Fantasy Hockey Scouts

Line Combo Look - Feb. 10, 2010

One of the big factors that affects how your fantasy guns are firing is who they play with.  So the objective of this feature is to give you a few names to think about.

With the help of the excellent Fantasy Hockey 911, we'll give you some players that are being significantly impacted by a change in their linemates... both good and bad.

Dainius Zubrus
Like we warned you last week... Zubrus' time on the top line didn't last.  He's back down on the second line but there is this new player by the name of Ilya Kovalchuk playing to his right.  With Patrick Elias on his other wing, Zubrus hasn't lost any talent with the 'demotion'... he's a decent FA add right now but don't expect him to keep his current pace (6 pts in 6 games) up.  

Andy Greene
Sticking with the Devils, check out the #1 PP unit they used in their last game... Parise, Zajac, Kovy, Elias and Andy Greene???? Which one of those doesn't belong?  Greene's 25 points easily surpasses his puny career high (10 points) but we're still not big fans.  He might make a decent 4th d-man in a points only league but when you're on PACE for 89 shots you don't get our check-of-approval.

John Tavares
J.T. was playing on the 3rd line for a little there but he's back up on line #1.  He's still mired in a big slump (zero points, -6 in his last 6 games) but hopefully the line shuffling will get him going.  A hot spell should get Tavares up over 50 points on the season so he's got some motivation.  Robbie Schremp is the big loser as he's been dropped to the 3rd line and is now playing with Jon Sim and Trent Hunter... ouch.

Olli Jokinen
He picked up his first two points with the Blueshirts this week, but he went scoreless in his two other games with the Rangers.  We were expecting him to be lining up with Gaborik permanently but he's was centering Dubinsky and Callahan on the 2nd line in his last game.  We like that 2nd unit but we can't see Torts leaving Erik Christensen as his #1 C.  Expect Olli to be back up on #1 eventually. 

Chris Kunitz
Just more of a reminder here as Kunitz is back from injury and back on Sid's line.  He's only been playing at a .65 ppg pace this season but last year in 20 games with Crosby and the Pens he put up a very tidy .90 ppg.  Big loser with Kunitz coming back? Pascal Dupuis who drops from Malkin's line to the 4th.

Milan Lucic
Lucic was high on many draft lists... a 42 point/136 PIM season will have that effect.  But you knew that Looch couldn't stick on the top unit with Marc Savard when he's produced only a stinky eight points in 26 games this year... including only one in his last ten games.  He's down on the 4th line now but this doesn't sound like a slump he'll be busting out of quickly.  Time to cut bait, unless you're in a keeper league.  Don't go running to pick up Lucic's replacement, Daniel Paille.  Savard is good, but he's no miracle worker. 

Niclas Bergfors
There has been a lot written about this guy the last two weeks.  He picked up his first goal as a Thrasher and better news yet... he's playing on the top line.  Bad news: he's only getting 11-12 minutes a game.  Still, Nik Antropov and Bryan Little aren't the worst linemates in the world.  A decent flyer in very deep leagues.

Alex Tanguay / Ryan Malone
With only one point in his last seven games Malone's career year looks to be slowing down.  The slump is one thing but now he's playing on the third line with Nate Thompson and Jeff Halpern.  He's still getting PP time but we need him lining up with one of the big guns to recommend him.  UFA bust Tanguay might be getting a second chance to earn his big contract as he's been lining up next to Lecavalier.  That didn't work last time the Bolts tried it... no reason to think anything has changed.

Troy Brouwer / Dave Bolland / Patrick Sharp
With Bolland returning from injury lots of line shuffling in Chi-town.  So here's the run-down.  Bolland's on #2 with Hoss and Kopecky.  Sharp is playing with Toews and Kane, and poor Brouwer goes from the two big dogs to Madden and Byfuglien.  Knock Brouwer down a few pegs and move up Sharpie.

Niklas Hagman / Matt Stajan / Curtis Glencross
New players on the Flames means somebody else gets a chance to play with Iggy.  Hagman and Stajan get the first crack and they are a definite upgrade for Iginla.  GlenX moves down to the third unit... where he'll fit in much better. Stajan and Hags value stays constant for now, Glencross is an automatic drop.

