Morning Player Notes (Apr 5)

I suppose I could have done a little bit more research on the potential scratches for the Boston Bruins last night, as it wasn't just David Krejci taking a seat and a rest against the Minnesota Wild.  He was joined by Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy and Zdeno Chara, since this game really didn't mean much of anything.  The Bruins were still able to walk away with a 3-0 win, despite not having some of their top players.  Boston closes out their regular season schedule on Saturday afternoon against the Lightning and there's no word on the lineup just yet.

Added to the list of teams missing out on skater games on Thursday night were Stuart, Brenda & Seward and Benson.  The duo are the only one of the three teams currently looking to move a spot in the standings, gaining a little on 22nd, now only 4 points back with two nights to go.

With the Ottawa Senators giving Joey Daccord his NHL debut in net against the Sabres last night, a 5-2 loss, they were able to give veteran goalie Craig Anderson the night off as a healthy scratch.  Anderson's season may not be done though, as the Senators will conclude their season on Saturday against the Blue Jackets and what a tough season it was.  Anderson still has one more year on his 35+ contract, which likely means he'll still be around for another year of rebuilding with the Senators.

Mike's team has now dropped back to 8 points of 20th place in the standings with only a couple of nights of action left.  It seems rather improbable that his team is going to make that up, but on the plus side, his team won't drop any further.

Flyers sophomore forward Nolan Patrick was a late scratch for their game in St. Louis on Thursday night, citing an upper-body injury as the reason why he sat.  He's currently considered day-to-day and is questionable for the team's finale, at home to the Hurricanes on Saturday night.  If Patrick can't go, his season would finish with 31 points in 72 games, hovering around the top 300 in hockey pool scoring this season, right around where he finished his rookie season, 30 points in 73 games.

It may have been Scott's bias that had him hopeful for a big sophomore season, but it just wasn't to be.  I would, however, start considering him to be one of those year three breakout players.  Scott's team didn't make up much ground last night, still 4 points from passing Derek B. for 24th after Thursday night.

There's some legitimate concern for Timo Meier of the San Jose Sharks, as he crashed into the boards and had Darnell Nurse fall on top of him last night in the 3rd period and was forced from the game with an apparent wrist injury.  Meier went for X-rays last night, but the results were not immediately available after the game, so it's a wait-and-see game.  If one had to guess, I would be leaning towards doubtful for the team's finale against the Avalanche on Saturday night, just to err on the side of caution, but the real concern is for the start of the playoffs.

If Meier does miss out on the last game of the season, he can say he had a productive 2019 campaign for Dale C.'s pool team, posting 30 goals and 66 points in 78 games, which currently has him ranked 68th in pool scoring after Thursday night.  Dale's team currently holds the 10th spot in the standings and there's still wiggle room, up and down, before the end of the season.

St. Louis Blues defenseman Colton Parayko was held out of the lineup for the game against the Flyers, due to a maintenance day, dealing with a minor undisclosed injury, to which the team says that if this was a playoff game, he would dress and play.  An extra game or two of rest will probably go a long way for his performance in the opening round of the playoffs, which their match-up is currently wide open to decide, even with one game to go.  I would imagine Parayko gets the finale off as well, since the team has clinched and they are hosting the summer-bound Canucks on Saturday afternoon.

Another body down for Dale C., who may have some trouble defending 10th place, if his team is losing all of these bodies before the end of the regular season.  It's still unclear if Parayko will go in the finale or not, 28 points in 80 games isn't a bad year all told though.

The Tampa Bay Lightning took advantage of their clinched positioning to do a little bit of resting ahead of the playoffs, as forward J.T. Miller was the body that came out of the lineup for their game against the Maple Leafs on Thursday night.  Miller has been good for the Bolts this season, posting 13 goals and 45 points in 74 games this year and may have just needed a night off or was just the guy that came out to give Ryan Callahan a spin around the ice for the night.  The reasoning wasn't quite clear, but that's what happened in the end.

