Shallow Frozen Water

Sunday morning armchair

welcome back to the hockey season!  CBC called it a “Premiere Weekend”.  i actually missed the beginning of the season simply by running out for coffee with my dear wife and then by reffing a football game in the afternoon.  in truth i was only able to see the last period of the Rangers/Lightning game from Prague.  nothing like Hockey Day in Europe eh?  i remember last year i blogged something about the national anthem in London.  it’s not part of the soccer culture to have a national anthem before a game so it sounded REALLY cool to hear God Save the Queen.  i may try to find a youtube thing about the anthems this year, it was that cool last year.

Marcus Naslund is a sniper that is NOT done in the least.  the man just needs someone to get him the puck and Scott Gomez qualifies as that.  Gomez was turning the puck over during that game but he still managed to get the puck to Naslund for that laser beam in the 2nd.  they’re going to get enough ice time that i could see Naslund with 40 goals again and Gomez with 90 pts.  that’d be a true renaissance, wouldn’t it?

i didn’t see a lot of the clock but Wade Redden sure looked cool under pressure lugging the puck around.  he was kept off the scoresheet and had no SOGs but he’ll be a very big part of their offense this season.

the blueshirts made Chris Drury their captain.  he’s the only choice right now, until Marc Staal is ready i suppose.  i might’ve been cool to see them copy the Canucks and make their best player their captain.   King Hank is definitely their best player.

Brandon Dubinsky got himself a PP GWG and he’ll surprise this season.  i could see 25 out of him if he keeps getting playing time.  Doobie-Doobie-Doo is one of those young guys that are part of the next wave for the Rangers, Nigel Dawes is too.

i wanted more ice time for Aaron Voros.  he’s a darkhorse for my PIMs and pts combination.  he’s got a PIMy outlook.

Vinny Lecavalier had an assist and 6 shots.  if he’s supposed to have a sore shoulder still then i don’t see it.  only Marty St. Louis had more ice time among the forwards.

interesting to me that Matt Carle led the Lightning in ice time.  many are pegging Meszaros to lead that D but if a kid like Carle can shine on that squad then we’ll be really surprised at what he could contribute.  people forget that Carle has a 40 pt season under his belt, Mez doesn’t.

the CBC is running the anthem challenge Saturday night.  as i write this i’m not sure that i want to watch.  what am i to care about a song?  HNIC isn’t about dun-da-dun-da-dun, it’s about the game.

Jim Hughson is the new main voice for HNIC and all i can say is “it’s about freaking time!”  Hughson has been the best talking head on the network and it still makes me cringe every time Bob Cole puts an extra syllable in Detroit (De-troy-it).

you want no part of Vinnie Prospal.  hear me now.

i’ll be watching Evgeni Artyukhin this season.  i saw Eric Maltais, the fantasy frog, bid too much to get him in the Dobber Expert’s pool, but frog is a guy with a keen eye for fantasy talent, so Tyuk can surprise.  i suspect he’ll be valuable for PIMs but i’m not making that move til he’s shown me something.

Mike Smith faced so much rubber in that game that he must have welts all over.  how can Tampa sign all those offensive players and then get outshot 2 to 1.  i still don’t see the shutdown D that Tampa is going to need to be successful.

Tyler Kennedy is the hero?  really?  he got probably the biggest 2 goals of his season.  i’ve got to think that double digit goals is a great thing to shoot for (pun intended).

Sid the kid is lining up with Satan and Fedotenko.  i added R-Fed to my Expert’s League team and i’m going to ride that train until they switch it up.  LW can be a bit scarce sometimes so it’ll be worth it to roster any LW playing with a superstar.  you might want to look at adding R-Fed or trading for (oh, i don’t know) … Satan!

Christoph Schubert is listed at LW and D for the Sens.  given how much the Sens need defensively responsible options and how many eligible forwards they have at their disposal then i still say it’s a stupid move for the Sens to play Schu up front.  given the opportunity that the Sens have for a puck moving D then Schu COULD get up toward 30 pts if they just run him out there as a D.  i don’t think that’ll happen now, and i doubt you want to roster him as a D on your fantasy team if they continue to mis-cast him as a LW.

Daniel Alfredsson was -3 in his first NHL game played in Sweden.  the big 3 all together were -7 but had 3 pts.

if Jason Spezza ever plays a full season he could win a scoring race.  the biggest critique on him is brittleness.  he’s been slipping to late first round in many fantasy drafts but if he can stay healthy he’ll start to be a top 5 pick down the road. 

i’m betting that guys like Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski just sit and listen to Darryl Sydor on the bench.  Sydor is old but he once had some decent skill and those that can’t DO anymore … teach.  it’d be sorta like Niklas Kronwall sitting at the feet of Chris Chelios.

Filip Kuba is an option that too many fantasy guys poo-poo on.  the guy shoots the puck, hard.  Alexandre Picard isn’t going to give enough to your offense to become a D1 in the NHL and Kuba may not be a D1 either but if nobody else has the skills to step up then 30 pts could be easy for Kuba, maybe even up to 40-ish.

i can see some big things down the road for Chris Kelly and Antoine Vermette.

there’s lots of talk of Jordan Staal getting to play with Malkin this season.  only Sid had more ice time among the forward than Staal did but i imagine a good chunk of the reason for that is because JS is a main penalty killer and gets some time on the extra man too.