Since you are located in Orange County you likely get a load of Ducks coverage - wanted or not.

1. What's your take on Lupul? Top 6 or a bouncer on his return?

2. Any more word on Kariya and the Ducks for next year?

3. Actually let's throw in another one on your boy Slater - I know you likely have been tracking him - what's your take?

__________________
Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

Geeze, shoeless, take it easy on the guy. He just got the gig for goodness sake. Let him ease into. How 'bout some nice softball questions to start...Hmmmmm????

Fav color?
Fav skates?
Ya think Crosby could beat up my 106yr old grandmother?

__________________

Four out of three people have difficulty with fractions

Commish - Twisted Wrister Fantasy Hockey League

12 team, $$$, 24 players, Weekly, H2H, limited keeper (8), multi-cat (G, A, PIMs, Hits, SOG, HT/ W, GA, SV%, SO)

Start: 2C, 2RW, 2LW, 4D, 2G

LOL....I will let him answer questions 1 and 2 but would have to say I give the edge to your grandma....LOL

I would love to hear his take on Lupul actully, he's kind of a wildcard as to where he fits? do you mess with sucsess?? Lets have her Dubs!!

__________________
__________________
LOTS OF TEAMS!

Haha, thanks Bomm and JD. Good stuff.

Shoeless, you must have had this saved up just waiting to pull the trigger eh?

1. I obviously watched him initially in his first stint with Anaheim where you would see flashes of a superstar, followed by inconsistency like the best of them. I'll never forget his 4 goal performance against the Avs a few years ago. I remember thinking in OT, how can Lupul score any more? He's been so hot all game, you've gotta think Colorado will be all over him giving him no opportunities. Sure enough, he potted #4 of the night in OT and won the game for Anaheim. He definitely, definitely has talent.

The injuries have been a huge bummer for him. It looked like he was really starting to tap into his potential in Philadelphia when teammate Derian Hatcher took a run and accidentally collided with Lupul. Since then, he's been just as inconsistent as before, but now he's in and out of the lineup as a band-aid-boy or BAB-trainee. Personally, Lupul fits two types of stereotypes that I try to stay away from in my fantasy leagues: inconsistent and band-aid-boy. Take away the injuries, and I probably still wouldn't want to invest in Lupul because he'll go on a hot streak and score 10-15 pts in 8-10 games, then he'll go on to score 5-8 pts in 20 games. That drives me insane. There is good news though, and that's that this was a younger Lupul. As with any person, age brings maturity.

So, now fast forward to this season and you have to look at how the Ducks will work with Lupul. The Ducks started out looking terrible and losing...a lot. Now, they've won 6 in a row and they're getting plenty of offense from their current top 6 (Ryan-Getzlaf-Perry & Blake-Koivu-Selanne). They've been going through AHLers to try and get anyone who can produce on the third line but so far it hasn't worked. That line has Joffrey Lupul written all over it when he returns. Reason why? If you're a coach and you're getting production from your top 2 lines, and it's clear that they have chemistry, not to mention you're winning games, you DON'T mess with those combinations. Not until something goes wrong or you start losing. Many coaches think they can tweak that and get three top lines scoring, but it backfires (remember the Jeff Carter experiment on Mike Richards' wing in the Stanley Cup Finals? then Laviolette even tried it out to start the season..ughhhh) and then you end up with only one hot line. Chemistry is a funny thing.

When the time comes for Lupul to get into the top 6 (and he will eventually), he will definitely hit a hot streak after 1-3 games of adjustment. How long that hot streak will last is entirely up for debate though, and I don't think it'll last longer than 10 games, maybe 15 tops. He seems to have some camaraderie with Bobby Ryan on twitter, and both can play RW, so it wouldn't be out of the cards for Anaheim to get a LW for Getz and Perry, keep the old man line together, then try some centers with Ryan and Lupul together as wings. There's your three lines that Carlyle has been looking for.

Do I see that happening soon? Not really. I see Lupul returning, sitting on the third line and getting back in game shape, then eventually taking Ryan's spot on the top line, then getting shifted back down, and movin all around. The problem the Ducks have is that they have 7 decent forwards. There's always going to be one man out unless you either (1) trade for another guy or (2) use a prospect or third liner in a scoring role. Someone is going to be odd man out until they can bring in another solid offensive player.

2. PK? Most of the city still doesn't want him back. Paul doesn't really care what the city thinks. He's just trying to get healthy and if he got a shot at playing with Selanne again, I'm sure he'd do it.

From my own experiences though, when people start getting concussions that linger this long, their career is pretty much over. I'm a Flyers fan. I've seen my fair share of players trying to return from concussions.

If I had to guess, I'd say Kariya doesn't play any more and I'd say Marc Savard isn't far off from retirement either.

3. Is this some kind of CA joke Shoeless? Like haha you're from CA so what do you think of AC Slater these days? I don't really have a boy Slater, so I'm not sure where you're going with this.

__________________
NHL credentialed writer for Columbus through thehockeyguys.net and dobberprospects.com

@tlucarelli on twitter

My bad on Slater - for some reason my memory was that you played with Jim Slater - must be confused with another guy. Anyway Slater is on my mind - one of those marginal guys I think may yet step up.

Great take on Lupul - thanks a million. I have to stash a LW over the weekend and he was one of the candidates along with Bouchard and Sturm. The time to own Lupul is when his hot streak and the Yahoo H2H playoffs coincide - kinda like pitching darts at a moving target.

Cheers!

__________________
Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

Exactly. He'll be solid for a little while, but if you have the opportunity to stash him on your IR and keep him there even when he's returned for a few games, I'd do it. Long term I don't see him getting more than 60-65 pts tops, but he should be good for anywhere from 45-60 in a healthy season.

__________________
NHL credentialed writer for Columbus through thehockeyguys.net and dobberprospects.com

@tlucarelli on twitter

In the end I stashed Sturm - just more dependable in some ways, if less talented and as a non-keeper I like the Bruins schedule for the yahoo playoffs better than the Ducks. Actually hope I never have to use my stash but who knows.

__________________
Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson