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wolfpawn · 4 years

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I Hate You, I Love You, Chapter 165

Chapter Summary -Tom and Danielle go to Suffolk for their second anniversary as a couple. While there, Tom realises that Danielle has already gotten started on some of the wedding plans which results in them setting a date.

Previous Chapter

Rating - Mature (some chapters contain smut)

Triggers - references to Tom Hiddleston’s work with the #MeToo Movement. That chapter will be tagged accordingly.

authors Note - I have been working on this for the last 3 years, it is currently 180+ chapters long. This will be updated daily, so long as I can get time to do so, obviously.

tags: @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog @jessibelle-nerdy-mum @nonsensicalobsessions @damalseer @hiddlesbitch1 @winterisakiller @fairlightswiftly @salempoe @wolfsmom1 @black-ninja-blade

Danielle bit her lips together as she felt herself reach her peak, forcing herself to not grip Tom’s hair too tightly as he made her feel so good. She gasped as the final waves of her orgasm were joined by a kiss that was given to her core before Tom crawled over her body, smiling cheekily as he came face to face with her. “I love you,” She smiled, feeling worn from their activities. “As I love you, my beautiful Elle.” He leant down and kissed her, not overly surprised when she leant up and deepened the kiss. “You are well and truly back to form,” He smirked as he forced their lips apart for a moment.

“Three times since we got here, that’s not bad by any accounts,” Danielle agreed.

They had decided to spend their second anniversary in Suffolk, away from the crowds of London and spending time with Diana. Tom brought Danielle for a lovely meal in Manzoni’s, the restaurant that led to the awkward first kiss of theirs and afterwards, insisted on kissing her on the doorstep, though this time, the kiss did not end there and he ensured she had an incredibly pleasurable evening after. Of late, after recovering from her Ironman, Danielle’s libido seemed to go back to her pre-training and pre-maternal urge norm, much to hers and indeed Tom’s delight.

The next morning led to slight bouts of sloth on their behalf before amourous attentions once more, leading them to almost lunchtime before they forcibly extracted themselves from the bed.

They were drinking tea as their porridge cooked when Diana knocked on the back door and entered. “Finally up, I see.” “We are embracing the holiday feeling,” Tom smirked back, going to the pot of tea they had decided would be a better idea to make and poured her a cup.

“How was Manzoni’s?” “That new chef you mentioned was working, you’re right, it’s even better now, somehow,” Danielle commented from the cooker.

“He is good, isn’t he?” Diana smiled. “So, have you two started talking properly yet?” Tom chuckled at his mother. “Are you just here to badger us about it?” “The sooner you plan it, the sooner it is planned.”

“You sound like Danielle when she is talking about her safety stuff.” Tom eyed his fiance warily as he said that. She gave him a warning glance with a slight smirk with it.

“And?” “We have decided on Ireland, in Elle’s parish church from her childhood. She explained it holds a really important place in her family and it is small and quaint and away from prying eyes. It will be lovely, so it makes a lot of sense.”

“How small?” “The maximum capacity is about a hundred plus people, nothing extravagant,” Danielle explained. “Doing approximate numbers for the church part of things, we are looking at around thirty under capacity but that’s good because we know we’re forgetting a few people.”

“Right, names are important, have you a list started?” “No,” Tom looked awkwardly.

Danielle left the room for a moment before returning with the backpack she had received for her Ironman, taking out a notepad she had in it. “I have all of my side and friends done. I have started your side too, but I know there is an aunt or uncle somewhere missing because the numbers aren’t right and I would wager you have a friend from school you will think to invite.”

Tom looked at her shocked at the organisation she had clearly put into the page of names, making notes who they were and of any conflicts, some may have, mostly referencing her aunt Bernie. “I...I was going to say I’m surprised, but no, how could I be, this is you through and through.

Danielle laughed at him. “I also took note that we will have to arrange buses from the airports and spoke to the local B&B, they will book out the dates of our choosing for us, if we give them a date soon, so I also called the parish office and got the dates the church is free on the timeline we are looking at, so we have to arrange that. I think we will have to go over a week or two in advance to ready the last of everything and for the marriage course, of course. Though, I booked that and flights for January, that gives time for your other commitments, Ace Con and whatnot.” She explained.

Tom simply stared at her in shock. He had asked had she looked into one or two things, thinking that perhaps she would begin preparation, he had not thought for one second she would be so thorough so quickly. “I...I feel somewhat unprepared in all of this.” “Course, what course?” Diana asked curiously.

“In Ireland, I am not sure if it is the same here, if you want to marry in a Catholic Church, you have to do a marriage course with Accord, it’s like this religious church-related family service, so I booked that. It’s nothing really, just preparing you for down the road, times of trouble, if you want kids, the usual marriage stuff. It’s more a box-ticking exercise really, though if you haven’t talked about this stuff before now or you haven’t had bad patches, are you really ready for marriage?” Danielle questioned.

“I think they are becoming something here, not obligatory, mind.”

“Well, they are at home and with our schedules, I thought it a good idea to plan it for then.” “What is on the cards to say you are both busy for that?” Diana asked curiously, always eager to know what her children were doing workwise. “I have a few things I will be involved in, going a few places, nothing too long, quick stops around Europe,” Danielle informed her. “Usually three to five day things and paperwork in between. And a trip to the US for a meeting or two, obviously.”

Diana nodded, knowing that there would be some form of plan such as this already before looking to her son. “I am doing a stint in one of Harold Pinter’s plays in London, Betrayal, as the name suggests, it is not the most cheerful of work but an interesting piece,” He explained.

“And are you the betrayer or the betrayed?” She asked curiously.

“I play the poor betrayed husband,” Tom pouted as he spoke.

“So plenty of confused and angry fans after this,” Danielle joked.

“I am glad you enjoy my torture.” Danielle stuck her tongue out at him playfully, causing him to chuckle. “I guess we better book a date so while we have a chance.”

“I guess we should.” A thought occurred to Tom. “What about that B&B?” “What do you mean?” “Well, they will have the dates.”

“Tom, I warned you before, Irish people are not the least bit bothered by this sort of thing and there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that a local run B&B from my hometown, with kids that went to school with me, who have used my dad’s vet practice since before I was born are going to give my wedding dates to some foreign shites trying to make money off us.”

“You are putting a lot of faith in people that you have not known really for at least a decade,” Tom warned, having had more than one person he thought he could trust show that his trust had been poorly placed in the past.

“It’s a way of life in Connemara and indeed most of the non-city areas of Ireland. You say nothing and deny all knowledge of other people’s business to non-locals, as I said it's a local family business and if they can't look after the locals, well, Ireland is the place that coined the phrase ‘boycott’. It's one thing to talk among ourselves but to outsiders, that's just not done.”

“So, you would threaten them?”

“Ironically, it would not be me or putting them as I don't live there anymore, it will be those local people that they call their friends, the local GAA people, the lads that went to the pub with my dad, the women that went to the dances with Mam. It’s just an unwritten rule you don't embarrass yourself or your family and you definitely do not bring a bad name to the parish. Whatever about the generation I'm from but my dad's generation, Mr O'Leary and his wife, they never would risk her name or insult their family in such a manner,” Danielle explained. “Sometimes the anonymity of the city has its advantages though, growing up we always knew what our neighbours were doing but at the same time we were always there for one another when it was needed.”

“Will they have a problem with those coming from England for it?” Tom asked.

“Why would they? We're bringing them paying customers, we’re not there to bother anyone. We don't automatically just decide to hate all British people, that's not an economically sound practice. We are just mildly suspicious as a default setting which is healthy really, all things considered.”

Tom knew before he even saw her face that Danielle was sticking out her tongue at her own playful comment. “Behave,” He warned her, his own playful smile evident. “What dates are available? The sooner I tell Luke the better.” Danielle went to the page where she had put all of the information the parish secretary has provided her with. Tom studied the dates as well as taking out his phone and checking the calendar and within 40 seconds, he placed an ‘X’ beside three of the dates.

“Are they the ones that are acceptable or are they ‘the never gonna happen’ dates?” Danielle asked curiously as she looked at the dates he had put the “x's” next to, all three were not dates that she could think of for particular reasons as being an issue.

“The latter.”

“Okay, so we work off the rest.”

“What about you, are you available every one of these dates?” Tom asked, doubtful that Danielle could be free for the entirety of the summer.

“The ones I was not available for, which were two dates, I didn't even write down. One is the all branch AGM, and the other is my mother’s anniversary. I know she would want me to get married but I could probably pretty much guarantee that she would not appreciate me doing so on her anniversary.” “No, that goes without saying,” Tom agreed. He looked over the dates a little bit more, Danielle noticed that he checked his phone for a moment before putting an ‘X’ beside another date. As soon as she looked at it she realised which date it was, she laughed. Tom looked at her worried as to a reaction. Seeing her laugh, he decided to check verbally. “You don't mind?”

“Not at all. I don't think it bodes well to take one of your favourite days of sport in the year from you,” She laughed. “And it's the height of the GAA season, so I can guarantee there won't be a single pub, hotel bar or restaurant that will be showing that over whatever GAA fixture is on for the day.” She tussles hair as she spoke.

Tom took her hand and put it to his lips, kissing it gently at her respect for his favourite sports day. “If it was the only viable day?”

“You said it does not suit you and there are six other days that are free and available, it's a non-issue.” She looked at the dates again. “If we choose the date before that takes place, I would assume, unless we go on a honeymoon of six days, that does not suit either. So how about, this one?” She pointed to the weekend after the final. “That way you can watch it or go and we can be to Ireland after?” “But you said you want to come over a fortnight in advance?” “I’m sure you can slip away for a weekend.”

“No, it's too close and I'm not leaving everything to you.” Tom looked at the dates that came after if he was honest, he thought them too far away. So instead, he looked at the only other available date before. “How about the June date?” Danielle looked at the piece of paper for a moment. “That’s only eight months away. Jesus, that's a terrifying thought. Has it really been 3 months since you asked me?”

“Time flies when you're having fun.” Tom beamed. “If it's too close then that's fine.” “No, let's go with that one.” Tom looked up at her. “Elle, if you want to take time to think about it.” Danielle’s response was not to argue but to instead to take out her phone, scroll through the contacts and bring up the number she needed. “I think June to be the best.” She showed him the number she was about to ring and when he gave a small nod she pressed the call button.

It only took three minutes between the secretary answering the phone and Danielle pressing the end call button. “It’s official, we are booked for June.” Danielle looked at Tom, who seemed somewhat shocked. “Second thoughts already?” “No, I just...In eight months, we’ll be…” Tom could barely compute what was happening. After all his planning, with all his thoughts on it, there was a date set to legally marry Danielle. It was almost unfathomable. “I can’t believe we have a date set.” He rose to his feet and leant in and kissed her. “Eight months will be an incredibly long and yet short time.” “With work, with plays and meetings, sets and meet and greets, we won’t see it pass by. It is strange to think, but by the time we book a reception, hotels and whatnot, by the time Emma and Jack organise a passport for Lucy and everything, eight months is nothing.” Tom frowned. “I thought you don’t need a passport to go to Ireland. I used my driving licence one weekend to get into Dublin for High Rise.” “You don’t under the Common Travel Area and all that but come Brexit, who knows, they already applied, just in case.” “I guess we will all need to be sure.” Diana took note to check her own when she went back to her own house. She beamed proudly at having urged her son and her future daughter-in-law into actually setting a date. “I will leave you to eat and do a few things. Don’t forget to book a venue next.” She instructed as she left.

With quick goodbyes, Danielle started thinking. “I genuinely cannot think of too many. I suppose if you want to be fancy, there is always Kylemore Abbey?”

Tom Googled the place and his brows rose. “It’s beautiful.” “Of course it is, it’s in Connemara, we don’t do things by halves.” She smiled, looking at the picture in front of them of the building. “It is only from the 1860s but it is beautiful, nonetheless.” “And they take weddings?” “For the right price, they will be more than happy to facilitate whatever we ask. The question becomes, are we willing to pay such prices?” Tom suspected that there would be a chance that Danielle would have an issue with such things. He had considered how to approach it but now was the best time. “Elle, Darling, I m not sure how often you are planning on doing this but I am very much only considering the once so we will do this right.”

“I just don’t want to waste money.” “Is it wasting it for us to have a lovely wedding day?” “It’s one day, I don’t…” Danielle inhaled deeply. Her fiance was a renowned actor and she knew that came with more money than sense. “Just nothing too insane.” “Elle, don’t force yourself into budgets. We are not going to do anything mad, even the ring is a family heirloom, we are not extravagant spenders, so if the hotel costs a bit, then fine. I doubt you plan on some mad dress.”

Danielle scoffed, “Valentino, Darling,” She impersonated the accentuated Cruella De Vil accent as she spoke. “Just a hundred thousand.”

Tom chuckled and shook his head. “If you wanted.” Danielle stared at him in horror. “Are you insane?”

“I just want you to be happy.” “Tom, here and now, I m saying this. This whole thing is not going to come within an ass’s roar of that sort of money. No, not happening. I will call it off it does.” “Looks like I found the ‘Get out of Jail Free’ Card.” Tom jested, rushing out of her reach before she could nudge him in retaliation. When she went over to him, he pulled her in against him. “How did I manage to find you, a sensible, beautiful, intelligent woman like you?”

