10/27/11 - Studs & Duds

[bondon]

Apologize in advance for some of the terrible puns this time around lol, trying to keep things light over here. Anyways I'm starting off with the duds this time around. Hope you enjoy em!

Duds

3)The Wild - They continue to struggle to score goals this season. Their powerplay, now with five forwards on the top unit, did come to life tonight (2/5) after going 0/17 in their past five games. They still couldn't score more than two goals though, which is actually the same number of goals that they have scored in their last five games.

2)Dry Island - The Islanders blew a 2-0 lead in the third period and would eventually lose the game in the shootout, wasting a solid effort from Evgeni Nabokov. The Isles have now lost four games in a row and have a total of five goals in that span. This is after scoring a combined 11 goals in their first four games. On another disappointing note for fantasy GM's, the Penguins and Islanders did not engage in any fisticuffs in either of their two games.

1)Jets/Flyers Goat-Lending - Oh boy, where to start? 17 goals allowed, three goaltending changes, a groin injury, and a combined save percentage of 0.767%. This game was just full of goaltending drama, but more specifically for the Flyers as the signing of Bryzgalov in the off-season was supposed to quell all goaltending issues in Philly.

Dishonourable Mentions
The Capitals - Who suffered their first loss of the season tonight to the Oilers.
The Panthers - For giving up the game winning goal to the Senators with four seconds left in the game.
Dustin Penner - Who now has one, that's right, one point in seven games.

Studs

3)Two Goals-One Assist - Was a stat line that was shared by a few notable players tonight. First up, Sabres' captain Jason Pominville (4G 9A in 9GP), who some believed to be an afterthought for the Sabres over the off-season, is proving to be an integral part of this team's offense.
Second: Mike Fisher (2G 2A in 2GP), who was playing in his second game since returning from injury. Fisher led his team to their first five-goal night of the season, which matched the number of goals that the Predators have scored in their previous four games combined.
Third: Ray Whitney (5G 5A in 9GP). The underrated vet just keeps trucking along. Every year fantays GM's pass on him expecting it to be the year that he finally slows down, but Whitney is showing no ill-effects of age just yet.
Last, but definitely not least: Slava Voynov (2G 1A in 5GP). Voynov has been a highly regarded defensive prospect for some time, but hasn't been able to catch a break on the Kings' depth chart. It was a busy night for Voynov, as he recorded his first NHL point, goal, and multi-point night of his career, giving us glimpses of what is to come.

2)The J(h)onas Brothers - In his last appearance of the 2010/2011 season, Jonas Gustavsson was lit up for six goals in a 7-0 rout at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers. Today, Gustavsson walked back into MSG for the first time since and got his revenge. After allowing a soft goal on a point shot from Dan Girardi that squeaked through his legs, the Monster stood tall for the remainder of the game, posting 28 saves for the win. The Leafs improve to 6-2-1 on the season.
For the Sabres, Jhonas Enroth made his first start of the season and boy was it a beauty. Enroth stopped 41 of 43 shots as he locked down the 4-2 victory for the Sabres (6-3-0) who were looking to avoid dropping their third straight game. On a related note, the Blue Jackets' 43 shots tonight were two shy of their franchise record for SOG in a road game (as per Aaron Portzline)
As for the Ducks' net-minder, Jonas Hiller built off his strong outing on Tuesday night and this time was rewarded with the W. Hiller stopped 23/25 shots on the night to end his personal three game losing skid.

1)Jets/Flyers - Yup, I made them the top dud and stud of the night. This was a hell of a game, and had some incredible stat-lines, led by Danny Briere (2G 2A) who was easily the best player from both teams. Frustrated fantasy GM's saw some life from some disappointing players including Little (2A), Kane (1G 1A), Wheeler (3A), van Riemsdyk (2G 1A) and Timonen (4A). Last year's most memorable game in the league came on February 11, I've got October 27 marked down for 2011/2012.

Honourable Mentions
The Oilers - For stopping the Capitals' undefeated streak. Corey Potter continues to surprise and another strong night from Eberle and Khabibulin.
The Kings' Second Line - Or at least the identifiable pieces of it. Brown and Richards both had their most productive nights of the season thus far with three points each.
Carey Price - Who followed up last night's solid performance with a 29/30 effort, winning the goaltending duel over Tim Thomas (33/35).

Special shout-out to Tanner "No-hands" Glass, who now has 2G and 4A in 9 games after tonight's three point performance. It appears that all he needed was a change of scenery to realize his offensive ups-I can't even finish that sentence. I've still got flashbacks of last year's SC Finals entrenched in my brain. Still, considering how he's got more points than Eric Staal he deserves the shout-out. This will be the only time he is ever acknowledged for offense. It'll never happen again. Ever.

Quotes of the Night:

"I have zero confidence in myself right now. If you throw a ball instead of a puck, I'm not going to stop it. I'm terrible. I'm terrible and I want to apologize in front of the fans, in front of my teammates and I don't know what's going on. I have no answer for you guys. I thought this last game in Montreal was … nothing's gonna happen worse, but today was even worse. – Ilya Bryzgalov
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puc...rn=nhl-wp15994

“With concussions, you never know” – Jonas Gustavsson
http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/...s-reimer-sits/

[Ross The Boss Palmer]

Didn't see the game, is it Khabibulin or the Oilers' D that are closing the door? Or both?

[dyzfunctioned]

Both to an extent. But khabi was pretty phenomenal - made a ridiculous save on wideman.

Washington actually probably spent like 2/3 of the game in the Oilers zone but took 7 or 8 penalties or something like that.

[GMGates]

I liked this tweet by @mirtle :

A $900-million reno of Madison Square Garden apparently doesn't address the 10 cent ice they've got in there. Complaints from all about it.

[GMGates]

Also I'd like to add that it was mighty funny to see Nabokov not wanting to participate in the shoot out which eventually led to Dipietro going out.

[ross10019]

Also I'd like to add that it was mighty funny to see Nabokov not wanting to participate in the shoot out which eventually led to Dipietro going out.

He tweaked his groin, that's why he took himself out.

[GMGates]

He tweaked his groin, that's why he took himself out.

Just caught the replay and totally missed that!

I was wondering haha...

[Rad64]

And here you guys thought the Jets couldn't score any goals!

I can't wait for the rematch at the MTS Centre!

[bondon]

And here you guys thought the Jets couldn't score any goals!

I can't wait for the rematch at the MTS Centre!

The ones that are important to me can't.

Friggin Byfuglien and Ladd, still not doing a whole lot for me just yet.