Fantasy Hockey Scouts: Daily Dosage - Nov 25th, 2009

Dosage Express
We're plugging Bergeron & Stralman... one for Trent Hunter's family... a few debuts we'll be watching... grab Elliott... another team that says they almost had Wayne   

Daily Diarrhea   

We've been pumping up MA Bergeron since he signed with Montreal and if you were patient enough to hold on then you enjoyed the motherload he dropped last night with 2 goals, plus-3 and 8 sog.  It's simple math really, MAB's per 82 game career average is 15+24=39 and right now he's on pace for 22+17=39 this year... right around what we'd expect.

Bergeron went head-to-head with another dman who we've been promoting lately... Anton Stralman continued his fine form with two more points to give him 3+7=10 in his last 10 games.  Watch out for the plus/minus though as he's a chilly minus-8 on the year.

Kristian Huselius' five game point streak came to an end last night but we should give him a mention as his points usually come in bunches and he's still 4+4=8 in his last six games.

Sergei Kostitsyn got into his first game of the year last night and proceeded to take a stupid penalty early in the game (which is not going to earn him much praise from the coach) but he did make up for it a little bit with an assist and finished the game a plus-2.  Keep an eye on him as he has skills and will be showcased for a trade.

We don't really care for this guy but maybe he has family members reading so we should mention that Trent Hunter of the NYI has a seven game point streak going right now with 3+4=7 and a plus-7 during the run.

Danny Briere is one of our favourite under-the-radar PIMs guys (252 PIMs in 254 games since the lockout) and so like a good fantasy contributor he goes and rocks Scott Hannan with a late hit.  No call on the play (wtf?) but then he gets suspended for two games... is there no justice in this world for this scout's fantasy team?

We'll be watching a few debuts tonight... Andrei Loktionov is set to make his NHL debut for the Kings as is expected to start by centering the 2nd line with Dustin Brown and Alex Frolov.  We don't expect much from the kid this year as he's only 19 but he's one to keep an eye on for the future.  Christian Hanson is expected to make his season debut for the Leafs tonight as he's currently leading the Marlies in scoring with 8+10=18 in 18 games so far.  We're not really convinced about this guy but his AHL production so far is noteworthy.

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

Our Injury Updates page was a little fubar'd there for a bit but its all back to normal now... go ahead and read with confidence.

We mentioned Pascal Leclaire's fabulous luck yesterday and the word came back that his cheekbone is broken and he's out for up to a month... tough break.  Brian Elliott steps in and he's someone to take a look at if he hasn't been snapped up in your league already... he's a solid prospect, put up good numbers as the starter at the end of last year and the Sens are proving to be a pretty decent team to play behind [scoring 3.10 goals per game (5th in league) and only allowing 28.6 shots per game (8th in league)].

Jaroslav Spacek missed last night's game with a LBI... he's listed as day-to-day.  

Marian Hossa is expected to return, or better yet, debut tonight for the Hawks.  He picked a juicy game to return as Chicago is in San Jose in a battle of #1 vs #2 in the West.  Hossa is set to line-up with Toews & Kane to start the game but those lines will probably be shuffled before the 1st period is finished.

Daily Distraction 

What's distracting us today?  Another plug for one of our favourite sites... Greatest Hockey Legends.  It's a breath of fresh air, especially when you're combing the internet for NHL info like we do.  No ranting, no complaining... just 100% pure amazing stories from the past. (here's one awesome example).

But the story that distracted us today involves The Great One.  Every wonder why Gretzky played eight games for the Indianapolis Racers?  Well check out this gem... Gretzky: Almost A Whaler, Eventually An Oiler.

If that wasn't enough to fill your Gretzky fix, GHL also posted some classic Gretzky endorsements today... including one of our all time favs: