Rambling about Daily Fantasy under fire; Carey Price, Jake Allen, Reto Berra, Jack Eichel and more …

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The Carey Price injury is getting a little worrisome. Everyone is too quiet about it. His “lower body injury” was supposed to hold him out for a week and now he’ll be out for a second week. And as I said here over a week ago – Mike Condon will go 4-0-0 in Price’s absence. Well, now Condon will go 7-0-1. The ridiculous numbers will continue because this is a well-coached team with a strong defense, a strong defensive system and Condon is an above-average goalie. And because this Price thing could go to three weeks or even four, suddenly I wonder if Condon could end up with similar numbers as The Hamburgler had last season. That is – an unreal win/loss record and extremely low SV% and GAA. Long-term, Condon could play his way into a starting job with another team. That won’t be until the summer of 2017 though, I’m sure. And will the result be Cam Talbot? Chad Johnson? Neither has been that impressive. Or will the result be Devan Dubnyk? Stay tuned…

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Well, now they’ve gone and done it. DraftKings and FanDuel crossed the line with the whole insider-gate thing and now Daily Fantasy Sports is illegal in New York. When FanDuel first came out, I was very much afraid of this very thing happening. I was afraid that they would blur the line between legal fantasy sports the way we know it (i.e. season-long fantasy teams competing against each other) and straight up gambling (wagering on a single game). The blurred line would eventually lead to legal challenges and actual fun, harmless, real fantasy sports would be dragged along with it. Disclosure: I was partners with Fan Duel for two years early on, and have been partners with DraftKings for three years now (and currently still partners). Their sponsorship money is very much the reason why I paid for the site upgrades/re-launch and can pay the writers on this site now. DFS will get through this, it will just be a long and painful process that could sling regular fantasy sports through the mud for a little while. But it will get through it because so many huge companies need it too (such as the four major sports). Just disappointed that a few idiots had to cost the entire industry.

One promising thing in that article is the fact that the Attorney-General was very clear and concise about the difference between “Daily” fantasy sports and “Traditional” fantasy sports. That makes me feel much, much better:

"Our investigation has found that, unlike traditional fantasy sports, daily fantasy sports companies are engaged in illegal gambling under New York law, causing the same kinds of social and economic harms as other forms of illegal gambling and misleading New York consumers," Schneiderman said. "Daily fantasy sports is neither victimless nor harmless, and it is clear that DraftKings and FanDuel are the leaders of a massive, multi-billion-dollar scheme intended to evade the law and fleece sports fans across the country. Today we have sent a clear message: not in New York and not on my watch."

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Jake Allen continues to roll along. He’s won six of his last seven games with three shutouts. He’s only allowed six goals in that span. In the Hitchcock system, only an injury can stop him. The thing is – as we’ve seen these last four years or so – injuries do stop them. You saw Halak do this. You saw Elliott do this. You’ve seen Allen do this before. And in every case, an injury puts a stop to it. Then the other goalie comes in and starts doing the same thing. Since Allen is so young, just 25, let’s hope he stays healthy and puts an end to the curse. Because if he does, then he’s an elite fantasy goalie. Elite. Like another Rinne.

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The Blues took 28 shots last night. Two players got 10 of them – Vladimir Tarasenko and Robby Fabbri with five each.

Somehow I don’t see a lot of people benefitting from last night’s St. Louis game unless they owned Allen. Two goals scored, with Scott Gomez, Martin Havlat (!) and Magnus Paajarvi getting points. Yikes. Bizarro World.

And no, at this point I still wouldn’t consider Martin Havlat. Even if he does produce well, it’s just a matter of time before the dreaded injury.

Jori Lehtera has two points in his last nine games. Market correction, but also we’re seeing what he can do when he’s not playing with Vladimir Tarasenko. Answer: not much.

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Weird things the Devils coach John Hynes is doing – giving Sergey Kalinin PP time and not Jiri Tlusty. Giving David Schlemko PP time and not Adam Larsson. S-M-R-T!

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Rick Nash returns to the Rangers lineup and that big line gets back on the scoreboard. By extension, the hot line with Kevin Hayes and Oscar Lindberg were shut out and saw their ice time cut.