“A sacrifice to an old God or two, I think.”

“Very possible.” He leant down and kissed her, wanting her to feel how intensely he loved her from it.

Pictures of Kylemore Abbey for reference

#I Hate You I Love You #Chapter 165 #tom hiddleston fic #tom hiddleston #wolfpawn

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON'S CORNER: PACK REFLECT ON BAD LOSS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings CROMWELL, CT - It was a very silent Hartford Wolf Pack practice at Champions Skating Center on Wednesday. Fresh off a disheartening 4-1 loss to the Hershey Bears, who scored all four of their goals in the last seven minutes of the game, the New York Rangers' AHL affiliates did their drills and skating, but the usual chatter was missing. “We liked our first 53 minutes held them, to 21 shots to 11 shots against those back to back penalties, one of which they scored on. We had some missed D zone coverage, then a blocked shot, bounces up in front of the net and then a turnover by our goalie and an empty net goal, it‘s over. That’s not the recipe for closing out games especially a team like Hershey that’s won now how many games in a row? (Nine and 17-1-0-1 in their last 19),” Wolf Pack head coach, Keith McCambridge, said. The mental part of the game is still is not up to par in critical situations. “Your up 1-0, have control and taking penalties. You get away killing one, but then you come right back with another it's just not about managing the puck it's managing the game,” remarked McCambridge through a hoarse voice. When your goalie commits a turnover that led directly to the third Hershey goal as Brendan Halverson’s pass up the middle was intercepted by the last guy you wanted to have it, the Bears leading scorer Riley Barber who put in his second of the game and 26th of the season. “There’s a fine line in how he plays the puck. He had several nice plays on the penalty kill. He took control sent it all the way down (the ice). .There is that fine line when you play it too much,” said McCambridge of Halverson who will start tonight in Springfield. The team offense has been done by a small cache of players led by Vinni Lettieri, on a six-game point streak, Steven Fogarty 12 points in his last seven games and Ryan Gropp who has five points in seven games. “Vinni’s been dangerous all year here. That line has been very productive for us, very strong in the offensive zone, but their defensive zone coverage has been as equally strong between the three of them they will generate offense. By far our most dangerous offensive line,” remarked McCambridge. Conversely, the secondary scoring has been a trickle as of late. “It’s the secondary scoring that we need and it drops off from that line. You hope during the season when these players are having dry spells will pick it up. Lately, we have had players who hit some real dry spells been a while since they had points or goals. It was nice to see Fontaine last night score a goal, gain some traction, but I do like how hard we're working, but we have been missing some players (to injuries, trades). We have points in the last six games then last night we let one slip away from us with Hershey, where we should have had them in seven.” With 18 games remaining there is simply no margin for error and likely no margin left. “It's very disappointing because we have played well of late,“ Assistant captain Steven Fogarty said while wearing one of the team hoodies. “We got points and to play so well for most of the game and collapse…in a matter of two shifts… it's tough. It’s unacceptable, it's why we are, where we're at (in the standings). We're running out of time here.” The team also had another day of changes as the newly minted assistant captain, Ryan Lindgren, was in a left boot cast after taking a shot off his foot. He is likely out for this weekend’s games against Springfield and Wilkes Barre/Scranton breaking up their top defensive duo of Lindgren and John Gilmour. The Rangers also recalled rookie rearguard, Libor Hajak, Wednesday morning. With Lindgren out, the fans will likely see former QU Bobcat, Zach Tolkinen, back in the lineup taking his place. The Rangers did what was expected as they reassigned goalie Dustin Tokarski, too, of all places, Charlotte the top team in the Atlantic Division. With that, the AHL ending the veteran goalie experiment that didn’t produce the results the Rangers/Wolf Pack had hoped for this season (more info below). The most frustrating thing about last night’s loss, is it stalled momentum that the Wolf Pack have been building. Recently, they have been in this position clawing from the bottom trying to make the playoffs. Why this has become a yearly routine occurrence with a mostly new team? “We’ve been asking that question for three years. There obviously is a mental aspect to it. You're going to get scored on, but you can’t cheat when you get scored on. Obviously, It's going to be March tomorrow and we haven’t learned that yet. We're still in the hunt, but it's a desperate time. There are only so games left.” Will the clock strike midnight on their season this weekend? The Wolf Pack fate is in their skates and sticks. NOTES: On the injury front, Lindgren is listed as day-to-day pending a medical evaluation. After he got some x-rays done, Rob’Gara (lower-body) skated in a red non-contact jersey. He's week-to-week. Ville Meskanen (upper body) was skating in a red non-contact jersey. He's day-to-day while Chris Bigras was with cast and crutches and is listed week-to-week. So far the Hartford Wolf Pack have remained mostly intact from Monday’s NHL Trade Deadline Day with some minor deals, but might be different after Monday’s AHL Trade Deadline. Tokarski's reassignment/trade comes as no surprise, but to be sent to Charlotte, the top team in the AHL and, of course, the Atlantic Division, was quite shocking. Tokarski’s last Wolf Pack game was a porous effort against Bridgeport February 17th in a 5-4 OT loss to the Sound Tigers. He played in 21 games, just one more than his other veteran battery mate, Marek Mazanec, who was shipped off to Vancouver two weeks ago. Tokarski’s record was 10-6-2 with a 3.01 GAA and a .901 save percentage and one shutout. He, like Mazanec, was inconsistent. While he did have a 9-1-1 stretch, that was the extent of his best playing period. He was pulled three times this season, twice in his ten playing days. One NHL scout described Tokarski as, “either really good or really (crappy). There is no in between.” In return, the Wolf Pack will receive Hartford-born, Josh Wesley, and will add another defenseman who has shuttled most of his pro career in the Carolina organization between Charlotte and Florida (ECHL). Wesley is the son of former Whaler, Glen Wesley (1994-1997), who played ten years in Carolina with the exception of seven games with Toronto when he was a deadline trade in 2003. Currently, he is the defensive skills development coach for St. Louis after spending ten years in the same position in the same capacity with Carolina. A few former players have been moved to new addresses. Ex-CT Whale, Michael Del Zotto, lands on his third team this year. He leaves the Anaheim Ducks to head to the St. Louis Blues. Then ex-Pack forward Oscar Lindberg was involved in the Ryan Stone deal and heads to the Canadian capital city to play for the Senators from Las Vegas. Jonathan Dalen, son of former New Haven Nighthawk and Ranger, Ulf Dahlen goes from Vancouver to San Jose. Ex-Pack Brian Gibbons (Salisbury Prep) is moved from Anaheim to Ottawa for Patrick Sieloff. In non-trade news, recently ex-Pack goalie, Marek Mazanec, was assigned to Utica by Vancouver. Ex-Wolf Pack, Dale Weise, has been recalled from Laval by Montreal. Weise had two goals in three games with the Rocket. Ex-Sound Tiger defenseman Matt Donovan was recalled by Nashville from Milwaukee. Rangers announced Monday that they have signed two of their potential Group 6 free agents centers, Boo Nieves and Steven Fogarty, to one-year contracts. Nieves' deal was for one-year. It's a one-way NHL deal paying $700K. Fogarty’s deal was a one-year two-way deal paying $700K in the NHL and $150K at the AHL. Fogarty celebrated with a hat-trick in a 4-1 win over the Providence Bruins on Sunday. Two of the goals were shorthanded. That gives Hartford three in a two-game span and Fogarty was involved in all of them. It was the first Wolf Pack hat trick in a little over two years. The last came from Adam Tambellini against Springfield on February 10, 2017, at the Mass Mutual Center. It's also just the fifth Wolf Pack hat trick in the last seven years. “I wasn’t sure how this was going to work. This is my first. I was going to be a free agent,“ Fogarty remarked. “It's obvious. It's exciting. When I got the call and the process started. They called a few weeks ago and things just progressed pretty nicely.” Did you want to test free agency? “To be honest, I was not sure how that process works out. I think I have a good year personally, made strides in my game and my goal is to get to the NHL. I really do like this organization who drafted me. I like coaches and the staff, so my heart has always been here,” said the Edina, MN native born in Chambersburg, PA. The Wolf Pack are still in the playoff hunt with a very steep hill to get there. They are nine points behind Providence and saw some personnel shift in the Atlantic Division. Springfield got Jean-Sebastien Dea, a frequent Pack killer, from the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins and right-handed defenseman Chris Wideman heading to PA. Charlotte, already an exceptionally strong offensive team, added Tomas Jurco from Springfield. They are an early Calder Cup Final favorite. Matt Finn, just released by the Wolf Pack and sent back to Florida (ECHL), has signed another PTO with Ontario (AHL) and Alex Krushelnyski is traded from Lehigh Valley to Binghamton for his second AHL tour in southwestern New York state. He started the season with Reading (ECHL). Philippe Hudon, a Hudson, Quebec native who played three years at Choate Prep of Wallingford, then three years of Canadian major junior with the Victoriaville Tigres (QMJHL) and then five years of Canadian college hockey at Concordia University (OUAA) in Montreal signed an ECHL tryout deal with the Florida Everblades (ECHL). Nick Dilsi, a former Hartford Jr. Wolf Pack, goes from IFK Stromsund (Sweden Division-2) to HC Tabor (Czech Republic-Division-2). William Rinaldi (Kent Prep) is playing with Wellington (OJHL) commits to R.I.T. (AHA) for next year. The first of the European and Asian hockey titles have been decided. The Scottish National title was won by the Murrayfield Racers, the Italian title was won by SV Ritten/Renon their fourth straight title and fifth in six years. Then in India, the Indo-Tibet Border Police team won their third straight title over the Ladakh Scouts 6-5. The Ice Hockey Challenge Cup of Asia begins on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with seven teams competing. The countries involved are defending champion and host Malaysia, Indonesia, Macau, Mongolia, Oman Philippines, and Singapore. In the Republic of Ireland, the Irish Times reports a deal has been struck to open the first ice rink converting an old building owned by the Institute of Technology in Dundalk. The city is located along the eastern coast near the Irish Sea just south of the Northern Ireland border. The rink would be the first and is expected to open in September. In Northern Ireland, they have the only rink, the SSE Arena that is run by AEG and houses the Belfast Giants (EIHL) and has hosted the Friendship Four college tournament the past five years. Read about it HERE. Read the full article

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thrashermaxey · 5 years

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Lining Up: Playoff Edition

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs just hours away, you’re probably getting ready to assemble the ultimate roster for your playoff pool. Luckily for you, I’ve done a ‘quick’ lineup review for every one of this year’s playoff teams. You can find last week’s review of the top-eight qualifying teams over here. This week we take a look at the remaining eight teams. Follow me on Twitter @BrennanDeSouza for line combinations and injury updates as they playoffs begin!

Western Conference

Nashville Predators (Source)

Line Combination

Goals

For

Goals

Against

CF%

TOI

Filip Forsberg – Ryan Johansen – Viktor Arvidsson

58.72

540:07

Mikael Granlund – Kyle Turris – Craig Smith

53.45

79:42

Colton Sissons – Nick Bonino – Austin Watson

50.97

173:07

Stats retrieved from NaturalStatTrick

While the Predators are favoured to win their first-round matchup against the Dallas Stars, they’ll be up against one of the scariest playoff phenomena – a goalie capable of stealing a series. Ben Bishop has been outstanding this season, sporting a 1.98 GAA and .934 SV% alongside a 27-15-2 record. Dallas as a team has also been excellent defensively this year, conceding an average of just 2.44 goals per game – only the Islanders were better defensively (2.33 GAA).

I’ve always considered Nashville’s top line to be one of the best in the league. Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson have become frequent 30-goal scorers and display the potential to tally 40 goals over the course of a full season. I mean, Arvidsson put up 34 goals in just 58 games this year! Ryan Johansen’s playmaking ability perfectly complements his wingers’ knack for putting the puck in the net. More importantly, Johansen has an impressive 41 points in 47 career playoff games. The trio has had a few seasons to build chemistry and it’s evident in how effortlessly they move the puck. I’d definitely load up on the Predators’ top line if you think Nashville is ready for a deep run this Spring.

If you think Nashville is going far in the playoffs, you might also want to load up on their depth. Kyle Turris certainly has playoff experience with 30 points in 59 games, but Nick Bonino provides a lesser-known and maybe even more valuable option as he has 45 points in 88 career playoff games. While Mikael Granlund hasn’t quite found his place with the Preds just yet, the team will need him to contribute if they’re to make a run this year.

Dallas Stars (Source)

Line Combination

Goals

For

Goals

Against

CF%

TOI

Jason Dickinson – Tyler Seguin – Alex Radulov

48.15

22:16

Jamie Benn – Roope Hintz – Mats Zuccarello

62.50

8:01

Andrew Cogliano – Radek Faksa – Blake Comeau

42.86

97:55

Stats retrieved from NaturalStatTrick

The Stars struggled offensively this season, scoring an average of just 2.55 goals per game – third-fewest in the league. That stat is all the more alarming when you consider that Dallas has three offensively-gifted forwards in Tyler Seguin, Alex Radulov and Jamie Benn. Both Seguin and Radulov met expectations this year, tallying 80 points in 82 games and 72 points in 70 games, respectively. On the other hand, Benn struggled with just 53 points in 78 games. His 56-point pace was the lowest since his debut in the 2009-2010 campaign. He does have 20 points in 19 career playoff games, so I wouldn’t fault you for targeting him in your playoff pool. Radulov has also performed well during previous playoff action, tallying 21 points in 24 games. In contrast, Seguin has just 21 points in 49 playoff games, but the majority of those games were played when he was a young star in Boston, with a much smaller role.

