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.