Fantasy Hockey Scouts: Daily Dosage - Dec 1st, 2009

Dosage Express
A trick for RJ... one goalie trending down, another up... looking at Max, Nigel, Erik & Eric... crazy night for injuries... happy anniversary to Burkie  

Daily Diarrhea   

A hat-trick last night for Michael Rupp... but he's not fantasy worthy, so we'll move on to the trick turned by RJ Umberger.  RJ's not really one of our favourites but he's not all bad lately with 5+3=8, plus-7 with 25 shots in his last six games, so give him a look if you're desperate.

Some people expected a lot more out of rookie Matt Duchene this year but he's right around what we expected as he's on pace for around 40 points.  He's bound to go through hot and cold spells and was cold (one point in 11 games) before heating up recently, 4+3=7 in his last seven games.

We said the other day that Craig Anderson's bubble had burst but he's not dead yet... a 33 save shutout last night was the reward for GMs that are being patient (or are stuck with him) but his numbers for the month of November were not very pretty, 4-5-3, 3.19 & .897.  Maybe Andy owners should turn their attention elsewhere...

Back-to-back solid performances (& wins) for Jimmy Howard as he stopped 30 of 31 to beat the Stars.  His numbers for the month of November were very solid, 6-2-0, 2.10 & .923.

Max Afinogenov scored the winner last night and he's really thriving playing under a free-wheeling coach like John Anderson in Atlanta.  He's on a crazy run lately with 8+6=14 & plus-11 in his last 10 games.

We were talking up Erik Johnson to a lot of people prior to the season so we're very happy to see him on a 58 point pace this year and his recent form (4+6=10 in his last 11 games) would probably have us turning back-flips, if we were the back-flipping type... which we are not.

Nigel Dawes had gone 12 games without a goal before his recent streak where he's had goals in four straight games.  So its been all of nothing with this guy but we're big fans and its encouraging to see that he's now on pace for 25 goals and 50 points this year.

Speaking of kids from Manitoba, Eric Fehr is on a little run of his own with 4+2=6 during a four game point streak and he's been productive over the entire month with 6+4=10 & plus-7 in 11 November games.

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

Bizarre night for injuries and this one takes the cake as Tomas Vokoun suffered a deep cut to his face/ear after his own teammate, Keith Ballard, was taking a swing at the post in frustration but hit Vokoun in the grape instead.  Vokoun is apparently going to be ok but he needed stitches to close the gash and might sit out a couple of games. [video]

Alex Ovechkin went knee-on-knee with Tim Gleason and he was tossed from the game... but that's not the end for Ovie as he's probably facing a suspension and he was also hurt on the play... so we'll be following this over the next few days. 

In the same game, Joe Corvo had his leg cut by Karl Alzner's skate and was taken to hospital... haven't heard much about the injury yet but there was fear that it may have been his achilles, which would be bad.  UPDATE: He's out 8-12 weeks.

Rusty Klesla left last night's game with a LBI which may be a torn groin... he's a marginal fantasy contributor as it is.

The walking injury that is Carlo Colaiacovo missed last night's game with a foot injury... he's listed as day-to-day... actually he should be day-to-day even when he's healthy, you just never know with this guy.

The Leafs dman Carl Gunnarsson left last night's game with a shoulder injury... it looked pretty serious.

Alex Goligoski returned from a groin injury on Saturday night but had to sit out last night's game.  The team is saying its an "undisclosed injury" but we'll speculate that he re-aggravated the groin issue.

Returning to action from the injured list last night was: Joni Pitkanen and Mattias Ohlund.     

Daily Distraction 

What's distracting us today?  We're always up for a good Brian Burke bashing so we were pleasantly surprised when two of our favourites took a swipe at Burksie.

Check out Down Goes Brown's "One year of Brian Burke: A look back".  It's from DGB so you know it will be good and it doesn't disappoint.  Here's just one:

November 29, 2008 - While outlining his strategy at his first press conference as general manager, Burke delivers his infamous quote about "proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence". Confused Leaf fans rush to their dictionaries, and are disappointed to discover that every one of those words means "terrible goaltending".

If that wasn't enough, Bloge Salming gets in on the action with this video.  More gold: