Week Twenty-Two Newsletter

It's going to be somewhat of a quick Newsletter this week, as time wasn't in the cards for this week's publication.

There was a tie-breaking situation for the Player of the Week nod, but the tie-breaker was pretty easy this week, as it was a forward against a goalie and as we all know, the goalies don't do well here, especially if there was only one goal scored.

Sure enough, with 4 goals and 4 assists, Calgary's Jiri Hudler is our Player of the Week, knocking off Colorado's Semyon Varlamov for the honour.

Hudler played in four games this past week and in each game, he was able to register a couple of points.  A goal and an assist against both Boston and Philadelphia, scored a pair of goals against Detroit and then added a couple of assists against Ottawa to finish off his week.

The 31-year old Czech forward has had a good season, to this point, in Calgary, picking up 23 goals and 56 points in 63 games with the Flames, which is good for 37th overall in pool scoring.

Mike took the Flames' leading scorer down in the 7th round of the draft, making him into quite the bargain pick, since he is getting 2nd round production out of him this season.  No one really took the Flames seriously this year, so Mike cashed in on at least one of his picks.

Brian's team just continues to roll in this third segment and he is definitely being carried by his Waiver Draft goalies... so much so, he could be in the money before this is all said and done.

Week Twenty-Two was good to Brian, as his team picked up 32 points and moved into 6th place in the standings, now only 28 points out of the money.  In the last four week, Brian has already gained on Wes, who sits in 3rd, by 21 points, so with five weeks to go, it just doesn't seem out of the question that his team could do it.

His goalies indeed led the way in the week, as both Devan Dubnyk of the Wild and Cam Talbot of the Rangers each finished the week with 6 points.  John Tavares of the Islanders had 5 points and Jason Pominville of the Wild had 4 points, also in the mix to lead the way.

Brian did lose Nathan MacKinnon this week, so that is the only real danger of not making it that he faces.

Tough week for Brenda & Seward, as their magical run out of the Basement of the pool peaked at about 11th place in the standings.  Their team only managed to pick up 10 points this past week and it had dropped them back down to 17th and there is still some more room to drop.

Their best player this week was Anze Kopitar of the Kings, who had 4 points, but seven active zeroes on their team page sunk them in the end.  There was just no getting away from it this week, thanks in part to injuries to one of their key players and a couple of good support players.

This looks to be the end of the line for the pool's second duo, with only five weeks left to go in the season.

TROPHY TALK

For the big trophy, Kristy & Don's lead is down to 78 points from 79 points the week before.  I know what you're thinking... oh, lah-dee-dah!  For the rest of the money, Grant S. now holds a 14-point lead over Wes, as that shrunk by a couple of points.  Wes opened up his gap on 4th to 20 points, something that might be tough to shrink in this last stretch, barring a miracle or two.

The Olli bobblehead race tightened up again, as Allan was caught again by Wyllie and only 1 point separates the two teams from infamy.

The Jordan bobblehead is all Allan's at this point.  His team had the low total of skater games in the week and a couple teams would have to rest all of their players for a couple weeks, just to get a shot at this trophy.

Finally, the third segment, it still belongs to Brian.  His lead over Benson is now 19 points, but with a good week or two there, Benson could change his fortunes.

WINNING EVERY WEEK

We have a winner!  Brenda & Seward bowed out after Ben Scrivens of the Oilers couldn't keep their team alive in Week Twenty-Two.  Scrivens had been doing an admirable job without Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers to help their team out, thanks to a vascular injury, but this week wasn't his week.

Kristy & Don take the title, thanks to a Frederik Andersen win against the Coyotes on Tuesday.

ROOKIE SCORING

Dale B.'s team picked up another 9 points from their freshmen this week and their leading gap is now 8 points over Wilton, who is struggling to keep up with only one rookie on his side.  Yes, this race appears to be over.

LIGHTING THE LAMP

No teams dropped out of the goal scoring streaks this week, although Grant K. just barely got the 3 goals he needed to stay alive.

