Week Thirteen Newsletter

All of the people who thought that the Dallas Stars were going to dominate from the drop of the puck on opening night have likely been a little disappointed with the start that they had gotten off to, but of late, they have been one of the hotter teams in the NHL.  Saying that, all the wins they have been racking up have meant that their minute leader, Kari Lehtonen, has been chalking up the W's in his numbers and in Week Thirteen, he earned the Player of the Week nod.

Lehtonen appeared in all four games for the Stars in the week and he went 3-0-1 with a shutout, earning 8 points in the week and was the outright winner of the week.

Monday, Lehtonen beat the Rangers, Wednesday saw a shutout over the Coyotes, Saturday was a win against the Wild and then he wasn't able to pull out the second half of the back-to-back, losing in overtime to the Blackhawks on Sunday.

With the big week, Lehtonen moved up to 18th in overall pool scoring, 10th among all goalies, with 17 wins, 3 shutouts and 2 assists for 42 points.  Lehtonen finished the week 7th in minutes played after Week Thirteen, which means that he has been pretty busy this season.

There is no question that Lehtonen has been the cornerstone of Benson's resurgence in the standings, as he is far and away his best player in the pool, making up 16.3% of his total points and his only player over 30 points to this point in the season.

This is Benson's 9th Player of the Week honour, where his first came in Week Nine of the 2010 season.  Four of which were Sidney Crosby, who he had in both 2010 and 2014 and two of them were Ryan Miller, back in 2011.  Lehtonen is no stranger to the Player of the Week nod, as this is his 5th nod since the 2007 season, back with the Atlanta Thrashers.

Well, this is just getting disgusting and kind of boring.  Now, with their 6th Mover & Shaker nod of the season, Kristy & Don have continued to run away with the pool, setting a season-high in points with 43 and extending their overall lead in the pool to 41 points.  We're now hitting the halfway point in the regular season and there just doesn't seem to be any stopping this train.

Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals and Mike Ribeiro of the Predators led the way with 6 points each, while Pekka Rinne of the Predators had 5 points, and Alex Goligoski of the Stars and Frederik Andersen each had 4 points.  Every one of their players managed to register at least 1 point in the week, so all cylinders are firing at the moment and they continue to just luck out.

Their team leads in both defensemen and goalie scoring, significantly in both, and are well-above average in forwards scoring, so there just doesn't look to be any letting up.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, it is somewhat surprising that we haven't seen Allan fall into the Basement Dweller on the Newsletter, especially since his team has now dropped down to 22nd overall in the standings.  For the first time this season, Allan makes his way here and his season has taken a turn for the worse, which there was every indication, before the puck even dropped, with all the injuries his team had suffered.

Allan's team only managed 15 points in the busiest of weeks, so far this year, and he managed to get most of his points from three of his players.  Antti Niemi in San Jose, Vincent Lecavalier in Philadelphia and Kyle Okposo on Long Island accounted for 10 of his 15 points, Niemi leading the way with 4.

In the standings, Allan's team got off to a roaring start, finishing 4th in Week One, but the decline came and continued, 6th in Week Two, 9th in Week Five, 12th in Week Six, 15th in Week Seven, 16th in Week Eight, 19th in Week Nine, 20th in Week Ten and now 22nd after Week Thirteen.  His team only stands 3 points clear of last place, which is now sitting on shaky ground, as his team sits 22nd in the second segment.

TROPHY TALK

Okay, so we know about 1st place... that's pretty clear.  Grant S. also put another 4 points on his lead over 3rd place, while losing 4 points to 1st place.  The race for 3rd place got a little bit more interesting, although Tony may be sitting just a bit safer, now 7 points up on 4th place, which has swapped hands a few times in the week, but Wes now sits in the spot.

Now, the group chasing down 3rd place is really interesting, as 10 points now separates 4th place from 10th place.  These teams are scratching and clawing to get over each other, but failing to get closer to 3rd place, which is somewhat funny, in its own sort of way.

As for the second segment, Brenda & Seward now only hold a tie-breaking lead over Kristy & Don, as both teams have 126 points, 13 points better than Wilton, who had a bit of an off-week in Week Thirteen.  Six teams are now in triple digits for the segment, but are falling behind quickly.

Week Thirteen also gave us a new leader for the Olli, as Wyllie takes over the mantle from Benson (who rocketed past three teams in the week), but Wyllie has company down at the bottom, as Allan and Ryan are only 3 points better and are not exactly lighting the place up.

Benson still has a good grip on the Jordan bobblehead, still 16 games worse than Wyllie in this race and not giving up many games in the process.  The week's worst in the category was Stuart, who only saw 32 skater games, thanks in large part to injuries, but his team is 48 games clear of Benson for last place.

WINNING EVERY WEEK

There is no letting up in this race, as the same three teams are winning like crazy.  Brenda & Seward won 4 games, Grant S. won 3 and Kristy & Don won 4 games.  Those are the three teams left to fail to win a game in the week.  It will be a much quieter week in the pool, which amps up the risk level for each of these teams.

ROOKIE SCORING

14 of 23 teams are in this race, some more so than others.  The top three teams are really what we want to look at, as Wilton, Mike and Grant S. have the best chance at winning this competition, if there was money involved this year.  Grant had the better of the week of the three, picking up 3 points, but Wilton still leads with 31 points, Mike is at 27 and Grant is at 22.

LIGHTING THE LAMP

I'm definitely thinking about three mini-games for next season's draft pool and the goalie wins survivor pool gave me another idea... a survivor pool where you'll need your team to score a certain number of goals in a week to keep going.  The going rate of scoring right now is 3 goals and with that said, we had 10 teams left in this survivor pool going into Week Thirteen.

After the week, given how busy the week was, all 10 of those teams managed to pick up at least 3 goals, all of which doubled (or better) the necessary 3 goals to stay in this race as well.  Brenda & Seward, Brian, Dale C., Grant K., Grant S., Kristy & Don, Mike, Ryan, Stacey C. and Stacey M. are all still alive, as their pool teams are not having any troubles scoring goals this year.

ROUND 13 IN THE DRAFT

Pick #	Round	Pool	Player	NHL	Pos	Points
290	13	Grant Saskiw	Aaron Ekblad	FLA	D	22
284	13	Clayton Corley	Sean Couturier	PHI	F	20
287	13	Leo Macht	Karri Ramo	CAL	G	20
277	13	Stuart Greenley	Joel Ward	WAS	F	18
285	13	Kristy & Don	Troy Brouwer	WAS	F	18
292	13	Wes Moroz	Trevor Daley	DAL	D	18
296	13	Brenda Farrell	Alec Martinez	LOS	D	16
289	13	Stacey Campbell	Brandon Sutter	PIT	F	15
297	13	Derek Wilton	Alex Chiasson	OTT	F	15
291	13	Stacey McDonald	Mika Zibanejad	OTT	F	13
295	13	Allan Scott	Mikhail Grabovski	NYI	F	13
299	13	Scott Gilmore	Josh Bailey	NYI	F	13
278	13	Cam Wagner	Andrew Cogliano	ANA	F	10
280	13	Brian Towers	Andy Greene	NJD	D	10
293	13	Mike Somerville	Mathieu Perreault	WPG	F	9
298	13	Dale Corley	Niklas Hjalmarsson	CHI	D	9
286	13	Tony Dourado	Milan Michalek	OTT	F	8
288	13	Dale Bradley	Michael Stone	ARI	D	8
279	13	Grant Kanwischer	Stephane Robidas	TOR	D	4
281	13	Troy Berkley	R.J. Umberger	PHI	F	4
283	13	Derek Wyllie	Mikael Backlund	CAL	F	4
282	13	Ryan Miller	David Booth	TOR	F	0
294	13	Benson Greenley	Teemu Pulkkinen	DET	F	0

It's a pretty good pick when a rookie defenseman is leading any round in the draft, even when it is the second-to-last round of the draft.  Aaron Ekblad of the Panthers has already set a franchise record for points from a rookie defenseman and it is only halfway through the season.  He has been far and away the best player in this round.

All of the players in red have been dropped and there were a couple of oops in this round, as both Mika Zibanejad and Mathieu Perreault each ramped up their scoring totals after the Waiver Draft and they would have been near the top of the pile, if they stayed on with their pool teams.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

The busiest scheduled week in the NHL season will mean, more games, more minutes and more points and that was exactly what it was.  The big question was... just how many points are we expecting to pull out?  The answer in the end was a whopping 668 points!

