide, but you see the overall trend.

They were also, not surprisingly, the least-successful penalty-killing team in the league not only last season, but the worst in more than two decades; you have to go back to the second season for the Ottawa Senators to find a lower penalty killing percentage.

Contrast that with what was clearly a well-oiled machine offensively. Fifth in attempts per 60, sixth in unblocked attempts, eighth in chances, 10th in high-danger opportunities. Weirdly mediocre in shots on net and goals.

Lump both of those issues in with some truly bad goaltending from two truly bad goalies, and you can see why this team missed the playoffs, fired the coach, and made a lot of changes this summer.

And if you feel like you need to shore up your team’s defensive game — which Jim Nill very clearly did and should have — probably the best guy on the face of the earth to hire is Ken Hitchcock. Lucky for the Stars, Hitchcock found himself out of a job after his act wore a bit thin in St. Louis. Even luckier, he was fired from a divisional rival.

All of which brings the Stars to a pivotal question on the overall position of their franchise: Did this team have a coaching problem, or was it about personnel?

The answer, one supposes, could be, “Both.”

But if the answer to the latter question is yes, regardless of the answer to the former, we could be looking at big changes.

Few would doubt this team’s ability to generate offense, at least based on the talent they bring to the table. But their power play was likewise well below league average, and their were only 18th in total goals last season. That, too, might be a personnel problem, specifically on the back end, because if guys can’t break the puck out effectively your offense is going to suffer no matter how many Jamie Benns and Tyler Seguins you have lying around.

So the question is, does this team (which by the way is currently over the cap limit) have the back end to turn its recent results around with a defensive genius like Hitchcock running the show? It’s pretty tough to say. After all, the loss of Jason Demers and Alex Goligoski in a single offseason seems to have really screwed up what was otherwise a relatively stable situation, dialed back whatever quality John Klingberg previously had, and forced a few defenders into situations for which they were in no way prepared.

Esa Lindell got the second-most minutes per game on the team last season and seemed in over his head for most of the season. Jordie Benn shouldn’t be your No. 4 defenseman. You can go on like this.

This summer they added Marc Methot, former sidekick to Erik Karlsson, potentially in an effort to stabilize whatever performance Klingberg was supposed to have delivered as the team’s No. 1 defender. They probably also hope Julius Honka is ready for prime time after a brief audition last season. Perhaps they also hope losing Jordie Benn to Montreal is addition by subtraction.

Say what you want about Hitchcock’s ability to turn a team’s defensive play around, but don’t doubt that he spent much of the last several years with a pretty good group in St. Louis. Alex Pietrangelo is pretty overrated but there’s no doubt he’s a talented player. Kevin Shattenkirk, for all his apparent faults, can move the puck like few players in the league. Colton Parayko is one of the great young defenders in the game today. A few years ago, even Jay Bouwmeester had his uses as a reliable-if-underwhelming No. 2.

Dallas has no such luxury, or at least no certainty of that luxury. Whether a couple guys evolve into better roles, or Methot in particular shepherds Klingberg back where he needs to be, is a big question. Did Karlsson have success with Methot because Methot did something Karlsson needed to succeed that his previous partners didn’t, or did Methot appear to do that because Karlsson is one of the best to ever play the position? The Stars better hope it’s the former.

Another good quality Hitchcock brings to the table, albeit less discussed than his defensive prowess, is that he’s likely to turn around the Stars’ weirdly bad power play; the Blues have been at least top-eight in the NHL in power play percentage since 2013-14, and they certainly have the talent — especially with Alex Radulov now aboard as well — to keep that trend going for their new coach. That is, of course, assuming Jason Spezza and newly-signed Martin Hanzal (who only had 39 points last season) can still play, and Radek Faksa takes a step forward offensively.

But on the other side of all these what-ifs is that the Stars might still be thin on defense. Might still have a good top-six of forwards and that’s about it. Might still be in trouble in net, because who knows what 31-year-old Ben Bishop, a massive goaltender coming off a bad year and his second major groin injury in as many seasons, actually provides them for a whole season.

So while Hitchcock is clearly, clearly, clearly an elite coach, no amount of eliteness may be enough to dredge this team out of where it’s been headed the past year-plus. They’re so thin in the lower half of their lineup and their goaltending has been bad for basically their entire recent history. And if that’s the case, Hitchcock might find himself coaching a team as it begins what would, unfortunately, be a necessary rebuild.