Injuries have prevented Mats Zuccarello from building chemistry with his teammates in Dallas, but he does have three points in the two games he’s played as a Star. Speaking of chemistry, I think it’s important to note that the lines Dallas will start in the playoffs haven’t had a lot of time to play together during the regular season – as you can tell from their ice-time in the table above. Will this lack of familiarity lead to the team’s downfall in the first round of the playoffs? Only time will tell.

Vegas Golden Knights (Source)

Line Combination

Goals

For

Goals

Against

CF%

TOI

Jonathan Marchessault – William Karlsson – Reilly Smith

54.49

840:43

Max Pacioretty – Paul Stastny – Mark Stone

58.82

156:49

Brandon Pirri – Cody Eakin – Alex Tuch

50:33

71:06

Stats retrieved from NaturalStatTrick

The majority of this season’s playoff matchups feature a relatively clear favourite going head-to-head with an ‘underdog’. One of the few exceptions (Winnipeg-St. Louis being the other) can be found in the Vegas-San Jose series, where each team seems equally capable of defeating the other. Last week, we highlighted San Jose’s incredible depth scoring, but this week it’s important to acknowledge that the Golden Knights also have offensive threats throughout their lineup. With that being said, my biggest concern is the team’s top line, which has taken a step backward since an incredible performance last year. The trio of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith was absolutely dominant last season, outscoring opponents by a tally of 50-24 in just over 700 minutes of ice-time together. As you can tell from the table above, they haven’t been nearly as impressive this year. William Karlsson went from 78 points last year to 56 this season, and Marchessault went from 75 to 59. Smith went from 60 points to 53 points, despite playing seven more games this season than he played last season.

Vegas relied on an outstanding performance from Marc-Andre Fleury to get them into the Stanley Cup Final last season and I’m not confident that he’ll be able to replicate that same level of excellence. However, if your gut is telling you that the Golden Knights are primed for a deep run this year, they have plenty of ‘depth’ options that you can target in the later rounds of your draft. Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, Paul Stastny, Cody Eakin and Alex Tuch all come to mind. Of those players, Paul Stastny has the most impressive playoff resume, with 50 points in 72 career playoff games.

Colorado Avalanche (Source)

Line Combination

Goals

For

Goals

Against

CF%

TOI

Alex Kerfoot – Nathan MacKinnon – Gabriel Landeskog

62.41

60:10

Matt Nieto – Carl Soderberg – Mikko Rantanen

46.48

30:01

Sven Andrighetto – Derick Brassard – J.T. Compher

50.00

1:34

Stats retrieved from NaturalStatTrick

It looks like Colorado has decided against a first-line stack when they kick off their matchup against the Flames on Thursday. The decision to play Mikko Rantanen on a separate line from Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog has been made to spread out the team’s scoring, but I fully expect to see the trio reunited at some point during the series. Aside from the team’s three offensive studs, I’m not sure if there’s a player who’s really good enough to play in the top-six. No disrespect to J.T. Compher or Alex Kerfoot, but I think there’s still progress to be made before they can be considered second-liners. Carl Soderberg and Derick Brassard make for great third line options, while Matt Nieto and Sven Andrighetto are capable of rounding out the bottom-six. The problem is, the Avalanche have to use depth players on the second line because they lack ‘secondary scoring’. In contrast, the Flames have a second line that features Matthew Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund and Mikael Frolik. While Frolik and Backlund may not be traditional second-line players, their chemistry with Tkachuk – who has first-line talent – allows the line as a whole to function as a great second unit.

While Calgary is favoured to beat Colorado in the first round, the Avs have a better chance of winning than most people realize. The Flames and Avalanche both had 11 wins and nine losses in the final quarter of the season, but Colorado also has the benefit of a hot goaltender. From March 1st onwards, Phillip Grubauer went on a 8-2-2 run while putting up a 1.55 GAA and .952 SV%. During the same timeframe, David Rittich had a 5-4 record as he put up a 2.82 GAA and .905 SV%. Mike Smith went 4-5 with a 2.15 GAA and .904 SV%.

Eastern Conference

Pittsburgh Penguins (Source)

Line Combination

Goals

For

Goals

Against

CF%

TOI

Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust

51.42

471:39

Jared McCann – Evgeni Malkin – Patric Hornqvist

0:49

Dominik Simon – Nick Bjugstad – Phil Kessel

38:10

14:54

Stats retrieved from NaturalStatTrick

The Penguins-Islanders series will give us an opportunity to see what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. The unstoppable force being Pittsburgh’s high-powered offense and the immovable object being New York’s stingy defense. The Pens scored an average of 3.30 goals per game this year, while the Isles conceded a league-low 2.33 goals per game. Somethin’s gotta give.

Pittsburgh has three well-known offensive superstars and each of them have a history of excellence in the playoffs. Sidney Crosby has 185 points in 160 career playoff games, Phil Kessel has 75 points in 83 games and Evgeni Malkin has 165 in 158. This quote from Malkin on how he hopes to erase his regular season ‘struggles’ this year with a better playoff performance would have me terrified if I were an Islanders fan.

Everyone knows how good Kessel, Crosby and Malkin are in the playoffs because of their lengthy track record. On the other hand, 24-year-old Jake Guentzel isn’t as widely recognized as an offensive star – but he very much is. Guentzel managed 76 points in 82 games this season and has 42 points in 37 career playoff games. Chances are, the average hockey fan doesn’t think Guentzel is as valuable as Pittsburgh’s other offensive superstars because he hasn’t been around for as long. In reality, he’s capable of providing elite offensive production and you can probably get him after Crosby, Malkin and Kessel are taken off the board in your draft.

Matt Murray was excellent down the stretch for Pittsburgh, sporting a 2.26 GAA and .931 SV% during a 10-4-4 run since March 1st.

Toronto Maple Leafs (Source)

Line Combination

Goals

For

Goals

Against

CF%

TOI

Zach Hyman – John Tavares – Mitch Marner

53.38

844:45

Andreas Johnsson – Auston Matthews – Kasperi Kapanen

55.36

211:25

Patrick Marleau – Nazem Kadri – William Nylander

62.77

110:27

Stats retrieved from NaturalStatTrick

In the past 10 years, the Toronto Maple Leafs have qualified for postseason action four times. Three of those four qualifications led them to a first-round date with the Boston Bruins. While two of those matchups are already in the books, the Leafs have yet another opportunity to exercise their demons and defeat a team that seems to have their number. With the additions of John Tavares and Jake Muzzin, as well as the emergence of both Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen, Toronto’s roster has never looked better. Yet, the team still heads into a first-round matchup as the underdog. The overwhelming majority of the hockey world believes that the Leafs are too young and lack the mental fortitude to overcome their playoff struggles against the Bruins. However, when you consider how close Toronto has been to beating Boston in the past, as well as the fact that the Leafs’ roster has improved on paper, I think this might finally be their year.

Throughout this season, Toronto’s first line of Zach Hyman, John Tavares and Mitch Marner has been one of the best in the league. While Hyman has the least name-value of the three, he has been playing well enough to provide some great late-round value in your playoff pool. In all honesty, any member of the Leafs’ top-9 is capable of producing offensively come playoff time. The only reason I’d hesitate to go with a Leafs-heavy fantasy roster is the fact that their road to the Cup will probably take them through Tampa Bay – and I’m not sure if they could keep up with the Lightning.

Carolina Hurricanes (Source)

Line Combination

Goals

For

Goals

Against

CF%

TOI

Nino Niederreiter – Sebastian Aho – Justin Williams

60.33

459:58

Micheal Ferland – Jordan Staal – Teuvo Teravainen

53.33

90:06

Andrei Svechnikov – Lucas Wallmark – Jordan Martinook

58.78

292:22

Stats retrieved from NaturalStatTrick

The Hurricanes are a very good team and they’re capable of beating the Washington Capitals in the first round. They’ve displayed an ability to outshoot and out-chance their opponents throughout the regular season, while receiving solid goaltending from Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney. Carolina was actually one of the best teams in the second half of the season – going on a 30-12-2 run since the beginning of the calendar year. To provide you with some reference, the Tampa Bay Lightning had a 31-9-2 record the same span, while the Capitals went 24-15-5.

This edition of the Hurricanes features a mix of young talent with no playoff experience, older talent with some playoff experience and veteran talent with a lot of playoff experience. Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov fall in the first category, but what they lack in experience they more than make up for in offensive ability. Teuvo Teravainen, Micheal Ferland and Nino Niederreiter all have some playoff experience with other teams, which will be useful as they embark on this postseason journey. Finally, we come to the veterans. Justin Williams has 94 points in 140 career playoff games while Jordan Staal has 73 games of playoff experience, but all of them were played between 2007-2012 with the Penguins.

Columbus Blue Jackets (Source)

Line Combination

Goals

For

Goals

Against

CF%

TOI

Artemi Panarin – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Cam Atkinson

54.80

774:15

Josh Anderson – Matt Duchene – Ryan Dzingel

45.58

112:40

Brandon Dubinsky – Boone Jenner – Riley Nash

34.29

22:15

Stats retrieved from NaturalStatTrick

The Columbus Blue Jackets will be under a lot of pressure to perform this postseason, as it’ll probably be their last stretch with such a star-studded lineup. Big names like Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene, and Sergei Bobrovsky aren’t expected to be around next year, so it’s important for the team to make the most of this opportunity. Their road to the Cup begins with the seemingly impossible task of upsetting the Tampa Bay Lightning – a team that won 62 regular season games. For reference, the Calgary Flames had the second-most wins with 50. Tampa Bay has one of the best rosters we’ve ever seen and it’s hard to imagine they’ll be beaten by any team four times during a seven-game series. But that’s the beauty of the NHL playoffs. It doesn’t matter how heavily favoured a team is to win, upsets are always possible. A hot goalie can steal a series. Luckily for the Blue Jackets, they have one of the league’s hottest goalies in Sergei Bobrovsky – who tallied four shutouts since March 1st, going on a 10-5 run while sporting a .933 SV%, 1.95 GAA.

If you really believe in Columbus beating Tampa and going on a deep run this year, you have the luxury of drafting their superstars in later rounds, because very few people expect the Lightning to lose in round one and will be avoiding the Blue Jackets as a result.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/nhl-line-combinations/lining-up-playoff-edition/

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bettornotlose · 7 years

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Kerry v Mayo Preview

Beaten for the second year in a row by Galway, dead and buried against Derry, made to sweat by Clare and taken to extra time by Cork and a replay by Roscommon. Watching Mayo in this year’s championship is like an episode of the BBC’s Line of Duty for twists and turns. If you are unaware of said show or haven't seen it, track it down and watch. Hopefully the recommendation is a better than some of my betting advice this year.

We are going to truly test which theory is the best preparation for the crunch time of the championship. The battle hardened Mayo or the untested Kerry side . If Mayo go on to finally win Sam this year, it will be up there with Donegal in 2012 and Tyrone in 2005 for toughness of route and endurance. .

Kerry strolled past Galway but in truth if they play to the same level on Sunday and Mayo match their energy, pace and ruthlessness in the Roscommon replay, Eamonn Fitzmaurice is in big trouble. Galway left goals behind and Kerry have shown extreme weakness to the running game which Mayo have finally reverted back to. Having experimented with tactics like playing Keegan at centre half, trying different combinations of full back lines and mess around with Aidan O’Shea, Rochford is going back to the James Horan template and it looks to have revitalised the side at the crucial moment. Mayo felt they were missing that couple of percent to get over the line but took a step backwards trying to find that extra improvement. Going back to their strengths across the park and playing their best players in their best positions gives them the best chance to get over Kerry. It sounds simple and that’s because it is but in the modern GAA, manager can needlessly over complicate their systems to try to bamboozle the opposition and sometimes only damage themselves. Yes Mayo still could use more scorers and if they leave Ger Cafferty one on one with Kieran Donaghy on Sunday, then that Mayo fan taking on five stewards should go for the manager not the ref this time. However there is lots to like about Mayo’s chances on Sunday. I’d repeat the line about experimenting with starting Andy Moran, taking him off mid match and bringing him on for the final ten minutes a la Peter Canavan in 2005. They will most likely need his composure in the final stretch and early doors.

Kerry though will probably be delighted they played poorly yet still won easily at the quarter final stages. They have loads to work on and the level they could reach could leave Mayo in their wake. The Kerry pundits and ex players are out in force right now plamasing Mayo like they did Cork in the Munster final. Down in the south west, they’ll be quietly confident they’ll be fit to take care of a side they really have little respect for. 25 championship clashes and Mayo have only won four with the last being 21 years ago and before that you need to go back to 1951. Of course stats can be bent to tell a different tale. In truth this Mayo side have been more than a match for this Kerry side. They could have won both the 2014 encounters and in the league they’ve won four of the last five encounters in Division 1. I have a sneaking feeling Mayo could in fact win this match but on this occasion, at the odds, the value play here is to back Mayo +3 at around 4/5. A win, a draw or even a one or two point defeat will mean you’ve still backed a winner.