The Vancouver Canucks had Jake Virtanen back in the lineup, as pointed out in the preview yesterday afternoon, but we weren't quite sure who was coming out of the lineup, but it was Sven Baertschi coming out again, likely as a healthy scratch more than an injury.  Baertschi did come back from an injury a couple of weeks ago and his conditioning has been an issue since then.  There's no word on the team's finale on Saturday afternoon in St. Louis, as to who will dress or not, so we'll see how that all plays out.

Between Miller and Baertschi, it was a tough night for Troy's team, which still occupies the Basement Dweller spot in the weekly scoring with 6 points through Thursday night's action.  It's not the end of the world just yet, since there are eight teams within 4 points of his team, but these teams already have their points to avoid the basement and who knows if Troy will have those bodies on Saturday?

Evening Preview (Apr 3)

There isn't a great deal of intrigue among tonight's three games in the NHL, as there is only one of them that has any sort of meaning towards the playoffs, the other two are just something to watch for the sake of watching it.

There isn't even a whole lot of intrigue in the hockey pool out of these three game.  No games that have any merit to the money race, one top 10 game and Scott trying to get out of last place.  Boring!

Wake me when it's Thursday, would you?

Anders Nilsson (Stuart) versus Henrik Lundqvist (Scott)
We know that the Ottawa Senators have now secured 31st place in the NHL standings, which means they'll have the best odds for the draft lottery, but they won't be making that pick... the Avalanche will be.  What a dud of a season.

In the pool, this game only really has any meaning to Scott, as his goalie will be going and trying to help him get out of the hockey pool basement.  Scott's team is only 1 point clear of the weekly Basement Dweller nod and 4 points back of Derek B. in the overall basement.  Stuart's team is cruising right along and will get a visiting goalie start for whatever that's worth, not a whole hell of a lot, really.

Jake Allen (Steve) versus Cam Ward (N/A)
The St. Louis Blues could move into 2nd place in the Central with a regulation win in Chicago tonight, not quite having the ROW tie-breaker against the Jets, so the Blackhawks will be tasked to spoil their progress tonight.

Steve gets a rare start tonight from Jake Allen and the Blues, the only pool start in this game.  Steve's team is eyeing up 17th spot after an okay night last night, where his team lifted up to 7 points on the week and is only 2 points back of Brian's team and only 3 points back of Clayton and Troy, so there's certainly room to move tonight for his side.

David Rittich (Ryan) versus Ryan Miller (N/A)
The Calgary Flames have already rested some key players on their last California road trip of the season, so one could expect to see some more of that in this meaningless game against the Anaheim Ducks tonight.

The Flames are not giving away their goalie plans for the playoffs and they are continuing to rotate their keepers a bit, going again with David Rittich tonight, giving Ryan's team another start before the end of the season.  Ryan's team opens up the night in 13th, 5 points out of the top 10, so a win tonight could get him nice and close with only a few nights to go after this.

Looks like we'll be adding Sean Monahan's name to the list of healthy scratches, ahead of the playoffs, since he didn't take a spin on a regular line this morning, while Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund did.  That's two in and one out.  Wes loses out on a game, still defending 10th place, while Troy and Grant see their players back in. 

Morning Player Notes (Mar 30)

Anaheim Ducks defenseman Josh Manson wasn't in the lineup for their game on Friday night against the Calgary Flames and there hasn't been a whole lot of indication as to why.  It does look as though it is a healthy scratch he was down for and a -2 rating against the Canucks in their game previous is a reasonable indicator that it could be the case and since there was no mention of any injury, a healthy scratch is the likely scenario.  The Ducks could have used him in that 6-1 thrashing they took from the Flames, but they're out of the playoff picture, so there's no real skin off their bill.

