Saturday's Daily Dosage - Hiller, Vanek, Carcillo...

Great sign here as Jonas Hiller looked back to his old self during a 31 save blanking of the Sharks last night.  I'm a big fan of this guy (career .921 sv%) but I must admit I avoided him in drafts this fall as that mystery illness from last year (they think it was vertigo) spooked me some good... my loss I guess.

Thomas Vanek with another goal on eight shots and he's looking really determined this year with 3+3=6 & 18 shots through his first three games.  He always converts on a high percentage of his shots (career 15.6% sh%) so getting lots of pucks on net is very encouraging after the past two years where he only averaged 30 goals a season.

How long before the experiment of Luke Adam as the #1C and Derek Roy on the 3rd line becomes the new reality?  Both players seem to be getting comfortable... Adam played 17 minutes with 7:09 on the PP (no points) whereas Roy scored his first of the year last night.  If Buffalo wants more balance this year then this might be the way to do it and that would be sweet news for Luke Adam fans.

The Sabres second line of Ennis-Leino-Boyes was invisible last night and only had four shots combined.

Marc-Andre Gragnani seems to be the Sabres preferred option on PP1 with Ehrhoff over Tyler Myers or Andrej Sekera.  MAGs saw 7:07 on the PP last night, Myers 3:41 & Sekera just 15 seconds.

Jeff Skinner with a PPG last night and he is off to a nice start with 2+4=6 in his first five games but has also been a minus player in every game so far (minus-6 on the season).

Top PP unit for the Canes has Skinner-Staal-Jokinen with Kaberle & Pitkanen on the points... Jussi Jokinen has three PPPs & 1+3=4 in his last four games.

Tuomo Ruutu must still be bothered by a LBI that he suffered in the preseason as he hasn't played more than 14 minutes in a game this season and has donuts for his last four games.

Three games into the season and Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan are all pointless.  Getzlaf hit at least two posts last night so they're just finding their range.  I wouldn't worry about them, in fact, see if their owner is getting antsy and is willing to move them cause any of the three would be great additions to your squad.

Maxime MacEnauer with the only goal for Ducks last night and it was his first in the NHL but the kid isn't much of an offensive threat as he had a hard time putting up points in the ECHL two years ago.

Didn't catch this on Thursday night, Dan Carcillo started the season on a line with Kane & Hossa.  He missed the first two games of the year with a suspension (dating back to last season) but played 15 minutes and picked up an assist on Thursday.  He won't get you 40 points but if he can approach 30 with 200 PIMs then a lot of fantasy GMs will be happy... assuming he sticks on a scoring line, which is probably unlikely.

As far as I can tell Kirill Kabanov is heading to Sweden on that try-out with Farjestad but that hasn't prevented the Memorial Cup hosts, Shawinigan, from trading for his rights.  So it sounds like he has a fallback if his trial doesn't work out.