The pool had its 3rd-best average in scoring, which is awesome, given that we had a big week in the schedule, so everyone managed to take in a bunch of points.

The other awesome statistic from the week was that we collected the best portion of goalie starts of the season, nearly averaging a full game worth of minutes from each NHL start, 110.7 minutes collected per game.  That suggests that we didn't miss many starts this week, which certainly helped our point totals in the end.

Week Fourteen goes back down to 44 games on the NHL schedule, so we'll see a let down in points collected, but if the average stays up, we won't be too disappointed.

NEWS AND NOTES

This weekend, the Tampa Bay Lightning sent defenseman Radko Gudas back home, while the team continued on its road trip, as the Czech blueliner deals with a lower-body injury.  The Bolts still have him listed as out day-to-day with his injury, but there is no timetable for his return.  I would expect to see him on the Injured Reserve, retroactive to the beginning of last week, which would mean he would be eligible to come off at any time.

The hottest team in the pool loses one of their coldest players and it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.  Any points from Gudas this season is a bonus for Brenda & Seward, as the rest of their team just motors right along.

There was a return to the press box for Anaheim forward Devante Smith-Pelly, who hasn't been nearly as effective as the expectations of him would have suggested he would be. Smith-Pelly will likely figure back into the Anaheim lineup before too long, but for now, he has been deemed the odd-man out.  The Ducks don't play again until Wednesday, when the Rangers come to town.

Smith-Pelly was a preseason Waiver Draft pick-up for Ryan, who dealt with injuries to start the year.  With only 15 points this season, he has been somewhat of a letdown, but what do you expect for not getting him until after the draft?

There is some minor injury concerns for the Florida Panthers, as Roberto Luongo didn't return to the game against the Washington Capitals after the 2nd period. Luongo was reportedly hit pretty hard by Alex Ovechkin, managed to finish the 2nd period and didn't come back to the ice for the 3rd. There is some speculation that Luongo was checked in the quiet room for a concussion, but he did return to the bench, so he may be just fine. Now we wait for confirmation of what the Panthers are going to do with this situation.

This is some bad news for Stuart, who has already been struggling of late with healthy bodies.  Stuart finished the week with five names on the injury list, although one will be taken off in the weekly reset, as Jeff Skinner came back from illness, bu that still leaves four names, which is rough.

Link to the Injury/News Page

Thornton Heads to the IR

The undisclosed upper-body injury that has knocked out Joe Thornton from the San Jose lineup, will do so for at least until the middle of Week Fourteen, as the Sharks have placed their top line centre on the Injured Reserve.  There really wasn't much more for details on the injury, but the way that Thornton came off the ice against the Ducks on Thursday night suggests that it would be a little bit more serious than a day-to-day issue.

My best guess would be a sprained shoulder, but the Sharks are not likely to release that information any time soon.  At worst, my best guess would keep Thornton out for a couple weeks, so it's wait and see from here on in.

Thornton has been good this year, currently ranked 44th in pool scoring, at the time of this post.  The veteran pivot has 9 goals and 24 assists in 38 games for the Sharks, which would make him into a 2nd round pick, by virtue of the participants of the draft and his rank.

+Stuart picked Thornton in the 4th round this year, so he was getting some bargain play from the former 1st overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft.  The placing of Thornton on the IR will remove his projected games from the upcoming schedule for Stuart, which has the potential to hurt, as Stuart now ranks 14th in the standings, only 14 points out of the top 10 and the money conversation.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Fan Vote Starts Six for the All-Star Game

The NHL All-Star Game is three weeks away, which will mean another shortened week in the NHL schedule, but it will show off the league's best talent in a game that means... well, absolutely nothing.  It's a showcase event and that's that.

Well, the first step towards the game itself was completed this week, as the online fan voting finished off and it elected the first six players, guaranteed to play in the game, barring injury.  All six players will be in the starting lineup as well, which makes me wonder why they don't vote for 12 players, making sure you get the full starting lineup for both teams, despite the Fantasy Draft.

So, for starters, here are the six player elected by the fans and how they stack up for the hockey pool.

Player	NHL	Pos	Pool
Corey Crawford	CHI	G	Dale C.
---
Duncan Keith	CHI	D	Clayton
Brent Seabrook	CHI	D	Leo
---
Zemgus Girgensons	BUF	F	Scott
Patrick Kane	CHI	F	Stacey C.
Jonathan Toews	CHI	F	Stacey M.

