Pens' Murray Out Weeks

The lower-body injury that Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray suffered on Monday night against the Philadelphia Flyers appears to be more significant than originally hoped for.

The Penguins don't play again until Friday night in Buffalo, but it looks like the recall of Casey DeSmith from the AHL would indicate that the injury is serious and that Tristan Jarry might be getting the Pittsburgh net for the next little while.

The coaching staff for the Penguins confirmed later on in the morning/afternoon, that Murray is now week-to-week with a lower-body injury and that is quite a concerning fact for a Penguins team that is barely holding onto a playoff spot at the moment and are now losing their number one goalie for a week or more.

For Stacey M., this is the 3rd pick overall in this year's draft going down with injury and her team finished up Monday night in 16th place in the standings.  Murray isn't the sort of guy that she will likely be dropping with such a vague timeline for his return, one would think, but just how desperate is it going to get?  Her team is 35 points back and is now without her best player, something drastic might have to be done.

Week Nine Waiver Draft (Nov 28)

It's the week a lot of you have been waiting for... Waiver Draft week! Yes, it's already Week Nine in the regular season, this season is just flying by already.

This Waiver Draft didn't get off to the swiftest of starts, but once we got going, the picks and drops were coming at a fairly reasonable pace.  We've got a few new faces in the pool this year and they have to become assimilated into our ways, but overall, it has been going alright.  I am expecting bigger and better things on Tuesday, so we just hum right along.

Scott B. kicked off the proceedings and he jumped on the best player available, which he should have, taking William Karlsson of the Vegas Golden Knights, which shouldn't come as a huge surprise, since Vegas is just rolling right along and they don't appear to be quitting any time soon.

The first goalie of the Waiver Draft went number two, with Eric taking full advantage of the best goalie in the draft, Anton Khudobin of the Bruins.  Eric has one of two teams with only one win in the pool, to date, so goaltending is a huge hole that needed to be filled.

Steve jumped on some more scoring with his first pick, taking advantage of the Devils and their hot scoring start.  He picked Brian Gibbons, who has been on a pretty good hot streak of late.  Steve had to drop Colorado rookie forward Tyson Jost to pick him up, which isn't a bad move, since Jost has been less than a guarantee than he would have hoped.

With the fourth pick, Stacey C. picked up the second Vegas player of the Waiver Draft, picking up Reilly Smith, who has been quite good as well for the Golden Knights, chipping in at key times this season.  Smith should be a solid pickup and help Stacey back into the main pack ahead of him in the standings.

There was a little bit of late night action with Troy's pick, as he came around and dropped Sam Bennett of the Flames and threw his hat into the rookie race, not that there actually is one, taking Tampa Bay forward Yanni Gourde.  

Neil had to take care of some major injury concerns on his side, dropping Zach Parise, who isn't due back until sometime in the New Year, and he picked up Detroit forward Justin Abdelkader, who is having a bit of a bounce back season with the Red Wings.

Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Brown, who was holding onto the top spot for available players for the better part of the season, lasted all the way down to the 7th spot in the draft, where Wes snapped him up with no hesitation.  Brown and the Kings have been red hot of late, it was a surprise he lasted this long.

Finally, another Devils player and another rookie, Jesper Blatt, was picked up as the next available forward for Ryan's team.  Ryan's team hasn't been as hot as he would have preferred, I'm sure, and it started with the forwards, so the upgrade from Brett Ritchie in Dallas had to be done.

So, Tuesday morning kicks off with Mike's pick... then we should be off to the races!

Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 28)

The Minnesota Wild were without defenseman Jared Spurgeon on Monday night, as the veteran defender was feeling under the weather and couldn't dress for the game against the Winnipeg Jets.  The Wild probably could have used the veteran's presence on the blueline, as they were lit up in a 7-2 loss, something that probably hurt some of the plus/minus numbers for his Wild teammates.

I would assume that Dale C. will only miss the single game from the illness.  It sounds like it's only a bout of the flu, so it's nothing to get too excited about.

An injury scare for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as Matt Murray left the game against the Philadelphia Flyers last night, after a collision in his crease, to which he suffered a lower-body injury in the play.  The Penguins didn't have much an update after the game, they will await tests from later on today, before they start making any sort of commitments to timelines for his return. 

If things weren't bad enough for Stacey M., getting knocked out of the survivor pool, her number one goalie is forced from the game on Monday morning, without a decision to his name.  Stacey's team finished up Monday night in 16th place, 35 points out of the money.

