Tuesday's Daily Dosage - Lovejoy, Filppula, Gragnani...

I'm a real lover of Ben Lovejoy and lovin him even more after last night... takes a big hit, still makes the play, gets an assist, continues playing like no big deal and then after the game says that he thought the hit was fine (even though it was a crazy charge)... solid dude... he can play on my fantasy team anyday.

Valtteri Filppula has points in each of the first three games of the playoffs (1+2=3).  His playoff ppg has increased from his regular season ppg in each of the last five seasons... that's a fact.

Marc-Andre Gragnani led all Sabres in ice-time last night (23:51) and picked up two second assists... he now has assists in four straight games heading back to the regular season.  He's one to keep an eye on as the Sabres could really use his PP QB abilities next season and that will affect Tyler Myers' value.

TSN starts with it's coverage of the U-18 tournament today with Canada v Sweden... it's worth checking out as likely 2011 1st round picks Ryan Murphy, Mark McNeill, Mika Zibanejad, etc. will be on display.  Murphy leads all dmen in scoring with 2+4=6 through three games and while Zibanejad is 2nd in tournament scoring with 4+3=7 through three games, six of those points came in a rout over Norway.

James Neal saw his ice-time reduced to 12 minutes last night and he didn't score for the 16th straight game.

Brian Boucher did in fact get the start last night for the Flyers and stopped 35 of 37 to pick up the win.  Bobrovsky didn't even dress as Michael Leighton was the backup, looks like the Flyers will go with a win-and-your-in rotation for a while so I'd expect to see Leighton in there eventually.  

Kris Versteeg only played 10:59 last night (no PP time) but did record his second assist of the playoffs.  I think the trade to Philly will really hurt his numbers next season.

James van Riemsdyk led the Flyers in ES ice-time and played 17:26 overall... he looked dangerous again but couldn't score on four shots.  I think we're getting a nice preview of what this kid can do, he just needs the ice-time and to bring it over a full season.

Ilya Bryzgalov looked awful last night, hate to agree with Kelly Hrudey but he just looks lazy.  He's allowed four goals in each of the first three games against the Wings and this could really be hurting him in the bank account as I'm sure GMs are taking note before they make a big offer to the UFA this summer.

Brad Boyes is notoriously streaky but he picked a bad time to go cold as he hasn't scored in his last 14 games.

I believe Andrej Sekera was a healthy scratch last night to make way for Leopold's return.

The Devils signed college FA goalie Keith Kinkaid out of Union College where he put up a 25-10-3 record with 1.99 & .920 rate stats during his sophomore season.  He's a project, give him a few years before we see what we have here but I'm a little skeptical to start as the Devils haven't had much luck developing goalies lately.

The Kings signed Tyler Toffoli & Jordan Weal to ELCs and Edmonton did the same with Curtis Hamilton.  All three were drafted in 2010 and have some offensive potential but Toffoli is especially intriguing as he's coming off a season where he led the OHL in goals (57) & points (108 - tied) and already has a couple of goals while playing for Manchester in the AHL.