The absence was a lost skater game to Chelsea's team this week and her team has been relatively healthy, compared to some others.   Chelsea's team ranks 13th in the pool in skater games played, but the production just hasn't been there.  Her defense ranks 20th in the pool in scoring, where Manson vacated last night,

The St. Louis Blues sent Michael Del Zotto back to the press box as a healthy scratch on Friday night as well, as he was having a pretty decent stretch of games with the team and even putting up a few points here and there.  The Blues did manage to clinch their playoff spot on Friday night, despite losing to the Rangers, so Del Zotto should come in handy as some extra defensive depth in the playoffs, but he's only slightly useful as we run down the rest of the regular season now.

John P. just didn't get much of anything out of Del Zotto this year, but his hands were tied at the Waiver Drafts, so there wasn't a whole lot he could do.  John collected 10 points out of 42 games from the blueliner this season, which just isn't anywhere near good enough.

Week Twenty-Three Newsletter

Only four weeks left to go in the regular season and then we're talking playoffs! Yes, playoffs! And everyone is welcome to play in the playoffs. More on that later this week, I hope.

I'm sort of writing this one on the fly, I didn't have anything prepared for 5am this morning, so here we go!



It was a Florida Panthers kind of week in Week Twenty-Four, where two of them finished atop of the weekly scoring standings at 9 points, but only one of them could take the prize home with them.  When the dust settled and the tie-breakers were determined, it was Jonathan Huberdeau taking the top honour, scoring 4 goals and 5 assists in four games this week, earning his second Player of the Week nod of the season.

Huberdeau's week started out with a fizzle, pointless against the Penguins on Tuesday, but then 2 goals and an assist against the Bruins on Thursday, a goal and 3 assists on Friday against the Wild and then capping the week off with an goal and an assist against the Red Wings on Sunday got the job done.  Whatever playoff hopes the Panthers have, they are sure depending on the performances of Huberdeau and company, but it's still a pretty good long shot, even if there are Player of the Week nods involved.

In the overall scoring race, the 25-year old has been exceptional, ranking 21st in pool scoring this season, to date, with 22 goals and 74 points in 69 games, right inside of the realm of a 1st round pick, if we were to redo the draft today.  That's a pretty good season that Ryan has picked up in the draft this year, taking him with the 62nd overall pick in the 3rd round.

It was a monster week for Neil's team, which shot up just about out of nowhere, pulling out a 39-point week, which was heads and tails above everyone else in Week Twenty-Three.  His team was 10 points better than his nearest competitors in the weekly tally and that shot his team up seven places in the standings, from 16th to 9th.  That's some serious moving and shaking.

Neil's team had the other Florida Panthers player vying for the Player of the Week nod, Aleksander Barkov, who had a 5-assist night against the Wild on Friday night, really taking him out of the competition for goals, finishing with 2 goals in total in the week.  Still, that's a mighty fine week and one that didn't go unnoticed in the end.

Neil's team also got good weeks from Darcy Kuemper of the Coyotes, finishing with 6 points, David Krejci of the Bruins and John Tavares of the Leafs finished with 5 points each and Adam Henrique of the Ducks also had 4 points to round out the notable players on his side.  Only three players on his team failed to pick up points in the week, so it was a fairly well-rounded effort by his team.

His team was also in the business of scoring goals in Week Twenty-Three, leading the pool with 15 tallies in the week, his highest weekly tally total of the season and his team is now running away with the plus/minus category, something we won't touch on in this post entirely, but his team's combined rating is now +104, 36 points better than 2nd place.

It's just a damn shame that this is too little, too late for his team, which saw some real potential early on in the season, but really crapped the bed in the middle parts of the year and dropped his team like a stone in the standings.  It's making up for it now, but a top 10 finish might be the best he gets now.

The Basement Dweller nod was a real turtle race, featuring a tortoise and a bunch of snappers, where the tortoise, Brian's team, got off to one of the slowest starts of any week I've seen that didn't involve a shortened schedule, but it did recover to force a tie-breaker with Jeremy's team, both of them finishing with 13 points.  So, to the goal scoring records...

