Studs


Kandy Kane

Evander Kane had a 3 point last night; 2 goals and 1 assist and was a +2 as the Jets downed the Rangers 4-3. He now has an 8 game point streak with 10 points in his last 8. For leagues with extended cats his 7 shots, 2 blocks and 2 hits rounded out his scoring nicely. Two game winning goals in his last 2 games and the importance of Evander to his team is becoming more and more evident as the season continues.

Contractual Obligations

Braden Holtby pitched a shutout just 1 day after signing a 2 year extension with the Washington Capitals. Since letting up 6 goals to the Penguins on Feb. 7th, Holtby has let in 17 goals in 8 games going 5-3 during that stretch with 2 shutouts. Holtby appears to be showing some signs of being the goalie we saw at the end of last season and during the playoffs and if he continues to improve the deal Washington signed him to may prove to be a huge steal for them.

Koping Mechanism

Tomas Kopecky had 3 goals and 1 assist for 4 points as the Florida Panthers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. 4 PIMs, 4 shots and 1 blocked shot and hit as well as a +1 rounded out his scoring. For a guy better known for his two-way game his 7 points in his last 6 games as well as 13 in 19 on the season are a nice little surprise.

Honorable Mentions

Brian Campbell and Tomas Fleischmann also had big nights for Florida each with a goal and pair of assists as well as 2 PIMs each. Campbell had 4 shots, 4 blocks, and 1 hit to round out his scoring. While Fleischmann's 2 shots and 1 hit rounded out his.

Antoine Vermette had a goal and assist was a +3 and went 15 for 19 in the faceoff circle as his team downed the Vancouver Canucks.

Tuukka Rask, Ryan Miller, and Niklas Backstrom all held the opposition to a single goal last night. Rask continues his impressive coming out party making 36 saves. while Miller stopped the bleeding and ended a 4 game losing streak. Minnesota and Buffalo are in the bottom 1/3 of the league in scoring, with Minnesota being dead last and if these teams are going to contend for playoff spots it will likely fall on the shoulders of their goalies.


Duds

Little Benn

Jamie Benn had a rough night in his team's 5-4 victory over Columbus. No points and a -3 with only 2 hits and less than 18 minutes of ice time. The scoring isn't much of an issue as we don't expect players to get points every single game. This the second game in a row now that he was a -3 though and for a guy that finished +15 on the season last year, I am sure this has some poolies scratching their heads. His decrease in ice time also points to a coach who might be getting frustrated with the defensive play of this star player. There is certainly nothing to panic about here, but in close games having the coach's confidence is paramount to getting out there and Benn will have to step up his all around game or there is a possibility that his offense suffers as a result.

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt SALLY

Brad Boyes, Matt Moulson, John Tavares and Travis Hamonic combined for a -12 in their team's 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins. The foursome also didn't register a single point for their team. In 3 games this season this group is a staggering -35. So if you have one or more of them on your team I hope you understand you are pretty much punting this stat.

TnT

Tomas Vokoun and Jose Theodore both blew up last night but not in a good way. Vokoun didn't even make it to the half way point of the game before he was pulled after surrendering 4 goals on 22 shots. While at the other end of the ice Theodore didn't start the 3rd period after allowing 4 goals on 19 shots. Vokoun certainly hasn't been the goalie that the Pens thought they were getting this season and one has to wonder if they end up having to burn MAF out again going into the playoffs this season. In Florida on the other hand Theodore was supposed to be a place holder until Jacob Markstrom is ready to take over the role, but at the same time he was supposed to give the team a chance to be competitive. Both goalies have struggled for consistency this season and it doesn't appear to be getting better.


Odds & Ends

Bon Jovi May Have Had Something There

Simon Gagne and Michael Ryder both rejoined the teams that drafted them in separate trades yesterday. It will be interesting to see what the Flyers end up getting out of Gagne given their problems seem to be more defensive than offensive. As for Montreal it looks like they stole this deal a little bit, it certainly gives them a bit more offense to help their run this season, while getting them a shorter contract and a pick to boot. There have been little nibble moves the last couple of weeks it looks like the trade deadline might be starting.

Realignment

Hey NHL brain-trust if you are going to do something as ridiculous as give us two conferences with different numbers of teams in them why not throw the hockey fan a bone. You are going back to 2 conferences and 4 divisions and this isn't the NBA so give us back our historic names already. If you are going to keep shutting down our game every few years because you can't figure out how to share a crap load of money, while expecting us to come back every year the least you could do is show us we are important. One way to do that is to recognize that many of us are fans and remain fans no matter what you do to our game because we have a love for the history of the game. So give us back our Patrick and Adams, give us our Norris and Smythe. We want our Prince of Wales and Clarence Campbell back. After all we can explain to our kids why the Bruins and two Florida teams are in the Adams division and not the Patrick division, but explaining why they are in the Central division when there is an Atlantic division is a bit tougher.

good stuff dude.

__________________
12 Team NHL Salary Cap Dynasty -daily starts
H2H, Salary Cap 82mil, Player actual salaries (all)
+/-,G,A,GWG,PTS,STP,PIM,SOG,HT,BS,GAA,SO,SV,W
Starters: 12 Forwards, 6 Defense, 2 Goalies

Forwards: Fleischmann, Duchene, Ennis, Kessel, M.Koivu, Neal, Conacher, D.Sedin, H.Sedin, Bailey, J.Thornton, Bozak
Defense: Carlson, Gardiner, Kulikov, Franson, Dillon, MacDonald
Goalie: Rask, Crawford
Reserves: B.Schenn, Cowen, Fraser, Gryba, Brodeur, Emery, Pavelec
Prospects: Gallagher, Chiasson, Killorn, A.Larsson, Murphy, Rielly
Fantrax TAHL 2013 Champion

Nice read. Thanks.

I felt bad for Fleury owners, because despite only giving up only 1 goal last night, Fleury was credited with the loss.

__________________
10 team league, multi-cat, full keeper.

Forwards: J. Toews, J. Tavares, J. Eberle, J. Neal, A. Kopitar, T. Seguin, E. Kane, M. Duchene, J. Benn, M. Ryder, D. Brown, B. Marchand

Defense: A. Pietrangelo, K. Shattenkirk, A. Goligoski, PK Subban, J. Carlson, J. Spurgeon

Goalies: M. Smith, A. Niemi

Bench: R. Clowe, B. Dubinsky, M. Calvert, P. Mueller, D. Clarkson, M. Carle, M. Niskanen, P. Wiercioch, J. Halak, A. Lindback

Great read and creativity. Rep worthy effort here. Good job!

__________________
League: Yahoo 20 Team Dynasty, H2H (4C, 8W, 6D, 1G)
Cats: +/-, FOW, A, G, GWG, PPP, SHP, SOG, S, SPct, W, GAA

C: Benn,Kopitar,J.Staal,Strome
W: Atkinson,Bennett,BrunnerConacher
Huberdeau,Kessel,Seguin,Selanne
D: Beaulieu,DeKeyser,Despres,D.Hamilton,Leopold,Salo
G: J.Howard
Bench: Braun,B.Flynn,B.Gordon - J.Bernier,O.Pavelec,V.Stalberg
Prospects: Andrighetto,V.Arvidsson,Filatov,G.Carey,K.Flanagan,Kabanov,Lehtera,Omark,Ritchie,
R.Schwartz,Shalunov,Stransky,
Clendening,Deslauriers,Gauthier-Leduc,J.Morrow,R.Murphy,Petrovic,Reilly, -- M.Hackett

Really enjoyed the read. I like how Holtby has started to turn around his game along with Washington's overall improved play. Possibly a good time to scour the waiver wire or buy low on Carlson?

__________________
Yahoo 10 team H2H classic.
G,A, PPP, SHG, SOG, +/-, PIM, Goalie stats: W, L, SO

Start: 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 4D, 2G

C: Toews, M. Koivu, Benn, M. Dubinsky
LW: Hall, Moulson, Ladd, JVR
RW: Michalek, Kopecky, Purcell, J. Carter
D: Chara, Pietrangelo, J-Bo, Markov
G: Fleury, Crawford, Holtby

Kopecky was sitting on my bench in my roto league last night. Bleh. Every time I checked my team he had another point!!!

__________________
1 yr H2H, 10 teams
G(3),A(2),+/-(1),PIM(0.2),GWG(1),W(5),SO(3)

3C-Stamkos/Kane (RW)/Shaw
3LW-Ovechkin/Lucic/Pacioretty/Ryan (RW)/Hagelin
3RW-Sharp (C)/St. Louis/Stewart/Brunner/Neil/Gallagher
4D-Pietrangelo/Goligoski/Ekman-Larsson/Leddy/Phaneuf/Beauchemin/Corvo
1G-Rinne/Ward/Anderson/Bishop
+1 Util