Mikael Samuelsson / Alex Burrows
Not sure why the 'Nuck's made the move to promote Samuelsson to the Sedin line and move down Burrows to the 2nd line with Kesler and Raymond.  Burrows has zero points in his last four games... but was crazy hot (26 points in 18 games) before that.  Samuelsson has only one point in his last five... but was pretty hot (13 points in 15 games) before as well.  We don't get it.  Our bet is that Burrows will get back with the twins eventually.

Matt Beleskey / Jason Blake
Duck prospect Beleskey was playing with Getzlaf and Perry in the Duck's last contest.  Not too shabby... until you see he has only one point in his last seven.  Still if Gary Bettman was playing with those two we would consider recommending him.  What about the newly acquired Jason Blake?  The Ducks must have finally figured out he sucks as they moved him from the second line to the fourth line... even though he had a 1+1=2 game this week.  Come on Duck's, don't you know you're dealing with a former 40 goal scorer?

Fantasy Hockey Scouts: Daily Dosage - Feb 9th, 2010

Dosage Express
Stewart with the Deluxe Gordie Howe H/T... Kadri debuts but watch Bozak... Kovy goalless... Lombardi with the game of his life... Niemi to start, again... Getzlaf - not that flexible... Walter & Silent Bob 

Daily Diarrhea   

Huge fantasy night for Chris Stewart as he had the Deluxe Gordie Howe Hat-Trick with 1+2=3, plus-3, 5 PIMs, 5 shots and the game-winning goal.  This guy is one of our favourite breakout players this year as he's a real six category stud who's been producing at an elite level after a slow start... 1+5=6 with 19 sog in his first 18 games and now 17+16=33 with 127 shots in his last 35 games.

Brandon Yip added two more to his goal tally for the season and the Avs rookie has 6+4=10 in his last 10 games... he's been scoring pretty much ever since he came up as he has 11 goals in his last 20 games. 

The Leafs called up Nazem Kadri on an emergency basis for the game last night and he played 17 minutes in his NHL debut... he'll head back to junior today.  This could affect his status in some fantasy leagues, so heads up.

The rookie to keep your eye on for the Leafs is Tyler Bozak as he scored last night and has 2+3=5 during a little four game point streak.  He's seeing upwards of 18 minutes most nights on the first line and is benefited from teaming up with an on-fire Phil Kessel right now.

Remember when Devils dman Andy Greene was all the rage, yeah check the tapes, we weren't buying it... well, he had a point last night and that gives him 0+2=2 in his last 20 games.

Its been three games with the Devils for Ilya Kovalchuk and despite 18 shots, still no goals... we're expecting a Don Waddell press release any minute now. 

Matt Lombardi had the game of his life last night as he went for 2+3=5 against Edmonton... he didn't have a point in five games coming in so this was a little unexpected.  This is the third time in his career that he's topped the 40 point level but he's yet to reach the elusive 50 point level and breakout in our eyes... he's on pace to do it this year.

Devin Setoguchi is on pace for under 40 points, so he's likely available on a few waiver wires but he's been playing better lately with 4+6=10 in his last 11 games.

The Hawks are expected to give Antti Niemi his second consecutive start tonight after a fine performance on Saturday... Cristobal Huet has lost his last three games so the Hawks might give Niemi a chance to show them what he can do if he were the man... keep an eye on our Crease Conflicts for updates on all the goalie battles.

Mike Leighton started his third straight for the Flyers last night and picked up the win over the Devils by stopping 28 of 30.  He's been stellar with the Flyers (9-3-1, 2.24 & .925) but Ray Emery is said to be close to returning and we've seen who Peter Laviolette favours when Ray is healthy (Emery started eight in a row).

So Bob Gainey stepped down as Habs GM, probably not much fantasy impact as his assistant Pierre Gauthier takes over.  Gauthier said that they aren't looking to trade one of their goalies and that they're trying to sign Tomas Plekanec... so seems like things will probably remain status quo.

Injury Updates (see our Injury Updates page for a consolidated list of injuries):  

Ryan Getzlaf fell awkwardly last night and his leg bent in a way that legs shouldn't bend... X-rays revealed no broken bones but he's said to have a sprained ankle and will be further evaluated today... this could be a serious one. 

Anssi Salmela ate Jeff Carter's shoulder last night and was knocked cold... he said he was ok but had a bit of a headache, expect him to miss a few, at least.

Shane Doan left last night's game with a chest injury, he'll be re-evaluated today.

I swear we mentioned this before but maybe not, Josh Bailey has missed the past two games with a UBI and its expected to keep him out until after the Olympic break.

