Studs

Philadelphia Flyers rookie Brayden Schenn scored two goals on Sunday night in a loss to the Detroit Red Wings. After the game the Schenn chastised Claude Giroux, who went scoreless and minus-one in the game, saying, "Come on G, I'm carrying the team here!" Giroux was silent but did flash his you're dead to me look.

Speaking of those Wings, they tied the NHL record for most consecutive home victories with 20. Now for all you naysayers out there, yes the Wings have benefitted from the shootout registering three shootout victories in that stretch as well as one overtime victory but they also won three games with Joey MacDonald in net, which more than balances things out.

Welcome back Andy McDonald! Apparently when he got injured back in November he said he thought his career was over. You weren't the only one Andy.

McDonald added an instant spark to the Blues power play as they went 2/6 on Sunday night in blanking the Sharks 3-0. McDonald recorded just one assist but his veteran presence, playmaking skills and offensive creativity are just what the Blues need to really contend.

Of course, Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock sees things differently.

"I don't know how things were under Davis Payne but Andy needs to know, on my team you dump it in and start skating backwards. This whole offensive zone thing he had going on will not be tolerated. If he wants to try to score goals he can find plenty of opportunities in the AHL or better yet in the KHL. I know a guy who can hook him up."

In all seriousness though, McDonald is the key to the Blues power play. The Blues are 26th in the league at 14.4% on the power play but last season with McDonald in for 58 games the Blues ranked 10th at 18.6%. He has scored at least 17 PPP in every season since the lockout and is sure to make the Blues that much more dangerous. Particularly if he can buy in to Hitchcock's defense first concepts.

The real star for the Blues on Sunday was Alex Pietrangelo. The defenseman scored two goals - one on a full length alleyoop shot into the empty net - and added one assist. He rounded things out with four SOG, two PPP, a plus-one rating and the game winner. Also had two hits and two blocked shots for good measure. He is up to 18 points in 17 games in 2012. Just another example of how fickle defensemen can be.

Who in the hell are Dwight King and Jordan Nolan? Both guys scored their first career NHL goals and for Nolan it came in his first game. Nice debut. You know who was thoroughly impressed? Atlas, err... Jonathan Quick who was pleased to have the load lessened just a bit in a win over the Stars.

Dallas forward Loui Eriksson had two points in the game, making it his first multi-point game in exactly a month and also answering the age old riddle; if a tree falls in the forest but no one is around, does it make a sound? Yes, yes it does.

Uh oh, he's doing it again. That's right Corey Perry has once again completed the transformation from Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk. His line on Sunday was just stupid. He scored a hattrick to lead the Anaheim Ducks past the lowly Columbus Windbreakers but added a plus-two rating, two PPP, four PIM, and 11 SOG. If Perry is going to do this big green monster thing in the second half every year then I am just drafting him first overall in all my H2H leagues and sitting and waiting.

Kudos to Jose Theodore for netting a win in his return to the lineup, although we should really be giving the props to Evgeni Nabokov. That's just a classy move handing the win to the other goalie when he's making his return.

You will never believe this but Alex Semin was seen back checking in Sunday night's game. Not even the Mayans predicted this.

Duds

Statistically Alex Ovechkin had a reasonable game with one assist, five SOG and one shot off Dan Girardi's head but overall he played a poor game failing to turn it on until the final minutes. Apparently Ovechkin's answer to the critics who say he can only perform when it doesn't matter is to not perform at any point ever. I for one applaud this sort of outside the box thinking. Good for you Ovy, you truly have a brilliant mind.

It just wasn't Evgeni Malkin's day on Sunday. The NHL's leading scorer managed JUST two goals, powering the Penguins to their second come-from-behind victory in as many days. Malkin came within inches of netting the hattrick as the Lightning pulled their goalie with a minute and a half to go. As the crowd cheered, "Geno! Geno! Geno!" he proceeded to have his wrap-around attempt steered aside by a sprawling Lightning player and was stopped again by the post in the dying moments.

The worst part of all of this is the Penguins once again missed out on an opportunity to not so subtly lose intentionally to fall to that sixth spot in the conference but maybe they are saving those tactics for later in the season because let's be real, if I'm in the East and I can't finish top two, I am gunning for that sixth spot. Ain't no division softer than the Southeast.

After the game Malkin had this to say, "I don't know what happen. We try to lose. Their goalies like Russian prostitute, let you put it in anywhere."

Also, Malkin was outscored by Chris Kunitz, which is kind of like Kobe Bryant getting outscored by the ball boy.

Dustin Penner has been a healthy scratch these past two games. Apparently he asked the team for a leave of absence to follow his true passion: competitive pancake eating.

Jonas Hiller got out-douched by Steve Mason, which is no surprise really. Mason is after all King Douche of Dry Vag Island.

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Ha! King Douche of Dry Vag Island....

Also, when Doc Emrick called out Semin's making a great back-check, I almost did a spit take. Of course, Ovechkin took over the lackadaisical shifts for him for the period, so the universe didn't completely fall off its gimbals.

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H2H 10 GMs Keeper: keep up to 4 at cost of draft pick (round in red) G, A,+/-,PIM,SOG,PPP; Wins,GAA,Sv% Start 2C 2R 2L 1 Util 4D 2G, weekly starts
C: Tomáš Plecanec (10), Jonathan Huberdeau (11)
LW: Patrik Eliáš (14), Pascal Dupuis (10) Иlлья Kovalchuk (1), Brandon Saad (10)
RW: Jarome Iginla (3), Phil Kessel (2) Jakub Voráček (9)
Util:
D:Ryan Suter (7), Mike Green (4), Brent Burns (10), Mark Streit, Justin Schultz (12)
G:Craig Anderson (6), Дeвaн Dubnyk (17) Cepгeй Bobrovsky (9), Niklas Bäckström (8)

Holy hell -- that was an entertaining read.

Nicely done.

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Points-only, Full Keeper Dynasty League
Active roster (no starts, just total points): 12 FW, 6 D, 1 Goalie

Forwards: Ovechkin, D. Sedin, Stastny, Nash, Kesler, Ribeiro, B. Richards, Selanne, Hossa, Fleischmann, Whitney, Lecavalier, Alfredsson, Okposo, Plekanec, Doan, S. Kostitsyn

Defense: Goligoski, Campbell, Gonchar, Bergeron, Liles, McBain, Vatanen, Timonen, Visnovsky, Giordano, Wideman

Goal: Luongo, Holtby

That was awesome.

EDIT: despite leaving out Letang [cough-cough]

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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

Gold as usual MD

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That was crazy good. Thanks a lot.

Sorry, I promised his mom I would not discuss him until he got a haircut.

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[QUOTE=metaldude26;903428]Studs


Of course, Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock sees things differently.

"I don't know how things were under Davis Payne but Andy needs to know, on my team you dump it in and start skating backwards. This whole offensive zone thing he had going on will not be tolerated. If he wants to try to score goals he can find plenty of opportunities in the AHL or better yet in the KHL. I know a guy who can hook him up."

Just curious where this quote came from. Can't see it anywhere and all reports I have heard is Hitch was impressed on how McDonald played

[QUOTE=Millhouse;903743]Pretty sure it was a tongue in cheek 'fake' quote lol.

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@B0ndon

Goalies: If I'm pickin em you best be sittin em!

Definitely just made that up for comedic effect. The Malkin one is real though, I SWEAR!

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Also on Twitter @SteveLaidlaw