Saturday's Daily Dosage - Brouwer, Ekman-Larsson, Sbisa...

Troy Brouwer with a hat-job last night on three shots (and four PIMs). I don't have a lot of time for this guy, he's up to 14 goals on the year but he's shooting at 20.3% right now, not likely to continue and he's not consistent enough to be useful for even short stretches. If that wasn't clear enough for ya, I'll make it simple... I DON"T LIKE THIS GUY.

Dave Tippett is really showing a lot of faith in 20-year-old Oliver Ekman-Larsson as he played 26:57 last night and has seen 21+ minutes in 11 straight games. The production has improved as well as he has 2+8=10 & plus-4 over his last 15 games. Very positive signs for a kid who is in his first full NHL season.

Bruce Boudreau is getting a little more out of Luca Sbisa these days as the kid has 2+5=7 over his last 10 games... worth a look.

Edmonton got smoked by the 29th best team in the league last night and that dropped them to 28th in the league, at this rate they're heading for another 1st overall pick. Nikolai Khabibulin's numbers actually look solid for the season (2.41 & .919) but he's been pretty putrid for most the year going 4-13-1, 3.16 & .898 over his last 19 games.

Derick Brassard with two points on five shots last night and he has 2+2=4 over his last four games... so someone is happy to have a new coach behind the bench.

17 minutes of ice-time last night for Ryan Johansen, he's only done that one other time this year and that was way back in October.

David Savard with an assist in each of his last three games but his ice-time has been pretty erratic, so I'd just monitor him for the time being.

Not sure what has gotten into Francois Beauchemin lately but he has 21 PIMs over his last four games and the anger has fuelled some production as he has 4A in those four games as well.

Ryan Getzlaf with a four assist night to get some of the critics off his back and drive up his trade value.

33 stops earned Jonas Hiller the shutout last night and he is now 2-0-1, 1.20 & .951 over his last four games.

James Neal with 1+1=2, plus-2 & nine shots last night, to up his league leading shot total to 180. Not a bad night for a guy that was expected to be on the shelf for a month.

Everyone's favourite, Lauri Korpikoski, with 1+2=3 last night but he came into the game with just a single assist & six shots over his prior nine games.

Goals in three straight and six in his last seven games for Radim Vrbata.

Tomas Vokoun with his eighth straight start last night and he's 6-2-0 after 28/31 for the W against T-Bay.

Tampa is hitting the skids but Vincent Lecavalier is rolling along with 6+4=10 over his last 10 games.

Brett Connolly was supposed to return from the WJCs with all kinds of confidence but he now has a 10 game pointless streak going and is barely seeing the ice.

Since he arrived in PHX, David Rundblad has played a total of 23 minutes over 13 games, so in a genius move, the Coyotes decided to send him to the AHL.

The Hawks have sent Ben Smith back to the AHL.

The Wild have placed former 1st round pick, Colton Gillies, on waivers. Lesson learned, when a kid struggles in his draft year and only manages 30 points & a minus-20 in the WHL, don't waste a 16th overall pick on him cause he's obviously not very good.

Speaking of wasted picks, FLA has traded Angelo Esposito to the Stars for Ondrej Roman... that's called a GIGO trade.