Steve Ott had an appendectomy yesterday and he'll try to return right after the Olympics.

Daily Distraction 

What's distracting us today?  When we saw the title "Kevin Smith in Wayne Gretzky's Basement" we thought it was an odd combination and we were hooked.  The highlight of the clip for Gretzky.com might be Kevin Smith asking Walter Gretzky about his dark side and Asian slave children (at the 3:00 mark).  But our favourite aspect about the video is we were reminded about how amazing of a guy Walter Gretzky is.

Fantasy Stars of the Week - Week #19

The biggest and brightest from the past week:

3rd Star, from the Tampa Bay Lightning, numero 30, Antero Niittymaki… rang off three wins last week with a 1.32 gaa & .955 sv%.

2nd Star, from the Washington Capitals, numero 19, Nicklas Backstrom… 2+8=10 & a plus-6 is enough and the 14 PIMs were just gravy.

1st Star, from the Toronto Maple Leafs, numero 35, JS Giguere… only two games but two shutouts in his first two games with the Leafs… easy choice.

And now we present our rolling year-to-date top 10 lists for 2009/10 (updated weekly):    

TOP 10 FANTASY PLAYERS of 2009/10

      1.       Alex Ovechkin  42+44=86, +41, 266 sog

2.       Sidney Crosby  39+35=74, 51 PIMs, 218 sog

3.       Mike Green  13+41=54, 26 PPP, 149 sog

4.       Marian Gaborik  35+34=69, 23 PPP, 218 sog

5.       Duncan Keith  11+40=51, +22, 155 sog

6.       Nicklas Backstrom  25+48=73, +32, 27 PPP

7.       Patrick Marleau  38+26=64, +25, 204 sog

8.       Henrik Sedin  25+53=78, +25, 119 sog

9.       Dany Heatley  32+33=65, 23 PPP

10.    Chris Pronger  8+30=38, +18, 57 PIMs

 

TOP 10 FANTASY GOALIES of 2009/10

1.       Ryan Miller  29W, 2.16, .931

2.       Evgeni Nabokov  32W, 2.25, .927

3.       Marty Brodeur  33W, 2.25, .917

4.       Roberto Luongo  30W, 2.32, .920

5.       Ilya Bryzgalov  30W, 2.33, .919

6.       Miikka Kiprusoff  26W, 2.19, .925

7.       Craig Anderson  28W, 2.43, .923

8.       Henrik Lundqvist  23W, 2.43, .919

9.       Jimmy Howard  20W, 2.31, .926

10.    Johnny Quick  34W, 2.54, .907

 

TOP 10 BREAKOUTS of 2009/10

      1.       Drew Doughty  11+31=42

2.       Steve Stamkos  32+29=61

3.       Craig Anderson  28 Wins

4.       Tyler Myers  7+24=31

5.       Jimmy Howard  20 Wins

6.       Dustin Penner  22+23=45

7.       Rich Peverley  18+26=44

8.       Anton Stralman  6+23=29

9.       James Neal  23+19=42

10.    Mason Raymond  21+21=42

 

TOP 10 BREAKDOWNS of 2009/10

1.       Steve Mason  15W, 3.14, .894

2.       Sheldon Souray  13 pts, -19

3.       Peter Mueller  16 pts, 84 sog

4.       Erik Cole  8 pts, -9, 39 sog

5.       Chris Drury  20 pts, -13, 102 sog

6.       Devin Setoguchi  23 pts, 103 sog

7.       Chris Osgood  7W, 2.94, .891

8.       Shawn Horcoff  20 pts, -28

9.       Dion Phaneuf  23 pts, 54 PIMs

10.    Pavel Datsyuk  46 pts, 17 PPP

Fantasy Hockey Scouts: Daily Dosage - Feb 8th, 2010

Dosage Express
Thoughts from the Big Game... Malkin on pace to crack 100... Rask stealing from Timmy... Satan not the answer... showcasing Lehtonen... Test your hockey smarts on Jeopardy  

Daily Diarrhea   

So it was a Sid vs Ovie fest yesterday as they squared off in DC, Crosby jumped out to the lead with two early markers but Ovechkin bettered him by one with the hat-job... there may or may not have been other players participating in this game, we didn't really notice.  Rather quietly, Ovie has moved into an eight point lead (over Hank Sedin) in the points race and Sid now sits second (behind Ovie) in goals (39 to 42).

