10/22/11 - Studs & Duds

[bondon]

Hey folks, doing a special appearance here but I will be covering Thursday night games from this week on. Busy night in the NHL with 14 games lined up. Here are your Studs and Duds of the day!

Studs

3) That's Elliott with two T's - Brian Elliott was rewarded for his good play on Friday night with a back-to-back start on Saturday night. He did not disappoint coach Davis Payne as he made 34 saves for the victory improving his record to 3-0. As a Halak owner, I want to scream bloody murder for Payne giving the start to Elliott, but honestly at this point even I have to ask, who would I go with: Halak (1-4-0, .835%, 3.47), or Elliott (3-0-0, .935%, 2.06).

2) Capital Punishment - Tonight was all about the Washington Capitals and the redemption of Big EV's favourite player: Mike Green. Green managed to snap out of his funk as he put up a four point night (2G, 2A) after only two points in his first six games. Backstrom and Ovechkin are back on track now as well as both are now point-per-game or higher. As for the Capital's netminder, Tomas Vokoun had fantasy GM's scrambling to get a hold of Michal Neuvirth after his stinker of a performance in his Capitals debut. Since that game, Vokoun has been a wall with a 1.19 GAA and a 0.965 SV%, highlighted by tonight's 32 save victory.

1) Not so Quick! - Make that THREE shutouts in a row now for Mr. Jonathan Quick. Quick has not let in a goal in a week now as the last time he let one by him was Saturday October 15, 13:29 into the second period. That is 208:10 consecutive minutes of shutout goaltending. He still has a long way to go though if he hopes to catch the modern day record held by Brian Boucher (332 minutes in 03/04), and even longer if he hopes to catch the all-time record of 461 minutes held by Alec Connell (1928). Quick's record improves to 5-0-1 as he remains undefeated in regulation with a sparkling 0.81 GAA and 0.972 SV%.

Honourable Mentions
Antti Niemi - For his great performance (37/39) in his first back-to-back appearance since returning from injury
Pekka Rinne - Bouncing back from a terrible performance on Thursday that saw him pulled after the first period, Rinne made 33 saves today for the shutout against the Flames.
Garon and the Lightning - Garon continues to provide the spark that the Lightning need. He wins his second straight start as the Lightning continue to bounce back from their early slump.

Duds

3) Heater loses his cool - In a tight game between the Wild and the Canucks, Dany Heatley thought it was important to commit a very blatant and unnecessary two-hand chop to the stick of Ryan Kesler, breaking it in half. This led to a four-on-three powerplay for the Canucks with 2:15 remaining in overtime, and Heatley would finish the game in the box as the Canucks scored on the man advantage. Heatley was later quoted as saying that it was "Not a smart play".

2) "Ladies and Gentlemen, Scotty Don't" - Scott Hartnell has been absolutely brutal this year with two points now (2A) in seven games. Things were looking up tonight for fantasy GM's early on, as some stroke of good fortune found Hartnell suiting up on the first line despite his terrible play thus far. Instead of taking advantage of the opportunity, he failed to register a point and went minus-two in 16:01 TOI. It's becoming quite clear that with all the changes that went on over the off-season, the one move they forgot to make was to ship Hartnell out.

1) A Disappointing Night of Milestones - The Red Wings' perfect season came to a grinding halt tonight as they suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of the Capitals. One night after putting up four points and three points respectively, Valtteri Filppula and Johan Franzen were a combined minus-five, and backup Ty Conklin allowed seven goals on 25 shots. Definitely not the way you want to honour your captain's 1500th career game.
The Habs were also celebrating a milestone tonight, as it was Hal Gill's 1000th career game. Unfortunately the Canadiens lost again, seeing their record drop to 1-4-2 on the season thus far. They now sit at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and second last in the league ahead of Columbus with four points.

Honourable Mentions
Myself - For benching 1G and 4A this week in my H2H matchup
Eric Staal - The captain continues to struggle, now with four points (3G, 1A) in eight games.
New York Rangers - For only mustering 19 SOG against one of the weaker teams in the league (The Oilers)

b0ndon's Thought of the Day

Polar Opposites - I mentioned in my post on Tuesday that I wouldn't be surprised if the Blue Jackets managed to go the whole month of October without a win. That seems more likely now as they lost to the Senators tonight, dropping their record to 0-7-1. With their remaining October games against strong opponents (vs.DET, @BUF, @CHI, vs.ANA) I really don't see an opportunity for them to get that elusive victory before the month is up. We'll have to see if Wisniewski will be able to provide the spark this team needs when he returns after serving his eight game suspension on Tuesday.
Contrasting that is the strong play from the Capitals, who are now 7-0 on the season. With only two games remaining in October (@EDM, @VAN), they stand a decent chance of going perfect through the first month of action.

