Shallow Frozen Water

Sunday morning armchair

this is one of my regular postings where i glance at some of the fantasy implications from games of late, particularly Saturday night, the biggest NHL night of the week.   i’m actually starting this on Saturday because of the fact that some significant fantasy happenings occurred on Saturday. 

Brian Burke had apparently been telling Ilya Bryzgalov all season that he’d trade him and if he found no takers then he’d put him on waivers.  i like Burke because he says what he means and he means what he says so eventually, after he couldn’t find someone who’d pay the right price to get his backup goaltender, he waived him.  on Saturday Bryz was claimed and started for the Phoenix Coyotes getting a 1-0 win over the Kings.  nice, a shuttie before you even have picked up a newspaper to find new digs to put your luggage down.  the desert dogs needed to make a move like this and get a world class tender on board.  some compare this move to when the Flames got Miikka Kiprusoff from the Sharks, at the time it was a nothing move and now Kip is one of the best in the game.  Bryz could be that in the desert.  this move is also significant in Anaheim since they’ve already brought up Jonas Hiller to back up Giggy.  with the injury issues in Giggy’s history then Hiller is going to see ice time, and he’s already shown that he’s got skills.  Hiller is a decent add in deep leagues right now and he might just get 25 starts minimum from here on out.  Phoenix goes into Anaheim next week (Friday) and i’d bet a bunch that Bryz gets the start.  i’d even say he’s even money to get the win over a vastly superior Ducks team. 

Labarba-papa made 37 saves and only one got past him in the game.  Shane Doan got a PP goal, Jovo-cop with an assist and 4 PIMs and one of the kids, Martin Hanzal got the 2nd assist in almost 19 minutes of ice time.  keep your eye on Hanzal unless you’re in a really deep league or a keeper but i think the kid with the most promise in Phoenix is Peter Mueller who has been ice cold since his first ever hattie last week.

whatever guy sung the national anthem in Toronto last night REALLY got on my nerves.  that’s not fantasy related,  just saying.  my Leafs actually played well on home ice last night.  i’ve noticed that having Kyle Wellwood in your lineup helps a lot since he’ll take a lot of faceoffs, play special teams and give Mats Sundin a rest on the PK.  Wellwood went pointless last night but he’s a good add in standard leagues as a C3.  Bryan McCabe didn’t stink, and i knew he wouldn’t.  the man can still play and help a fantasy team a lot.  the window may be closing on any of your attempts to deal for him in your league.

i get the impression i’ll be talking about PK guys a lot today.  Patrick Sharp with a hattie, all at even strength and he threw in an assist to go with it.  he along with Rene Bourque represent the secondary attack that is emerging out of the young corps in Chicago.  Robert Lang has been a very nice addition for the Hawks and the Bulin Wall did his thing getting in front of 39 shots against the Wings to take the 1st star away.  Tomas Holmstrom is going to score 40 goals.

things got all PIMy in Montreal late last night.   Zdeno Chara got 25, Mark Stuart 12 and Tom Kostopolis got 22.  Chara is the only one you should pay attention to but it’s not like he’s sitting on your league’s waiver wire.  i do find that consolidating your PIMs through your D works very effectively and Chara is one of the best.  there were 25 D who got 100 PIMs last year and about half of them put up 25 pts to boot, that’s good value.  Tim Thomas got peppered for 52 shots and let 7 get past him.  Carey Price with the win.

Marty Brodeur with his 500th win.  he’s still got it.  poor Antero Niitymaki came on in relief, faced 2 shots and both got past him (snicker, his name still sounds like sushi to me).  Zach Parise is going to be SUCH a stud hockey player, if you have him in a keeper then you’ve done well for yourself.

Rod Brind’amour does everything.  he pocketed 2 goals yesterday and led his team to victory.  Nathan Horton got a goal and a fight, so he’s pretty much doing everything too.  i’d imagine that it’d cost you a special forward in order to land Horton for your team.  i was trying to think of an example and perhaps Anze Kopitar, Alex Tanguay, or even Scott Gomez is the neighbourhood i’m talking about.

Sid extended his scoring streak.  yes he’s pretty good but the interesting thing to note for the Pens is the guy in the role of the pilot fish, Petr Sykora scavenging points off the backs of Sid and Evgeni Malkin all season.  how does the Rangers’ D score 4 goals?  they’re just not this good and this is to be considered a blip.  don’t hear me wrong, the Rangers can score in bunches, it’s their D that is so blippy in this game.  if you’re relying on ANY Ranger D as a main option on your team then i imagine you’re not even in the top half of your league right now.

David Perron played his 10th game last night and scored his 5th goal.  there’s no danger of him being sent back to his Jr team now and why would they?  the kid has skill.  as a LW option he’s worth rostering for the close to 30 goals he’ll pocket in STL this season.  i also think i love Brad Boyes, he’ll definitely score 30 this season as gets significant playing time with Paul Kariya and Keith Tkachuk.  Shea Weber returned for the Preds last night (woohoo) and tallied an assist in 19 mins of play.  Alexander Radulov has turned it around.  many guys dropped him with his early struggles but if you did then you’ve made a huge mistake and it’d be much too late to go and get him again.

the battle of Alberta waged again last night for the 2nd time in a week.  last week the Oil beat the Flames at home and this week the Flames returned the favour.  i watched this game last night and most of the Oilers looked lost.  not all of them though, i think that Shawn Horcoff and Jarret Stoll are playing extremely well at the moment.  Horcoff had a 70 pt season a couple years ago, don’t forget that, and he’s getting the opportunity to lead this team in opportunity, chances and maybe points.  i like Stoll a lot if you count SHP as a category in your league.  speaking of SHP, Matthew Lombardi gets forgotten in the Flames attack, is a speedster who gets utilized extremely well on the kill.  Lombardi is a decent option as a C3or4 in deep leagues and he went 1 and 1 last night.  Miikka Kiprusoff had mostly a boring night until late in the game when he had to show that he hadn’t been lulled to sleep.  Mathieu Garon has been hot of late and that’s why he’s getting all the starts.  the Oil should be able to land some offense if they were to trade away Dwayne Roloson and i heard a rumour that Tampa is interested.  that would be such an amazing move for both teams because it sure looks like the Oil needs more offense and the Lightning definitely need an elite goalie.

a lot of fantasy hockey pundits poo-poo’d on Chris Kunitz’ chances of returning to 30 goals this year.  they figured that he, more than anyone else, would miss having Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer around.  well, Kunitz put up his 15th point to stay pretty much on the same pace he was on last season.  Koon will be fine, particularly if he gets to hang out with Ryan Getzlaf all season.  Sandis Ozolinsh has returned to being a viable D3 for any fantasy team, except mine.  i just can’t get past the idea that he was pulled over for a DUI AFTER he had finished treatment for substance abuse.  he’ll contribute, he’ll just have to do it for somebody else.