Apparently other players were there as Geno Malkin is said to have had two assists and that extended his point streak to 10 games... he has 7+11=18 during the streak.  Did you know that Malkin has 72 PIMs on the year and is on pace to crack 100 this year... we didn't realize that until, like, just now. 

Speaking of PIMs, Mike Knuble chipped in a few yesterday, as he jumped in to defend Ovie's honour and picked up 17 PIMs for his troubles... never fear though as he returned, picked up two points including the GWG and now has 8+6=14 in his last 10 games.

Tuukka Rask started his third straight game for the Bruins yesterday and posted a 36 save shutout of the Habs... while the Bruins have been reeling lately, Rask has been very steady (1-2-2, 1.98 & .926 in his last seven games) whereas Tim Thomas has been more like the reason that they've been losing (0-4-1, 3.46 & .861 in his last five).  There's speculation that the Bruins are trying to deal Thomas but regardless, Rask might be stealing his #1 job... keep an eye on our Crease Conflicts (which we'll be updating today, promise).

As we suspected, Miroslav Satan was not the answer to the Bruins scoring woes as he doesn't have a point in his last eight and only two goals in 16 games on the season.  I mean, I wasn't dumb enough to pick up this guy in a fantasy league yet the real GMs are more than willing to throw money at guys like this... weak.

Antero Niittymaki's been on fire lately, check this out... 6-0-1 with a 1.11 & .963 in his last seven games.  He's started 11 of the past 12, a run which began when Mike Smith went down with a sore neck and he's given Rick Tocchet no choice but to keep playing him.

Injury Updates (see our Injury Updates page for a consolidated list of injuries):  

Kari Lehtonen is back baby!... well that is if he doesn't hurt himself in the next few days... he's finished up his conditioning stint in the AHL, is back with the Thrashers and should probably get into a game or two this week before the Olympic break.  The speculation is that Atlanta wants to showcase him for a trade... on a better team, this guy could be pretty useful, health permitting.

David Krejci left yesterday's game with a LBI but it's not considered serious, so he may be able to return in the Bruins next game on Tuesday.

Missed this one from Saturday, Steve Montador left the game with an undisclosed injury after chucking the knuckles with Jared Boll.  

Johnny Boychuk took a shot to the face on Saturday and has a broken orbital bone, so he's out for a while.

Returning to action from the injured list yesterday was: Chris Kunitz.     

Daily Distraction 

What's distracting us today?  We were over on Yahoo's baseball version of Puck Daddy, Big League Stew, and 'Duk has an awesome Jeopardy inspired post you should check out if you like the diamond game.

'Duk asks:
"Let's say you're on 'Jeopardy!' and you're absolutely routing your two opponents. You have $40,000 going into the final round, while one of your opponents has, let's say, $15,000. You're guaranteed to move onto the next day, but the final category comes up and it has something to do with baseball, which is your favorite sport. How much — if anything — do you risk?"

So we thought we would completely copy his idea but replace baseball with hockey.  It seems to fit better as Trebek is not only a Canadian but he's also an awesome Canadian:

Anyway there have been only four hockey-related Final Jeopardy questions according to J! Archive.

1) In 1951 Elizabeth II attended one of these in Canada; she attended her next one, also in Canada, on October 6, 2002

2) This National Hockey League team regularly practices for fans at the world's largest mall

3) Before the first winter games in 1924, this sport was played in the summer games; Canada won gold in 1920

4) Pioneered by pro hockey player Scott Olsen, it had 3 million U.S. participants in 1989 & has 30 million now

Those questions kinda sucked.  (We did post the answers at the very bottom of this post if you care).  So we did a bit more digging... EIGHT times 'Hockey' or 'NHL' has managed to hold a whole Jeopardy category!  Impressive.  Three of those were in Double Jeopardy so they could (but probably not) be a bit harder:

HOCKEY QUOTES from Oct 27, 2009 (click for answers)

$400 - This comedian who got no respect said, "I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out"

$800 - After an injured player couldn't remember who he was, Coach Ted Green said, "Tell him he's" this "Great One"

$1200 - Defenseman Barry Beck of this Big Apple team: "We have only one person to blame, and that's each other"

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE from Apr 24, 2006 (click for answers)

$400 - Completes the nickname of Olaf Kolzig seen here--"Olie the ____"