Dadonov Out With Upper-Body Injury

The Florida Panthers are preparing to be without breakout forward Evgenii Dadonov for the next 4-to-6 weeks, as he was hurt on Saturday night against the Blackhawks.  The injury is listed as an upper-body ailment, which is believed to be related to his shoulder.  The 28-year old underwent testing on the weekend and on Monday afternoon, the timetable was released by the Florida coaching staff, dropping the bad news on everyone.

Dadonov has been as advertised with the Panthers, to this point in the season, picking up 7 goals and 18 points in his first 22 games, which even after Monday night's action, still has him ranked 88th in pool scoring. 

This is a real tough break for Dale C., who was getting some pretty good production out of his 5th round draft pick, 110th overall, almost to the point to where he was becoming a good bargain player.  The Waiver Draft could certainly help his cause, if he decides that the injury will keep him out of the running for too long and then take him down from a very competitive spot in the standings, where he sits 7th after Monday night, 10 points out of the money.

Landeskog Given Four Games

Starting on Wednesday night, Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog will begin serving his 4-game suspension, which was handed down to him on Monday afternoon, for his cross-check to the head of Calgary's Matthew Tkachuk.  Landeskog will be eligible to return to the Avalanche lineup on December 7th, when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning to start a 4-game road trip.

Landeskog has been good, so far, this season, picking up 9 goals and 17 points in 22 games with the Avalanche, as they have dramatically improved over last season and are currently battling for playoff position in the Central Division.

The Avalanche have called up pool forward Tyson Jost from the minors to take Landeskog's spot.  Jost has been out of the Avalanche lineup for a number of weeks already, mostly due to injury and just recently, a stint in the minors to get his legs back. 

This suspension isn't good news for Tony's team, which will be without a key forward for a little over a week, while Steve gets the benefit of auditioning Jost for the next week, wondering if he will keep him on his pool team's roster or not, through the Waiver Draft this week.  Tony's team currently ranks 12th, heading into Monday, while Steve's team ranks 23rd, both teams separated by 32 points.

Goalie Announcements (Nov 27)

Well, now that we're down to five teams in the goalie survivor pool, these posts are going to get really short, which isn't a bad thing. It means we're really getting somewhere!

It's going to be a busy week, with 50 games on the slate, likely giving the mini-game ample opportunity to stay at five teams for the time being, but we'll have to see how it will all play out.

Roberto Luongo (Stuart) versus Cory Schneider (Jeremy)
Jeremy is the only one of the five active teams in the mini-game to have action on Monday night and it isn't just one start, it's two.  The first is the reunion of former Canucks goalies, Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider in the swamps of Jersey, which usually makes for a pretty good game.  It's certainly not an easy game for Jeremy's first goalie, but with the way Jersey has been playing, it's not out of the question that the win will come early.

John Gibson (Tony) versus Corey Crawford (Jeremy)
In the late game of the five, it would be apropos that the newly-eliminated team belonging to Tony would get his first win as a spoiler right away.  The Blackhawks have been good again in recent weeks, so if Jeremy can't get a win early, the late game doesn't seem like a long shot either.  He might have to be the favourite now to win the mini-game with two quality goalies like his.

Week Eight Newsletter

Well, it's Waiver Draft time... we'll make some key decisions for the segment of the season this week and everything will go live a week from today.  But first, let's have a quick peek at the week that has just passed us by, too quickly, and then we'll saunter into the new week and start making our picks.



Well, there you have it.  Our first Vegas Golden Knights player making up the Player of the Week nod in the hockey pool.  It only took eight weeks for it to happen!

Jonathan Marchessault was a surprise to just about everyone, when he was left off of the Florida Panthers' protected list at the expansion draft and to many, he was a shoe-in to be taken by the Golden Knights, after such a breakout season in 2017.  Well, he sure proved the Panthers wrong this past week, posting a 9-point week, the clear winner of the nod this week.

Marchessault played in three games this week and in each game, he posted a goal and a pair of assists, doing so against divisional opponents like Anaheim, San Jose and Arizona in the week.  The 26-year old has been very good for Vegas this season, now having posted 8 goals and 21 points in 19 games, which is now good enough for 59th overall in hockey pool scoring this season.

For Benson, he has been running away with the forward points this season, now up to 163 points among his eight players up front.  That has boosted his team up to 5th place in the overall standings, , now 6 points out of the money and 12 points out of 1st place.

Speaking of 1st place, we have ourselves a new leader this season... and it's the reigning champ!  Dale B. took full advantage of the big week in the schedule and posted a new weekly-high score with 41 points from his team, lifting his team up from 4th place and right into top spot.  It looks like he wants to spend another summer with the trophy after a week like this.

Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne was his top performer in Week Eight, finishing with 8 points, and then his team also had good weeks from Canucks forward Brock Boeser, who had 5 points, while both Vegas forward James Neal and Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss each had 4 points as well.  Only one of his players failed to register a point, but that was because he was stuck in the AHL, racking up the points down there, but those don't count, as much as you might think that they did.

Dale's team got off to a bit of a mediocre start to the season, hovering around the middle of the pack, but in the last three weeks, he has seen his team shoot up the standings, going from 10th to 4th in Week Six and then the important jump form 4th to 1st in this past week.

It is quite something, as Dale's team hasn't been dominating the skater games department, rather his team currently ranks 21st in skater games with 238, while the overall leader in the category has 284 games played.  His goalies have played a lot, however, ranking 6th in the pool with 1,790 minutes played and 2nd in points from the crease.  His defense is also quite good, also ranked 2nd in the pool in scoring, so he's getting the biggest contributions from the back end, currently.  How sustainable is this push?

With holding onto the top spot in the standings, he now will pick last in the 1st and 2nd round of the Waiver Draft and it will be interesting to see if he makes any moves.

It wasn't a very good week for Stacey M.'s team, but if it was to happen, Week Eight isn't the worst time to have it happen.  Dropping down in the standings will only help her team's Waiver Draft pick, which it did, moving from 10th to 16th in the standings, which means her pick went from 16th to 10th... weird how that happens!

Stacey's team was only able to post 13 points in Week Eight and now her team sits 34 points out of the money, which isn't insurmountable, but it will make for a difficult push, something that the Waiver Draft may only marginally help.

The bright spots on Stacey's team in Week Eight were Kevin Fiala of the Predators and David Pastrnak of the Bruins, who each finished with 3 points a piece, but that certainly wasn't enough to carry her team to any sort of glory in the week.

And yes, she has a couple of easy moves to make on her team this week, so we'll see how her team improves right off the hop.  Vadim Shipachyov and Artturi Lehkonen seem to be pretty good candidates for drops, if you ask me!

Well, as it was pointed out in the Mover & Shaker, we have ourselves a new leader, as Dale B. unseated Jeremy for top spot and opened up a 4-point lead at the top as well.  Oh, that lead isn't on Jeremy... no!  It's like deja vu from last season, as Brian now sits number two, the 2nd place team from last season, while Jeremy dropped down to 3rd place, thanks to only 24 points in the week.  Jeremy now sits 6 points back of top spot, but that isn't an impossible total to overcome.

Only Kristy & Don and Benson's team are now within 10 points of the money, while Stuart's team made some moves in the week, bumping up to 6th place and now sits 11 points back of 3rd place.  The Waiver Draft should tighten this race back up, starting next week, but first, we have to make it through the picking process.

The bad week for Stacey M. continued through the goalie survivor pool, as her team was one of three to be eliminated in Week Eight.  Stacey C. and Tony had the other two teams that failed to register a win and this was three teams that had some legitimate shots at winning this mini-game.

Stacey C. had Brian Elliott and Semyon Varlamov, both big minute goalies, but Varlamov got sick this week and the Flyers fell flat.  Stacey M. has Matt Murray and Cam Ward, when the Penguins couldn't get their number one goalie a win and Ward was limited in his starts in Carolina.  Tony, probably the biggest surprise, has John Gibson and Craig Anderson, and shockingly, neither was able to pick up that crucial win to stay in.

Now, we're down to five teams: Jeremy, Cam, Grant, Wilton and Mike.

It wasn't all bad for Tony, as his team climbed back into the plus/minus race, claiming a season-high, +26 rating in Week Eight.  He went from -13 to +13 in a matter of one week and now his team sits 10th in the standings and if his team can find a few more weeks like that, he could be in the conversation for the money at the end of the season.

Steve moved back into 1st place in the mini-game, also posting a very good week with a +13 rating in Week Eight and now sits at +40 overall.  Dale B. is only a couple points back, while Brian also made moves up close to the top, now 6 points back of Steve.  Can Steve find some plus/minus magic in the Waiver Draft?

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Ahead of the Waiver Draft, we saw some slight increases in participation in Week Eight, which was great for the pool, but questions are now abound about who will get dropped... will it be worth it?

With a season-high in games played on the NHL schedule, it should come as no surprise that we had records in total points with 646 on the board, but we were nowhere near records for an average pull from an NHL game, which was only at 12.4 points in 52 games.

This coming week has 50 games in it and there are some healthy bodies again, so if scoring can manage to find its way back up, beating 646 points doesn't appear to be so difficult.