In the goal scoring department, it was also a tie... 3-3.  So, we then move to the wins.  And by a 1-0 margin, Brian's team narrowly avoids the Basement Dweller, leaving Jeremy's team to take it... congratulations Brian for making it out by the slimmest of margins!

In a year where you would think Connor Hellebuyck of the Jets would have gotten a guy at least one win a week all season, there was the matter of an illness at the start of the week and then a loss to the Lightning at the end of the week and Jeremy also didn't have Carter Hart in Philadelphia, due to an injury, so it was a perfect letting down storm.

Five players, in total, failed to pick up a point for Jeremy's team and his team currently sits in 19th, where it was sitting at this time last week.

The top three remained the same: Stuart, Stacey M. and Grant, with the lead being extended for the first time in a month, now back up to 38 points, with only four weeks left to go.  The difference between 2nd and 3rd remains at 8 points, since both teams finished with 25 points this week, which was both better than 4th, Kristy & Don, as they are now 10 points back of the money at the end of play on Sunday.

Jesse and Tony remain hopeful that they can catch the duo, but 22 points for Jesse, just to catch 4th, is a big hill to climb and Tony is 6 points back of Jesse.  Not impossible, just very improbable.

Derek B.'s team had somewhat of a down week, finishing with only 4 points, which was tied for the best week in this mini-game with Stuart's team, but that's a moot point here.  Derek's lead is now 22 points, as his team now sits at 99 points from his freshmen and will easily clear the 100-point mark here this week, barring a disaster.

After very little action through the middle part of the season, this shootout game has really picked up as the pool notched another 10 goals in this contest, Grant now finishing with back-to-back weeks with a pair of goals and his team has now opened a 3-tally lead in this mini-game over Mike's team, which was unable to put one in.  The games on the schedule are tightening up, so it's still anyone's game, in theory.

With more shootouts, means less actual game-winning goals in the flow of play, as the total was down by a goal from last week and Stuart's team was unable to post anything and Clayton's team was able to find a winner this week.  The overall lead is still 8 goals, 44-36, so time is really running out and the playoff race is not helping Clayton's cause any... neither are his injuries.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

With the NHL playoff race heating up, teams are tightening up their defenses and scoring is taking a turn for the toilet.  The average pull from an NHL game was down nearly a quarter of a point, while participation was holding relatively steady.  It was the quietest week of the third segment, so now we're really going to ramp up the games, the final week, in terms of games will look something like the following: 53, 51, 52 and 51.  207 games left to go this season, get your points while they last!

NEWS AND NOTES

The upper-body injury that Vladimir Tarasenko has suffered is believed to be a little more serious than originally suspected and the team announced on Sunday that they will allow him to rest for the next 10 days and they will reevaluate him after that. They obviously didn't specify anything more about the injury itself, so your guess is as good as mine. It's a tough break for the team in a playoff spot battle, but the next 10 days won't break it, so they might as well have him ready for the last two and a half weeks, closer to 100% than not.

It certainly doesn't help Eric's team, which has now dropped down to 12th place, hoping for a top 10 spot.  Losing one of his top forwards for this next week, may hurt a lot, starting the week 8 points out of that 10th position.

Morning Player Notes (Mar 10)

The Nashville Predators were without forward Filip Forsberg for their game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday evening, as he is currently dealing with an upper-body injury.  Forsberg had been unavailable to the team for a couple of practices with the ailment and the team were holding their cards close to their chest on this, until game-time, when he couldn't dress and play.  There are no other details available at this time, he's just listed as out day-to-day and we'll have to go from there for now.

Brian's team was already taking a kicking this week, before this news dropped on Saturday afternoon, but his team did finally come around and put some points up, but it wasn't quite enough yet.  After Saturday's action, Brian's team now sits at 11 points, only 2 points back of Jeremy's team and both teams have a handful of games to play on Sunday to make it interesting.