Kristy & Don and Stacey M. still have the two most impressive teams, each with streaks of 4 goals per week, while Stacey C. and Ryan continue with their 3-goal weeks as well.

CHRIS STEWART VS ERIK COLE

In Minnesota, Chris Stewart picked up a couple points with his new team this week, while Detroit's new acquisition, Erik Cole, also picked up a couple of points, so the race doesn't change through the week.  Cole currently leads, 10-6, which means $4 heading to Clayton, if the season were to finish up today.

ROUND 4 IN THE DRAFT

Pick #	Round	Pool	Player	NHL	POS	Points
71	4	Dale Corley	Henrik Sedin	VAN	F	60
80	4	Stacey Campbell	Daniel Sedin	VAN	F	58
78	4	Stacey McDonald	Max Pacioretty	MTL	F	57
91	4	Cam Wagner	Brent Burns	SAN	D	49
72	4	Derek Wilton	Blake Wheeler	WPG	F	48
76	4	Mike Somerville	Mark Giordano	CAL	D	48
81	4	Dale Bradley	Patrick Marleau	SAN	F	48
90	4	Grant Kanwischer	Patrice Bergeron	BOS	F	47
73	4	Brenda Farrell	James Van Riemsdyk	TOR	F	46
89	4	Brian Towers	Jason Pominville	MIN	F	46
82	4	Leo Macht	Martin St. Louis	NYR	F	44
86	4	Derek Wyllie	Mark Streit	PHI	D	43
88	4	Troy Berkley	Eric Staal	CAR	F	42
84	4	Kristy & Don	Keith Yandle	NYR	D	41
74	4	Allan Scott	Ryan O'Reilly	COL	F	39
83	4	Tony Dourado	Chris Kunitz	PIT	F	39
70	4	Scott Gilmore	Loui Eriksson	BOS	F	38
77	4	Wes Moroz	Paul Stastny	STL	F	38
85	4	Clayton Corley	Drew Doughty	LOS	D	38
92	4	Stuart Greenley	Niklas Kronwall	DET	D	37
79	4	Grant Saskiw	James Neal	NAS	F	34
75	4	Benson Greenley	David Krejci	BOS	F	26
87	4	Ryan Miller	Anton Khudobin	CAR	G	0

This round has a solid mix of teams that are doing well, near the bottom of this round's standings, while some other team did quite well in this round and not so well in the standings.  With only one drop in the round, there is definitely a huge discrepancy between the best player taken in the round and the worst.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

After the dust settled after the Trade Deadline, it really appears that players got their legs underneath them and we finally saw some scoring again.  Weeks Twenty-One and Twenty-Two each had 47 NHL games on their schedule, but this past week saw 542 points collected, compared to the 481 collected the week before.

Games played and minutes played were only up slightly, so it really says to meant that players were bearing down on the playoff races and I think we might see some increased scoring to finish the season, barring more major injuries.

NEWS AND NOTES

There wasn't much from Sunday's action for news and notes, so we'll look ahead, as we've already heard that the Maple Leafs will be scratching forward Nazem Kadri for being late to a team meeting on Sunday. Kadri was sent home without getting a chance to practice and he is now being held out of the lineup for the game against the Islanders.

This is yet another little speed bump in Brian's quest to race up to the top for some pool money this season.  Kadri is likely required to help his cause out down the stretch, so he should be cursing the fact that his player can't make it to a simple player meeting in the morning.

The word is out of Detroit, that goalie Jonas Gustavsson was injured over the weekend, so the team has made the move on Monday to recall Petr Mrazek from Grand Rapids to back-up Jimmy Howard going forward.  Mrazek has been down in the minors for the last few weeks, but knowing the Detroit goaltending duo this season, either or were going to end up back on the shelf, I had that feeling... I'm not sure about if you felt the same way or not.

Scott has only picked up 40 minutes from his Week Eighteen Waiver Draft pick-up since activation and there wasn't a win attached to it.  There is no real indication as to how much playing time Mrazek may get on his recall, but any will help Scott, in theory.

The Philadelphia Flyers announced on Monday, that they will be without defenseman Michael Del Zotto for the next 7-to-10 days with an upper-body injury.  There is no real indication about what the injury actually is, but the Flyers don't fear he will be out for too long.

Chalk another injury concern up to Allan's team.  Yes, it is exactly what he needs to take home both non-pool winning bobbleheads this year.

Link to the Injury/News Page

Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 8)

There's a bit of concern over a lower-body injury that Dallas defenseman John Klingberg suffered on Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The prognosis is only a day-to-day issue, according to the coaching staff, so it likely won't be too long, but I guess you can never be too sure.

Klingberg is a part of the freshman pack that has done Dale B. some wonders in the rookie scoring race, as he was a Week Nine pick-up and hasn't looked back since.  Since Week Nine, the Swede has picked up 27 points in 39 games, better than some forwards in the pool.  Dale's team now holds an 8-point lead in the rookie race, going into Sunday.


The flu bug that took out Jaromir Jagr earlier in the week, took rookie defenseman Aaron Ekblad out of commission for Saturday night's game against the Islanders. Ekblad, considered to be a Calder Trophy candidate this season, has been stellar for the Panthers after being selected 1st overall at the Entry Draft. In 65 games this season, Ekblad has 11 goals and 34 points.

He was definitely keeping Grant S. afloat in the rookie race for the longest time, up until Dale B. picked a couple in the last Waiver Draft. Grant's lead on 2nd place has dropped another 3 points this week, now down to 13 points with five weeks to go. Losing Ekblad for a Panthers win may have added up to a point or two lost.

Boy, you take a player off an enormous ironman streak and there's no telling what he'll fall prey to, eh? St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester was also a victim of a horrible flu bug as well and that cost him Saturday night's game against the Maple Leafs. It isn't like the Blues needed more help in that game, as they thoroughly wiped the floor with their opponents, it's just good to get those light games in during the run to the playoffs.

And at a 6-1 drubbing, there were likely some extra points to be had for a guy like Bouwmeester, if he were in the lineup, or he could have made things much worse for Toronto and opened up a few more goals on their account that night. No, Allan couldn't be that lucky this year, but his team is still carrying a 5-point gap on Wyllie for the Olli bobblehead at the moment.

There was a late scratch on Saturday for the Canucks, as they visited the Sharks in San Jose in one of the two late games last night. Forward Christopher Higgins was scratched with a lower-body injury and was deemed unfit to play in the game. There has been no such report on how long they expect him to be out, so for now, he'll be on the list as out dya-to-day.

Higgins has been somewhat of a disappointment to Mike since the Week Nine Waiver Draft, only picking up 14 points in 35 games this season, not exactly the production that you would be hoping for in this regard. Mike's team still has 22 points this week, but is still mired in 20th place in the standings at this point. Ryan still needs 23 more points, just to catch him in the standings.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 7)

On Thursday night, a notable absence was seen in the Washington Capitals lineup, but not on Friday's blog post at all, as Alex Ovechkin missed the game against the Minnesota Wild, due to a lower-body injury. There was no indication on when or where Ovechkin suffered the injury, but the team is indicating that the injury is minor and there is a chance that he could play on Saturday, listing him as a game-time decision.  The Caps host the Sabres on Saturday night, so there may not be any real need to rush him back for this one.

There no rush for pool purposes either, as Kristy & Don still have a healthy 78-point lead in the standings, with just over five weeks to go.

One of the Sabres' trade deadline acquisitions fell to injury this week and was held out of the lineup on Friday night, as goalie Chad Johnson has been diagnosed with a lower-body injury and is currently day-to-day on the shelf. There is no real telling when he'll be suiting up again, but with the Sabres going in the direction that they are, I don't think they'll mind giving him a rest for a while.

I don't know for sure, but I am thinking that Mike is pretty indifferent, as to whether or not his goalie plays or not.  His team is down in 20th, doesn't have a ballot in the third segment race and is fairly safe to stay away from the joke trophy bobbleheads.  Nevertheless, this needed to be posted.

