Reply With QuoteRichards has 13 points in his last 14 games - yeah they come in clumps, but they are there. How is that Mr. Invisible?
Studs & Duds - Friday 4/20/13
Studs
Brad Richards
On a night that saw the Rangers hang an eight spot of the Sabres on their home ice, the man front and center was Brad Richards. Richards has been an disappointment so far this season but that didn't stop him from picking up the hat trick last night. Alright in all fairness the Sabres actually had the primary and secondary assists on two of those goals. The offensive outburst put an end to his recent four game pointless streak.
Don't make him angry. You won't like him when he's angry
Heading into last night's game against the Avalanche it was said Jordan Eberle was pissed off. He proceeded to take his anger out on the home team. Eberle finished the night with a goal and two assists as the Oilers beat up the Avs 4-1. There was a good reason for the anger, as the Oilers were riding a six game losing streak and Eberle himself didn't couldn't buy a measly point during that slide. This season has been a far cry from last year's breakout, but at this point poolies will take any scrap thay can get while hoping there's more where that came from.
Always leave them wanting more
The rumors have been swirling about Kipper and whether or not this will be his last season, not only in Calgary, but in the league period. If this is in fact his last ride he couldn't have done much better in what may well be his final home game. Kipper looked like the Kipper of old stopping 32 shots and narrowly missing the shutout. Just the previous studs on tonight's list Kipper has really let down his owners this year, between a rare injury and subpar play, but for one glorious night he reminded everybody why they took the ride on the Kipper Train.
Two gets you three
Duncan Keith, in keeping with my trend here, ended his own personal drought last night. He had gone two games without a point, and had only two points in the last nine. That all changed as the 'Hawks blueliner added a goal and two helpers to the winning effort as Chicago beat the Preds in a surprising shootout, 5-4. As an added bonus for his fantasy owners, the goal and one assist came on the powerplay. Duncan chipped in four shots and two blocks as well.
Whoa, man. Check out that Doobie
Whether it was Devan Dubnyk getting a contact high from his teammates, or being the one that supplied it to them, the result was a 4-1 Oilers win. Dubnyk came in on a four game skid, but he satisfied his munchies by gobbling up 33 of the Avs 34 shots. If you believe in numerology you may want to start Dubnyk the rest of the way. You see while he entered the night on a four losing streak, he had a four game win streak prior to that. Win four, lose four, so another win four maybe? It's still a leap of faith to trust the Oiler netminder, but if recent trends hold he may pay off.
Duds
I thought Miller was supposed to be less filling?
I guess in Ryan Miller's case it is, and it isn't. Last night he was sure allowing the Rangers to fill the net with pucks. At the same time his performance wasn't filling the home crowd with a warm feeling for their high-strung netminder. He was torched for four goals on just 14 shots and was pulled after just over one minute into the second period. After last night Miller is sporting a 2.89/.912 line for the season. Those numbers rank 22nd and 41st overall, and with just 15 wins in 38 starts, fair to say Sabres fans aren't the only ones with a bitter taste in their mouths.
Brother can you spare a win?
To say that Pekka Rinne hasn't delivered the goods for his fantasy owners may be one of the biggest understatements this season. Last night was another kick in the teeth for all involved, well on the Rinne side, Chicago had fun. Rinne allowed five goals on 30 shots as the Preds fell 5-4 to Chicago. How bad has it gotten for the once reliable Rinne? How about seven, count 'em, seven straight losses and only one win in the last eleven. I would say use him carefully in your leagues as you go for a fantasy title, but unless you acquired help well before the trade deadline he's already torpedoed your fantasy hopes so it really doesn't matter.
Going, going, Gagner
By most measures Sam Gagner is having the best season of his career on a per game basis. Unfortunately he's also currently mired in a four game pointless streak. Last night must ahve been torture, as his teammates netted four goals against the lowly Avs and he was held off the scoresheet yet again. Gagner still finds himself second on the Oilers in points with 35, but he's not exactly finishing off the season on a high note.
Deep thoughts from a shallow mind
Chicago 5 - Nashville 4
- Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane each picked up two points.