NEWS AND NOTES

On Sunday night, the Arizona Coyotes made the call and told Dylan Strome to pack his bags, he's joining the big club again. Strome has been lighting up the AHL of late and he gets the nod for a spot in Week Nine. Strome played in two games at the beginning of the season, to no avail, but really honed his game in down in the minors and the Coyotes now think he's ready to apply that confidence at the top level. We shall see if they're right.

How to make decisions difficult for Dale B., who could start to run away with the pool again, if he can get a top end scoring prospect like Strome to go or else he could be stuck with another NHL dud for another nine weeks, if he stays, isn't dropped and flops.  How intriguing!

The San Jose Sharks have recalled Antoine Bibeau on an emergency recall on Monday, suggesting that Martin Jones may not be ready to play on Tuesday night in Philadelphia.  Jones is now considered to be day-to-day with a lower-body injury, but there doesn't appear to be any panic with the Sharks at the moment, but the week is young!

Chris' team is in need of some good news, as it really has fallen off the pace over the last four weeks and his All-Star goaltending tandem has already let him down in the goalie survivor pool.  His team bounced back up to 10th from 11th in the week, but going down a goalie for an undetermined amount of time certainly won't help.

The upper-body injury that Winnipeg Jets goalie Steve Mason suffered on Saturday night is indeed a concussion and he was placed on the Injured Reserve on Monday morning, which means he'll be out until at least the weekend with the ailment. Mason has 2 wins in eight appearances this season, not quite fit to be a number one in his new landing spot and this injury is just another insult tacked on to his year. It will definitely be tough for him to take back the net from Connor Hellebuyck, who has been good in his place.

Troy definitely has some decisions to make this week, as his team currently sits in 21st place in the standings and will pick 5th in the Waiver Draft, starting today (in all hopes!).  His team is 47 points out of the money and he could really use an active goalie, to help his cause along.

Goalie Announcements (Nov 26)

There was absolutely no love for the survival teams on Saturday, even amongst the busy slate.  Tony's team was the only one to get a start out of four possible games between the three teams still in need and the Ottawa Senators dropped a decision to the Islanders and that was it.

Stacey C.'s team couldn't catch a break with Semyon Varlamov's illness and the Philadelphia Flyers couldn't throw him a bone either.

And for Stacey M., her team isn't completely hooped, heading into Sunday, as there is plenty of room for some kind of miracle to happen, but it does seem unlikely now.  It was surprising that Matt Murray couldn't get the job done this week, but what can you do?

Pekka Rinne (Dale B.) versus Scott Darling (Clayton)
Stacey M. might have kept some faint hope that Cam Ward would have got the start for the Hurricanes in the league's earliest game, but it isn't to be.  Instead, Clayton gets a chance to make up a couple of points on Dale B., the gap that is now 30 points between the two pool teams, Dale up in 2nd place at the moment.  Of course, that gap won't close in one game, but it's certainly a start.

Jacob Markstrom (Wes) versus Henrik Lundqvist (Brian)
Today's Rogers Hometown Hockey is an early game, likely thanks to the Grey Cup game today, and it will feature the Canucks and Rangers from MSG.  Wes gets the first of two starts here, as Markstrom will take on Lundqvist, who belongs to our current leader, Brian.  Wes currently sits 46 points back of Brian's team and is in desperate need of the Waiver Draft.

Cam Talbot (Wes) versus Tuukka Rask (Clayton)
Assuming Cam Talbot is clear of the flu today, he'll be giving Wes the second of two starts, while Clayton also gets a second start today, as Tuukka Rask will make his first start in five games.  Both pool teams could still make a move up in the standings before the end of the week here today, which is somewhat counter-productive, given that the Waiver Draft order will be finished after today's action and the weekly audit in the morning.  Moving up would lessen the value of their picks.

Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 26)

Anaheim Ducks forward Rickard Rakell was held out of last night's game against the Kings due to an upper-body injury and it sounds like it is significant enough to keep him at home, while the Ducks start on a 5-game road trip. There's no word on whether or not they expect the winger to join the team on the trip at any point, but it doesn't sound like he'll be active for Monday night's game in Chicago, at the very least.  He's currently listed as day-to-day, but if he isn't going to travel, I would expect him to hit the Injured Reserve, so they can have another healthy body on the trip.