Another bug seems to be going around the NHL, here in March, and on Friday night, the latest victim of it was Thomas Vanek of the Minnesota Wild. He was held out of the game against the Carolina Hurricanes, a 3-1 win for the Wild, but he is expected to be back in the lineup shortly.

Not much for news on this post either, as Wyllie, our current leader for the Olli bobblehead, has Vanek and is trying to increase his gap for it, seemingly... as if he had control over his player's well being.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Couple of Grounded Jets

The playoffs are not exactly a pipe dream in Winnipeg these days, but it won't come without its enormous challenges and I'm not speaking to the schedule itself. No, injuries are now working their way into the equation and one is quite significant.

It was posted earlier that Dustin Byfuglien left a game in the mid-week with an upper-body injury, likely to his right arm/shoulder and the club has confirmed on Friday, that they expect him to miss the next 2-to-4 weeks with the injury. There were no specifics on what the injury is, but they have at least given us a timetable to work with.

Also in the announcement, forward Bryan Little is also dealing with an undisclosed injury, but he will be traveling with the team, as they embark on a key 4-game road trip, which starts Saturday night in Nashville.  Little isn't expected to play in the first two games and his status will remain questionable for the other two games.

The biggest hit, obviously gets Tony's team, as he loses a big piece of his team in Byfuglien for the time being and his team is already riddled with injury, it's insane.  Now that you take out Byfuglien's 42 points in 65 games, there isn't a great deal of offense left on his team to help him out of the hole it has dug, rather, it has just given it more motivation to dig deeper.

Tony's team currently sits in 15th place and has a 10-point gap on 16th place and then a 21-point gap to 17th, but with all the bodies he's without now, those gaps don't look so big.  We'll see what kind of impact it truly has soon.

As for Little, his injury situation may not be quite as dire, but the impact could possibly felt on Cam's team, as he tries to reel in 3rd and 4th place from the 5th position.  Little has had 51 points in 65 games to this point and has been pretty consistent with his production all year.

Cam is only 6 points back of 4th and now 24 points back of 3rd, but this injury could have a short-term affect on his side.  He has to watch his back at this point too, as Brian is only 4 points back in 6th place, but his team has also just suffered an injury, so the whole injury scene seems to be evening out a bit.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

MacKinnon's Season Ends Early

The regular season for the promising young sophomore in Colorado, Nathan MacKinnon, has come to an abrupt end.  With the Avalanche 9 points back of the last wild card spot in the Western Conference and four teams to jump over to get there, it seems like the 2015 season will come to a complete end, when the regular season schedule comes to a close as well.

On Friday morning, the Avalanche announced that MacKinnon will miss the next 6-to-8 weeks with a fractured foot, an injury that his coach says he suffered over a period of a couple games, blocking shots.  The final straw came on Wednesday night against the Penguins, where after the game, he went for a scan and it revealed the fracture in his foot.  With only 5+ weeks left in the regular season, it seems unlikely that he'll be dressing again for the conclusion of the year.

This is a pretty significant blow to the team, because as of Friday morning, MacKinnon ranks 130th in pool scoring, picking up 14 goals and 38 points in 64 games this season, scoring at 0.59 points per game this season.  He wasn't necessarily blowing the doors off the hinges this season, but he was having a decent sophomore season, despite his team's lack of success.  This will all be something that likely gets addressed in the off-season.

This comes as an even bigger blow to Brian, who has been storming the gates of the top 10, blasting his way up to 6th after Thursday night and he only sits 28 points out of the money and is still moving along at quite the pace.  MacKinnon has done well for him, no doubt, although maybe not quite as well as his draft position, being taken 43rd overall in the 2nd round, but still doing okay.  It will likely be a reasonable speed bump for the remainder of the season for Brian, but his team may continue to march, even without the young Avs forward.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 6)

The Calgary Flames welcomed back forward Matt Stajan to the active roster on Thursday night, but was not active on the ice against the Bruins, as he'll likely need some practice time to get his timing back after missing a handful of games.  Stajan is returning from the birth of his child, which happened earlier in the week.