- Brandon Saad added a goal as he makes his mark as one of this season's top rookies
- Corey Crawford had a less than stellar outing but was bailed out, and picked up his third straight win and fifth in the last six starts.
- Matt Halischuk was the Preds top star. He had two goals and an assist in the loss.
- Bobby Butler and Victor Bartley each had two points.
- Nick Spaling and Sergei Kostitsyn both finished minus-3
NY Rangers 8 - Buffalo 4
- Only six Rangers players finsished without a point, and 11 finished plus-2 or higher.
- Henrik Lundqvist was just ok, but got the win stopping 24 shots to pick up the "W".
- Christian Ehrhoff and Tyler Ennis had two points apiece but finished a combined minus-8. Ehrhoff himself was minus-5.
- Andrej Sekera couldn't allow Ehrhoff to hog all the putrid glory. He was also a minus-5, but unlike Ehrhoff he was held without a point.
St. Louis 2 - Dallas 1
- The Blues continue to be the best cure for insomnia. Their style is effective but really, rrrrreally, boring to watch.
- Brian Elliott continues to rack up wins. He stopped 21 of the 22 shots the Stars managed to get on goal.
- Kari Lehtonen was good enough to win, but gets hung with the loss stopping 18 of 20. The first goal came on a rebound after he got his bell rung by a Petro slapper right off the old coconut.
Edmonton 4 - Colorado 1
- Magnus Paajarvi and Justin Schultz joined Eberle as multi-point players. Each had two and plus-3 and plus-2 respectively.
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had just one point, a goal, but finished a team high plus-4.
- Milan Hejduk and Brad Malone were both minus-3.
- P.A. Parenteau had the lone Colorado goal and even managed to end up plus-1.
- And in the "Absolutely no surprise to anyone" column Semyon Varlamov got roughed up yet again. He allowed four goals on 24 shots.
Calgary 3 - Anaheim 1
- Somebody needs to perform the Heimlich, or in this case Anaheimlich, on the Ducks. Since their comeback win against Chicago on March 20, the Ducks are 5-8-2. They've also scored one goal or been shutout in nine of the last 18.
- It was a toga party for the Flames last night. Both Roman Cervenka and Roman Horak scored goals. As is completely apropos, Brian McGrattan's goal proved to be the game winner. Guess you could say they celebrated with a shot of Scotch. Or a shot from a Scotsman...
- Jonas Hiller was solid in the loss, allowing two goals on 30 shots. He just didn't get the "run support" from his teammates, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor.
Last edited by NoWayOut; April 20, 2013 at 8:17 PM.
Your beer mug isn't half-empty, your just half-way to the next refill.....
Richards has 13 points in his last 14 games - yeah they come in clumps, but they are there. How is that Mr. Invisible?
BOO, Miller! BOOOOOOOOO!!
[ahem]
@SmittysRant
He's gone pointless in 22 out of 42 games this year (more than half of his team's games). Had a streak of 6 games without a point in March. Even in the 13 points in the past 14 games you mentioned he had a span of 4 games without a point. A far cry from the reputation of consistency that he got over the years.Originally Posted by Shoeless
This year he's now sitting at a 55 point pace over a full 82 games. For argument's sake, the 13 points in past 14 games ignores the 6 game pointless streak he had right before that, so context really is everything. 13 points in 20 games while failing to log a single point in 10 of those games looks a lot less sexy than 13 points in 14 games.
So I'm personally fine with the label Mr. Invisible...because for the most part he has been invisible on the scoresheet this year.
Nice writeup NWO
Perhaps Mr. Windex Wonder?
Yahoo! H2H, 1 year, 12 teams, Daily starts
G, A, +/-, PPP, SOG, HITS, W, GAA, SV%, SO
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 2G, 5BN, IR, 3IR+
Used 41/45 moves
---------------------
C} Matthews, Barkov, Hertl
LW} B.Tkachuk(C), Guentzel, Nichushkin(RW)
RW} Miller(C), Rust, Schmaltz(C)
D} Josi, Fox, Dobson, Carlson
G} Nedeljkovic, Daccord, Grubauer, Pickard
IR} Demko
IR+} Neighbours
Because I didn't exercise due diligence and double check his stats. Chalk that one up to carelessness.