As you can see, we're Chicago Blackhawks-heavy in this voting process and then there was the surprise starter, Zemgus Girgensons of Buffalo, who was helped along by a very active Latvian vote.  On the plus side, we have six different pool teams represented, which spreads out the love a little bit.

The remaining players that will make up the rest of the Fantasy Draft roster will be announced this coming Saturday, January 10th.  This is where we'll see how many players from each pool team will be playing.

Next season, there will be a few mini-pools added to the draft and the All-Star Game may be one of those mini-pools, as it would definitely add a little more excitement to the season and another chance for a team to win their money back.  I have been covering the All-Star Game on many occasions with a hockey pool context, so why not actually have some money on it, finally?  The determination will likely come after the season ends.

Hand Injury for Versteeg

On Friday's notes post, it was mentioned that Chicago forward Kris Versteeg suffered a hand injury, blocking a shot at the Winter Classic. Well, word came down this weekend that the injury will likely cost him upwards of a month, likely being a broken bone or bones.  The good news is that Versteeg doesn't require surgery on his injured hand, so it will be waiting for it to heal on its own.

This season, Versteeg has been better than anticipated, picking up 9 goals and 18 assists in 34 games this year, which had him ranked 79th overall in pool scoring, heading into Sunday's action.  Missing out on a month's worth of games will definitely hurt his ranking, but he's still in good shape to be a good player overall.

In the pool, he belongs to Stacey C., after he took him 5th overall in the Waiver Draft this year.  No one really saw Versteeg coming at the beginning of the year, which made him available for the first switch of the season.  Since the Waiver Draft, Stacey has picked up 5 points from the Blackhawks winger, but that's where it'll end for a few weeks.

Stacey has also had one of the best results from the Waiver Draft, ranking 3rd in point differential in players picked to those dropped, with a +10 result, and has gone from 18th in Week Nine to 15th, going into Sunday's action.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 4)

After dropping the ball a little bit on Saturday, we're back on Sunday to get some of those key news bytes in and sorted, just so you know who is in and/or out on your hockey pool team.  That's why you keep coming back, right?

On Friday night, Montreal forward PA Parenteau left the game against the Devils in the 2nd period with an undisclosed injury. That injury also forced him to miss Saturday night's game, away to Pittsburgh as well. In total, Parenteau did miss about four and a half periods, but it hasn't been made public as to why yet.  For now, Parenteau will be on the list as out day-to-day, but it would not surprise me to hear that some battery of tests found that Parenteau could be out longer.  It hasn't happened yet, but I'm just saying that I wouldn't be surprised to see that.

This season, Parenteau has 15 points in 38 games with his hometown team, shades below where some projections have him, including mine.

Allan has seen more than his fair share of bad luck this season and it had finally started catching up to him.  Since he got off to a blinding start earlier in the season, all of his bad luck has now forced him down to 21st place and the loss of Parenteau will only exacerbate the problem.

Speaking about undisclosed injuries, Toronto's Nazem Kadri didn't play in either Friday night's game against Minnesota or Saturday night's game in Winnipeg, as he's dealing with a lower-body injury.  The Maple Leafs are expecting the scoring forward to be out for about a week or so, but they have yet to put him on the Injured Reserve, which is likely good news, because it suggests that he could be back within that first week from the injury.

Kadri has been decent this year, picking up 11 goals and 13 assists in 38 games and as we close in on the halfway mark, he is about where I had him in my projections, maybe just a shade below.  This injury won't help him get much closer.

+Brian has Kadri in the pool this year and likely hasn't had the production that he would have liked this year, which has led to his 18th place standing.  Brian has hovered in the 17th-18th-19th spot all season long and hasn't seen much improvement since the first Waiver Draft either.


One of the bigger pool surprises was Kings defenseman Brayden McNabb, who quietly got off to a great start this season, but he has since found his way into the shuffle of the ins and outs of the line-up, thanks to some more inconsistent play.  McNabb has been a scratch in the last couple games for the Kings and it isn't quite clear when he is going to make it back in yet.

McNabb has played in 37 games for the Kings this season and has racked up 10 assists, now double what my initial projections were of him at the beginning of the season.  He was definitely one of those guys that earned his way into a regular job early on.  The Kings had a spot open and he took advantage.

