November 11, 2013

Dobber Sports

2013-11-11

Lest we forget.

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Note: The forum changeover has been delayed by 24 hours. So Tuesday night now.

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Attention new forum users – anyone who registered to DobberHockey since 10/16 did not get registered to the forum. Rather than fix the issue, we are going to move forward with upgrading the forum. Once upgraded, we’ll fix the issue at that point. If you login and can’t access the forum and would like to – email me and I’ll manually set you up. The upgrade/ switchover is scheduled for tonight around midnight ET. Then the forum will have a new look, though I’m sure some bugs will need to be fixed over the first few days.

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So David Desharnais came back from his healthy scratch with a vengeance. And by “vengeance” I mean “whimper”. He’s still getting reasonable ice time and still seeing power-play time, but nothing to show for it. Whatever magic Desharnais had in his 60-point season would seem be quite gone. Just one point in 16 games. He’s been stuck on a line with Rene Bourque and neither one of them are going right now. Here were Montreal’s line combos from last night’s game:

 

24.9%

EV

81 ELLER,LARS – 27 GALCHENYUK,ALEX – 11 GALLAGHER,BRENDAN

17.84%

EV

21 GIONTA,BRIAN – 67 PACIORETTY,MAX – 14 PLEKANEC,TOMAS

14.52%

EV

49 BOURNIVAL,MICHAEL – 17 BOURQUE,RENE – 51 DESHARNAIS,DAVID

6.22%

EV

17 BOURQUE,RENE – 51 DESHARNAIS,DAVID – 32 MOEN,TRAVIS

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Alex Galchenyuk had a three-point game. Prior to that he was on a run of 13 games with just four points. Lars Eller also had three points, and had just one in nine games before that.

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Evgeni Nabokov is playing pretty poorly of late and as a result Kevin Poulin has been seeing more starts than ever before (when Nabokov is healthy). He started his third game out of six, but lost two of them. He’s been playing fairly well and I think is angling in on that No.1 goalie job. However, Anders Nilsson is not a bad pickup if you have room for a fourth goalie on your team – all it would take is for Poulin to stumble. Nabokov is already stumbling.

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You can’t blame Carter Hutton for his team scoring zero goals, but he did give up five goals on just 23 shots. His last time out he gave up three on eight shots. So eight goals given up on his last 31 shots faced. Meanwhile, Magnus Hellberg – who is supposed to be the next big thing, has struggled in the AHL and it has been Marek Mazanec – a sixth-round pick from 2012 – who has been absolutely dynamite. He’ll probably be the guy to get the start for the Preds when they get desperate.

On the bright side, Hellberg owners, he had a fantastic game Sunday for the Admirals, stopping 43 of 45 shots in a shootout loss. So maybe he’s found his mojo.

The Preds released this statement on the status of Pekka Rinne last night:

Pekka Rinne underwent a MRI earlier this week and he continues to progress in his recovery from a bacterial infection in his hip which was initially identified and addressed with arthroscopic hip surgery on October 24. There have been no setbacks – and we and the doctors are thankful they have identified the infection – so now it is simply a matter of time for recovery and allowing treatment to take its course. Pekka will remain on crutches and antibiotics for at least the next couple weeks before a follow-up MRI in late November. We expect a full and complete recovery and will provide additional updates when appropriate.

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New Jersey d-man Eric Gelinas has five points in eight games after another assist Sunday. He’s behind only Elias and Jagr in points-per-game average for the Devils. You’ll notice he shot up the rankings in my Prospects List that I posted yesterday.

Damien Brunner had five points in five games to start the year, but has just two in his last 10. His ice time was cut to 11:24 yesterday, though he was in the box twice.

Martin Brodeur has won four of his last five, including back-to-back shutouts. Not a testament to his skills – the Devils gave up 15 shots Sunday. Prior to that, they gave up 22, 21 and 17 with Brodeur in net.

Jaromir Jagr‘s goal was his 1700th career point!

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A couple of players got monkeys off their backs in the Rangers/Panthers game. Brad Richards scored first goal in nine games, though he’s been hot with the assists lately. And Aleksander Barkov scored, which ended a seven-game pointless drought. Barkov’s ice time was cut to 13:50 though, which was his lowest since October 11.

Mats Zuccarello now has nine points in his last nine games. He saw a season-high 21:19 Sunday.

Carl Hagelin has points in every game that he’s played this season except the game against Buffalo of all teams. He has eight points in seven games and is plus-7. I won’t be swayed easily, but he’s starting to make a believer out of me. A 65-point guy? I never would have thought. I knew the potential was there…but my confidence in him reaching it was low.

