Morning World Cup Player Notes (Sep 28)

Well, if the pool wasn't secured before the finals started, the Game One win for Team Canada has pretty well sealed the deal for Dale, as Carey Price made 32 saves for the win, while the combination of Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand were good for a goal and an assist each, stacking Dale's lead to 17 points with either one or two games left to play.

It does seem somewhat unlikely that we'll make it to that third and decisive game in this best-of-three series, despite Canada being guilty of taking their foot off the pedal a little bit and Europe's ability to hang in there for the better part of the first game.  The top line for Canada was fairly clutch again, however, and just when the commentating crew thought Canada was going to give away their 2-1 lead, the line led by Sidney Crosby found their way back to the net and extended their lead to two again.

If you were buying into the panic on the CBC broadcast last night, one would have been enthralled by how "poorly" the Canadians were playing last night, but Price stood tall and made most of the saves that he had to, beaten by a good European drive to the net and a fat rebound that dropped into Tomas Tatar's pathway, leaving him an open net for their only marker.

Game Two will go tomorrow night and it is expected to conclude the tournament, one which Team Europe does deserve a lot of credit for doing so well in.  I think it is very safe to assume that this pool has been decided.

World Cup Finals Pool Preview (Sep 27)

The marquee of the preseason is one step closer to its conclusion, as the World Cup of Hockey has reached the finals, the best-of-three series between Team Europe and Team Canada.

There is no surprise, when it comes to the goaltending match-up, as Jaroslav Halak will get the call for the Europeans, continuing his run as the keeper of this Cinderella journey.  At the other end, we'll see Carey Price back in the net for Canada, tasked with guarding the scoreline for the deep offense that will be playing in front of him tonight.

Well, with Price in net, it is going to be tough for anyone to catch Dale in the standings, as he opens up the finals with a 12-point lead over Scott and a 14-point lead over Clayton and the only way that either challenger has a chance at the money is complete domination from the Europeans.  Scott only has Anze Kopitar and Nino Niederreiter, while Clayton has Leon Draisaitl and Mats Zuccarello, which isn't nearly going to be enough.

There was one injury note, as Marian Gaborik comes out of the European lineup, Mikkel Boedker comes back in, giving Marcie one more body in her lineup.  Marcie will open up the finals in 7th place, 20 points back of 1st place, but 4 points ahead of Benson, who sits in last.

Other expected scratches are Luca Sbisa and Thomas Greiss for Europe, neither were taken in the pool, while Canada is going with the same group that played all but the third game, which will see Claude Giroux, Jake Muzzin and Braden Holtby in the press box.  Clayton and Benson will miss out on player games with that news.

Should I just send Dale the money transfer now?

Last Night's Preseason Performers (Sep 27)

The trouble with those neutral site preseason games is that the NHL website doesn't have great coverage on their website.  That has always been the case, it isn't like all those other things they have taken away in the last year that made the site pretty good.

Nevertheless, I could see that Ottawa did earn the victory in Halifax, playing the Maple Leafs in their first preseason game.  The final score was 6-3 and Ottawa's Phil Varone was listed as the player of the game, finishing with a 3-point night.

Varone isn't one of the guys on my projected 23-man roster for the Senators, but that isn't to say he couldn't work his way onto it with a good camp.

It might not be that he was technically notable, but Sam Gagner is already making waves for the Columbus Blue Jackets in their preseason, as he finished with an assist and the shootout winner.  A couple of good early performances has his projections under the microscope these days, but one shouldn't get too crazy with them, as he is historically known to be extremely streaky and will go long stretches without scoring.  He's not pool worthy, yet.

New Jersey Devils college signing, forward Nick Lappin, scored the only two goals of the game, as the Devils shutout the Flyers, 2-0, on Monday.  The 23-year old is likely going to get a good look after a good preseason debut and the Devils could be considered to be wide open, when it comes to roster spots.  Another appearance or two on these posts and you might think he'll get a legitimate shot at regular playing time this season with a reasonable scoring rate.

It wasn't a good night for the Philadelphia split squads, as they were also shutout against the Islanders on Monday night, 3-0. One of the key prospects for the Islanders did make good in this one, as Josh Ho-Sang had a goal and an assist to get a mention in the blog this morning.  The Islanders have been waiting for Ho-Sang to come around with a little more maturity, because they know that his talent levels are there, so if he can earn that regular spot, you should have a good feeling that he'll make it.

The Devils also sent a split squad up north to visit the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night and they ended up with a 3-2 win, thanks largely to forward Adam Henrique, who had a pair of goals and French defenseman Yohann Auvitu, who had a pair of assists.

Auvitu was an off-season signing for the Devils, as he is coming from the Finnish Elite League, where he played the last three seasons with some reasonable numbers to his name.  The Devils also have some openings on the blueline and could have found some help here.

The Dallas Stars dressed a pretty good lineup with the St. Louis Blues split squad in town and were not the most gracious of hosts, beating their guests, 3-1.  Newcomer Jiri Hudler had a goal and an assist, while Patrick Sharp had a pair of assists in this one.  The Stars are going to be one of those offensive forces again this season and they should be a very good team to pick from, even in some of the mid-round selections.

