Dupuis or not Dupuis
Pascal Dupuis: While his more famous (and honestly, better) linemates get all the accolades, Pascal Dupuis has been showing why there’s talk of having Jarome Iginla starting his Penguin career on the third line. Last night, he had two goals (one of which was shorthanded), plus-two, seven shots and two blocked shots. Dupuis now has points in nine of his last 12 games, and is on pace for 40 goals in an 82-game season.
A man after my own Hartnell
Scott Hartnell: Where have you been all my life… er… season? Hartnell finally broke out last night with two goals (both on the powerplay, so that’s an extra bonus), seven penalty minutes and five shots. Sure, his -2 wasn’t great to see, but when you go into a game with only two goals in 16 games, you live with the minus and hope this can be a turnaround.
Sam I am
Sam Gagner: The guy has been doing it all season. A goal and three assists last night to go along with a plus-two, two shots and two blocked shots. Oh, and he went eight for 14 in the faceoff circle. Gagner now takes over the point lead on the Oilers, which is pretty amazing considering the young studs on that team.
Antti N, There’s no place like home
Antti Niemi: Two home games on back-to-back nights. No problem for the San Jose goalie. After backstopping the Sharks to a 4-0 win Wednesday night over Anaheim, Niemi was back at it 24 hours later, this time blanking the Red Wings 2-0. That’s three straight wins for Niemi, but the back-to-back shutouts are great for anyone who started him in their fantasy playoffs.
Afterthoughts
Dion Phaneuf: One goal, two assists, plus three, four shots, four blocked shots and a hit. All he was missing was a faceoff win.
Vladimir Tarasenko: Two goals, plus-one, four shots, in only 13:23 of ice time for the rookie.
Radim Vrbata: In the highest scoring game of the night, Vrbata had two goals, one assist, plus-two, three shots and one hit.
Ben Bishop: Saved all 24 shots in a shutout against the Rangers. Remember when goaltending used to be Ottawa’s weakness? Now they have the strongest goaltending trio in the league.
DUDS
From stud to dud!
Martin Erat
Last week I wrote about “Back to the future” Marty and I mentioned that he was a “what have you done for me lately player.” Well thank you for helping me to prove that point Martin. The Preds lost the game badly but still scored 4 goals. Erat however only managed one assist on 2 shots. He was also a minus one in just over 18 minutes of ice-time. Come on Marty, you can do better than that.
I wonder where the sugar Kane went?
Evander Kane
Kane was a minus 4, only had 3 shots on goal and 2 hits. I know Pittsburgh juiced themselves up recently but I still would have thought that Kane would have had better stats than this. Bogosian and Jokinen weren’t much better, they each were a minus 3. Heck, the entire Jets team was a minus 20. For a team that is currently sitting 3rd in the East because they are leading the division they need to play better against top team s like Pittsburgh. Another couple of bad games and they could find themselves out of the play-off race. Evander needs to do what he can to prevent this.
I want to be a Jiri …
Rick Nash
Last week we wrote about players posting zeros across the board and it was termed a “Jiri”. Well Nash wanted to be a Jiri so badly that he had to one-up the term and post a minus one as well! Even Taylor “pylon” Pyatt had better stats than he did. Pyatt almost had a Jiri but he added a hit at least to his. Don’t get me wrong, Nash is still playing at just under a point per game but if you looked at last night’s stats you certainly wouldn’t have thought so.
Here comes the boom …. NOT!
Kevin Bieksa
Kevin “Boom Boom” Bieksa was certainly not firing on all cylinders last night. The Avs only scored one goal and he happened to be on the ice for it. The Canucks also scored 4 goals but he wasn’t on the ice for those or maybe he would have been even for the night. Mind you, Varlamov wasn’t even on the ice for two of them either. Kevin averages twenty minutes a night and should be posting better stats than these. At the moment Boom Boom Bieksa’s brandishing blanks!
Afterthoughts
Scott “I thought I retired” Gomez – 1 shot on goal but hey he did that in 10 minutes of ice-time!
Henrik “Don’t break a sweat” Zetterberg – Minus one but he did have 5 shots on goal.
Jeff “I prefer figure-skating” Skinner – A measly 1 shot on goal and a minus two.
R.J “I can’t let Nash beat me” Umberger – Almost a Jiri, zero’s except for the minus two!
12-team Keeper pool, straight points for forwards & dmen. Goalies get: 2 points per win, 3 per shutout, 1 point per assist & 1 point per shootout loss.
League champ in 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020 and 2022.
Top 8 forwards, 5 dmen and 2 goalies count.
We keep 15 players (any position) plus two rookies.