And especially in the cutthroat Central Division, the margin for error here is worryingly thin.

What We Learned

Anaheim Ducks: Poor Paul Kariya is gonna have to listen to a ton of MAGA nonsense right before Thanksgiving. Sad!

Arizona Coyotes: Fun to think about how Shane Doan retired after 21 years in the NHL and his new favorite players, Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine, are already 10 and 9 percent of the way to his career goal total after one season.

Boston Bruins: There’s this one youngster the Bruins have that they should be really excited about. He’s like 21, 22 years old, something in that area. Had a bunch of points last season playing on their top line. Really excited to see him once training camp opens. You know they are too. Oh yeah baby!

Buffalo Sabres: Yeah sure Jack Eichel is fine with starting the new season without a contract extension in hand. He’s going to push a point a game this year. Possibly exceed it. That’s more money in his pocket. Buffalo, on the other hand, should absolutely not not be fine with this scenario.

Calgary Flames: This is objectively good.

Carolina Hurricanes: This headline should have been true like four years ago.

Chicago: More teams should do this sort of thing where there are reasonably good rinks. Training camp should be for the kids to come see their favorite team or whatever, because it’s sure not necessary for the players anymore.

Colorado Avalanche: Yeah, ya think?

Columbus Blue Jackets: This is an extremely good deal for Alex Wennberg. Well, it’s an extremely good deal for the team. The player is likely to be a very good bargain for a long time.

Dallas Stars: Jason Spezza on the wing? Sure, okay.

Detroit Red Wings: Pretty surprising to see a Red Wings executive who got more money than he ever deserved from Ken Holland come out and say Andreas Athanasiou should just take the whatever Holland is offering.

Edmonton Oilers: As long as he keeps playing with Connor McDavid? Sure.

Florida Panthers: Aaron Ekblad is very good.

Los Angeles Kings: This is one of those ways teams are like, “Ah actually we’re very good corporate citizens because of the environment and so on,” but it’s just a fun new way to gouge fans.

Minnesota Wild: This is maybe the most shameless, flat-out attempt to skirt NHL-player requirements for preseason games.

Montreal Canadiens: Yeah this is a fact that has been a little mystifying to me all season. Better to avoid spending money than spending it on players who don’t deserve it, but it’s the Canadiens, sitting a mile below the cap. Strange.

Nashville Predators: Given the team’s blue line depth and the fact that their current No. 2 center is Nick Bonino, yeah, it makes sense to trade for Duchene.

New Jersey Devils: The thing is, maybe John Hynes is on the hot seat. Wouldn’t surprise me, just because rebuilding teams always swap out the coach. But he absolutely shouldn’t be. Like, what’s he supposed to do with this group?

New York Islanders: What could this possibly be based on?

New York Rangers: This is a great question. All depends on McDonagh and Lundqvist, honestly.

Ottawa Senators: The lede on this is what I’ve been saying for a long time. Thank you.

Philadelphia Flyers: Philly fans really aren’t going to like this.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Hey, sure.

San Jose Sharks: At that price, I wouldn’t be too worried about it.

St. Louis Blues: Well, uh, don’t hold your breath.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Tyler Johnson didn’t say he’s In The Best Shape Of His Life but it sure sounds to me like he’s In The Best Shape Of His Life.

Toronto Maple Leafs: How any guys focus on defense for the summer and then actually are measurably better at defense?

Vancouver Canucks: I mean, why not, right?

Vegas Golden Knights: People are so delighted. The Golden Knights are good at Twitter. Maybe the hockey will catch up one day. Congrats on the Twitter Stanley Cup.

Washington Capitals: Well, okay, have a good camp, I guess.

Winnipeg Jets: I want to shout out Mathieu Perreault as one of those elite middle-six guys who the “advanced” stats love but who gets consistently underrated in this league. We love you Mathieu!

Gold Star Award

Sign Jagr.

Minus of the Weekend

Discussions about whether Shane Doan is a Hall of Famer are maybe the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen from professional hockey journalists, and that’s saying something.

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Year

User “Freedom” wants to make a quick change.

CBJ: Kessel + 1st round pick PIT: Panarin

Signoff

We called that “The Stinger.” They don’t let you use that no more.

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Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)