The 23-year old defenseman was picked up in the Waiver Draft by Brian, who I had mentioned earlier in this post.  McNabb has picked up 1 assist since the Waiver Draft and has helped Brian to a +7 since the switch, which ranks tied for 9th in the category.

A mysterious lower-body injury has James Neal on the shelf again for the Nashville Predators and it forced him to miss out on Saturday afternoon's game against the Kings and we are still awaiting word on whether or not it will cost him Sunday evening's game against the Ducks, as the Preds roll through California.  Neal is currently listed as out day-to-day,

Neal had some high expectations to live up to in Nashville, upon his arrival from Pittsburgh in the off-season.  So far, with only 23 points in 35 games, he hasn't quite lived up to projections, although they weren't exactly the highest, as it were.

Now is not the time for players to go down for Dale C., who is in the midst of the race for 3rd place and it has become ridiculously packed in the top 10.  Dale has dropped down to 8th place, now 14 points out of 3rd, but only 6 points back of 4th.  A big Sunday could vault him back up, but it is tight and busy!

A huge scare this weekend for the Philadelphia Flyers, as their captain, Claude Giroux, fell to a leg laceration from a skate blade on Friday night in Carolina.  Thanks to some of those new and improved socks on the market, the injury wasn't nearly as bad as some of the injuries we've seen in the past and the team says that Giroux won't be out for very long at all.  However, Giroux did miss Saturday night's game against the Devils, but remains probable for Tuesday night's game against the Senators.

Giroux has been good again for the Flyers this year, which is why this injury is a huge concern for the team.  He is scoring at over a point per game, 43 points in 38 games this season, which was about where I had him pegged in my projections this year.  I didn't quite see Jakub Voracek being better than him though...

One of the teams that really joined the fray this week, belonging to Troy, did miss out on a game played for Giroux, which has generally meant at least a point.  Troy sits in 5th, 8 points back of 3rd place and just missing out on the tie-breaker for 4th.  He's in the mix and needs Giroux to play to stay there.

In recent games, the Vancouver Canucks hadn't been seeing the type of offense that they were getting earlier on in the year and that meant that a shuffle needed to happen in the line-up.  Rookie Linden Vey was on the short end of the stick, with Zack Kassian returning from injury, as Vey was a healthy scratch for the game against the Red Wings.  The Canucks came up as 4-1 winners against Detroit, which likely means that the line-up won't change for the next game, Tuesday, home to the Islanders.

In 34 games this season, Vey has 6 goals and 8 assists and is just ahead of my projections, come the halfway point of the season.  If he remains a healthy scratch, however, he could fall behind just as quickly.

Clayton has another one of those teams that have fallen in the race for 3rd place in the last week, as his team dropped down to 7th before Sunday's games.  His team is now 12 points out of 3rd place and 4 points back of 4th and he'll need some help to climb back up and into the race.

How about a quick goalie update, as we draw closer to the early action on Sunday...

Mover & Shaker candidate Benson has both of his goalies projected to play, but there is a firm likelihood that only one of them will go, especially since Dallas played the night before.  I don't expect Kari Lehtonen to go, but Semyon Varlamov should play when the Avs take on the Jackets.

Kristy & Don, our pool leaders, appear to have both of their goalies projected to play... head-to-head.  Pekka Rinne and the Predators are in Anaheim to take on Frederik Andersen and the Ducks.

Waiver Draft pick-up Robin Lehner will start for the Senators today, facing a former teammate in Ben Bishop, as the Sens and Bolts go in the evening.

Finally, it looks like Anton Khudobin, who was dropped for Lehner in Week Nine, will take a start away from the pool, as he goes for Carolina against the Bruins, which starts only minutes after this post gets published.  Khudobin will be taking on Tuukka Rask, for those asking.

Otherwise, it should be business as usual for the rest of the games today, all the regular starters appear to be going, I have just found the more notable points to make.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

More Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 2)

The Carolina Hurricanes are hosting the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night and they will do so without forward Jeff Skinner, who sat out the morning skate with the flu and has been said to be a scratch for the evening.  Skinner will be on the list as out day-to-day, as his status for Sunday at home for Boston is likely probable, especially if it is just the flu.