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Alex Tanguay is on injured reserve (knee – long term), Pat Roy went with a super-line. He stacked his studs up and it worked. Here were the line combos:

#1           25%        COMEAU,BLAKE – IGINLA,JAROME – SODERBERG,CARL

#2           24.6%    DUCHENE,MATT – LANDESKOG,GABRIEL – MACKINNON,NATHAN

#3           21.7%    EVERBERG,DENNIS – GRIGORENKO,MIKHAIL – MCLEOD,CODY

#4           18.4%    MARTINSEN,ANDREAS – SKILLE,JACK – STREET,BEN

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After six games, Reto Berra’s SV% is 0.952. Yes, he’s only 2-3-0, but two of those losses he was very good in (stopping 69 of 73). Semyon Varlamov sits at 0.890. Goalie controversy brewing, be forewarned. My prediction: one of them gets hurt and it gets decided that way. But I’m starting to like Berra. I knew there had to be a reason why two NHL teams were so aggressive in acquiring him and then quickly signing him to confusing contracts.

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Wish I had an answer about the Flyers. They just plain suck and there’s no reason why they should. I consider Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek a “buy low”. Giroux will get his points, same as always. Voracek will tag along but will obviously fall short of last year’s awesomeness.

Another guy who is disappointing is Michael Del Zotto. Come on! One point in 15 games with all that power-play time? Garbage. I’m patient with players in slumps to start the year. But MDZ is now officially droppable, if you didn’t already run out of patience with him. I really thought this would be a big year for him. Take the money and run, I guess.

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Jannik Hansen is the latest to join the Sedin line. He did okay, I guess. If you consider four points in one game “okay”. That line combined for 11 last night!

Jacob Markstrom was recommended to you in Tom Collins’ Top 10 list Monday without having played a game. Well he played one last night and stopped 42 of 45. With Ryan Miller starting to suck again, Markstrom is indeed a good play.

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Petr Mrazek must really want that starting job for keeps. He stopped 38 Washington shots – including 15 (yes – fifteen) from Alex Ovechkin alone!

In his second career NHL game, Andreas Athanasiou scored his first career NHL goal for the Red Wings. I’m not overly high on him as a prospect, but there’s definitely a bit of upside here. His prospect profile.

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I’m asked a lot about Lightning players, for obvious reasons. Expectations are high because they have the best offense in the league and aren’t showing it. All I can say is – patience. This team is too good. Not the time to panic and sell.

Nikita Kucherov has seven points in his last six games. So there’s that.

With Ondrej Palat out of the lineup for a month, the Lightning went with these line combos:

#1           28.3%    JOHNSON,TYLER – KILLORN,ALEX – KUCHEROV,NIKITA

#2           13.6%    CALLAHAN,RYAN – FILPPULA,VALTTERI – STAMKOS,STEVEN

#3           11.6%    DROUIN,JONATHAN – FILPPULA,VALTTERI – STAMKOS,STEVEN

#4           8.6%      BROWN,J.T. – CALLAHAN,RYAN – PAQUETTE,CEDRIC

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Jason Demers has quietly posted 10 points in 14 games. The Stars are scoring like gangbusters and several of the lesser players stand to see career highs this season. Demers is one of them. His career high is 34 and if he stays healthy he’ll top 40 easily.

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James Reimer is starting to look like a decent waiver snag. Not only is he 3-2-3 (some would call that a winning record), but he hasn’t allowed more than three goals in any of his last five games, and has allowed two or fewer in four of those games.

Look at the one goal Reimer allowed though. Wow…

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Jack Eichel has five points in his last three games with another two last night. He has an astounding 56 shots on goal in his 15 games this year – he’ll take a run at 300 shots! Ovechkin 2.0? So much for that slow start I alluded to on Monday. I watched much of the game last night and he changed my mind in an awful hurry and made me feel shame for ever doubting.

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Why oh why was Craig Anderson left in there for all seven goals? Killed me. Killed me…

So Nashville rookie Colton Sissons was interviewed post-game last night with lots of mention of his goal and two assists, first career three-point night. Later, scorers took away his two assists and gave them to his linemate Austin Watson. So Watson had the three-point effort. Never seen that before.

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Craig Smith owners have to be pissed. His team scores seven goals and he still doesn’t snap his nine-game pointless drought. Who does he think he is, Crosby?

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Jared Spurgeon picked up two assists last night and now has nine points in his last nine games. He’s getting the PP time to sustain decent production, until he gets hurt (which is his shortfall) so I would definitely recommend picking him up.

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I missed this in Monday’s Ramblings, sorry. But this week’s 20 Fantasy Thoughts here. I read it Sunday, forgot to post it Monday. But a great little summary, thoroughly enjoy the format and content…

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During the Sharks broadcast they said that Patrick Marleau has granted permission to be traded to one of three teams – Anaheim, Los Angeles and the Rangers. Since the Sharks aren't going to deal him within their state…it looks like he'll be a Ranger at some point this season…

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A special thank you to all the veterans who served and are serving, keeping us free. Thank you. Lest we forget