SURPRISE SCORERS
Naturally, we’re still at the “don’t overreact this is just a small sample” stage of the season, but there are still a few guys who shined a spotlight on their surprising scoring so far.
David Legwand and Milan Michalek already have 14 points while Kris Versteeg is fitting in just fine in Florida, with 13 points in 13 games. Most of us realized that Marc-Andre Bergeron and Alexander Edler possess offensive talent, but 15 points already? That’s pretty stunning.
Defensemen usually don’t score at around a point-per-game rate in this era, so it’s natural to assume that both Edler and Bergeron will regress. That being said, both are blueliners who should be catalysts on teams loaded with offensive talent, so they should remain valuable to your lineup.
To be perfectly honest, Legwand isn’t likely to keep this up. Still, this head start might give him a chance to threaten his career-high of 63 points from 2006-07, when he generated an outstanding 17.6 shooting percentage (not that far off from his current 18.5 rate).
That leaves us with perhaps the two most intriguing cases: Michalek and Versteeg. Both have tantalized onlookers with their talents but haven’t been able to put it together for a great season. Each has seemingly been discarded through trades; Versteeg bounced around the league since the Chicago Blackhawks won a Stanley Cup while Michalek seemed to evaporate into the Ottawa sky upon being traded from San Jose.
Each player should have ample opportunities to keep things going. Michalek is finally taking advantage of his chances to be a go-to guy on a thin Ottawa Senators team while Versteeg is finding a home with the Florida Panthers. Ultimately, it's highly unlikely that both players will remain near the top of the heap, but you should absolutely give them a look if you're short on offense right now.
It’s only really been a month, but the 2011-12 season has already provided its fair share of surprises.
Sunday night was no exception, as it seemed that the wrong Central Division team with “Blue” in its name parted ways with their head coach. Rather than the Columbus Blue Jackets, the St. Louis Blues were the franchise that made the big front office change, as they dismissed Davis Payne in favor of Ken Hitchcock. (Naturally, Columbus probably won't be far behind, but it's shocking that St. Louis beat them to the pink slip punch.)
After the initial wave of “Whaaaat?” responses, fantasy hockey owners must ask themselves: how will this affect my team?
THE HITCH BLUES
Well, if you judge the situation based solely on his past reputation, Hitchcock should pump up the Blues’ defense and drive their young players crazy. One would then assume that Jaroslav Halak might just break his slump while T.J. Oshie will cry in his oatmeal.
The thing is, considering their personnel, the Blues haven’t been all that porous on defense so far this season. They’re only allowing 26 shots per game and Brian Elliott was putting up great numbers amid Halak’s struggles. The Blues also employ a group of forwards who might not really need the “change Mike Modano into a two-way player” treatment – at least not in a drastic way. (I mean, really, it’s hard to imagine Hitch having much of an issue with the way David Backes goes about his business.)
Nope, if there’s anything that should change dramatically, it might just be the sense of urgency. After all, the Blues weren’t, well ... Blue Jackets-level horrible so far this season. Then again, maybe that’s the point; Hitchcock can come in at 6-7-0 with plenty of time to help this team make the jump from a solid but not-so-compelling mix to a group that’s really difficult to play against.
In other words, it’s difficult to say who exactly will prosper and suffer – aside from Halak because he really has nowhere else to go but up – but considering Hitch’s impressive body of work, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team get better in a big picture kind of way.
It’s a shame that Payne had to get steamrolled in the process, though.
SURPRISE SCORERS
Naturally, we’re still at the “don’t overreact this is just a small sample” stage of the season, but there are still a few guys who shined a spotlight on their surprising scoring so far.
David Legwand and Milan Michalek already have 14 points while Kris Versteeg is fitting in just fine in Florida, with 13 points in 13 games. Most of us realized that Marc-Andre Bergeron and Alexander Edler possess offensive talent, but 15 points already? That’s pretty stunning.
Defensemen usually don’t score at around a point-per-game rate in this era, so it’s natural to assume that both Edler and Bergeron will regress. That being said, both are blueliners who should be catalysts on teams loaded with offensive talent, so they should remain valuable to your lineup.
To be perfectly honest, Legwand isn’t likely to keep this up. Still, this head start might give him a chance to threaten his career-high of 63 points from 2006-07, when he generated an outstanding 17.6 shooting percentage (not that far off from his current 18.5 rate).
That leaves us with perhaps the two most intriguing cases: Michalek and Versteeg. Both have tantalized onlookers with their talents but haven’t been able to put it together for a great season. Each has seemingly been discarded through trades; Versteeg bounced around the league since the Chicago Blackhawks won a Stanley Cup while Michalek seemed to evaporate into the Ottawa sky upon being traded from San Jose.
Each player should have ample opportunities to keep things going. Michalek is finally taking advantage of his chances to be a go-to guy on a thin Ottawa Senators team while Versteeg is finding a home with the Florida Panthers. Ultimately, it's highly unlikely that both players will remain near the top of the heap, but you should absolutely give them a look if you're short on offense right now.
YOUNG HATS
This past weekend presented a hat trick of hat tricks for young players. For Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin, it ended up being the first trios of their careers. It’s never right to look down on an achievement like a hat trick, but surely both Duchene and Seguin must be pleased that their nights featured some brilliant goals to boot.
Meanwhile, Steven Stamkos has already scored a few, but surely he enjoyed doing it in the same period.
It’s possible that those first career hat tricks represented breakthroughs for Duchene (who was shaking off an unusual slump) and Seguin (the second year player is increasing his output in a way that honestly mirrors Stamkos’ sophomore surge). For Stamkos, it was a reminder that he’s already at a top-10 level among goal scoring forwards.
In other words, expect all three to add many more hat tricks in the future – and maybe a few more this season.
ROLLING OUT?
Things haven’t been going very well for Dwayne Roloson early on this season. Some might say that he’s been downright awful and those lower moments have only been highlighted by Mathieu Garon’s superior play.
If you believe that just one great game can change things around, then Sunday’s shootout win might be the elixir for Roloson. Guy Boucher pulled Garon after the Lightning fell behind 3-0 in the first period against the Panthers, which allowed Roloson to put together an electrifying performance. He stopped all 29 of the shots he faced and didn’t allow a shootout goal either as Tampa Bay pulled out a win.
Sure, it’s just one game, but it was a tremendous win. We’ll see if that’s enough to turn things around for Roloson – he might be worth a look if you need a goalie and he’s a free agent.
INJURY SNIPES
Duncan Keith is apparently still a little banged up, so stay tuned for updates … Steve Ott’s hip pointer could keep him out until Nov. 11 or so ... Clayton Stoner is day-to-day with a finger injury … Ryan Malone and Victor Hedman are both dealing with upper-body injury … Sami Salo and Alexandre Burrows have nagging injuries as well … Nik Antropov and Chris Mason continue to miss action for Winnipeg. (Click here for the full injury list.)