Match Odds: Kerry 1/2, Draw 15/2, Mayo 9/4

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flauntpage · 7 years

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Leinster Senior Football Final: Dublin v Kildare preview

Thousands of fans will descend upon Croke Park yet again this weekend as Dublin prepare to take on Kildare for the 17th time in Leinster Senior Football Final history.

In what should be a thrilling contest, the two counties will battle it out for a place in the 2017 GAA football All-Ireland finals.

There is history in the making as the Dubs bid to become the first county to win the Leinster title for seven successive seasons.

WHAT THEY SAID:

Dublin manager, Jim Gavin:

“They (Kildare) are a very impressive side. They are very fit, they are very mobile, they had that impressive run in Division 2, they got promoted to Division 1.

Inpho

“They won both of their championship games against very close rivals in Laois and Kildare. They have pushed on.

“And again, having known Kildare football so well, I attend a lot of their championship games, they play good football down there. And that’s a reflection of what I would see at championship games during the year.

“So it is going to be a big task – as it always is.

“We do a bit of work on the opposition but we always focus on our game.

“We don’t look to see what we can score, it’s to try and get that performance.

“And hopefully at the end, when you add up the scores, we’re a point ahead of the opposition.”

Cian O’Neill, Kildare manager:

“Will we be more defensive minded? Of course we will. Will we need to put in 20 or 30 per cent more intensity? Of course we will. That won’t change. You’re playing the All-Ireland champions, two time champions, but we’ll still play attacking football.

Inpho

“I suppose the real challenge will be to get the balance right between the two.

“You certainly can’t leave any of your defenders or your defensive line exposed against a team like Dublin so we’re obviously going to work really hard on that. But we’re still going to play the type of football that has made some progress for us and for the county this year.”

KEY STATS:

If Kildare oust the Dubs this weekend it will be the first time the Lilywhites have won the Leinster title since 2000.

Inpho

Dublin have beaten Kildare on their last five championship clashes, the most recent victory came in 2015 when the Dubs hammered Kildare 5-18 to 0-14.

The pair have met 16 times in Leinster finals with Dublin winning ten and Kildare just four, with two draws.

Dublin haven’t conceded a goal in their last four Leinster SFC games.

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silky-mitts-blogging-blog · 7 years

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The NHL: A Year in Review (Part 2)

Hello again, everybody. This part will focus on the NHL season as a whole. If you would like to see my analysis of the Bruins’ Season, please check out Part 1. I may mention a few Bruins points because some things have developed since I wrote the first part. But I’ll save that for the end. For now, let’s take a dive into this season as a whole.

League Leaders

Goals: There wasn’t much surprise when looking at the goal leaders this year. Once again Sidney Crosby scored the most goals.... wait, what? This. to me personally was one of the biggest surprises of the season. After Crosby’s past few seasons with concussions I thought he was washed up. I will begrudgingly admit that I was wrong. Something that I think is incredibly beneficial to the marketability of the sport of hockey was the amount of younger talent that was in the Top 10. Obviously there were the perennial 30+ goal scorers like Kane and Pacioretty, but the emergence of Connor McDavid, Patrik Laine, and Auston Matthews were somewhat surprising. Especially Laine and Matthews, who were both rookies this year. The NHL is desperately in need of more offense, and it looks that the next generation will easily provide it.

Points/Assists: Speaking of McDavid, this kid was advertised as the next Gretsky and those projections might actually come to fruition. This lost a bit of steam after he missed most of his rookie season in 2015-16 with a shoulder injury. Obviously there will never be another Gretsky, but this kid might be the next closest thing. I mean, the kid can’t take a picture with fans to save his life (I’m serious, look it up), but he can damn sure play hockey. He led the league in both points scored and assists. This would propel McDavid to win the both the Hart Trophy (League MVP) and the Ted Lindsay Award (League MVP as voted by the players. Imagine if he didn’t get injured in his rookie year? Not a bad season, if I do say so myself.

Goaltending Numbers: If we take a look at Goalies who had a nice year, leading the way are Sergei Bobrovsky and Braden Holtby. Holtby the most wins for a goalie in the season with 42(!) and the most shutouts with 9. I’m not a fan of Holtby, but that 42 win stat is VERY impressive. This means he started way more than half the games and continued to play at a high level for that whole time. Very Impressive indeed. Bobrovsky led the league in both save percentage (.931) and GAA with 2.06. Also impressive, but in all honesty, I think this season will be an outlier for Bobrovsky, just as his first Vezina season was in 2012-13. He’s decent, but he’s not THAT good. The two years he hasn’t won the Vezina he’s put up very pedestrian numbers at best. Ultimately, these stats brought home the Vezina for Bobrovsky.

Playoffs

This season’s playoffs were some of the best that I’ve personally seen. The only way it could have been better is if the Bruins won, but I digress. Every game was fought tooth and nail for one team to come out on top. I would have to do research but I would be willing to bet that the average margin of victory was less than 3 goals. There just weren’t a lot of lopsided victories. Not to mention that this playoffs broke the record for most overtime games in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs ever with 18 games, which is insane.

The Penguins once again took the cup home after defeating the Nashville Predators in 6 games. They’re the first team to repeat since the Detroit Red Wings repeated in 1997 and 1998. I was honestly surprised. I thought they were porked as soon as I heard that Kris Letang was out for the playoffs after getting back surgery. They proved me wrong though, and captured their 5th cup in franchise history.

Just as a side note to wrap up here: Are the Capitals ever going to win a cup? I sure hope not. Watching them be a disappointment season after season, is very satisfying. There was a wide open lane for them to do this this year, as the roster was basically the best it was ever going to be, and their arch rival’s best defenseman was injured. Yet they fell short. Again. At this point there should be a choking hazard label on every Washington Capitals jersey.

Final Thoughts

This season was pretty awesome. From the young talent emerging, to the great month and a half of playoffs everyone got to watch, and also to the fact the Craig Anderson’s wife conquered cancer, this season was great. So I’m just gonna address two loose threads that didn’t really fit anywhere above. Can Sidney Crosby stop getting preferential treatment from the league? Christ almighty, the man chopped Mark Methot’s finger off with a slash, and he didn’t even get a fine. If you haven’t seen the video of Methot’s finger hanging off look it up, its gruesome. Crosby doesn’t even get slap on the wrist? Come on, man. (He also speared someone and didn’t get a fine for it either, but what do I know.) Then there’s the reemergence of the 1-3-1. Please, go away. PLEASE. I HATE the 1-3-1. It’s awful. It takes all of the flow out of the game, and I believe it covers up glaring holes that a team may have. If you look at roster comparisons between the Senators and all of their opponents (Bruins, Rangers, Penguins), they have a weaker team, in my opinion than all of those teams. Yet this stupid system allows them to have a shot. This stupid system makes the game borderline unwatchable. So please, for the love of God, go away 1-3-1. No one wants you here.

That’s basically it. I’ll probably do some sort of Bruins preview before the season. But until then I’ll see you in the next post, and thank you so much for reading.

P.S.- JIMMY HAYES GOT BOUGHT OUT LOL.

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proxylynn · 7 years

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Undertale: (file name not found) part #65

