a little armchair stuff
January 24th, 2008 by Iani was going to blog something else today but it just seems to me that as the season progresses that it’ll be necessary to do more armchair stuff since reviews and fantasy stat discussions only go so far when your team is pretty much set for the season by this stage.
watched some of the Caps/Leafs last night and i was pleased that my Leafs won in the end but there were a few guys on that Caps team that i need to highlight.
AO brought me right out of my chair on one occasion when with a simple snap of his wrist he whistled a drive right past the post. there is a reason this guy leads the league in goals (and SOG for that matter), that shot alone was so freaking quick off the stick. we need a Caps blogger on this site because someone needs to chronicle this kid (if you’re a Caps fan reading this, then consider blogging at this site on your boys, i for one would happily read). too bad he just signed forever in Washington ’cause i’d love to see him in my team’s colours, so would you in yours.
Alex Semin is back. go get him now while his owner’s frustration may still be lingering. he’s had a rough season but the injury stuff is behind him now. he put a great move on Sabourin (i think it was Sabourin) in a shootout last week that was an ankle buster for anyone else. he has 8 pts in his last 6 games and he’s making Tom Fleischmann a viable name in one year leagues.
Mike Green is going to be phenomenal. he’s smooth skating … like Paul Coffey smooth; and he adds a howitzer that Coffey never showed. he has 14 goals and we’ve not even at the break yet. few D get past 20 goals in a season and he’ll do that easily, even if he just coasts the rest of the way. i know of one keeper league where a guy got him for Devin Setoguchi and i think he got a steal.
John Erskine impressed me last night. he’s steady and solid. he has next to no fantasy value but in terms of hockey value, he’s gold. Robin Regehr or Anton Volchenkov gold.
Viktor Kozlov is living off of opportunity created by the injury of Michal Nylander, he’s just sponging stats and they won’t continue beyond this season.
the Leafs are not as bad as they have been portrayed by the media, nor are they as good as they themselves think they should be. they are populated by viable 2nd and 3rd NHL’ers. they should not trade Mats, Tomas or Vesa but anybody else is fair game as far as i’m concerned.
Anton Stralman will be something if he’s given the chance, but he’s at least a year (maybe two) away from being “something”.
the Pens gave a very nice prospect to Florida last year for Gary Roberts’ services. who’s to say the Leafs can’t get something worth having for Darcy Tucker? Tucker can be just as good an option as Roberts is.
Valtteri “flip” Filppula had 13 pts in 15 games in December and has followed it up with a 5 pt January. too bad, i was hoping for more out of him.
Dan Cleary went toe-to-toe with Chris Pronger last night and held his own. Pronger is 6′6″ without skates and Cleary (although 6′ himself) was dwarfed next to him. it’s good to see Cleary doing something, he disappears too much for my taste although he’s on pace to break 30 goals this season.
Niklas Kronwall played over 20 mins last night against a tough Anaheim team to face. it must be nice to insulate your next great D behind other great D’s like Lidstrom and Rafalski (although more correctly i’d just call him a “very good” D). Kronwall will show himself very well in the coming years.
St. Louis (the team not the player) is 3-4-3 in their last 10, not very good. this McDonald trade last month was supposed to boost them up the standings and he’s gotten 15 pts in 14 games as a Blue but he’s also been -5. i was hoping that his presence on the roster would really help Paul Kariya who has 16 pts in 18 games since the Dec 16ish trade. unfortunately though there have been 10 doughnuts amongst those 18 games and consistency is key in fantasy hockey, particularly if you play H2H. incidently, Brad Boyes has 14 pts (11 of them goals) in those 18 games and only 6 doughnuts.
Matty Ohlund played over 30 mins last night and pocketed both goals for the Canucks. i was lumping him in with Sami Salo last week as guys that i want to see more of, now i just want him to keep it up and i still want to see more from Salo.
i got a couple T-shirts from my parents-in-law this Christmas that are wannabe jerseys with the logo on the front and a name and number on the back. when i explained it to everyone who these guys were i said that i got the only guy who bothered to show up for the Canucks in the playoffs last year. you know the name and if you don’t, the number is 1. i also got an Avalanche T that i gave to my wife because she has a thing for burgundy coloured clothing, she now knows the name of a couple Avalanche players, its so nice when she takes an interest in what i’m doing. i told her to listen for me talking about Paul Stastny for the next decade and the jersey that she wears now is actually for Ryan Smyth (i think she might secretly love mullets but she isn’t saying).
so i lost Sid in my work league and i was offered Mike Fisher for Marco Sturm as a replacement. i thought about it but it would mean playing short at LW which i couldn’t do and i just went to the wire and picked up Peter Mueller to fill in for Sid for a month. i’m happy with that and since the guy wasn’t interested in sending me a replacement LW in a 2fer2, the trade went nowhere. did you realize that Mueller has 13 goals and 30 pts? not bad for a rook. Tomas Holmstrom only has 19 goals and 34 pts but we wouldn’t consider them even in the same ballpark. why not?
Posted in armchair