Stajan has been less than effective for Leo this season, picking up 10 points in 40 games played and really shouldn't have much value in hockey pools going forward.  At least his projected games comes back into Leo's totals now.

Call it the change in climate, but Jaromir Jagr was a scratch from the Panthers game against the Stars, due to being under the weather.  On the surface, it looks like Jagr has provided a positive vibe in the Panthers dressing room, as they chase down a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference and that's all the team can really ask, besides a little bit of help on the scoresheet, of course.

Cam's team has definitely seen a marginal improvement over the recent weeks, so it may be fair to consider that he missed the oldest player in the NHL a little bit in the game last night.  Something like this shouldn't keep him out long though,

The second half of back-to-backs appear to be something that the Montreal Canadiens are going to keep a close eye on, as they decided to rest both forward PA Parenteau and defenseman Sergei Gonchar for their game in Los Angeles on Thursday night.  Parenteau is coming off a concussion and has seen some action already, while the wily veteran Gonchar is not having his legs put to too much work these days, as this team expects to go deep in the playoffs and they'll want their best players available for that run.

So, if I was Allan and Wes, respectively to the players above, I would be expecting to see this more often in the remaining five weeks in the schedule.  It isn't ideal by any way, but if these guys are to remain fresh, the games that they do play in, they may find them to be a bit more useful.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

More Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 5)

It's been a little while since I've sat down and did up a goalie post, so since I have a few moments this afternoon, I'll churn one out.

As of Thursday night, neither of our goalie survivor teams remaining have their wins to move on to the next week or win the title, if the other should falter.  Tonight, Kristy & Don have the only shot at staying alive tonight, with few nights of action left.  Pekka Rinne and the Predators will play host to the Islanders, taking on Jaroslav Halak, who will give another start to Tony's free-falling team.

Karri Ramo will go for the Flames tonight, expected to take on Tuukka Rask and the Bruins, which pits Leo's goalie against Dale B.'s.

In Philadelphia, the Flyers will go with Steve Mason against the visiting Blues and Brian Elliott.  Allan's number one keeper will take on Clayton's number two guy tonight.

A good one will go at the Verizon Center in Washington, as Braden Holtby and the Capitals will play host to Devan Dubnyk and the Minnesota Wild.  A couple of hot goalies from Stacey C. and Brian's teams, could be a good game to watch.

The slumping Maple Leafs will go to Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning and the expected goalie battle tonight should see Jonathan Bernier take on Ben Bishop, a goalie match-up between Troy and Scott.

It's a non-pool game in the Florida crease, as Dan Ellis subs for a couple of injured Panthers goalies tonight, while Kari Lehtonen will dress for the Dallas Stars, who are coming in for a visit.  Benson is the only pool team in this one tonight.

In the desert, the Coyotes will push towards the bottom of the standings with another start from Mike Smith, as they face the Canucks, who are running with another non-pool goalie in Eddie Lack.  Wes gets an uncontested start, but the Coyotes haven't exactly been poised to do much damage.

Finally, on the second half of back-to-back nights, the Canadiens will go with Dustin Tokarski tonight against the Kings, who will go with their number one guy, Jonathan Quick tonight.  It's Dale C.'s second against Grant S.'s first choice in this one.

At this point, all the match-ups are pretty well solidified, so I would think that these games are pretty well set.  Looks like a decent night in the NHL, enjoy a game or two, eh!

Daley Expected to be Out a Month

A nasty looking knee-on-knee hit has knocked Dallas Stars defenseman Trevor Daley out of their lineup for the foreseeable future, as the team announced that they will be without one of their key components to their blueline for the next 2-to-4 weeks.

Daley was hurt in the game against the Islanders on Tuesday night, when he collided with New York's Matt Martin in an open-ice knee-on-knee hit, which has now cost Martin a one game suspension, as per the NHL Player Safety Committee.

Daley has been pretty good for the Stars this season, scoring 16 goals and 33 points from the back end.  His goal total currently has him in a tie with Brent Burns of the Sharks and is 1 goal behind Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the defenseman scoring race.