SPOILER WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME YET, PLEASE DO! OTHERWISE THIS WILL MAKE NO SENSE OR RUIN PARTS OF THE GAME YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO YET. SO PLEASE, GO PLAY IT, SERIOUSLY! ... WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? YOU BETTER HAVE PLAYED THE GAME BY NOW. I WANT NO RESPONSIBILITY OVER SPOILING THINGS FOR OTHERS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Since reawakening up on the surface, adjusting to this new renewed life of mine has been, well...challenging to say the least. Now normally I like a challenge, but this...Not so much. Each day I am made to get up at 6am, unless it's the weekend then I don't gotta do jack squat! Next, cleansing and grooming, because a proper lady must always look her best. Next is breakfast, followed by schooling in the basics to keep us up to date and to make sure our minds don't forget. This lasts until 10am and we move on to our appointed royal duties. This in a nut shell, is the whole family either tending to paper work or going to meetings which consist of us talking about most of the junk that was in the paper work or addressing people directly by going into town for some real insight. For several hours this type of work happens, only breaking for lunch at 1pm, and eventually ending at around 5pm. After all that there is a 30 minute rest before we're able to attend our own personal activities. I can't really complain about the time frame for my lessons with Gaster, it's at a point when he's off the clock and able to give me his full attention, though his brothers still seem to be cautious when it comes to us being together alone. I suppose they worry that Gaster might revert to his old ways and experiment on me, but I haven't really peaked his interest after studying my soul in my latest physical. I can still switch between traits like I tend to do, but Anomaly State seems to be lost for good. On the bright side, my magic abilities have improved greatly thanks to his teachings and those of his parents who I must say are the absolute nicest people I am ever so grateful to know. I figure I've gotten good enough to handle trying to make Gaster Blasters, but Gaster doesn't think I'm ready, so I plan to prove him wrong over time, no need to rush and turn him off to the idea. Dinner happens at about 6 or 7pm depending on things and then it's bed time at 9pm or 10 pm at the latest to insure a quality 8 hour sleep. All this happens while under the watchful guard of the two boy I hold dear and that causes its own chaos of sorts. While on the clock, Papyrus takes his job seriously and wears his armor with pride, not even his feelings distract him from his mission, though they do sometimes make it a little hard for him to concentrate. Sans on the other hand takes a more inconspicuous approach to his job, he wears similar armor to Papyrus, but not as much and hides it under his casual clothing so he seems less suspecting if something is indeed up, but unlike Papyrus, Sans has no qualms with expressing himself with me while working unless in public or while in political meetings because that's when my parents are there. But lately a new aspect has entered the fray and added to the current difficulty level. It's almost Christmas. Surprisingly not much about the holiday is different than what I knew from the past. It's still a celebration regarding the birth of a religious figure, but it's more about coming together to share in the appreciation of life and not something shoved down our throats with commercialism, though Santa is still a thing yet he's more a Christmas-eve thing and not the main holiday person. Still, gifts are exchanged with loved ones and with all the runaround lately shopping hasn't been an easy thing to. I've had to miss lunch and bargain with Gaster just to get some time to sneak off to get things without others seeing. So far, I've only managed to get gifts for Asgore, Toriel, Asriel, Chara, Alphys, Undyne, and Mettaton, Napstablook...They surprisingly were the easy ones. That just left Grillby, Gaster, Sans, Papyrus, Semi, and Calibri & Lucida...The main hard ones. Thank god for the weekend, I need this time to really think things through on what to get. But as a rule, the Princess is not to go out without company, unless I sneak away that is. Yet since I'm shopping for my normal escorts, my brothers have to step in for them, no one messes with the royal trio when we hit the streets! On a bonus note, we don't have to look royal while out and about, which is great, 'cause I'm not big on wearing dresses out in public. Though it is pretty cool to see Chara and Asriel in regular clothes. Flannel shirt and jeans for Asriel. Long sleeved shirt under short sleeved shirt and cargo pants for Chara. Me, I can't beat the classic t-shirt and camo pants. "You think we can find good gifts here?" "It's the MTT Mega Mall. If we can't find something here, then we can't find it anywhere." "I'm surprised you aren't going to make your gifts." "I have made some. But for once in my life I have a ton of cash. If I want to spoil you lot, I'm gonna spoil you like never before!" I pose dramaticly. "Lynn, people can see you." "So?" "You look stupid when you do that." "I don't care. I died to make this world a better place, I will act like a fool if I want because damn it, it makes me happy." Asriel chuckles and Chara pulls me into a headlock for nuggies. "Come on. Let's get this over with." "How long are doing this for?" "For as long as we need." "Who are you shopping for?" "Pretty much the entire Skeleton family and Grillby. I got everyone else already." "Damn...I was hoping to sneak a peek at what you got me." "Focus bros, don't you both still need to get gifts yourselves?" Asriel blinks then charges into the mall. "God of Hyper-shopping away!" I can't help but laugh and Chara smirks. "You're so rubbing off on him." "Is that really a bad thing?" "So long as we don't catch him wearing your bras, I think it's fine." "...Dude...Never say that again. No one needs to picture that. EVER." Chara just laughs at me as we follow after our nutty brother. It doesn't take long to track Asriel down and together again we begin to hunt down our gift prey. They help me when it comes to getting the gifts for the bone family and I help with their gifts to our parents. But when it comes down to the last on our lists, we split up and agree to meet up again at the entrance. Last on my list is Grillby...Not really sure how to go about on this one. Though I've been trying to connect with Grillby more, I still don't know much about him. Think Lynn, think! What can I get a fire elemental that owns his own business and is still so freaking hot! ... I really need help sometimes. I end up waking around and looking at every outlet I see, feeling crappy with each disappointing object that fails to click with me that I'd think he'd like. Some things I thought were good, but fuck no to those outrageous prices. I may have coin, but there's a limit...Plus I don't want to over do it. If I pay too much for one person, then the others will feel bad like I don't care enough, everyone is limited to 100g. But damn it...Why is this one so freaking hard?! Okay, calm down, clear your mind...Let the gift find you. So I backtrack to all the places I've been, looking over things again but without worry. And it isn't till I return to the Discovery Channel store, there I spy a few things that I believe will click together nicely. "Oh yes. This will do nicely." I can't help the wicked giggles that leave me, earning a couple odd looks my way, but I pay no mind as gleefully pay for my things. With my many bags clutched tightly in my straining hands, I head for the fountain at the center of the mall, yeah, even up here, Mettaton had to remake himself as a fountain for all to see, it doubles as a wishing fountain because 'through the power of my fabulous stardom, anything is possible'. He's so full of himself...That loveable goofball ghost. It is here that we three choose to meet up once we were done shopping. Yet I find only myself to be here, so it seems I must wait for Asriel and Chara. Time seems to slowly pass. Faces come and go. But my brothers are still a no show. I should've seen this coming. Asriel and Chara are probably being hounded by people that are gaa-gaa for their looks. Sure, my bros are good looking. But damn, you'd think they were rock stars with the amount of groupies that trail behind them. Some looks have come my way, from humans and monsters alike, but my heart has a home and no amount of attention will sway it from its mount. "Excuse me..." A rather smooth voice hits my ears but I pay it no mind, it's not a voice I know. "Are you, Princess Dreemurr?" Crap. I look over my shoulder and to my left is a rather pleasant human gentleman sitting just a bit away from me. A bad feeling makes my stomach churn. "You are her, aren't you?" "I'm afraid you are mistaken sir." "Are you sure? Because you look very much so like her on that TV over there." He points and damn it all, it's rerun of the holiday commercial Mettaton shot with my family wishing everyone good cheer...God that sweater I'm wearing looks tacky. "So, you sure that isn't you?" His smug smile makes me want to punch him in the face. "Fine, you got me. It's me." His smile grows. "I knew it. I can spot a lovely lady from miles away." "If that's your superpower, I'd ask for a refund." He just chuckles and scoots closer to me, I don't like it. "So, Princess...Doing some shopping I see." Oh my god this guy is so lame! "Good news, your eyes work." "Hey now...Why so cross? I haven't done anything wrong." "Look buddy, I'm gonna be blunt and get to the point. Be like Mario and move on to the next level, because I'm sorry, but your princess is in another castle." I can't help my nerdiness and sadly it takes all seriousness away from me, as he finds this hysterical. "Oh my god! *laughs* That was the cutest thing I've ever heard!" God damn it, stop liking me! I give up talking and get up to leave. "Hahah...Hey wait! Where are you going?" "Away." "Come on. I'm not a bad guy when you get yo know me." Do I have to put up a sign?! "I have a boyfriend, so can you please stop." I hope that the truth will make him stop, but as with everything else I say, he sees a way around it. "Oh a thousand pardons. Do tell...Where is this lucky person that has won your hand?" You son of a bitch! "He's meeting me here. So please leave me be before you end up regretting this." "Huh. Sounds like a violent guy. A Princess like you deserves better." "For the love of god...!" I am not one to make a scene, I leave that to the experts like Mettaton and Undyne, but this guy... "Take the hint already. I am NOT interested! I am in a relationship! So back off before I...!" "Before you do what, you self entitled bitch!" ...Mother fucker, what did you just call me?! "Heh...Excuse you?" "You heard me. You think just because your the fake daughter to the King, it means you can treat the common guy like dirt. Well guess what! You are nothing but a...a..." I can't see the look on my face, but judging by the one on his, I must be very frightening. "Buddy...If you keep talking like that, let's just say...You're gonna have a bad time." Whoa...Where did that come from...I thought that type of darkness died with the demon? I shake my head clear from this anger and he moves to take advantage, aiming to either push or grab me I know not which, but then... "Shoryuken!" The guy gets his block knocked off and lands in the fountain with a resounding splash. "Creeps like you give humans a bad name! Now get lost!" The guy glares but leaves with his metaphorical tail between his legs when others begin to crowd around. "You okay Lynsie?" Reality returns to me when the shock fade and I'm staring at a girl in a striped sweater. Then it hits me. "Frisk?" She beams a smile and gives me a thumbs up. "The one and only." Oh shit... [You feel karma is going to bite your butt.] "Uh..." She just laughs. "Geez, relax. You so nervous you look like you might fart." I blush with a sigh into a more chill mood. "To be fair, dealing with creeps and then running into someone who was less than happy the last time we met...Yeah...I'm a wee bit nervous, kid." "Yeah...That...I'm sorry about that." And just like that hell has frozen solid. "You're sorry?" "She rubs the back of her head. "I am. Not just for that whole 'I'm going to SAVE over you so I can keep playing' thing. I mean...I'm sorry for all the bad stuff I did." I want to be smug about this, I feel like I should rub it in her face, but that isn't right, it's not who I am. "Frisk...I'm sorry too." That took her by surprise. "Why are you sorry? You stopped me from hurting myself and others. I mean, look at all this! You did this. What's to be sorry for?" "Well...I'm sorry that I was, uh...I was a bitch to be honest." She nearly bursts into laughter. "You were not a bitch." "Oh I was so a bitch. I was such a bitch I was close to C-word level douchebagery. Asriel made it clear to me in our fight. Why did I try so hard to save him and Chara, yet when it came to you, I was more harsh? It's been eating at me for some time. But I think...I think I was taking my own anger out on you. I understood you had a condition, but everything else...Everything I was told...My disgust with humanity back then...It all was seething in the depths of my soul and I ended up making you the one to blame. For that...Can you ever forgive me?" She gives me my answer in the form of hugging me around my waist and all I can do is smile. "How about we do this...Let's RESET ourselves. Like this is our first time meeting." "Hmmm...Sounds like a plan." She lets go and bows. "Please to meet you. My name is Frisk." "Heh, very cute. Howdy. I'm Lynsie. It's nice to meet you, Frisk." She attempts to shake my hand, but as they are full, it just makes for a awkward goof. "So...Did you really use the 'Rising Dragon Fist' on that jerk?" "Heck yeah! It's what Deadpool would do. He's awesome. He reminds me of Sans sometimes. Only he's more about chimichangas and less about ketchup." ...I think I want to keep her. "You and me are going to get along epically." She blushes and I snicker. "Hey sis!" From behind me, Asriel and Chara approach, becoming very surprised by who they see with me. "Uh..." "Everything okay here?" We just smile. "Yeah, everything is fine. Frisk here just beat a creep that was being a ass to me...Uh...I probably should stop swearing so much in public and in front of children." They stopped listening after hearing about someone being bad to their little sister. Asriel nearly bursts into flames and Chara brings out his butterfly knife like some punk from the 50's. It took some time to calm them down. Though for fun, I give them a slight description of the guy and secretly hope we run into that schmuck on the way out. Lucky for the schmuck, he's gone by the time we leave, bringing Frisk along with us so she doesn't have to take the bus home. I sort of regret bringing her when she comments on how Chara has a driver's license, but Asriel and I don't, something Chara likes to rub our noses in whenever he can...Like jerk. It's not our fault we don't have one, we're too busy to bother with it, Asriel is always swimming in studies and trying to make space in my schedule is hard enough already, just making time for this shopping cost me big time in my magic studies with Gaster. We drop Frisk off at her home, boy, nothing makes things funny and awkward then taking a kid home only to have their parents wig out because their kid is with royalty...That was a hoot and a half. ... The fuck does that even mean?! God I'm getting old. Back at home, the boys tend to their business and I my own, wrapping gifts was never my strong suit, but when that's out of the way, I can get to the real fun...Making Grillby's gift. [About less than a week later.] 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the castle. Not a monster was stirring, but one human who is sometimes a hassle. Sleep was not her friend this eve, so she went to make sure of some last minute things. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. The tree set aglow with lights and garland, and the family made ornaments that hung are so darling. Her family was nestled all snug in their beds; while visions of sugar-plums or something else danced in their heads. Mamma Toriel in her 'kerchief, and papa Asgore in his cap, most likely had just settled down for a long winter's nap. She sorted the gifts from whom to who, what else was someone with OCD to do? 'It would make things easier' was the thought in her head, unaware someone else was also out of bed. When out in the hall there arose such a clatter, she sprang from her work to see what was the matter. Away to the hall she flew like a flash, flinging open the doors and trying not to laugh. The moonlight coming in the frosty window, gave a luster of midday shine to the scene that she did lo. When what to her wondering eyes did appear, but Asgore dressed in full Santa gear. He was dressed all in fur from his head to his feet, and his clothes were all pressed to look oh so neat. A bundle of goodies he had dropped off his back, he looked like a peddler just about to open his pack. His eyes how they twinkled, swelling to be watery, his tongue seemed bitten, and his nose ever furry. His droll mouth was drawn up like a tight bow, and the golden beard on his chin was made to look as white as the snow. The fluffy hat that donned his head like his crown, now on the floor as if it jumped with a bound. He had a broad face and a little round belly, it shook when he winced like a bowl full of swirled up jelly. He was slightly chubby and plump, a normally jolly old soul, and she laughed when she saw him, in spite of herself. A tear in his eye and a twist of his head, soon made her silent not knowing if there's something to dread. With a little nervous laugh so lively and quick, she knew in a moment she would be in deep shit. More rapid than eagles his curses they came, and he whimper, and hissed, and rubbed his knee in pain. The King of Monsters had slipped quite foolishly, a old rug was the culprit as it was turned over loosely. To her father's aid she went, being his crutch as he was lead to his throne and sat down as if spent. "Santa, why are you up?" Was her question..."Why, to deliver presents of course." Is all he did mention. Clearly these two were doofs, like father like daughter, they were complete goofs. Yet Asgore's ruckus would not go unheard, Asriel and Chara awoke to follow without saying a word. So the sons soon joined the pair, a daughter at work and father in chair. Helped her they did handling the gifts with care, all while Santa Asgore watched in kind air. The milk and cookies left out for old man Claus were now gone, shared amongst them in the ever approaching dawn. Long into the night they were like elves, making sure all was perfect, like books upon shelves. With a yawn the King drew in his kids, the sandman finally working his magic and dusting their lids. They spoke not a word but went straight to his side, father and children, at the thrones they did lie. And laying there in slumber four Dreemurrs did sleep, but there in the entrance a smiling mother made not a peep. She sprang to her loved ones as a doting mother does, taking each one back to bed just because. Her task done and all now tucked into bed just right, Queen and mother Toriel whispered softly into her dreams..."Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night." [Christmas morning.] Slowly I stir from what little sleep I had, amazed Papyrus hadn't kicked in my door by now till I remember it's Sunday, and he's kind enough to let me rest longer on weekends. Crawling to the edge of the bed, I stretch out and yawn, my back letting out a couple of loud snaps to welcome my ears to my eventual pain later on in life. "geez sweetheart...it's a wonder how you aren't slumped over in pain all the time." ...Did I just hear what I thought I just heard? Turning my head, I spy over my shoulder a very confusing sight. Sans is all too comfortable laying on my bed with a playful grin, under the covers and topless...dear lord you better not be naked under there. "what's the matter sweetheart? not happy to see me?" I blush and bite my tongue to hold back building giggles. "Really stepping up your game, huh punny bones? I know Papy said to put more backbone into your work, but I don't think he quite meant this." "gotta have some fun every now and then. but seeing you sleep so peacefully...you made the bed look so inviting. i couldn't help myself." "Heh...You continue to surprise me, Sans. You were so cautious in the Underground. Nervous about what Toriel would see. But up here, where she's even closer to us...You've gotten more daring sir." He chuckles. "so you've noticed." "Hard not to notice the adorable bundle of bare bones in my bed." He blushes and I get up, secretly thankful I did not sleep in the nightie Mettaton got me for my birthday...Boy mom and dad were pissed! "So...You nude under there or what?" The calmness of that question rattled him. "sweetheart, i'm bold...but not that bold." He flips the covers off to show he's in his shorts. "not that i have much to hide anyway." "Oh don't be so modest. That pelvic bone of yours doesn't leave much to the imagination." He's quick to bring those sheets back over him much to my amusement as I gather my preset out outfit for the day. "My hips don't lie, so to be honest, that was cute." I hear him shift his way out of the bed. "seems i'm not the only one that got bold in this time line." "I try. Have to keep up with you of course. *sigh* And here I thought the sweaters would be a bit more tasteful." Seems tacky holiday sweaters are immune to time line alterations. It's eye catching bright white with red randomly placed snowflakes all over, green trims the cuffs and collar, but the really lame part is what is written on it...Meet me under the mistletoe, a image of mistletoe above the wording. "wow." "Wait for it..." I press a spot on the cuff and the whole thing lights up. "oh my god...*snickering* you are so boned." "This is a prime example why you never let your former demon of a brother go with your mom to do clothes shopping. Because this stuff happens!" "well, that's a bummer for you. luckily, my bro doesn't stick me with such naughty things." "You can say that again. Is this implying others to get under the sweater with me? Better than the male version I suppose, but not by much." "why? what's the guy version?" "See the mistletoe is on the chest here?" "yeah?" "On the guy version, it's a lot closer to the south pole. If you catch my drift." The face he makes when he puts the picture together in his head is priceless, I want to say something naughty in a pun way but I can't think of anything...Especially not when I get to watch him redress. I am so getting coal for this. Wait...How long was he in here with me? "Sans...How long have you..." "SANS!" And right on cue, my door is kicked in by the great Papyrus. "SANS YOU LAZY BONES! YOU WERE SENT HERE OVER A HOUR AGO! WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG?" Papyrus then notices me. "OH. GOOD MORNING PRINCESS. I HOPE YOUR SLEEP WAS PLEASANT." Oh Papy, how cute you are when you jump from reprimanding to sweetness like that. "I slept quite nicely dear. But when you dream of the great Papyrus, there is no better rest than that." And the blush you get from my sweetness is enough to warm my heart all year long. "sorry bro. would've been back sooner, but lynn and i were just caught up in such a nice chat." You sneaky devil, you came in and got cozy instead of waking me up...well played Sans. "OH? WHAT ABOUT?" I hold up my sweater and his face contorts trying not to laugh. "BE THAT AS IT MAY, SANS WAS SUPPOSE TO INFORM YOU THAT EVERYONE IS GATHERED IN THRONE ROOM AND READY TO BEGIN THE FESTIVITIES." "Ah. Then I better don this now very gay apparel and jingle all the way the merry way there." Sans can't help but laugh and Papyrus groans in a endearing yet bugged way. "COME ALONG BROTHER. WE MUST LET HER DRESS." "sure thing. see you in a bit sweetheart." With a wave of the hand the boys take leave of my room and I am able to dress seasonally for what will most likely be a very weird yet very entertaining Christmas day. They escort me to the throne room, which is a hustle and bustle of good cheer. And much to my amusement, seems ridiculous sweaters have been a major theme. Toriel is handing them out like pie to anyone not wearing one. She's wearing a rather tame one, it's a classic red with white snowflakes and reads 'Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!'. This get even more funny when she gives one to Sans and Papyrus. Sans's is black and reads in white 'On the Naughty List' while Papyrus's is white and reads in black 'On the Nice List'...I get the feeling she picked those personally. She always did like Papyrus more than Sans, after all, she never caught Papyrus on top of me in the snow. "you've got to be joking." "DON'T BE SUCH A HUMBUG SANS. I THINK WE LOOK GREAT." "You both are cute as heck. Now let's not care about these silly things. It's Christmas day! Let's be merry and bright till we can't stand it to the point we want to leap out windows." Papyrus looks away recalling times he's done that and Sans snickers. "Yoohoo...Lynsie, darling~." Mettaton from across the way waves me over, his silly sweater has lug nut snowflakes on it and reads 'Jingle Bolts'...Dear god, the adorableness is going to overwhelm me if this is how they all are. "Time to mingle boys. Let's get our yuletide on and party!" I head off to Mettaton and Sans attempts to follow, but Papyrus is quick to pull him away before something happens. "Metta! How is my shinning star today?" "Much better now that you're here. 'Meet me under the mistletoe'? Well tradition is tradition~..." "Sweater pictures don't count. You want a kiss, find the real plant and maybe luck will be on your side." I wink playful, just to tease like we used to, I end up feeling regret when oil leaks out his nose. "Metta? You okay?" He grabs my shoulders and grins. "Stay right here. I'll be back before you can say 'show time'." He takes off in a mistletoe hunt and I can't help the snickering that leaves me. "Well he took off in a big hurry. Everything okay?" Napstablook seems to be adapting well to his robot body, he's got this new vibe of confidence, it's faint but there...His sweater has music notes and reads 'Disc the Halls'. "Him? He's off to look for mistletoe to get a kiss. Classic Metta." "Yeah. But that's just how he is about you. It's been kind of funny really." "How so?" "He's been jealous that I got to kiss you. It's actually rather cool to have that over him." "Bet that's been fun." "I've actually made it into a song. N-not one I put out for sale or something like that! I-i mean...It's personal. You know what I mean?" That touches my heart. "You...You made a song about us?" Robo-blush...nothing tops that level cute, especially when it's from him. "Uh...Y-yeah?" "Oh Blooky-boo!" I glomp him much to his surprise and his blush only grows brighter when I give his cheek a big kiss. "You are so adorable!" "Ah geez...Not in front of everyone." "Fair enough Blooky. But you owe me one." "W-what?!" "I want a copy of that personal music you made. And I won't take no for a answer." Though the smile I have says 'you don't really have to if you don't want to' and he messes my hair up. "Only if you sing for me Princess." He tries a confident almost flirty tone, but I can't buy it and snicker much to his embarrassment. "Lynsie..." "I'm sorry. But that was too cute." He sighs into a smile hugs me around the neck, giving my cheek a nuzzle before backing off quickly. Now why would he... "Lynsie!" The tackle I get from big brother Asriel explains that one. "What took you so long? Were you and Sans making out~." "Grow up goat boy." "Nice come back shorty." "Hey! I beat YOU in the final battle." "I let you win." "That's bull and you now it." "Is not." "Is too. You know you love me too much to really kill me...a third time anyway." "Why kill you when mom can make you wear such a assaulting sweater?" "Like yours is any better?" Asriel is wearing a blue with white snowflakes sweater that reads 'X-mas Angel' on it, it also has the Delta Rune on it as the angel. "At least it's not inviting others to grope my mouth." "Fair enough. Hey, look. You finally won a fight with me." He bleats angrily and by the time he realizes it, I'm on the floor laughing my ass off. "It's not funny!" "Then why am I laughing so much?!" "Will you two cut it out? If anyone is going to pick on someone, it's going to be me." Chara strolls on over, red sweater reading 'Santa's Little Helper', though it's clear to some that it should be more like Satan most days. "Sup, bro?" "Don't you 'sup' me, sister! Because of you, we've been waiting to open presents. What was taking you so long?" This type of conversation seems very familiar. "Me? I was just staring at a lamp. It really brightens the place up. Do you wanna go take a look?" He opens his mouth to scold me till realization stops him and he glares daggers at me. "That...Is not funny." "whoo! proud of you sweetheart!" "Seems the audience disagrees with you there bro." "That's because you're boning them, sis." Now I'm the one glaring, it makes him smirk. "Awww...Did I hit your funny bone wrong?" Asriel as the voice of reason, attempts to prevent a fight. "Hey, come on. We're family. Family doesn't fight family." We just continue our little stare down, tension mounting like a thunderstorm ready to strike. "Hey Chara." "What?" "Chicken butt." He snickers and the tension storm is gone just like that much to Asriel's relief. "You're such a dork." "Yeah. And very proud." "Come on...Let's get to the good part of this holiday and see what we got." "Yeah!" "Heh, boys and their toys." My brother dash off and I just look at poor Blooky who's been standing there the entire time trying to make himself invisible with sheer will. "You okay sweety?" "That...Was scary." "I'm sorry dear. But we never get farther than that. Just classic sibling jostling." "If you say so." He's still tense, so I do what I always do for my best bud Blooky-boo, I make things better. I slip my hand to hold his and he looks at me with a blush. "Lynsie?" "I've missed you Blooky-boo. I miss being there to cheer you up and see you smile." His blush increases and I give him a soft smile. "Um...Lynsie?" "Yeah?" "Can you, uh, close your eyes for a moment?" Awww...Probably wants to give me his gift away from the others so no one bugs him about it. "Sure sweety." I close my eyes and wait for what I think is him getting something, but what I don't see is him grasping for every once of courage he has to lean in for a kiss...Just like the one we shared so long ago. Yet just as he's about make contact, only managing to touch his nose to mine, Mettaton comes bonding back and yanks Napstablook away to take his place, having found mistletoe which he has mounted to dangle over his head, he proceeds to steal Blooky's kiss much to my shock. "M-mettaton!?" "Mmmm...Sorry cousin. But I've been waiting to do that longer than anyone knows." Blooky looks at me. "Go for it sweety." Mettaton is confused till Napstablook starts batting at him in a flustered 'how could you' way, forcing Mettaton to flee while Blooky gives chase. Silly boys...But how I love them so. I wander my way around the room, taking note of where others are. Toriel and Asgore are nose nuzzling, much to Gerson's displeasure. Asgore has a cute sweater that reads 'North Pole's Most Wanted' and a picture of a Rudolf mugshot with glowing red nose sets it up for fun. Gerson's is a tad ironic, a pear tree with two real turtle-doves nesting on top in the snow...very cute. Undyne and Alphys are sharing pleasantries over some eggnog. Undyne's sweater is funny, it's sea foam green and has angelfish on it while reading 'Merry Fishmas'. Alphys has more anime-ish one, it's pink and reads 'All I Want For Christmas Is Otaku'...I think it has a double meaning and can be a pun. But where is... [BEEP-BEEP] A text? "Merry Christmas Lynsie." I smile and reply. "Merry Christmas Grillby." A tap to my shoulder has me spin around to meet him properly. "Good to see you hot stuff. Doing well?" He nods. Grillby too in not immune to the sweater craziness, his is rather tame but funny because he is fire, it reads 'I'm Cool With Coal'. "Mama got you too? Or is this all you?" He points to himself. "Awww...Now that's cute. You're sense of humor is the same as your personality...Perfectly warm." The tell tale hint of butane blue burns his cheeks making him all the more sweet. "So...You have a day off coming up after the holidays? I still owe you that promise." He nods and texts. [BEEP-BEEP] "Is January seventh good for you?" "Let me check real quick." I scroll through my phone's date planner. "And...Good news. That's a Saturday, and I'm off on weekends. What time can I come over?" [BEEP-BEEP] "How's about 10 or 11am sound?" "Sounds like a plan my man. Oh! I, um...Heh...I made you a gift. It's sorta personal, so, I'm not sure if you'd be big on the whole opening it in front of others thing." He tilts his head slightly and texts. [BEEP-BEEP] "You really made me something?" I rub the back of my head sheepishly. "Kinda had no choice but to make one. As much as I like you, I simply don't know you well enough to pick stuff out and be all 'oh I know he will like that' you know. So I...I made something I hope you'll care for." His blush burns a tad brighter, even more so when I take him by the hand and lead him over to the tree, once there, I nervously offer him the box, earning me a lighthearted smile from the fire elemental as he sets the box a flame safely to reveal the contents within. On a glass palette as wide as both hands stretched open, is a menagerie of crystals, one large orange centers the piece while surrounded by slightly smaller ones in all different colors, but inside the big one is some dark illegible marks that has his already wide eyes searching for what it can be and knowing what comes next has me blushing like a fool. "It didn't take long to grow them. They're mainly normal crystals. But I did do something special with the kind of crystals that might bring back some memories." I barely give the big one a tap and the whole thing is set a glow, those dark illegible marks now read clearly a message I know he's longed to hear...'TO ME, YOU ARE SPECIAL, GRILLBY'. His eyes glisten as they water, turning to steam with a sizzle the moment the liquid escapes to touch his fiery flesh, I begin to get concerned by this when his lips begin to quiver and he sets the gift down off to the side. "Grillby? Are you alright? I didn't mean to..." I'm cut off by his sudden embrace, so warm and strong with feeling, his face pressed against mine with his mouth close to my ear, he tries to speak, but his words sound smothered by how touched he was, I return his hold as I rub his back in comfort. "It's okay. You don't have to say anything. I understand what you mean." He trembles lightly. "Grillby?" "...Thank you...So much...Lynsie." I can feel my heart stop before swelling with so much love that it begins pouring out my eyes, and as much as I hate to cry or show such emotion in public, I could care less at who sees, I gave him love, that's all that matters to me. The looks that this display gets are more of the worried variety then amused as we stay like this for quite some time, but eventually the tears stop and we've calmed down enough that we know it's time to let go, yet not before I say something I only want him to hear. "Grillby...I love you." I feel his cheeks heat up but he gets me back with a kiss to my cheek and we pull apart all smiles. "✋☞ ✡⚐🕆 ❄🕈⚐ ✌☼☜ 👎⚐☠☜ 🕈✋❄☟ ❄☟✋💧 ☹✋❄❄☹☜ 💧☟⚐🕈📪 🕈☜ 👍✌☠ ☝☜❄ ❄☟☜💧☜ ☞☜💧❄✋✞✋❄✋☜💧 ⚐✞☜☼ ✌☠👎 👎⚐☠☜ 🕈✋❄☟📬" (IF YOU TWO ARE DONE WITH THIS LITTLE SHOW, WE CAN GET THESE FESTIVITIES OVER AND DONE WITH.) Seems like Gaster is the Grinch of the party, even his green sweater displays his real feelings about the holiday, atoms for snowflakes, a tree made from the periodic table of elements, chemical beakers are among presents, and it reads 'OH CHEMISTREE, OH CHEMISTREE!'. "Oh come on G. Aren't you even the tiniest bit festive?" He rolls his eyes with a sigh. "✋ 🕈⚐🕆☹👎 🏱☼☜☞☜☼ ❄⚐ 👌☜ 🕈⚐☼😐✋☠☝📪 ❄☟✌❄ 💣🕆👍☟ ✋💧 ❄☼🕆☜📬 👌🕆❄📬📬📬✋❄ ✋💧 ☠⚐❄ 👌☜☠☜✌❄☟ 💣☜ ❄⚐ ❄✌😐☜ 🏱✌☼❄ ✋☠ ☞✌💣✋☹✡ ☜✞☜☠❄💧📬" (I WOULD PREFER TO BE WORKING, THAT MUCH IS TRUE. BUT...IT IS NOT BENEATH ME TO TAKE PART IN FAMILY EVENTS.) "Oh? Will the rest of the family be joining us today?" "☠⚐📬 🕈☟✋☹☜ ❄☟☜✡ 💧☜☠👎 ❄☟☜✋☼ 🕈✋💧☟��💧📪 ⚐🕆☼ 🏱✌☼☜☠❄💧 👍✌☠🕯❄ ✌❄❄☜☠👎 ☟☜☼☜📬 💧☜💣✋🕯💧 ☟☜✌☹❄☟ ☟✌💧 👌☜☜☠ 👍⚐☠👍☜☼☠✋☠☝ ✌💧 ⚐☞ ☹✌❄☜📬 ☠⚐❄☟✋☠☝ 💣✌☺⚐☼📪 ✌ 👍⚐☹👎 ✌❄ 👌☜💧❄📬 ☠⚐❄ ☹✋😐☜ ❄☟✋💧 🕈☜✌❄☟☜☼ ✋💧 ☟☜☹🏱☞🕆☹ ✋☠ 💧🕆👍☟ ❄☟✋☠☝💧📬" (NO. WHILE THEY SEND THEIR WISHES, OUR PARENTS CAN'T ATTEND HERE. SEMI'S HEALTH HAS BEEN CONCERNING AS OF LATE. NOTHING MAJOR, A COLD AT BEST. NOT LIKE THIS WEATHER IS HELPFUL IN SUCH THINGS.) "Oh no, not Grandpa Semi. Well, I know he's tough old soul. He can beat this like how he almost beat me." He chuckles at that. "❄☟✌❄ ☼☜💣✋☠👎💧 💣☜📬📬📬☟☜ 🕈✌☠❄☜👎 ❄⚐ 😐☠⚐🕈 ✋☞ ✌☠👎 ✋ ✈🕆⚐❄☜ 🕯🕈✋☹☹ ❄☟☜ ☞🕆❄🕆☼☜ 💣⚐❄☟☜☼ ⚐☞ 💣✡ ☝☼✌☠👎😐✋👎💧 👌☜ 💧❄⚐🏱🏱✋☠☝ 👌✡ 💧⚐💣☜❄✋💣☜ 💧⚐⚐☠✍🕯 ☜☠👎 ✈🕆⚐❄☜📬" (THAT REMINDS ME...HE WANTED TO KNOW IF AND I QUOTE 'WILL THE FUTURE MOTHER OF MY GRANDKIDS BE STOPPING BY SOMETIME SOON?' END QUOTE.) My jaw drops and I hear sputtering plus a crash across the room, Sans had spat out his drink while Papyrus had lost his footing upon barely hearing that...though it pales in comparison to the glaring Toriel and Asgore are doing now. "Dear god Semi...Yes, I'll come over. But really? He's still on about that?" "✋☞ ✡⚐🕆 ❄☟✋☠😐 ❄☟✌❄🕯💧 👌✌👎📪 ✋ ☹✋✞☜ 🕈✋❄☟ ❄☟☜ 💣✌☠📬 ✋ 💧🕈☜✌☼📪 ❄☟☜ ❄☟✋☠☝💧 ☟☜ 💧✌✡💧📬 🕈☟✌❄ ☟☜ ✋☠💧✋☠🕆✌❄☜💧📬 ⚐☞ ✌☹☹ ❄☟☜ 🕈✋☹👎 ✌☠👎 🏱☼☜🏱⚐💧❄☜☼⚐🕆💧 ✋👎☜✌💧📬" (IF YOU THINK THAT'S BAD, I LIVE WITH THE MAN. I SWEAR, THE THINGS HE SAYS. WHAT HE INSINUATES. OF ALL THE WILD AND PREPOSTEROUS IDEAS.) Oh my god Semi, what are you thinking? "Why do I get the feeling he's trying to push you at me too?" The silence and blush that befalls Gaster only makes me crack a weird smile. "Wow Semi...Just wow." "☹☜❄🕯💧 ☠⚐❄ ❄✌☹😐 ✌☠✡💣⚐☼☜ ✌👌⚐🕆❄ ❄☟✋💧 💧🕆👌☺☜👍❄📬" (LET'S NOT TALK ANYMORE ABOUT THIS SUBJECT.) "Agreed. Because at this point Toriel and Asgore might go nuts. So...Hey everyone! Let's open some presents already!" With that, the mood of the room goes from a slightly tense to 'yay presents' stampede, as everyone flocks to the tree for gifts galore. Bows, wrapping paper, and packing tissue fly through the air, littering the floor like a bunch of kids were let loose. Each gift opened is more touching than the last, even the ones from those that you don't expect good stuff from, not naming names, but a fun surprise is still fun, though a odd surprise was when I looked around and did not see a gift from the brothers for me even though they got some for the others. I'm not hurt...Just...It's unexpected. I'm tempted to ask them till I notice they've vanished from the group along with Mettaton and Napstablook. The heck is going on? "Psst! Darling!" The hell? Mettaton is waving me over and at this point I sneak away to him in hope of some answers. "Metta, what is...?" "Shhh! It's a surprise darling. No spoilers here." Okay sir dramatic, you have my interest. "Very well dear. Lead the way." He holds my hand and begins taking me through the castle, leading us down hallways for seemingly no reason, as if to make sure we not being followed, but what could be so secret that he has to do this? "Metta?" "Just a little more dear. Oh! and do close your eyes. You don't want to ruin it do you?" I giggle and do as he says, listening as our steps go from clacking on the stone floor to softly crunching in what I think is the grass of the courtyard, now I am very intrigued. He eventually makes me stop and has me sit down on what I hope is chair because Toriel will be ticked off if I got a stain on my clothes. "Now wait here and don't open those pretty eyes." "But when should I open them?" "Oh you'll know~." I hear him walk away and I feel like a kid waiting to be picked up from school...alone and awkward. Then something hits my ears, soft feedback that then fixes into building music. Hold on...I know this song. I open my eyes and there stands Papyrus, he's clearly nervous but he can't back down now, not when I'm looking at him, yet with a quick shaky gulp he swallows his fear before opening his mouth. "♪I DON'T WANT A LOT FOR CHRISTMAS. THERE IS JUST ONE THING I NEED. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE PRESENTS, UNDERNEATH THE CHRISTMAS TREE. I JUST WANT YOU FOR MY OWN. MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER KNOW. MAKE MY WISH COME TRUE...OH! ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS...IS...YOU. YEAH!♫" He's singing...He's singing to me...Oh my god, that's so...Wait a second... Sans comes strolling out from behind me and joins his brother in front of me to sing along as the beat picks up. "♪i don't want a lot for christmas. there is just one thing i need...♫" "♪AND I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE PRESENTS, UNDERNEATH THE CHRISTMAS TREE. I DON'T NEED TO HANG MY STOCKING, THERE UPON THE FIREPLACE.♫" "♪santa claus won't make me happy with a toy on christmas day.♫" "♪I JUST WANT YOU FOR MY OWN. more than you could ever know. MAKE MY WISH COME TRUE. all i want for christmas is you...OOOH BABY!♫" That part they sing together and I can feel myself melting and my eyes watering...Why am I so easily brought to tears by these wonderful boys? "♪I WON'T ASK FOR MUCH THIS CHRISTMAS. I WON'T EVEN WISH FOR SNOW...♫" "♪i just wanna keep on waiting, underneath the mistletoe.♫" "♪I WON'T MAKE A LIST AND SEND IT, TO THE NORTH POLE FOR SAINT NICK.♫" "♪i won't even stay awake, to hear those magic reindeer click. 'cause i just want you here tonight...♫" "♪HOLDING ON TO ME SO TIGHT. WHAT MORE CAN I DO?♫" "♪oh, baby all i want for christmas is you. you, baby. oh oh...all the lights are shining, so brightly everywhere. and the sound of children's laughter fills the air. and everyone is singing.♫" "♪I HEAR THOSE SLEIGH BELLS RINGING. SANTA WON'T YOU BRING ME THE ONE I REALLY NEED. WON'T YOU PLEASE BRING MY BABY TO ME QUICKLY! OH I DON'T WANT A LOT FOR CHRISTMAS. THIS IS ALL I'M ASKING FOR.♫" "♪i just wanna see my baby, standing right outside my door.♫" I'm dying at this point, I have to cover my mouth so as not to interrupt them. "♪i just want you for my own. MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER KNOW. make my wish come true. BABY, ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS...IS...YOU! you baby! all i want for christmas is you, baby! ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU, BABY! all i want for christmas is you, baby! ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU, BABY! all i want for christmas is you, baby! ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS...YOU...BABY?♫" Their song ends on a bit of a sour note as they slowly notice my tears and they come to my aid. "LYNSIE?" "sweetheart?" "ARE YOU ALRIGHT? DID YOU NOT LIKE THE SONG?" "lynn? come on, talk to us. why are ya crying?" "*weeping* That was beautiful!" Relief washes over them, its happy tears, tears made in love, I am so overwhelmed by them that I couldn't hold it in, not like I could even if I tried. "I have...Never felt so loved...Thank you..." I gather them both in my arms, hugging them both tightly and never wanting to let them go. "Thank you...I love you both...So much..." They return my hold with smiles and warmth. "we love you too sweetheart." "NOW AND FOREVER." "*sniffles* Best Christmas ever." This comfort goes on for some time and all happening in front of the eyes of the two ghost robots hiding in the bushes, Mettaton had provided them the song while Blooky did the music. "Wow Mettaton, it was really nice of you to help them pull this off." "What can I say Blooky? I'd do anything to see her smile...Even if it means making them look good." "That must be eating at you huh?" "You'd think that, but no." "Really? I know I'm a little, um, jealous." "Blooky, my dear cousin. If there's one thing I know, it's how to pick my moments. Sure, I may have given them this time to shine. But now they owe me. And let's just say, when it's time for them to repay me, the spotlight will on me and her~." "...Wow." "I know right? Brilliant as always." "I'm so telling on you." "Blooky no, don't!" "Okay, I won't." "Really?" "On one condition." "Name it!" "...I want in on it." "...Really?" "You owe me one for stealing my kiss." "Hmph...Fine. But I get to go first." "Happstablook?" "Okay, you first then me." "Deal." Like that a pact is formed, secrets made, and all while in the glow of holiday love. For this is just the beginning, a new year is coming, lives all in store for something unknown, and wonders abound for stories untold. But that is for another time. So let this be a peaceful scene, of lovers and family brought together to share in each others care. For is that not what the holidays are all about? To show how we care and enjoy one another. Welcome Christmas, come this way. Welcome Christmas, Christmas day. Christmas day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp. Welcome Christmas, bring your cheer. Welcome all of us far and near. Christmas day will always be, just so long as we have we. Welcome Christmas, bring your light. Welcome in the cold dark night. Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart and hand in hand. Welcome Christmas, Christmas Day! God bless Us, Every One. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

#undertale #sans #papyrus #gaster #toriel #flowey #grillby #mettaton #napstablook #undertale spoilers #undertale story #undertale stuff #RenewTale

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thrashermaxey · 5 years

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Ramblings: Canes Clinch, Pietrangelo, Pearson, Byfuglien, Friday Picks, and more… (Apr 5)

The interactive playoff draft list is ready for download now! Don’t wait until five minutes before your draft or deadline to purchase it. If you haven’t already preordered it, get yours today! If you have already purchased it, jump right in. It’s available in the Downloads section on the Dobber website (login required for the site, not the forum).

Once you purchase the draft list, please take a moment to get familiar with it before your draft. Read the Instructions tab before you begin using it. The Excel spreadsheet file is interactive (macro-enabled) and not just a “list.” The point total projections depend on which teams you set to advance, or you could go with Dobber’s picks if you’re really not sure. I’m not trying to make it sound super complicated or anything, but it’s better to be prepared. Hey, we just want you to win your league!

Thursday was all about teams trying to clinch playoff spots and teams trying to jockey for position. This doesn’t matter to fantasy teams that happen to still be active (like me in my roto league), but it certainly matters to those who are preparing for playoff pools. Even though almost all of the playoff teams are set, hopefully you don’t have to commit to choosing players right now.

When you’re the Carolina Hurricanes, clinching a playoff spot is a momentous occasion.

The last time the #Canes clinched a playoff berth was April 4th, 2009

Ten years ago to the day, WE'RE BACK

Read More » https://t.co/hmxKvfXOSB pic.twitter.com/V49Bk3w4gG

— x – Carolina Hurricanes (@NHLCanes) April 5, 2019

Yes, the “bunch of jerks” punched their 2019 playoff ticket with a 3-1 win over New Jersey. Even though the Canes won’t be providing any victory celebrations after any home playoff wins, I have a feeling that they’ll be a popular underdog to pull for.

Petr Mrazek stopped 36 of 37 shots to earn the victory. Mrazek has had quite a run recently, posting an 11-2-0 record with a 1.68 GAA and a .944 SV% since mid-February. Both he and Curtis McElhinney will be UFAs at the end of the season. Since the Canes are a top-10 team in goaltending, I would have to believe they would bring back at least one of these goalies next season and maybe even both. If you need to pick a Canes’ goalie for your playoff pool, it’s probably Mrazek, although he and McElhinney have basically been splitting starts for the past few weeks.

The Hurricanes’ victory combined with the Montreal Canadiens’ loss to Washington means that the Habs’ playoff hopes take a significant hit. The Canadiens have the same number of points as the Columbus Blue Jackets, but the Jackets have a game in hand. The Jackets’ last two games are against relatively beatable opponents in the Rangers and Senators, but nothing is guaranteed of course.