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Florida rookie Nick Bjugstad has points in three consecutive games. His ice time has been up there too, under the new coach – 18 minutes in each of the last two contests.

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A couple of injury notes from Anaheim – apparently Ryan Getzlaf took a spill in practice Friday and suffered a UBI. He was a game-time decision and ended up not playing. As a result, the surging Dustin Penner was held off the scoresheet. Penner is the subject of my THN article later today, though if Getzlaf remains out for any length of time I’ll have egg on my face for that one.

And Jonas Hiller was supposed to be Anaheim’s starter, but he was “ill” at the last minute and had to pull out. So Goalie Post was wrong for once. But the guys who take care of the starting goalie grid have done a great job all season long giving you accurate starting goalie information.

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Frederik Andersen was stellar though – 35 saves on 36 shots for the win. He’s won his first six NHL starts and is the first goalie to do that since Damian Rhodes did it in 1993. But his time in the NHL, for this year anyway, is coming to a close. Viktor Fasth is back practicing with the team.

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The Philip Larsen that we were hoping for two years ago is starting to show himself. With three points on Sunday, he has five in five games for the Oilers. Although, he managed to get those three points and still end up minus-3. Two of his points were on the power-play, as you’d expect given that plus/minus result. I’d say pick him up and ride this streak. He’s giving the offensive results that we expected from Jeff Petry.

Larsen also had five hits!

Taylor Hall has points in all three games he’s played since returning from injury. Here are the line combos from last night for the Oilers:

 

Frequency

Strength

Line Combination

24.91%

EV

89 GAGNER,SAM – 4 HALL,TAYLOR – 83 HEMSKY,ALES

16.12%

EV

14 EBERLE,JORDAN – 93 NUGENT-HOPKINS,RYAN – 57 PERRON,DAVID

13.55%

EV

26 ARCOBELLO,MARK – 94 SMYTH,RYAN – 64 YAKUPOV,NAIL

11.36%

EV

27 GORDON,BOYD – 6 JOENSUU,JESSE – 28 JONES,RYAN

 

Sam Gagner was pointless and minus-2. In six games he’s a minus-9 with one assist. Meanwhile, he buries Arcobello on a depth line. That’s what ‘Golden Boy’ status gets you.

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With just 11 points in 19 games, Blake Wheeler is an ideal ‘buy low’ candidate. Go kick some tires, because he’s going to flirt with 65 to 70 points. His current pace is 48.

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Tommy Wingels scored again. He is the second subject in the THN article that will be posted later today. He’s on a six-game points streak and is in his fourth NHL season.

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Erik Johnson picked up two points in a game for the first time since March 14. He has three points in his last two games.

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Rick Nash skated both Saturday and Sunday and is apparently still symptom free. I’m no doctor, but I would guess that at this point in his return from a concussion he will return to the lineup in 10 to 12 days. The next step is taking contact.

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I love two-on-ones. Perhaps my favorite play in hockey:

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Now Ovechkin knows what this feels like:

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And Happy Birthday to DobberHockey Senior Writer Russ Miller, who has been a staple on this site and in this community since 2007.

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UPCOMING GAMES

Mar 28 - 19:03 OTT vs CHI
Mar 28 - 19:03 TOR vs WSH
Mar 28 - 19:03 MTL vs PHI
Mar 28 - 19:03 PIT vs CBJ
Mar 28 - 19:03 FLA vs NYI
Mar 28 - 19:03 CAR vs DET
Mar 28 - 20:03 MIN vs S.J
Mar 28 - 20:03 STL vs CGY
Mar 28 - 20:03 WPG vs VGK
Mar 28 - 21:03 EDM vs L.A
Mar 28 - 21:03 COL vs NYR
Mar 28 - 22:03 SEA vs ANA
Mar 28 - 22:03 VAN vs DAL
Mar 28 - 22:03 ARI vs NSH

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
TAGE THOMPSON BUF
JJ PETERKA BUF
ANTHONY DUCLAIR T.B
JORDAN GREENWAY BUF
JURAJ SLAFKOVSKY MTL

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
ALEKSEI KOLOSOV PHI
JOONAS KORPISALO OTT
KAREL VEJMELKA ARI
UKKO-PEKKA LUUKKONEN BUF
JUSTUS ANNUNEN COL

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency CBJ Players
25.7 ALEXANDRE TEXIER BOONE JENNER JOHNNY GAUDREAU
22.0 COLE SILLINGER MIKAEL PYYHTIA KIRILL MARCHENKO
17.3 DMITRI VORONKOV MATHIEU OLIVIER BRENDAN GAUNCE

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