[Shoeless]

b0ndon - Hartnell has 1 less point and 1 more minus than he did in the first 7 games last season. His hits are way up over last year at this time. Seems a little early in the season to be invoking Chicken Little.

Otherwise a thoughtful and well put together S&D - thanks for doing this.

[Rrabbit]

Shoeless it's not only the fact that Hartnell isn't producing. He's not performing well in other aspects either. Last night just when Philadelphia managed to make it a 1 goal game with 06:45 left on the clock, Hartnell took a completely needless 2 min cross checking penalty at the Blues' goal crease. STL ended up scoring on the powerplay and winning the game.

Truly a dud worthy play.

[potatoetree]

possible trade of hartnell incoming?

[bondon]

Yeah sorry that's my fault, I should have focused that dud on his play rather than the stats.

As mentioned above, stupid penalties, moronic turnovers (literally leading to goals), speaking in the media about how he's not pleased with his ice time. Yesterday was just the boiling point IMO, as even despite all of his boneheaded mistakes so far Laviolette decided to give him the opportunity on the first line with Giroux and Jagr..and he crapped all over it.

As far as his +/- goes, he can thank Read and Couturier (I think the other linemate was Couturier) for it not being complete crap.

Thanks for the feedback though I do appreciate it.

[Shoeless]

Oh I wasn't arguing that Hartnell shouldn't have made your Duds list - just going for factual integrity.

I actually expected to see Eric Staal make the Duds list yesterday - he did little to impress.

[Shoeless]

Wanna talk about why they didn't want to ship Hartnell out now, b0ndon?

[bondon]

Sure Shoeless,

I think they're showcasing him. That's the only explanation I can find for Laviolette leaving him on the top line after the seven stinkers of a performance he put up before this one. Anyways, all I know is I'm trying to sell high. I wonder what team he's gonna end up on if they do trade him.

Fantasy wise he might be back on track. Real-life wise its going to take more than one three point outburst to make me buy it. He did look a lot better tonight though, was actually battling for pucks and not doing things that would drive a coach insane.

[Shoeless]

Sure Shoeless,

I think they're showcasing him. That's the only explanation I can find for Laviolette leaving him on the top line after the seven stinkers of a performance he put up before this one. Anyways, all I know is I'm trying to sell high. I wonder what team he's gonna end up on if they do trade him.

Fantasy wise he might be back on track. Real-life wise its going to take more than one three point outburst to make me buy it. He did look a lot better tonight though, was actually battling for pucks and not doing things that would drive a coach insane.

Okay - have it your way. I do think you might be missing something much more obvious in Peter L's motives though.

[bondon]

Well, if I may be blunt, its very easy to say that I might be 'missing something' when Hartnell just had a three point night.

Maybe I'm being stubborn for thinking that the reason that Laviolette put Hartnell on the top line is for no reason other than to showcase him. But can you explain to me why he separated Hartnell from Briere when that duo worked very well last year? Or why Hartnell started the season on the third line instead of the top six where he usually is?

I'm not closing the door just yet on the possibility that this line combo sticks, but I'm not gonna be naive enough to let that one game magically erase the previous seven from my mind. Don't forget, I'm a Hartnell owner. I actually drafted him quite high (I think it was in the 7th or 8th round), as my multi-cat stud. If anything I should be trying to convince myself that the sun is shining and the skies are blue with Hartnell, but he was literally THAT BAD in the first seven games...and this isn't even JUST based on the first seven games of the season alone. Hartnell's always been widely regarded as a plug more than he is useful, ask any Flyers fan how many times Hartnell turns the puck over on a regular basis and whether or not they'd be happy to see him traded.

In retrospect, perhaps I did miss something when I first wrote that dud on him. Hartnell had spoken in the media prior to Laviolette putting him on the top line about how he was not too pleased with his playing time. So perhaps this was a 'put-up or shut-up' type scenario here. However, I still don't understand how Hartnell managed to stick on that line for game 2 seeing how bad he was in game 1, unless Laviolette's leash is longer than most.

Anyways, this is just the way I'm looking at the situation. I never advocated anywhere that people should jump ship on Hartnell RIGHT NOW...in fact I've tried to stay away from "Should I drop/trade Hartnell for..." type questions over the past couple of weeks. All I know is I'm shopping him around, and if the right deal were to come along I wouldn't have a problem taking it.