More bad news for +Stuart this morning, who has already made an appearance on the blog on Friday morning.  Skinner was a Waiver Draft pick-up this year and hasn't done great in his appearances, picking up only 3 points in 11 games since the start of Week Ten and he has only been marginally better than the player he was picked up for, Florida's Alexander Barkov.

The New Jersey Devils have been rife with illness this season and it sounds like Eric Gelinas is the latest to come down with a bug, although there has been no confirmation of what it is exactly. The Devils have seen more than their fair share of the mumps this season, so Gelinas is under observation to make sure whether or not it is the mumps and if it is, there is a likelihood that he'll miss about a week or two with the illness.  It's just wait and see for right now.

Bad news for Wilton, as his team is in the thick of the second segment race in the pool, sitting in 2nd in the race, just behind Brenda & Seward.  Gelinas has accounted for 11 points in 32 games this season, part of an above average blueline this season.

Eight games on the docket for Friday night, kicking off a busy weekend schedule in the NHL.

First, we'll take note of the goalies who are getting starts, but are not counting in the pool, as Thomas Greiss will start for the Penguins against the Lightning at home, while Keith Kinkaid will get the nod for the Devils against the Canadiens at home.  The pool has been collecting a boatload of goalie minutes already this week, currently on pace to better the previous best average, so two games with non-pool starters shouldn't hurt too badly.

Notable starts in the pool... Martin Brodeur will get another nod for the St. Louis Blues in Anaheim tonight, while Jake Allen is the odd-man out and will be the healthy scratch, while Michal Neuvirth will get a start for the Buffalo Sabres, home to the Panthers.

Troy is the only pool team on Friday with both of his goalies going for their respective teams, Jonathan Bernier in for the Leafs against the Wild and Cam Ward in for the Hurricanes against the Flyers.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Oilers Dump Perron, Ship Him to Penguins

		2015 Season				Cap Hit
To Pittsburgh	POS	GP	G	A	P	2015	2016
David Perron	F	38	5	14	19	$3.8 million	1 year/$3.8 million
---
To Edmonton	POS	GP	G	A	P	2015	2016
Rob Klinkhammer	F	29	4	2	6	$625,000	UFA
2015 1st Round Draft Pick

Happy New Year, David Perron... there's a whole new outlook on the rest of your season, as you've been dealt to Pittsburgh to play with some of the best pivots in the game.

The Pittsburgh Penguins paid a pretty hefty price to get another scoring winger on their side, sending a 1st round pick and a roster player, Rob Klinkhammer, to Edmonton, but with their injury situation, the Pens needed to improve up front, in order to stay in the Eastern Conference races.

Perron is historically a goal scorer, who has seen some good years between St. Louis and Edmonton, although he has seen some injury troubles, ever since a very short 2011, where he had only played 10 games.

The 26-year old Quebec native had his best season last year with the Oilers, picking up 57 points in 78 games and he ranked 73rd overall in pool scoring.  This season, things haven't been nearly as good, having only 19 points in 38 games, ranking 182nd overall in scoring, but this move should give him ample opportunity to move up in the ranks.

With Patric Hornqvist and Blake Comeau currently on the Injured Reserve in Pittsburgh, there was room for another winger to come in and take a top six spot with either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin and it looks like they've found their man (in theory).

Going the other way, non-pool grinding forward Klinkhammer, who has already moved from Arizona to Pittsburgh this season, will be a short-term roster player, as he'll be an unrestricted free agent in July and doesn't necessarily have the chops to be a part of a massive franchise retooling.  He'll give the Oilers some reasonable minutes, while not dragging down the bottom line in cap hits or salary numbers.

The real piece of the puzzle that the Oilers will love is another 1st round pick, which could stretch anywhere outside of the lottery, but more likely closer to the end, given the power that Pittsburgh possesses, especially when it comes to playoff time.  Nevertheless, there are a lot of experts saying that the 2015 Entry Draft will be a good one, so another pick up high will go a long way to filling the cupboards again in Edmonton.

With the Oilers already out of the Western Conference playoff consideration, they have agreed to start the process early with the retooling, which makes you wonder if there are any more pieces ready to move.

