Ramblings: Pylons in Dallas, Injuries in Boston (May 4)

Dobber

2016-05-04

Ramblings: pylons in Dallas, injuries in Boston, Wilson on fire, my Calder picks and more

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Big day tomorrow. It should have been Monday but I’ve been waiting for the final word from Draft Kings as to whether or not they want me to offer their $10 Ultimate Fantasy Pack deal for the third straight summer. Over 1000 people have taken advantage of this deal over the last two summers so if you haven’t yet – you’ll probably want this to be available one more time. If I get the go-ahead (or the kibosh), I will open up the shop to pre-sales of the Fantasy Prospects Report, the Fantasy Hockey Guide, the Ultimate Fantasy Pack and the Keeper League Pack. I just don’t want to start selling these and then suddenly have the Draft Kings deal available and then have to give a whole bunch of refunds as people switch their order. Stay tuned…but expect pre-sales to open up on Thursday.

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It’s one bad game for Thomas Greiss. But is it enough to expedite Jaroslav Halak’s return? I wonder if he’ll be the backup to Greiss next game and if Greiss has another bad one – Halak gets in for Game 5. Just musing aloud…

On a high level, the Lightning aren’t impressing me as a playoff team. But taking into consideration all of their injuries – and they’re very much impressing me. I mean… Matt Taormina? Is that what we’re down to? I mean…I can see Slater Koekkoek getting in if there are a couple of injuries, but Taormina? I’m sure Steve Yzerman is taking note of the importance of adding blueline depth to their farm team.

Jonathan Drouin returned from this hit:

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Vladislav Namestnikov scored his first goal of the playoffs. He saw 10:59 of ice time, which was actually his second-highest TOI of the postseason. He’s been underutilized so far…

Alex Killorn, who had 18 playoff points last year, has eight points in eight playoff games so far this time around. These young forwards – Killorn and the Triplets – have proven to be clutch players. Did Namestnikov get that memo?

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Ryan Pulock is still out (he’s getting closer), but Josh Bailey returned to the Isles lineup and made an immediate impact. He scored twice including the first goal of the game. His return, combined with Alan Quine’s strong play, has pushed Ryan Strome back to the press box. Here were the NYI line combos:

#1 23.4% OKPOSO,KYLE – QUINE,ALAN – TAVARES,JOHN

#2 23.4% BAILEY,JOSH – KULEMIN,NIKOLAY – NIELSEN,FRANS

#3 22.2% BERNIER,STEVE – NELSON,BROCK – PRINCE,SHANE

#4 15.9% CIZIKAS,CASEY – CLUTTERBUCK,CAL – MARTIN,MATT

 

You’re probably curious to learn more about Quine. So I’ll leave this here for you to peruse at your convenience.

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Well Nashville’s on the board now. You knew they wouldn’t go down that easy. The key to winning? Not putting Mike Ribeiro in the lineup. One point and minus-3 in the playoffs and that’s enough to make him a healthy scratch.

Colin Wilson is on a four-game points streak and he has eight points in 10 playoff games. After a horrible season, you’d hardly expect to see this. He didn’t see a lot of ice time during the season with James Neal, but last night he was on a line with Neal and Mike Fisher. If that line, or at least the Wilson-Neal pairing, remains intact for next season then perhaps Wilson can get back to being a 45-point guy.

Making his NHL debut last night – Pontus Aberg. He had some promise as a potential second liner, but has shown us nothing since arriving in North America last year: 74 points in 143 AHL games so far.

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The Sharks still lead the series despite Martin Jones. His 0.918 SV% during the regular season was so-so. His 0.914 SV% in the playoffs is horrible. If the Sharks ever get into trouble I can see them turning to James Reimer. And the on-again/off-again Reimer will be clutch. He always seems to be – only winning when he absolutely needs to (ever since that Bruins come-from-behind playoff loss, that is).