$800 - The logo seen here belongs to this storied franchise

$1200 - The Rangers are at home, so the game is at this arena

$1600 - The trophy for the player with the most goals each season is named for Maurice Richard, famously nicknamed this

$2000 - This legendary Boston defenseman is seen here scoring a championship-winning goal

HOCKEY TEAMS' HOMES from May 27, 2004 (click for answers)

$400 - Arrowhead Pond

$800 - Madison Square Garden

$1200 - Mellon Arena

HOCKEY from Mar 30, 1998 (click for answers)

$200 - A depiction of Long Island appears on the logo of this NHL team

$400 - A starting lineup consists of 2 defensemen, 3 forwards & this player, the only one allowed to hold the puck

$600 - Most shots in hockey are wrist shots, or these in which a full backswing is used to gain more force

$800 - In 1924 this Boston team became the first from the U.S. to join the NHL

$1000 - The game of cricket gave us this term for 3 or more goals scored by a player in a game

We're assuming you got them all too, right?  Most of those questions were missed by the so-called experts on the show.  You feel smarter now, right?  Feels good doesn't it?

So now you know if you're ever on Jeopardy and 'Hockey' comes up... bet the damn farm!

 

Answers to Final Jeopardy Questions: 1) Hockey, 2) Edmonton, 3) Hockey, 4) Rollerblading

Schedule Summary - Feb 8 to Feb 14

Here's a little summary if you need some help setting your fantasy hockey lineup or want to see what we'll be watching this week.

Its the final week before the Olympic break so they'll be plenty of gearing up for the games but we want to see if the Capitals can take a 17 game winning streak into the break.

We're also including a handy little reference sheet of the remaining games for all teams that may be useful for setting your lineup, discussing trades or deciding on waiver wire additions... use it or don't, whatev... Download FHS_Remaining Sked_0910

February 8th to 14th:

4 game week:

• Anaheim - 2 against the Oilers, not the same without Burke & Lowe feud 
• Colorado - 3 at home
• Edmonton - 3 on the road for the league's worst road team (7-17-2)
• Nashville - 4 on the road 
• New Jersey
• NYI - 3 at home for the losers of their last seven 
• Ottawa
• Philadelphia - a rare pair of H&H's with NJ & MTL
• Phoenix
• San Jose - 4 on the road for league's best road team (19-6-2) 
• St.Louis - 3 at home for league's worst home team (9-16-5)
• Tampa Bay - Ohlund hosts his former mates from VAN on Tuesday
• Vancouver - 4 on the road as the road trip from hell continues 

3 game week:

• Atlanta - 3 on the road, let the Bergfors era begin! 
• Boston - 3 on the road
• Buffalo
• Calgary
• Carolina - 3 at home
• Chicago - all against teams that give up more than 3 goals a game 
• Columbus - 3 at home against division leaders SJ, VAN & CHI... tough week 
• Dallas - 3 on the road... they've got 8 wins on the road, only EDM has fewer (7) 
• Detroit  
• Florida - including a return from Roberto Luongo on Thursday
• LA - including the battle of SoCal on Monday 
• Minnesota - 3 at home where they're a very tough 20-6-2
• Montreal
• NYR 
• Pittsburgh - 3 at home against average-to-poor defensive team (NYI, NYR & NSH)
• Washington - 3 on the road as they try to extend the 14 game winning streak

2 game week:

• Toronto   

Fantasy Hockey Scouts: Daily Dosage - Feb 7th, 2010

Dosage Express
We got mad Finns, yo... Mason seems happy... we got Duchene!... Burrows off top line... crapload of injury news... it's Ward's back... another fake Brian Burke  

Daily Diarrhea   

The craziness continues for the Juice, Jussi Jokinen, as he registered another goal last night to extend his point streak to six games (5+2=7) and going back 15 games, he's had 9+11=20.  Yes, you're probably too late to pick him up but its getting to the point where you might want to think about targeting this guy in a trade deadline deal cause he's been dynamite.

Ville Leino was traded to the Flyers yesterday for a contract, Ville struggled in Detroit this year as he wasn't getting the ice-time or the opportunities... he should get more of both in Philly and keep an eye on him as he has some talent and so do the Flyers, so maybe he can put something together.

We're on a Finnish roll here... a goal last night for Valtteri Filppula gives him 2+7=9 in his last 10 but with Johan Franzen set to return on Tuesday, Babs has said that Datsyuk and Zetterberg will split up which means that Val will slide down to the 3rd line... aka "Not where the magic happens".