Perron, the only pool player in the move, belongs to Stacey C., who gets a vast improvement in scoring potential, but he does lose a beloved Oilers jersey from his lineup.  I think the trade off is pretty good for him though.  Stacey sits 3 points from moving up a spot to 15th and is 19 points out of the top 10, before Friday night's games.  It is unclear whether or not Perron will make it to Pittsburgh on time for the Pens' game against Tampa or whether he'll join the team in Montreal for Saturday's game.  Either way, it sounds like Stacey may be on the move up in a more expedited fashion.

Lupul Back on the Shelf

A familiar name is back on the blog on Friday morning, as Joffrey Lupul was placed on the Injured Reserve, yet again, for a lower-body injury he suffered on Wednesday night.  Lupul was reported to be heading back to Toronto, as the team continued on to Minnesota, for an MRI and there were reports that he was seen leaving the building in Boston on crutches.

The early word from Maple Leafs camp on Friday is that Lupul is projected to miss the next couple weeks worth of action, which isn't too bad, given the details that were provided already.  There is still no description of the injury he suffered, so we'll wait and see if anything leaks out.

The 2010 addition to the Injury Prone List has already seen a broken hand in this 2015 season and he is well on his way to representing the injury prone alike with this stellar season of injury problems.

In only 26 games played this season, Lupul does have 9 goals and 8 assists and is ranked 206th overall in pool scoring, but +Brenda and Seward had grander designs for him this year, taking him in the 8th round, 165th overall in the draft.  It looks like the risk versus reward of this pick is weighing heavily to the "oops" side of the argument.  I would imagine that Lupul's ranking will continue to drop off in his time away from the team.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 2)

There was another loss for the Blackhawks at the Winter Classic, something that wasn't covered in the pool review last night, an injury to forward Kris Versteeg.  Versteeg blocked a Washington shot with his hand in the game and had to leave the game with, what is believed to be, an injured finger.  The timetable for his return has not exactly been confirmed, but the coaching staff believe that it will keep him out for a little while.  If the injury is a broken finger, I think it would be fair to say 3-to-4 weeks, possibly sooner, depending on pain tolerance.

Stacey C. picked up Versteeg at the Waiver Draft a few weeks ago and has seen some mediocre production from the winger, finding 5 points in 11 games since the pick-up and has indeed been a plus player since being picked up.  Stacey is in a tie for the lead in point differential in the Week Nine Waiver Draft, as his pick-ups are a +10 to what the players he has dropped have done since.

For not being a player in the hockey pool, Clayton Stoner of the Ducks has seen his name a few times in the blog... first, for taking out Max Pacioretty of the Canadiens, next being taken out by the Jets' Evander Kane and now, injuring Joe Thornton of the Sharks.  Thornton was hit in the 1st period and had to leave the game with an undisclosed injury and the only word on his status is... that it's unclear.  There has been no mention of any more time to be missed, as the Sharks next play on Saturday night, home to the St. Louis Blues.  He'll be listed as out day-to-day until further notice.



The leading contender for this week's Basement Dweller, +Stuart, is now in tough for trying to get out of the basement designation, as his 3rd round pick is now on the shelf with an undisclosed injury.  Thornton has seen an increase in production this season, currently ranked 33rd overall in pool scoring, thanks to 33 points in 38 games, before the injury.  This could be a big loss, if he is out for a while.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

Caps Win at Home, 2015 Winter Classic Pool Review

Well, it looked like an amazing day for hockey in Washington, D.C., and Nationals Park appeared to be an excellent venue for the Winter Classic, thankfully, everyone in attendance got a great game to watch.

Washington worked hard to get this game, by the sound of things, as the league has been trying to get these Winter Classic games to big markets with big players to attract all the casual fans and how could anyone complain with a regular in the Stanley Cup conversation against a team that offers some of the most electric players in the league.

Even though it was a sunny day in Washington, the game still managed to start on time, despite some concern from the league officials that the glare would be too much to handle. Besides some sunglasses worn by Washington's Karl Alzner, everyone resorted to the eyeblack and the two teams went at it, with the shadow of Nationals Park enveloping the playing surface through the 1st period and then it was all shadows in the 2nd and 3rd periods.

The game ended up to be a pretty simple story to follow... the Capitals went up two early on in the 1st, the Blackhawks managed to claw back to even steven, early in the 2nd, then a late penalty call on Chicago in the 3rd period led to a goal by Troy Brouwer and the home team walked away with a big win.  Capitals win, 3-2, allowing them to leapfrog the New York Rangers in the Metropolitan Division standings, getting into a division playoff spot.