In two split squad games, the Flames and Oilers really didn't generate much for notable players, none in the game in Calgary and only one in the Oilers new building in Edmonton, but it can be said that the Oilers did get the best of both games, sweeping the set on Monday night.  In Edmonton, forward Tyler Pitlick was the only notable player, scoring a goal and an assist in the 4-2 win.

Pitlick has been hanging around the Oilers organization for a while, but didn't figure into a regular season game last year.  With the team's depth, it doesn't seem likely that he would find his way in, but that's what the preseason is for.

It was a big scoring game in the desert, as the Kings and Coyotes opened a split squad home & home on Monday night, with the home team in game one taking it, 5-3.  Max Domi, Ryan White, Brad Richardson and Michael Bunting were all 2-point players for the home side, while the visitors offered 2-point games from Teddy Purcell and Tom Gilbert.

It would sure make for an exciting season, if the Pacific Division was all about the offense in the 2017 season, wouldn't it?

In Los Angeles, it was a 4-3 win for the home side and the Kings were the only team with notable players in this one, as Tanner Pearson, Tyler Toffoli, Brett Sutter and Alec Martinez all walked away with 2 points a piece.

The Kings are likely auditioning for that spot that Marian Gaborik left behind with his foot injury at the World Cup and it looks like they won't be short on offense to try and fill that void, at least early on.

Contract Extensions (Sep 26)

The Boston Bruins are not letting one of their prized assets get away, as they have locked up forward Brad Marchand to a new 8-year contract extension on Monday morning, reportedly worth $49 million.  Marchand was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in July and after a 61-point season in 2016 and a very good World Cup with Canada, it was a no-brainer to get his deal done.

Currently, his projections are in the 65-point range, a slight increase on the season before.  Since he won't be playing with Sidney Crosby in Boston this season, there's no real reason to boost his numbers up too quickly, although he should still be getting some prime offensive time with the team.

Lower-Body Injury Sidelines Gaborik

If Team Europe's job wasn't already difficult enough, going up against a Team Canada side that is rocking all kinds of depth, they will now have to do so without Marian Gaborik.

The speedy Slovak reportedly suffered a lower-body injury of a significant nature against Sweden in the semi-final game on Sunday, but was able to finish the game.  The Los Angeles Kings have now come out and reported that they expect Gaborik to miss the next eight weeks with a foot injury, one could assume a broken bone, which will not only force him out of the best-of-three finals at the World Cup, but should cost him more than a month of the regular season as well.

Gaborik's play at the World Cup was likely getting a few poolies excited for a sleeper pick, as his numbers last season may not have him high up on a number of lists.  My current projection was for a 20-point season and that probably would have been bumped up before this injury, but I am more inclined to keep it about the same right now.

In the World Cup pool, Gaborik wasn't chosen, so his absence won't make an immediate impact on the numbers, but Europe losing one of their better scorers in this tourney will certainly hurt their chances further for the upset.

Noon Training Camp Injury Notes (Sep 26)

In Sunday afternoon's World Cup semi-final, Oliver Ekman-Larsson appeared to suffer a lower-body injury in an awkward fall, but he was able to continue to play, albeit gingerly.  Now that Sweden has been eliminated, his NHL club, the Coyotes are giving him an extra few days worth of rest to make sure he is feeling his best, when he finally dons the team's colours to start the season.  The coaching staff has come out and said that he won't be participating in any preseason action this week and his status will likely be re-evaluated on the weekend.

The Islanders are dealing with a couple of lower-body injuries of their own. Forward Cal Clutterbuck and tryout forward Stephen Gionta were both injured in camp over the weekend, but neither are believed to be serious and are only listed as out day-to-day.

Clutterbuck is the closest to being pool worthy of the two, but it would have to be a pretty deep pool to get down to his scoring projections.  I currently have him in at 20 points, used as a bottom six grinder.

Last Night's Preseason Performers (Sep 26)

We are less than two weeks away from the hockey pool draft and the NHL's exhibition schedule kicked off on Sunday afternoon and we'll be back to countdown to the draft with a recap of some notable players.

Columbus and St. Louis opened up the preseason with a split-squad doubleheader and neither game was short on scoring.  The Blues opened up with a 7-3 win against the Jackets in the afternoon, with 24-year old Kenny Agostino leading the way with 2 goals and 3 assists, Samuel Blais had a goal and 3 helpers of his own, while Kevin Shattenkirk and Robby Fabbri each had 3 points as well.

That wasn't all either.  On the Jackets' side, Scott Hartnell and Sam Gagner both had good games, picking up 3 points a piece, getting their touch on early.

In the evening game, it was all Blues, as they shutout the Jackets, 5-0.  Professional tryouts T.J. Galiardi and Eric Nystrom were among the players with a goal and an assist, trying to help their own cause out for new NHL contracts.  2016 2nd round draft pick, Jordan Kyrou, was the only other player to pick up a goal and an assist in the win, as he appears to be impressing in camp these days.

