Studs & Duds - Friday 11/1
Studs and Duds
Studs
Capital Offence
The Washington Capitals' offence exposed Philadelphia's defence tonight by dismantling them in a 7-0 win. Joel Ward came out with a hat trick, Backstrom with three points, Chimera with four points, Grabovski with three, Erat and Fehr with two, and a few with one. The Capitals' players were also capable of holding their own against a gooned up Flyers team mid way through the third period.
A Shutout Trifecta
Ben Bishop, Brian Elliot, and Braden Holtby all stood their ground tonight by producing shutouts for their respective teams. Bishop and Elliot both stopped 31 shots while Holtby stopped 30 against Philadelphia. Holtby was especially impressive handling a fight against Ray Emery whose hissy fit helped show that his classlessness (impressive word) is still kicking.
Andrei Markov
While it's against my religion to support anything Habs, Markov had a solid night in Montreal's loss cashing in three assists against Minnesota. While Jason Pominville had three of his own, Markov is more impressive as Montreal only scored three goals against Josh Harding. This guy is going to get quite a paycheque this summer either from Montreal or somebody else.
Duds
Goaltenders of Brotherly Love
Don't know who to start next game for Philadelphia? Neither do I, nor does Phili's coaching staff after an abysmal game against Washington tonight. Steve Mason was good to stop 14/17 shots from the Capitals offence while Ray Emery was even more useless and dropped 11/15. Mason ended his night with 36:47 minutes of playing time and recorded a .824 save percentage while getting the loss. Ray Emery ended his night with 22:47 seconds of ice time and a .733 save percentage. To top that off, 29 PIM were added to Emery for fighting Braden Holtby because yes, Holtby is a much better goalie. How he got 3rd star over Holtby is a huge question mark.
Philadelphia Flyers
I don't think an explanation is needed for how bad they were tonight allowing seven goals against, being shutout, and starting a linebrawl because they wet the bed. Lets leave it at that.
-3's or more
Ryan White, George Parros, Mike Blunden (who?), Kris Versteeg, Brian Campbell, Dmitry Kulikov, Travis Hamonic, and Wayne Simmonds all have a few things in common.
One, most of them are veterans (arguable for Blunden).
Two, and I bet you guessed this one, they all went -3 tonight.
Three, none of them did a benefitting thing for their teams offensively.
All the players listed above went pointless tonight, and while it can be argued for Parros, Blunden and White that it's not their job, none of those three were there physically either. Blunden recorded three hits, and that's as useful as they got.
If any of these guys are on your fantasy team, you may have had a rough night as the most useful they were was for penalty minutes.
Last edited by FutureFF; November 2, 2013 at 12:40 AM.
Alan Murray
Twitter: Alanmurray2
Studs & Duds Writer for 2013/2014 NHL season
League History:
SCFHL2 (30 Team Dynasty of 7 Seasons) 1 Championship
UNFFHL (24 Team Dynasty of 6 Seasons) 0 Championships
Goal: Win more Championships
Development for success: Hope and pray