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The Kris Letang verdict is in. One-game suspension for this hit on Marcus Johansson:

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You may have noticed Marc-Andre Fleury on the bench Monday. Yep, he’s been cleared to play and it sounds like he’s content to let Matt Murray run with it. If Murray loses and the Penguins fall behind in a series, then we’ll see Fleury. If not, well then they win the Cup and that opens up a whole new set of problems for Fleury owners. Because you can’t hold a Cup-winning goaltender to just 30 starts and you can’t limit a $6 million goalie to just 50 starts – something would have to give.

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Big news out of Boston. Big news. Torey Krug is out for six months after undergoing surgery on his right shoulder. Not only does that cost him training camp but it also will cost him the month of October (10 games) and maybe a little beyond that. Look for Colin Miller and/or Joe Morrow to get a bigger taste of things, at least to start.

David Krejci has hip problems. I mentioned this a couple of years ago when they were keeping it hush-hush (source: a friend of a friend). I’ve been saying for two years now that I wouldn’t touch Krejci because of how much pain he’s in. Clearly my source was correct because he underwent hip surgery (left hip) and is out until October. That will cost him the World Cup and training camp. Hopefully surgery fixes the problem, but I still wouldn’t trust him as a fantasy asset for next season.

Matt Beleskey had surgery on his hand and is out until July. So not a big deal as he will be fine for camp.

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Calder Trophy finalists Artemi Panarin, Connor McDavid and Shayne Gostisbehere were on my ballot in the top three as well (not in that order). The other two rookies on my ballot? Jack Eichel and Colton Parayko. This is my third year as a PHWA member and my second year of voting, other than the Masterton which I voted on all three times.

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Ugly.

Poor Lindy Ruff has to choose between two overpaid and overrated pylons to put in his net. And it’s a shame because he gets to ice such a great team in front of them. Someone on Twitter suggested that Dallas acquire Jimmy Howard in the offseason. Uh…that’s the same thing: 1A/1B/1C as Niemi/Howard/Lehtonen would be the same overrated goaltender.

So the Stars lost 6-1 and now they are down in the series 2-1. It was scoring by committee other than Vladimir Tarasenko, who had three points. Twelve different Blues had points.

Troy Brouwer has six points in his last five games.

Oh boy. Stephen Johns is huge, so this was scary. Alex Pietrangelo was okay, fortunately. But this play leads to a rare playoff fight…

 

 

10 Comments

  1. martin 2016-05-04 at 07:28

    How about MAF to Dallas during the offseason?? Draft picks and guys like Lindell or Dickinson could be part of a package going the other way…

  2. Dean 2016-05-04 at 08:31

    I’d think about Freddie Andersen as a solution. Ducks are going to be dealing.

  3. Cam Robinson 2016-05-04 at 08:47

    A solution for Dallas could be targeting Vasilevskiy or Bishop.. depending on how TBay plays this whole expansion dealie

  4. Lloyd 2016-05-04 at 09:11

    Martin Jones has been excellent in the playoffs.

    • Striker 2016-05-04 at 20:04

      His .914 SV% begs to differ. That said he’s my golaie in 2 of my 3 fantasy leagues.

  5. Striker 2016-05-04 at 09:18

    Cam, Dean & Martin.

    What is Dallas going to do with Lehtonen & his 5.9 mil & Niemi’s 4.5 mil per season deals each having 2 years remaining on each? Nill has done a ton of great things but he’s responsible for both these contracts & part of the problem with both goalies is Dallas’s poor team defensive play. Factor in Goligoski, Demers, Russell & Jordie Benn are all UFA’s & that doesn’t look to be improving but the salary costs to sign or replace 3 of these 4 D moving forward is going to be substantial leaving Dallas very little cap space.

    Burying either goal only clears 900K in cap space. No other team is taking either of these goalies unless Dallas eats 1/2 their respective contracts if then. Run & gun hockey is fun to watch but not exactly the most successful format come playoff time.