Your beer mug isn't half-empty, your just half-way to the next refill.....
Team Invisible
Scott Hartnell - Stephen Weiss - Ales Hemsky
Sergei Kostitsyn - Olli Jokinen - Martin Havlat
Valtteri Filppula - Paul Stastny - Erik Cole
Ryane Clowe - Travis Zajac - Nathan Horton
Kyle Quincey - Ian White
Jack Johnson - Tyler Myers
JM Liles - Cam Fowler
Jaroslav Halak
Mike Smith
Context is everything I agree and would you like all your skaters to be sitting on 13 points in the last 14 games? Because that is the context that matters here in terms of an ongoing active season. Yeah call him any names you want once the season is done, but don't give me the journalistic hysteria that he is invisible, because he is not.
NWO is well within his right to rag on Richards for such a spotty season and this jewel of a game stuck in there, absolutely. By the same token I think BRich should be on active rosters right now.
Last edited by Shoeless; April 20, 2013 at 8:18 PM.
Why must we wait until the end of the year? In the large picture he has been invisible. He was listed as a Stud in the post and he had 10 points in his past 13 games before the game that this post covered. He scored a hat trick hence why he was listed as a top stud last night. He's getting his kudos, but I don't think it's unfair to cite the rest of season either. Look at our pal Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The kid has 13 in his last 13..but I'd have no problem calling him invisible this year.
Maybe it's just a case of differing opinions
Now this I can get on board with.
Invisible connotation aside for the moment, I think a lot of this discussion re Richards' performance - from a fantasy perspective - depends on the league set up for perspetive.
If you're in a end-of-year/cummulative stat league, then i would agree that points is points. Doesn't really matter how or when they are obtained so much as they are obtained at all.
But if you're in a weekly or daily/H2H/pts-only leagues, and Richards (or any other player) is scoring in clumps every four, five, six games...that gets very taxing on a GM. Trying to guess which nights will be hot or cold often leads to poolies benching the player rather than playing hockey roulette.
That's probably where the "invisible" tag comes in to play for us poolies. Might be overstated, but that's due to frustration more than media hype, methinks.
@SmittysRant
I'm past due on stepping up and explaining the Richards snafu.
First and foremost I screwed up by not double-checking his stats. As you can see from the other writeups in this article, and my past articles, I usually highlight recent trends for the players I feature. In Brad's case I didn't and I have no explanation as to why. I simply don't know why I didn't do that.
Secondly was a case of writers block trying to come up with a title. It took me a full half hour of racking my brain for something to use. Eventually, all the forum posts here and articles from sites outside of Dobber that asked the question, "when is Brad Richards finally going to produce?", crept into my head. Those influences were from earlier in the season, but, viola, the invisible man bit came to me. I wasn't thrilled with the title, but decided it was probably the best I was going to come up with and went with it.
The writers block aside, had I double checked those stats, that title would never have occurred to me. I don't take Rick's criticism personally, quite the contrary, I welcome it. If I'm going to write for Dobber, and be a member of the Black Aces, there is a standard to meet. Flubs like that don't meet those kind of standards, at least as I apply them to myself.
Funny thing is, I still couldn't come up with clever title or play on words for that Richards piece when I went back to edit it.
Your beer mug isn't half-empty, your just half-way to the next refill.....
Alright, screw it, he's invisible.
That aside, I thoroughly enjoy the S&D each and every day they get posted and they are a must read for me. Thanks for doing it, guys.
I hear yah with this one, after the fact it's easier to come up with titles. Usually on a Saturday when the article was already posted on the Thursday.
This is the first thing that came to mind for me ...
Richards Refuses Regularity, Maybe Mike's Missing?
Alliteration is wonderful sometimes
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Well had I known you were that easy swayed, I'd invited you over for dinner.
@SmittysRant
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