Vladimir Tarasenko of the Blues was held out of Saturday's game against the Sharks, due to an upper-body injury he reportedly suffered on Thursday night against the Kings.  The coaching staff didn't have too much to report before or after last night's contest, except that he's day-to-day with the injury.  Even after Saturday afternoon's overtime loss, the Blues still hold the 3rd spot in the Central Division, so they'll be pretty tight-lipped about injuries going forward, more so than normal, one would suspect.

Despite not having Tarasenko yesterday, Eric's team managed to keep a pretty good pace, tied for 2nd in the weekly scoring at 28 points and his team has moved up a couple of spots this week, now up to 13th from 15th.  Not a bad week, so far.

The Golden Knights laid waste to the Canucks late on Saturday night, 6-2, and they did so without forward Brandon Pirri, who was a healthy scratch yet again.  He has not been the same player as he was in the second segment of the regular season and he has been a regular healthy scratch for the club a few times in this final segment of the year.  Now, after the trade deadline, it is likely going to be the case more and more.

For Clayton's team, this was going to be a home run kind of swing at the Week Eighteen swap, but it has turned out to be a huge swing and miss and this is one of the contributing factors to his team now dropping down to 15th and continuing to fall.

Del Zotto Dealt Again

		2019 Season				July 1, 2019
To St. Louis	Pos	GP	G/W	Points	Cap	Years	Cap
Michael Del Zotto	D	35	1	7	$2.25m	0	UFA
----
To Anaheim	Pos	GP	G/W	Points	Cap	Years	Cap
2019 6th Round Draft Pick

It's the second time this season that Michael Del Zotto has been traded and again, it hasn't been for a great return, but the Ducks are in their retooling mode and this was something that has been in the works.  The St. Louis Blues have been hot of late, well within the Central Division playoff race, so they needed a little bit more insurance, NHL-ready type insurance, on the blueline, so they went out and added Del Zotto for a late round pick this summer.

Del Zotto hasn't played a whole lot between Vancouver and Anaheim, as you can see above, so his numbers are less-than-stellar, but he can play the minutes, when called upon and that's what St. Louis is ultimately looking for.

Obviously, John P. couldn't find anything better or he didn't care to dig much deeper at the Week Eighteen Waiver Draft, which meant that Del Zotto stayed on his roster, despite passing in the 2nd round.  I don't think there is going to be many gains here, since he probably will play the same amount of games at the same rate as his previous two stops this season, so John may just be out of luck completely with the veteran defenseman.  John's defense ranks 15th in the pool, even with Del Zotto, but it arguably could have been a bit better.

Morning Player Notes (Feb 23)

Florida Panthers defenseman Mike Matheson was not in the lineup for Thursday night's game against the Carolina Hurricanes, as he is currently dealing with a lower-body injury.  Matheson was reportedly hurt on Tuesday night against the Sabres, suffering the injury and not returning to the game.  Not many details have been posted about his status, but with 5 goals and 20 points this season, he may not be the biggest draw, when it comes to injury news.

For John P., he has been actually quite serviceable, ranking 68th among all defensemen in hockey pool scoring, well within the worthy rankings, so I'm sure John is hopeful that the injury is minor and that he can be back before too long.

Well, the first of a few names on this post that are being held out of action, due to the trade deadline... Marcus Johansson of the New Jersey Devils. The Devils are now sellers, having moved Ben Lovejoy to Dallas on Saturday morning, but Johansson has yet to go, sitting on Thursday night against the Senators and is expected to miss today's contest against the Rangers as well.

Like other pool teams waiting on shoes to drop, Wilton has Johansson and is waiting for this deal to get done.  His team is in 9th and moving up the ranks, so getting an upgrade in this position will certainly help.

In that same game on Thursday night, it was the big three for the Senators, Matt Duchene, Mark Stone and Ryan Dzingel, all being held out of action against the Devils to save their trade value.  Of course, as we all know already, that was already paid off for them on Friday, just before they played the Blue Jackets, to which the other two had sat out for that game and they play against the Flames on Sunday, where if no deal has been made, they'll sit again.