Steve Mason shutout the Sabres last night and has, so far, only allowed one goal on 51 shots in the two games since Ken Hitchcock was fired... you think he's happy?... actions speak louder than words.

Another young guy who will probably benefit from Hitchy's departure is Jakub Voracek and he put up three assists last night... he had one point in his previous 12 games.

This scout traded for Matt Duchene in a keeper league yesterday and thought it was worth mentioning... first 21 games: 2+5=7... last 36 games: 16+16=32... if this is looking similar to how last year went for Steve Stamkos then you'd be on the same page as us.

Speaking of Stamkos, the dude has arrived, not just as a solid player but as a superstar... with a goal last night he extended his point streak to nine games with 7+7=14 in total and he sits 5th in goals (on pace for 46) and top 20 in shots (on pace for 273).

Anton Khudobin stopped 38 of 39 to pick up the win in his first NHL start but its already his second win in a row as his first win came in relief on Thursday.  Backstrom and Harding are both expected to return soon, so we wouldn't expect Khudo's to be up for long, but this is a promising sign for the kid. 

The Atlanta Thrashers should claim victory in the Kovalchuk trade (while they're ahead) as Niclas Bergfors is outscoring their former captain... Bergfors only played 11 minutes last night but picked up the GWG. 

Caught a bit of the Canucks game yesterday and noticed that Alex Burrows wasn't playing with the Sedin's, they had moved Samuelsson up to that spot and Burrows back to Kesler's line.  He's had success with Kesler in the past so this should be too worrying but his value takes a bit of a hit if he's not with the twins.

Luke Schenn had a fantasy night like he's never had before and will likely never have again... 2+1=3, plus-4, 2 PIMs and 4 sog... we'll be in hysterics if we see GMs grabbing him off the waiver wire today.

Holy hot start, Batman... JS Giguere posted his second straight shutout for the Leafs and while he's been very impressive, its more that the team in front of him is playing a lot better than they have all year.  This scout is a big Giggy fan, so we'd say go ahead and use him (except that the Leafs only play twice this coming week).

The Leafs jumped all over the Sens, who had won 11 in a row and curb-stomped them five to nadda last night.  Brian Elliott had gone nine in a row without giving up more than two goals but he was beaten four times in the first two periods and was pulled for the third.  This will open the door for Pascal Leclaire to get in a few starts before the Olympic break.

Jamie Benn's been playing some center lately and has been looking pretty good, with two goals last night he has 4+1=5 in his last five games.

We've never had much time for Michal Handzus, not sure if it was just the hair or what, but we should mention that he's had back-to-back 3-pointers and has 4+4=8 in his last five.

Calgary's Ales Kotalik is doing it all for his new team as he scored in his second game and then dropped the gloves but didn't have his jersey tied down so he picked up a game misconduct in his third game last night... ingenious stuff from Ales, we love when players come up with creative ways to help us in the PIMs category.

Injury Updates (see our Injury Updates page for a consolidated list of injuries):  

The Hurricanes confirmed that Cam Ward's UBI is a back injury and that he'll see a back guy in the next few days to get evaluated... yikes... we no like back injuries.

Stephen Weiss missed last night's game... we have no idea what that's all about, more when we find out.

Sam Gagner went down with a knee injury last night and couldn't finish the game, not sure on the extent.

Ryan O'Reilly left last night's game with a bruised foot, he'll be re-evaluated today.

Rene Bourque left last night's game with an undisclosed injury... his body is prone to breaking down so we'll keep an eye on this one.

Tomas Holmstrom suffered a bruised knee in last night's game and he'll be re-evaluated today.

MA Bergeron couldn't go yesterday, he has a LBI.  Again, for the Habs, Benoit Pouliot sat out yesterday's game with a UBI but he's said to just be out day-to-day. 

Fedor Tyutin has a sore knee and so he couldn't play last night, doesn't sound too serious.

Returning to action from the injured list last night was: Mike Modano, Patrik Elias and Dan Boyle.     

Daily Distraction 

What's distracting us today?  If you're not reading theScore.com blog, you really should.  They may not have 100% hockey content but it's 100% hilarious.

Take this video that Stoeten pointed us in the direction of (earmuffs for minors)...

We're not sure why, but Burke is even more hilarious when he swears all the time.  The real Brian Burke needs to start swearing more... you can tell he has it in him.

