Saturday morning armchair
March 22nd, 2008 by Iansince tomorrow is Easter morning i don’t expect i’ll be able to get to the armchair at all tomorrow, my apologies to both of you who may’ve been looking forward to it.
AO tied the franchise record for goals in a season held by, wait for it, Dennis Maruk. i looked him up since i was more into taking care of the pimples on my chin than tracking hockey stats when it happened. Maruk played in backwaters his entire career, and by that i mean places that nobody outside of those places cared about and many in those places couldn’t tell a hockey puck from a urinal puck. Maruk’s 60 goals and 76 assists represented his best season of a 15 year career. all due respect to him but the Caps really should play up this accomplishment by AO, we haven’t had a 60 goal guy in the league in over a decade. i wonder if that 136 pts is the franchise record for pts? i don’t have time to try and look it up but if you do then go ahead and drop me a line with the result.
how soon did you catch on to Tobias Enstrom this year? there was all sorts of buzz around Cory Murphy at the top of the season but i for one tried to pimp Enstrom when i could. i know i had him on my work team since early into the season and then had to trade him to land some goal and goalie help (i traded Liles/Enstrom for Dustin Brown/Hasek, pretty good if you ask me). anyway, Enstrom with his 5th last night, he leads all rookie D in scoring.
is it just me or did Yahoo put up the wrong pic for Nicklas Backstrom? he doesn’t look like that on tv, i don’t know what it is but i just picture him as a kid. my first reaction was that they put the wrong Backstrom up there but that isn’t it. dude looks like he’s 35 not his youthful 21. then again, i have the worst memory for any stuff that isn’t trivia related, just ask my wife. i picked Backstrom to win the RoY this year which still could happen, given his 64 pts on the season, he’s in the rookie lead now. for a long while it wasn’t looking like he’d make it to 30 pts.
the Thrash is eliminated from the playoffs. they really should be better than this. i bet they wish they still had Marc Savard.
i wonder if Kari Lehtonen will ever be the goalie they think he can be. i’d keep one eye open for Ondrej Pavelec.
when Jim Slater has your team’s best stat line after a game and he gets more ice time than Ilya Kovalchuk, your team is in SERIOUS trouble.
big 2 pts for the Flyers yesterday. with both the Sabres and Caps threatening for their spot they go into NY and hang on to the points. of course, they had a lead with 4 mins to go and let them tie in the last 2 mins but they eventually won in a shootout. there must’ve been some heart arhythmia’s (or however you spell it) going on but in the end, they held onto their spot.
Scott Gomez left the ice in the 1st period with an ankle problem and didn’t return. it doesnt look all that serious i don’t think but you might want to look around a bit more at that problem if you’re relying on him in your H2H playoffs or something.
Daniel Briere was a difference maker for the Flyers. he now has 28 goals which ties him for the team league in goals. he’s done this without Simon Gagne for most of the season, Joffrey Lupul for 2o games and Mike Richards for 10 games.
Nigel Dawes and Brandon Dubinsky are still getting really nice opportunity for the Rangers. there’s some good future there. i like them both to be more than decent NHL’ers down the road.
OH-poso with his 1st NHL goal against one of the best ever. this kid is going to be a great one, mark it down now. by the way, i think that teaming him up with Richard Park is brilliant. it doesn’t put any pressure on the kid and Park has a defensive responsibility that can show him by example, how to do this.
Wade “left hand side” Dubielewicz subbed in for Rick DiPietro who’s done for the season if you haven’t heard, beating the Devils for the first time since he won a shootout to eliminate the Leafs at the end of last season. stupid doobie. drugs kill. stay in school.
Travis Zajac should finish with the 40 or so points he got last year, his first season, but i think there’s a difference in his play this year. he looks to be getting more PP time and more responsibility. as Elias and Gionta get more long in the tooth then some young guys will have to step up and i think that Zajac is going to be a very good C2 for the Devils next year. i could see 60 pts out of him if the opportunity keeps coming.
i like any goon who can get 20 pts on the season and 200 PIMs since only a handful get to that level; i like David Clarkson.
Tomas Vanek had 20 pts in 15 games in Feb, putting himself back into keeper consideration in many leagues. he only has 5 pts in 10 games in March though, and 3 of those pts were from a hattie against Tampa this week. i’m dropping him back down my keeper possibilities. i have one league where i only get to keep 3 and i was actually considering him for one spot, now not so much.
go take a good long look at Jason Pominville’s stats this season. he’s leading the Sabres this year and is +20 on a team that has struggled defensively all year.
Tim Connolly is done for the season. no way am i having him on my roster in the future unless he’s still there and i need a C5.
there are a couple interesting posts here at hockeyanalysis on the Maple Leafs blog about the upside of Tomas Steen and Matt Stajan. go check it out, it’s not hard to find.
i think Minnesota put themselves out of touch from those out of the playoffs with their win in Vancouver last night. people really underestimate the Wild in the Western Conference. they have a really nice counter attack and they use that home run pass to Gaborik as effectively as anyone with a superstar sniper. they play well defensively and their goalie tandem is bordering on upper echelon.
so, back before the season began i was patrolling on an ESPN message board and i saw this one league starting up where you’d choose an NHL team and only roster guys off that squad for the entire season. i considered it a roto experiment to see how roto would relate to the actual standings. for most of the 2nd half the Ducks have led that league and just recently the Canadiens took the lead. it’ll be worth watching how things go for the rest of the year but i still hope i win (i’m the Ducks).
kinda annoying that the Ducks decided to start Hiller after Giguere had warmed up yesterday. now i get no goalie stats for that game. i guess the sting isn’t so bad since the Ducks lost. turns out that Giggy developed an “undisclosed” injury and he couldn’t even backup for the game.
Sharks fans shouldn’t boo Teemu, he’s done a lot for the game and a good chunk for them. as a Jets fan i have trouble with anyone booing Teemu.
i’m very excited for the Sharks with Brian Campbell in tow. i might even take them against the Ducks in a 7 game series right now. man the Western Conference playoffs are going to be a freaking WAR.
Posted in armchair