In terms of overall scoring, Daley ranks 173rd overall among all players and 26th among all defensemen, lacking in assists to keep up with the boys up at the top.

In the pool this year, Daley belongs to Wes, who currently sits in 3rd place.  Wes is trying to chase down Grant S., as the gap between 3rd and 2nd has widened a little, now sitting at 18 points and Wes is currently safely ahead of Clayton in 4th place, as his lead is at 14 points.  Daley isn't a big part of his success thus far, but in missing out on this time frame, there is a good chance that Wes could miss out on 3-to-5 points in this time frame.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 5)

The week of the oblique muscle injury? Wild defenseman Marco Scandella is one of a few players to already be diagnosed with an oblique injury, but it doesn't sound to be quite as bad as Columbus non-pool forward David Clarkson, who may be done for the year with his. Scandella missed out on Tuesday night's game against the Senators and he could miss upwards of about a week, by one report I have seen on Thursday morning. He will remain on the list as day-to-day, until the team puts him on the Injured Reserve or announce anything else in the coming days.

Scandella belongs to Stacey C. in the pool this year and as much as his team is having an okay start to Week Twenty-Two, his team hasn't seen much improvement in the overall standings. In the third segment, his team sits in 5th place, 20 points behind the leader, but only 6 points behind 2nd place, so he has some movement to make up in that regard. Getting Scandella back sooner rather than later will certainly help.

The Red Wings welcomed defenseman Kyle Quincey back to their lineup on Wednesday night against the Rangers and with the acquisition of Marek Zidlicky at the deadline, this means that someone had to be squeezed out and there is no one easier to squeeze out than Jakub Kindl, who has been a healthy scratch on many occasions already this year.  Unless the blueline really staggers in Detroit, it doesn't seem very likely that Kindl will see nearly as much action as some of his teammates down the stretch.

This news just perpetuates how bad of a year Dale C. has had with his defensemen, as his total points from the back end are nearly half of what the pool average is this year and only one-third of what the leaders have in the position.  Dale still sits in 6th place, 27 points out of the money.

In one of the strangest situations that has happened in hockey in recent memory, the Florida Panthers went through Tuesday night's game against the Maple Leafs with two injured goalies for the better part of the game. Roberto Luongo took a puck up high, which forced him from the game, then Al Montoya came in and suffered an injury of his own, but managed to come back out of necessity. In the 3rd period, Luongo, fresh from a trip to the hospital, suited up and finished the game.  The after-effects doesn't sound very good for either goalie, as the Panthers made a couple of recalls from the minors, while the team awaits the news and they will get their first test, tonight, at home to the Stars.

This has the potential to be a crushing blow to Stuart, who has Luongo on his side this year.  His team is only 9 points out of the top 10 and it is his team that sits in 2nd place in the third segment standings, thanks in part to Luongo's minutes in Florida.

The hopes of a Winnipeg Jets team in the playoffs are certainly going to be tested with the news that Dustin Byfuglien left Wednesday night's game with an upper-body injury, likely related to his right arm/shoulder, and wasn't able to return to the game.  The stalwart defender/forward has been a pivotal force in where the Jets sit in the NHL standings and without him, they become a little more vulnerable on the boards

It has been a real run of bad luck for Tony, who was sitting in 3rd place, back in Week Thirteen and now his run has taken him down to 15th, with some real potential to drop even further, especially with the loss of Byfuglien.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 3)

One of the Anaheim Ducks' latest acquisitions from the trade deadline, defenseman James Wisniewski, suffered a deep bone bruise in his last game as a Columbus Blue Jackets player over the weekend and that may cost him anywhere between a week or two worth of action.  There is no mention of placing Wisniewski on the Injured Reserve, as of Tuesday morning, but that isn't to say that it couldn't happen.  For now, he will be on the list as out day-to-day, but if there is any placement, all the adjustments can be made.

Well, Scott will be without one of his key players for a little bit in this last stretch of the season, but it is still somewhat unclear how much time he'll miss.  Scott got off to an okay start on Monday night, picking up a couple points, but so did the teams that are around him.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.