No goalies will be mentioned in these posts until they play some full games.  Both games saw split time for both teams, as the tryouts are well on their way now.

On Monday, the preseason schedule gets into full gear with 12 games on the docket.  This post will get a bit bigger, as we try and find those multi-point players in each game.

Morning World Cup Player Notes (Sep 26)

And still, no one has Jaroslav Halak. I'm just saying. The Europeans managed to move through to the World Cup Finals, defeating Sweden 3-2 in overtime on Sunday afternoon.

It was a slow, calculated game, where either team was trying to feed off of mistakes, rather than carry the play and it made for a bit of a boring game, at least through the 1st period, which was held scoreless.  Nicklas Backstrom got the scoring started in the 2nd, picking up a loose rebound, which beat Halak across the net.  It looked like Sweden was going to be content with a 1-goal lead, but Marian Gaborik was able to knot it up with a late period marker of his own.

Tomas Tatar jumped all over the Swedes to start the 3rd period, as he streaked in on a rush of his own, wiring a hard high shot on Henrik Lundqvist and then he pounced on his own rebound and the Europeans all of a sudden had a lead and put the pressure on.

The Swedes kept to their game plan, trying not to look too rushed or panicked, and their play paid off, as Erik Karlsson tied it up at 2-2, getting a fortunate deflection off a defender on a wrist shot from the point with less than five to go in the 3rd.

The game moved to overtime and now that they are in the playoff round, ti was going to be 5-on-5 overtime until someone scored.  No shootouts, just NHL playoff rules.  Thankfully, it didn't take too long to end the game, as Tatar was the hero in this one, as he picked up his second goal of the day and it was a big one.  Tatar was able to collect a little bit of garbage at the side of Lundqvist's net and just like that, the upset was complete.

Unfortunately, much like Halak's participation in the pool, Tatar wasn't taken as well, leaving a few points on the table, as well as the keeper's win.

Well, Scott was able to knock down a couple of the points off of Dale's lead, so the best-of-three finals will start with a 12-point difference between 1st and 2nd place.  Scott will be hoping that his two European players, Anze Kopitar and Nino Niederreiter, can conquer the Canadians and pretty well embarrass them all by themselves.  Sure, Dale has five Canadian players going into the finals, but the Europeans have been turning heads all tournament, so who knows in the end?

Pens' Murray Dealing With Broken Hand

Still catching up on injury news from the weekend... the Pittsburgh Penguins announced that goalie Matt Murray will need another 3-to-6 weeks to recover from a broken hand, which he suffered in the World Cup this Fall.

Last season, Murray was the media darling, as he guided the Pittsburgh Penguins to a Stanley Cup championship in the Spring and he didn't play enough games in the regular season to remove his rookie status.

If the hand needs the entire six weeks from now to heal up, that wouldn't put him into the Penguins lineup until November and that would be quite the loss of time to not have a goalie in your lineup, but if you're going to be stuck with a back-up goalie of ill-repute, one might want to take Murray before that happens.

Of course, we know how good he was in the playoffs, but in his 13 regular season appearances, taking over for the injured Marc-Andre Fleury, he did amass 20 points and did finish as the 52nd ranked goalie in pool scoring.  With this injury now, Fleury will go back to likely being the opening night starter, but there is some reasonable belief that the number one job is Murray's, when he returns.

Afternoon Training Camp Injury Notes (Sep 25)

The Boston Bruins suffered a pretty big blow to their training camp, as forward Frank Vatrano has now been sidelined for the next three months, due to a torn ligament in his foot.  If you were looking for one of those good sleeper forwards for the late rounds in the draft, Vatrano was certainly trending that way, as he was projected early on for a 30-point season, which would have made him pool-worthy at the draft.

Last season, the 22-year old appeared in 39 games for the Bruins, picking up 11 points and he was starting to make a name for himself with a hat trick against the Penguins in December.  Now, his value has been cut in half and he might be more of a mid-season Waiver Draft replacement, rather than that sleeper pick at the draft.

After being limited to only four games, thanks to a concussion, Ottawa Senators forward Clarke MacArthur was supposed to be on track for a bounce back year in the 2017 season. Well, his preseason hasn't even lifted off the ground, as he suffered a concussion in training camp after taking a big hit from Patrick Sieloff.  The team confirmed the diagnosis after he was lifted from practice today and there is plenty of pessimism moving forward, obviously.

We'll wait for a time frame before adjusting any sort of projections, but early on, I had him pegged for a 40-point season, hoping for a little bit more of a bargain pick.  Now, I would be exceptionally hesitant on even considering him.

It's seemingly a big day for concussions and its corresponding updates and on Sunday, the Dallas Stars are pleased to see forward Radek Faksa back on the ice after suffering a head injury in the World Cup of Hockey, playing for the Czech Republic.

Faksa, a 22-year old forward, has been toiling in the Stars' system for a few years now and last season, appeared in 45 games and picked up 12 points.  The early projections for the Czech forward was to keep that scoring rate on, coming into the 25-point range, but concussion trouble may put some people off.