    Dallas; Jim Nill, has placed this team in a very unusual spot & all that praise he’s received is deserved but it will be interesting to see how he adds 8 players, 3 of which need to be Dman, a #1 to replace Goligoski & #3 to replace Demers. Dallas only has a little over 17 mil to work with, those 2 Dman will cost at least 10 mil per & unless Goligoski resigns there isn’t another UFA like him. He is the best UFA Dman available. Yandle is to 1 dimensional he’s my #2 UFA Dman.

    How does Dallas then add a goalie like Andersen, who’s an RFA moving into Niemi salary range probably higher, or Fleury at 5.75? Vasilevesky is an option at .925K but he will be expensive. More than was paid for Lehner last summer. He is 1 of the top 3 young goalies in the game. A 1st round pick plus.

    • 99rules66isafatbum 2016-05-04 at 10:27

      A #1 to replace Goligoski? Got good news for you – he already did – his name is Klingberg.

      • Striker 2016-05-04 at 14:47

        Really & here I thought Klingberg was essentially a 1 dimensional offensive Dman. Don’t #1 D also usually log significant penalty killing minutes as well or at the very least some? Klingberg averaged 0:05 per game penalty killing he finished dead last for all 11 D that so much as played a shift in Dallas.

        I would suggest you go look at his deployment #’s as well. He leans quite heavily to offensive zone starts. If not for Goligoski providing a safety net for Klingberg defensively he’d be a train wreck. He’s young so he will learn but with out Goligoski & Demers next season, if they aren’t retained, goals against is going up significantly. They & Oduya who has 1 year left do all the heavy lifting defensively.

        Even Karlsson another 1 dimensional Dman plays some penalty killing. Karlsson is certainly a #1 & finished 7th with 1:19 TOI/GP short handed out of 11 D that played in Ottawa.

        For me #1 Dman play a or near the top in all categories not just on offense. I could list dozens. Yes Klingberg is Dallas’s #1 but like Karlsson in Ottawa it doesn’t help much in the win loss column just being offensive. If Goligoski, Demers & Russell aren’t replaced with comparable players Dallas won’t finish 1st next season in the west & their run & gun offense can only cover for so much as your seeing now in the playoffs as they start to play the best of the best.

  6. Dean 2016-05-04 at 10:14

    All good points Striker. I give Nill high praise getting his team to where it is now but their D haven’t developed like they would have hoped so yeah it’s exposing their goalies. They’re winning, or losing, like a beer league team, 5 to tie, 6 to win.
    This makes the off seasons very fun to watch. GM’s are earning their pay these days. Not every team can build themselves in the mold of Chi or LA because they don’t have Toews/Keith or Kopitar/Doughty as their core. If you don’t draft that, and you definitely can’t go trade for a pair like that, you have to get creative and try to win other ways.

    • Striker 2016-05-04 at 20:18

      Dean.
      It’s not just the D that is causing the break downs in Dallas. It’s the forward’s over committing due to the style of offense there playing. I never thought I’d see a Lindy Ruff team play this style of game. I sure like watching it though, boy is it an exciting style of hockey. I am a Dallas seasons ticket holder as well as Cal, Edm & formerly Vancouver; just part of the marketing costs of running your own business. Not renewing my Van tickets after decades. I work the Petroleum industry so travel to these 3 markets extensively & live on Vancouver Island off the coast of BC on the odd occassion I can get home. I see these teams play a ton live.
      You raise an interesting point that myself & numerous friends have been discussing. The pairing issue. Hockey is a team sport & you need a strong core & depth but when you look back at the really strong teams the cup winners & teams that have had long successful runs there appears to be a constant. That being just what you said. A solid 2 way C; elite, & the same at D. You mention 2 above but there are numerous examples. Yzerman Lidtsrom, Datsyuk Lidstrom, Lemieux & Coffee, Gretzkey & Coffee, Getzlaf & Neidermayer/Pronger, Bergeron Chara, Crosby Letang. This can’t be a conicidence.

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