In the 1st period of the game in San Jose between the Jets and Sharks, Winnipeg starter on the night, Steve Mason, did not return to the game at the start of the 2nd period, due to an upper-body injury, leaving the game to Connor Hellebuyck. Mason had taken a shot up high in the mask in that 1st period, but was deemed good enough to finish the period, but the call was made at the intermission and now we wait for further confirmation from the team on the extent of the injury.  A tough break for Mason, who didn't get the start he wanted this season and the injury will only compound the problems.

For Troy, who has already had the Basement Dweller nod once this season, his team is just not faring well in the luck department.  Sure, next week is Waiver Draft time, but even if he has to consider these two for switches, he'll be taking away some top end talent, in theory, and replacing them with what's left, which isn't necessarily great, especially in the 2nd round or later.

There are some reports that Calgary Flames forward Kris Versteeg is hurting, dealing with an undisclosed injury, but there are also some reports out there suggesting that last night's omission from the lineup was a healthy scratch, due to some poor play on Friday night.  Nevertheless, with the Flames coming home after a 6-game road trip, we should be able to find out a little bit more here soon.  I'll have it listed as the injury, for now, but I wouldn't be too surprised if we saw him in the team's next game, Tuesday night, at home to Toronto.

Mike could probably do with it being an injury, with the Waiver Draft now upon us, as it would give him good reason to get rid of one of his two underachieving forwards from the first segment of the season.  As the standings sit on Sunday morning, Mike would pick 8th, but his team has some games to play on Sunday and he could drop down to 10th with a solid day.

Watching that Winnipeg/San Jose game last night, there was a point in time in the 3rd period, where Sharks goalie Martin Jones appeared to tweak something in the lower-body area making a save in his shutout win and that is a cause for concern for the Sharks medical team at the moment.  There are no official reports of an injury, yet, but it is something to keep an eye on.  The Sharks don't play again until Tuesday in Philadelphia and then not again until Friday, so even if he was to skip a start to heal up a bit, one couldn't be surprised by that.  We shall see.

Chris used that shutout win to climb up in the standings a fair bit last night, as his team now sits 10th, 23 points out of the money and he has to be concerned about his 1b goalie.  If there is anything significant there, it could lead to a drop in the standings.

Goalie Announcements (Nov 25)

Yesterday, we had six survivor goalie starts, granted two of them were in one game, but still, six survivor starts, where we could have had five survival wins, but instead, we only had the one from the all-survival game. Frederik Andersen won for the Maple Leafs, beating Carolina, and that was it. Mike is now through, leaving the two Staceys and Tony to scrap it out for one more win in two more days worth of action.

With all the back-to-backs that we've seen this week and starters already having played, this could be very difficult, if not impossible, for these teams to still make it, but we'll have to investigate more to find out for sure.

Jaroslav Halak (Benson) versus Craig Anderson (Tony)
Back-to-back nights, be damned... the Ottawa Senators are not afraid of running with Craig Anderson on zero nights rest, it seems.  This is fantastic news for Tony, who may have thought that his chances at a survival win were pretty well through, given the way that the schedule has rolled out.  Jaroslav Halak should go today for the Islanders, as he didn't end up going yesterday, that is most certain.

Peter Budaj (Steve) versus Tristan Jarry (N/A)
It's a lot of the same in Pittsburgh tonight, as both the Lightning and Penguins are on back-to-backs, no real advantage to either team, in terms of rest, so it seems very plausible that both starters are going to be the team's backup options tonight.  Peter Budaj giving Steve a rare start, while Tristan Jarry, the new number two in Pittsburgh, continues to audition for a role on your hockey pool team.  This was Stacey M.'s only possible start today, but it looks to be going to the wayside with these starters.

David Rittich (N/A) versus Jonathan Bernier (Scott B.)
The Avalanche have been waiting for Semyon Varlamov to come out from underneath a flu bug all week and it's not going to be today, as per the announcement from the club around Noon MT on Saturday.  Instead, Jonathan Bernier will get the go again, giving Scott another start tonight and keeping Stacey C. out of a start.  At the other end of the ice, it is expected that Czech rookie David Rittich is ready to make his NHL debut with a start in Denver and he's another goalie looking to make an impression before the Waiver Draft.  A good showing could earn him a spot somewhere, but it is a risky move, to say the least.

Ryan Miller (Cam) versus Jonathan Quick (Chris)
The Ducks will spoil Tony's last chance at a win, but it isn't their fault, as they are on back-to-backs as well tonight.  Ryan Miller is back from injury again and should get the nod against the Kings, who opted to go with their backup last night, so Jonathan Quick gets a spin in the net tonight in a big Pacific Division clash.  Cam and Chris will see their goalies go tonight and this will be a good swing game, as they are only separated by 1 point in the standings, heading into tonight's action.