By virtue of the regular tie-breaking standards, the Player of the Game nod in the Winter Classic was Alex Ovechkin, who notched a goal and an assist in the win.  Ovechkin belongs to the pool leaders, Kristy & Don, who really didn't need the 2 points, but what can we do about it?

In terms of pool teams, it was an award-less victory for Stacey C., who finished with 4 points out of the game, thanks to the Braden Holtby win and a couple more points from the Chicago side of the ledger.  Stacey is slowly working his way up the standings, as he tries to recover from an awful start to the year.  This game would have certainly helped his cause, as he went into the late game on Thursday night, only 1 point behind Mike for 15th in the standings.

Below is a quick review of all the point taken from the Winter Classic in the pool:

Chicago	Pool	Points		Washington	Pool	Points
Corey Crawford	Dale C.	0		Braden Holtby	Stacey C.	2
---				---
Patrick Kane	Stacey C.	1		Nicklas Backstrom	Wilton	0
Jonathan Toews	Stacey M.	1		Alex Ovechkin	Kristy & Don	2
Kris Versteeg	Stacey C.	0		Marcus Johansson	Clayton	0
Brandon Saad	Wes	1		Joel Ward	Stuart	0
Marian Hossa	Stacey C.	1		Troy Brouwer	Kristy & Don	1
Brad Richards	Clayton	0		Evgeny Kuznetsov	Benson	0
Patrick Sharp	Wyllie	1
Andrew Shaw	Stacey M.	0
---				---
Brent Seabrook	Leo	0		John Carlson	Kristy & Don	0
Duncan Keith	Clayton	1		Mike Green	Troy	2
Niklas Hjalmarsson	Dale C.	0		Matt Niskanen	Cam	0

Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 1)

Admittedly, Mason Raymond wasn't playing up to his own personal standards since returning from injury a couple of weeks ago and on Wednesday night, he was a healthy scratch for the Calgary Flames in their New Year's match-up against the Oilers.  In 20 games this season for the Flames, Raymond only has 5 goals and 2 assists, well down in his usual scoring amounts this season and has had his fair share of injury problems as well.

Not good news for Leo, who is watching his team continue to sink in the standings, as they are on the verge of dropping into 20th and below in the next couple weeks.  Leo's team has been steady in 19th over the last couple of weeks.

An undisclosed lower-body injury sidelined Tampa Bay defenseman Radko Gudas on Wednesday night, keeping him from the Lightning game against the Sabres.  Gudas has been an occasional scratch this season, but had seen some steady appearances in the lineup before the injury.  This season, the 24-year old Czech defender has 2 goals and 3 assists in 31 games.

The hottest team in the second segment, belonging to Brenda & Seward, lost a game from one of their defenders on Wednesday night and there is no indication as to when Gudas may be back.  The blueline for the pool's second duo has not bee good this season, amassing only 38 points, well below the pool average of 58.

The New Year's Eve games really brought back a number of players from the dead... NHL player apocalypse!  The zombies have risen!  No, I kid.

Corey Perry of the Ducks returned from a knee injury, much to the delight of Dale C..  Patrice Bergeron and Milan Lucic each missed one game for the Bruins this week and returned on Wednesday night and Grant K. and Dale B. couldn't be happier.  Josh Jooris missed a few games for the Flames with a lower-body injury and Wyllie got a body back.  Sergei Bobrovsky had a start after coming back from a stomach bug, picking up a win for the Blue Jackets and Wilton in the process.  There was no start for Niklas Backstrom, but he came back from an illness as well, possibly getting a start soon, something Brian could use.  Michael Del Zotto had been a healthy scratch a number of times for the Flyers, but finally saw some time in the line-up, only to receive a huge gash on his neck in the game... no word if Allan's defenseman will miss more time after that.  Christian Ehrhoff was taken off the IR and dressed for the Penguins, giving Brian another body back in his line-up, sadly with no points.  Finally, in Toronto, a couple of returns, as Leo Komarov finally played a game since the beginning of December, after suffering a concussion, while Jonathan Bernier got a start and win for the Leafs against the Bruins, coming back from an illness of his own.  Grant K. and Troy each picked up some points, good news for them!

An updated list of injuries can be found here.