Thursday lost game was a missed skater game for Jesse, Eric and Wes, Friday was just Eric and Wes and right now, that pair are projected to miss another game.  It's amazing how the trade deadline really screws with the hockey pool, eh?

St. Louis Blues forward Brayden Schenn missed out on Thursday night's game in Dallas after he suffered an upper-body injury against the Leafs on Tuesday night.  He's currently listed as day-to-day, no specific details have been made available yet on his condition and he's probably on the questionable/doubtful border for today's game against the Bruins.

Schenn has been good for Dale C.'s team this season, posting 39 points in 50 games this year, but he hasn't been over-the-top great.  Taken 102nd overall in the draft, but only ranks 131st after Thursday's action, there is a little disappointment in there.

On Friday night, the Anaheim Ducks were without Ryan Getzlaf, due to an upper-body injury. The reports suggest he was a late scratch from the game against the Flames, so take that for what it's worth, as it sounds like he should have been good to go, but wasn't at the last second. There was no more word, so far, on Saturday morning, but we'll be keeping an eye out for more details. The Ducks finish off back-to-backs against the Oilers tonight, so we'll probably know more before then.

The pool leader suffers a missed skater game, as Stuart's team has lost a little bit of its lead this week, but that lead was just far too great to begin with this week.  Stuart's team just eclipsed the 600-point mark this week and is hopeful that Getzlaf isn't out too long.

The Columbus Blue Jackets were the first team to push over one of the big trading dominoes on Friday and they were able to get that new body in their lineup right away, so that means someone had to come out and that someone was Alexander Wennberg. Wennberg has been a real disappointment in the offensive stat sheets, only picking up 2 goals and 23 points in 59 games, and his name has been hanging around the trade rumours, as we move towards the deadline, possibly trying to find him a new lease on life in the NHL.

Clayton's team is among that group of teams in the standings where they are not separated by many points, 6th to 13th are only 20 points apart, and Wennberg has been one of the anchors sinking Clayton's team this week, not producing any points.  This scratch may lead to a trade, who knows?

A spot of the flu kept Jimmy Howard out of the lineup on Friday night, giving an impromptu start to Jonathan Bernier in his stead. Howard has also been on the block, as a potential rental goalie at this deadline, but wasn't feeling well enough to dress last night. He was at practice on Saturday morning, so there are definitely some positives out there.  If he isn't dealt, expect him to be good to go on Sunday against San Jose.

Tony's team has bumped its way up to 8th place this week, toiling in the tight group in the standings.  He was certainly missing that start, his team sits 9 points out of 6th after Friday night's action, but the Wings did lose, so there wasn't really 2 points to be had there, in theory.

Last year's top defenseman for the Golden Knights, Colin Miller, has been the odd-man out of their lineup, acting as a healthy scratch for both games against Boston on Wednesday and Winnipeg on Friday, the coaching staff probably not very happy with his -3 rating against the Avalanche on Monday.  Miller hasn't posted a point in two weeks, which probably doesn't help his cause and now the Golden Knights don't play again until Tuesday, so we won't see anything more develop out of this story until next week.  If I had to guess, he'd be back in by then.

Jeremy's 16th place team has had a strong blueline this season, ranking 5th in the pool with 131 points so far and Miller has been a decent part of that, posting 23 points in 48 games.  The rest of Jeremy's team, however, hasn't been that good.

It sounds like Carter Hart was hurt in the lead-up to the Stadium Series game, which goes tonight and he is now expected to miss the next 7-to-10 days with a lower-body injury. It was somewhat surprising to many, when the coaching staff didn't name him as the starter for tonight's showcase game, but this would be the reason why. He won't likely hit the Injured Reserve, with rosters expanding after Monday, but you never know. The Flyers don't play again until Tuesday, so they won't technically need the spot.

Certainly disappointing for Jeremy, but there is no money in the outdoor games this year, so he's only missing out on 2 points for the overall standings.