Another sweet hockey vid for your eyes today... courtesy of Hockey Head Blog. 

Did you ever have a kid on your pee-wee team that forgot to take his skate-guards off?  Must have been pretty embarrassing.  Imagine if you did the same thing as a professional.... ouch:

Fantasy Hockey Scouts: Fantasy Fortnight - Feb 6th, 2009

 
It's been awhile since we've posted one of our Fantasy Fortnight articles.  Blame our families, blame our friends, blame our laziness and beer drinkings ways.  Either way, in case you don't remember... Fantasy Fortnight is all about helping you see some trends in players.  We take a look at the last two weeks of action and pick out a few players you should know about.  The plan is to post an article every week or two.

WHO'S HOT

Player	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	SOG	Comment
Backstrom, Nicklas	8	4	11	15	10	8	3	0	29	Crazy, crazy fortnight for Backs…
Ovechkin, Alex	8	7	7	14	9	2	2	0	43	,,,he even out produced Ovie!
Kopitar, Anze	7	7	7	14	5	0	3	1	28	Kopitar back to early season form?
Semin, Alexander	8	6	7	13	7	16	1	0	29	All Caps went nuts this fortnight…
Knuble, Mike	8	6	4	10	10	4	1	0	14	…see what we mean
Staal, Eric	8	7	4	11	0	2	5	0	24	The real Eric Staal is back…
Jokinen, Jussi	8	5	5	10	2	2	1	0	24	…and Jussi is thankful for it.
Stamkos, Steven	6	5	4	9	4	4	4	0	27	FHS favourite keeps on rolling
Spezza, Jason	6	7	1	8	8	6	1	0	23	Spezza continues his resurrection
Zajac, Travis	7	3	6	9	5	2	2	0	18	On pace for a career high 66 points
Sedin, Daniel	6	3	6	9	6	2	0	0	27	52 pts in only 38 games… wow!
Burrows, Alex	6	2	6	8	5	6	0	1	17	30+ goals and 100+ PIM's is a lock
Yandle, Keith	7	4	2	6	6	4	2	0	16	His 30 pts equal his total from last year
Lidstrom, Nicklas	7	3	4	7	0	4	2	0	14	Huge January with 15 pts in 15 games
Poti, Tom	8	1	3	4	11	6	1	0	11	With Green back, production should fall
Demers, Jason	5	2	3	5	3	0	2	0	8	With Boyle back, production should fall
Foster, Kurtis	6	0	5	5	3	4	0	0	10	20 pts in last 24 games… great production from FA scrapheap

PICK UP OF THE WEEK

KURTIS FOSTER
It might be too late to grab Foster in any deep league but those of you in shallow leagues need to get on this guy quick.  He's QBing Tampa power play (the one with St, Louis, Stamkos and Vinny) and as we mentioned up top he's been on fire the last 25 games or so.

WHO'S NOT

Lucic, Milan LW BOS	6	1	0	1	-3	2	0	0	8	Even the 1st line wingers can't score in Beantown
Tavares, John C NYI	6	0	2	2	-7	2	0	0	8	Rough week earned him a spot on line #3
Chara, Zdeno D BOS	6	0	1	1	-3	2	0	0	22	Bruins and owners need more from the big fella
Barker, Cam D CHI	6	0	0	0	-1	4	0	0	10	Disappointing season continues
Bergeron, Patrice C BOS	6	0	1	1	-5	4	0	0	22	Saving up his goals for the Olympics maybe?
Streit, Mark D NYI	6	0	1	1	-7	0	0	0	23	Tough week for the Isles
Bogosian, Zach D ATL	6	0	0	0	-4	2	0	0	15	Give this kid time… he's a keeper
Bergfors, Niclas RW ATL	6	0	0	0	-5	0	0	0	11	It's not going to be any easier in ATL
Drury, Chris C NYR	7	0	0	0	-7	4	0	0	15	Maybe the Habs want this contract too?

DROP OF THE WEEK

NICLAS BERGFORS
After four less than inspiring AHL seasons (150 pts in 257 games) Bergsfors finally got an NHL shot this season.  He made the most of it picking up 13 goals before December 31st.  Not too shabby.  Since the new year, he has has only one point.  No wonder the Devils shipped him off to Atlanta.  He won't be riding on anybody's coat tails on the Thrashers and if his first game was any indication (12:53 TOI) his ice time won't be very high either.  Cut him loose.