Fantasy Hockey Scouts: Fantasy Hockey Scouts: Daily Dosage

Dosage Express
Time to go Kopitar shopping... a few rookies in Van-city to watch... showing some love for the under-loved Fisher, Neal & Eriksson... Sharks with bad legs... a Leaf goalie's sitcom

Daily Diarrhea

Another two goals for Anze Kopitar last night to extend his lead in the Art Ross race and moved into the lead in the Rocket Richard race. We told you yesterday, that although he's on fire and looks like he's going to have a big year, smart GMs will be shopping him now as his value is at its highest. It's simple logic really, there's no way he can keep this up and finish the year anywhere close to the 143 points or 30% shooting percentage that he's on pace for right now so see if you can translate him into a proven Art Ross contender... swing for the fences, my friend.

Alexander Frolov has responded to his scratching earlier in the week with 2+4=6 in his last three games, so that was just a minor hiccup in what should be another productive season for Fro... he's averaged 30 goals and 66 points over the past three seasons and is still seeing decent ice-time and PP time this year so don't discard him.

The Sharks gave their backup, Thomas Greiss, his first start of the year last night and he came through with a stellar performance stopping 37 of 38 for the win in Philly. There was some talk before the year began that Greiss could push Nabokov for more starts but if the coaching staff is waiting until game #12 to get Greiss in there, it wouldn't seem like there's a lot of faith in him, so don't hold out hope for Greiss.

Vancouver recalled Sergei Shirokov yesterday to fill in for the injured Kyle Wellwood (see below) and he jumped right onto the 1st line last night night but still couldn't manage his first NHL point. He had 10 points in 10 games during his stint in the AHL and is hopefully feeling more comfortable in North America.

The Canucks Michael Grabner has 2+2=4 with 18 shots in his last three games and while he's been bouncing around amongst the lines (see the awesome FantasyHockey911.com for the latest) it doesn't really matter as he's done all his damage on the PP. Grab Grabner (did you see what we just did there?) if you need some short term help but we're not convinced that he won't be heading back to Manitoba once the Canucks get a little healthier.

The Ducks are sending dman Luca Sbisa back to junior for the rest of the year. He's played eight games with the Ducks this year with no points and just wasn't seeing the ice-time. He's still a fine prospect, he just shouldn't have been rushed into the league by the Flyers last year and needs some more development time.

An underrated player right now is Mike Fisher in Ottawa. He's basically centering Ottawa's top line with Alfredsson and Kovalev right now and has put up 3+5=8 in his last seven games. He's usually good for a decent PIMs contribution and around 200 shots a year so he wouldn't be a bad long-term add if you need some depth at C.

James Neal is still available in over half the Yahoo leagues... crazy... get on board with this kid if he's available. He's got 6+6=12 in 11 games so far this year and is putting a lot of rubber on net (on pace for 275 shots). Another reason we're loving Neal is cause he's found a home on a great line with Brad Richards and Loui Eriksson. Eriksson is a little under-appreciated as well as he's still available in about 25% of Yahoo leagues despite having a streak of three straight multi-point games and what seems like a rather quiet 36 goal season last year.

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

The Sharks had two guys miss last night's game with leg injuries... both Devin Setoguchi and Ryan Vesce sat out due to minor injuries that the team is describing as nothing serious, so consider them both day-to-day.