The Habs had their chances (Max Domi and Artturi Lehkonen each took six shots), but Braden Holtby was up to the task in stopping 33 of 34 shots in the Capitals’ 2-1 win. Holtby has been getting it done for fantasy owners at the tail end of the season, reeling off five consecutive wins. Check out his splits this season (from his Frozen Pool profile):

Qtr GP W L OTL GAA SV% QUAL QUAL%

1 13 5 5 2 3.24 0.900 4 30.8

2 16 11 5 0 2.61 0.918 10 62.5

3 15 5 6 2 3.35 0.903 7 46.7

4 15 11 3 1 2.20 0.921 10 66.7

The defending Stanley Cup champions have now clinched the Metropolitan Division and should be considered the favorite to represent the division in the Eastern Conference Final.

Whatever the opposite of a revenge game is this is it pic.twitter.com/WQNQox405t

— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) April 5, 2019

All I can say is thank heaven I dropped Brian Elliott yesterday because I was about to run out of goaltending starts and still had plenty of forward starts. That was Elliott’s night, all in a span of less than seven minutes. Hopefully you didn’t fall victim though.

Alex Steen inflicted the most damage for the Blues in their 7-4 win over the Flyers, scoring two goals and adding an assist with a plus-3. You can’t be blamed if you completely ignored Steen, as he had been held without a point in his previous five games.

Alex Pietrangelo recorded three assists for the Blues. The father of triplets has now reached the 40-point mark for the third consecutive season and fifth time in six seasons. Obviously this is a dip from last season, which Dobber (who is a father himself) warned you about before the season. Pietrangelo’s second-half production (27 points in in 42 games, 0.64 Pts/GP) has been noticeably better than his first-half production (13 points in 28 games, 0.46 Pts/GP), which may be related to the Blues’ remarkable second-half surge. Or maybe it’s because he’s adjusted to life as a busy dad.

The Canucks might have nothing left to play for, but don’t tell Tanner Pearson. The recently acquired left winger scored another goal and added an assist, which gives him four goals in his past five games and eight goals in 18 games as a Canuck. The Canucks are dying for top-6 forwards that can play alongside their big three of Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Bo Horvat. Pearson might be proving that he can at least be that guy beside second-line center Horvat.

Just to get you excited for next season, Quinn Hughes assisted on both Canucks’ goals, giving him three points in four games as a Canuck. Between Cam Robinson and me, there’s a disproportionate amount of Canucks’ highlights on here. With that in mind, here’s one more of one of Hughes’ assists.

Quinn Hughes — the real deal in Vancouver.

What a pass. pic.twitter.com/4kiesNKDQu

— NHL (@NHL) April 5, 2019

We’ll have all summer to debate whether he will start next season on the Canucks’ PP1. The Canucks use Alex Edler a ton, so I wouldn’t quite pencil Hughes in yet. But it’ll be a matter of time.

Jaroslav Halak stopped all 26 shots he faced in the Bruins’ 3-0 win over Minnesota. That’s five shutouts this season for Halak, which is not bad for a backup goalie. Halak’s ratios (2.34 GAA, .922 SV%) are among the top 10 among goalies who played at least 30 games. Halak is signed for another season in Boston, which might be something to think about when valuing Tuukka Rask next season. Rask has won 27 games and played in just 45 games this season, which are his lowest totals in six seasons.

The Colorado Avalanche were another team that clinched a playoff spot on Thursday, thanks to a 3-2 overtime win over Winnipeg. Philipp Grubauer stopped 34 of 36 shots he faced in the win, which gives him a 7-0-2 record over his last nine starts. He has posted a 1.63 GAA and a .953 SV% over that span, which should cement him as the Avs’ starting goalie to start the playoffs and into next season.

The Avs clinched a playoff spot in spite of missing Mikko Rantanen, who has missed the past seven games with an upper-body injury. Alex Kerfoot has been subbing for Rantanen on the Avs’ top line. Although Kerfoot was held without a point on Thursday, Kerfoot had been taking advantage of the situation with eight points in his last six games.

Dustin Byfuglien might have been angrier than you were that he didn’t receive much power-play time on Thursday.

Dustin Byfuglien just slammed his stick in anger on the #NHLJets bench, breaking it, after not getting a second of power play time. Jacob Trouba stayed out for the entire 2-minute man-advantage. That's…not good. On several levels. #wfp

— Mike McIntyre (@mikemcintyrewpg) April 5, 2019

So once all was said and done, Jacob Trouba logged over five minutes of power-play time, while Byfuglien logged just 36 seconds. It’s not as if Big Buff was stapled to the bench in this one, as he took on over 25 minutes of overall icetime. Trouba is an RFA this offseason and rumors have constantly been swirling that the Jets will trade him. However, Trouba potentially sticking around and the presence of Josh Morrissey could result in a changing of the guard for Winnipeg’s PP1. By the way Big Buff has just two points in his last nine games, and that’s even with an assist on Thursday.

Not that there should have been much doubt, but the Pittsburgh Penguins also clinched their playoff spot on Thursday. Phil Kessel and Sidney Crosby each recorded three points with each taking five shots on goal. Kessel has now reached 80 points for the second consecutive season, while Crosby has a chance to reach 100 points for the first time in five seasons if he can record two points on Saturday against the Rangers.

If you’re trying to plan playoff matchups in the Eastern Conference, this might help:

Looks like Penguins vs Islanders in first round as long as Pens get home point vs Rangers Saturday. And of course Maple Leafs vs Bruins. Hurricanes will get Capitals or Lightning. I’m gonna say Tampa. Columbus vs Caps.

— Bucci Mane (@Buccigross) April 5, 2019

With Nikita Kucherov's 40th goal of the season, the Lightning are the first team to boast three 40-goal scorers (also Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point) since the 1995-96 Penguins.

Almost forgot to mention: Jake Gardiner returned to the Leafs' lineup on Thursday, although he was held without a point in just under 17 minutes of icetime.

Leon Draisaitl scored twice on Thursday, which gives him 49 goals on the season. These were his first goals in four games. The Battle of Alberta on Saturday night might be a mean-nothing game in the standings, but it will at least be worth watching to see if Draisaitl can become the second player to reach 50 goals, following Alex Ovechkin. The only other player with a snowball’s chance in hell at reaching 50 is John Tavares, who would need to record a hat trick on Saturday to reach that mark.

Chances are that you’ll have more than enough options for Saturday, even with players potentially sitting out to get some extra rest before the playoffs. So Friday is the day to load up on players who will play on a light schedule (just three games). I mentioned both of the Strome brothers on Twitter, since the Rangers and Blackhawks are among the teams that play.

Some more players to consider (if you can still add them for Friday):

Oliver Bjorkstrand – Eight goals in his last eight games, also 30 shots in his last six games

Anton Khudobin – Confirmed starter on Friday (see Goalie Post for more goalie starts). Won three of his past four games, with the other game a shootout loss. Posted a 1.94 GAA and .943 SV% over that span.

Kevin Shattenkirk – No points in his last six games, but still receiving first-unit power-play time

Tony DeAngelo – If Shattenkirk isn’t available, or you could pick him over Shattenkirk outright

Alexandar Georgiev – Also a confirmed starter for Friday. He seems to alternate between good and bad starts, but the pressure is completely off as he and the Rangers get to play spoiler against the Blue Jackets.

For more fantasy hockey information, or to reach out to me directly, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-canes-clinch-pietrangelo-pearson-byfuglien-friday-picks-and-more-apr-5/

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thrashermaxey · 5 years

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21 Fantasy Hockey Rambles

Every Sunday, we'll share 21 Fantasy Rambles — formerly 20 Fantasy Thoughts — from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week's ‘Daily Ramblings’.

Writers: Michael Clifford, Ian Gooding, Cam Robinson, and Dobber

1. Blues’ coach Craig Berube has completely turned his team around, and has done so with strong underlying metrics and not smoke and mirrors. Three months ago, there were rumours of trading Brayden Schenn and/or Vladimir Tarasenko by the Trade Deadline. Now, it looks like they’ll be buyers.

This is another team that could use Mark Stone, though I imagine that conversation begins with guys like Robert Thomas, Robby Fabbri, or Jordan Kyrou, and I’m not sure that the Blues would want to part with pieces like that. Maybe they just add some depth pieces, considering how well this team is playing right now. (feb21)

2. That’s now four wins in a row for Flames’ Mike Smith, who has also started five games in a row.

What could have been a four-start week for David Rittich could end up as a zero-start week for him, as Smith may possibly receive another start on Sunday against Ottawa based on the current trend.

Since Valentine’s Day, Smith is 4-0-1 with a 2.17 GAA and a .924 SV%, which are considerably better numbers than he posted over the first quarter (3.48 GAA, .876 SV%). (feb23)

3. Before the season, I was adamant that Rasmus Dahlin. would not be worth his ADP in standard Yahoo! leagues (you can read my stuff from the offseason here, here, and here. That’s not all of it, but it’s a start).

He’s already surpassed my projections but whether he lives up to his ADP remains to be seen. All the same, I wanted to say this: his rookie season has been exceptional.

In the history of the NHL, Dahlin is one of three defensemen to average 0.55 points per game in their rookie season, the other two being Bobby Orr and Phil Housley. Not that he’s guaranteed to maintain that mark over the balance of the season, but the fact he’s at that point when we’re a week away from the trade deadline speaks volumes of his talent.

His performance in the defensive zone still needs work but, I mean, come on, the kid is 18. We can cut him a little slack!

All this is to say that Dahlin is performing every bit the future superstar he has been. Though that may not be enough to pay off his preseason ADP, this is about as good as we could possibly hope for. I can’t possibly imagine he can be had for cheap in dynasty/keeper leagues, but I would be checking with the Dahlin owner in your league. If he can be a top-30 fantasy defenseman as an 18-year old and do it without being driven by luck, we’re only a couple years away from a top-5 defenseman. (feb19)

4. Brendan Gallagher marked his first career hat trick in Montreal’s 5-1 win over Philadelphia on Thursday. That makes 26 goals for him on the season, five away from his career-best 31 last year. He’s such a good across-the-board fantasy contributor, averaging over 1.5 hits/3.5 shots per game with a good plus/minus. (feb22)

5. With Connor McDavid serving the first game of his two-game suspension on Saturday, there isn’t really much to the Oilers offense beyond Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, which wasn’t the case when the Oilers first drafted McDavid.

Maybe that asset mismanagement will result in them adding one of Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko in the draft this summer. I bet social media would explode if the lottery balls bounced that way. (feb24)

6. Dobber checked in with the Fantasy Take of the Stars acquiring Mats Zuccarello, which includes a comprehensive list of players potentially helped or hurt by the trade. I wrote a few paragraphs about the Ryan Dzingel trade and how the Blue Jackets and Senators are affected. You can check them out here.

Bubble wrapping their assets in the event of a potential trade, the Rangers held out all of Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes, and Adam McQuaid on Saturday. Yet, they still managed to defeat the Devils, who were holding out Marcus Johansson for the same reason.

I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a season where so many teams have decided to scratch players who are on the trade block. If these teams are out of the playoff race, then there’s no incentive for them not to do this. In fact, I’m surprised that teams haven’t done this sooner. The loser of course is the paying fan, who potentially misses a player or two that they were hoping to see. (feb24)

7. Free agency notwithstanding, the Wild may be a team in transition next season. Changes could result in increased opportunities for Ryan Donato, Jordan Greenway, Luke Kunin, and Joel Eriksson Ek, which will be positive for keeper owners who have been waiting patiently on them. Even with the long-term contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter still in tow, the Wild could go on a bit of a youth movement. (feb23)

8. The Capitals paid a heavy price to land free agent defenseman Nick Jensen, sending Madison Bowey and a second-round pick in 2020 to Detroit in return (Capitals also receive a fifth-round pick).

Although Jensen is employed in virtually no fantasy leagues, the Red Wings’ fan I spoke with earlier this year thought Jensen was his team’s best defenseman this season.

The Capitals must be hoping that Jensen is this season’s version of Michal Kempny, who looked very impressive in the playoffs last season. The Jensen acquisition could help Braden Holtby’s numbers to some small degree. (feb23)

9. You have to admire the intestinal fortitude of GM Jarmo Kekalainen, who assuming he does not trade Artemi Panarin, is going all in to win a Stanley Cup.

There is high risk, though, considering that: a) the Jackets are no guarantee to even make the playoffs; and b) Matt Duchene, Panarin, and Sergei Bobrovsky could all leave the Jackets high and dry after the season. But if you have a legit chance to win your keeper league this season, aren’t you employing a similar strategy? Let’s worry about next season next season. (feb23)

10. Although he was held without a point against the Senators in his Blue Jackets debut on Friday, Matt Duchene was inserted onto the top line alongside Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson.

Pierre-Luc Dubois, the regular center for this line, was moved to a line with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Anthony Duclair. Dubois’ value could take a hit over the final quarter of the season if Duchene replaces him full-time on the top line. (feb23)

In his second game on Saturday, again alongside Panarin and Atkinson, Duchene added a goal and an assist in a Jackets’ 4-0 win over the Sharks.

TRADE DEADLINE:

Just a reminder that we’ll have you completely covered here at Dobber Hockey for everything NHL Trade Deadline, as we’ll be updating constantly with our fantasy takes and our Trade Tracker.

Whenever fantasy owners see a trade go down, they should head on over within the next few hours to get a breakdown of what that means for them and their fantasy leagues. Any trade of significance will be broken down by either Ian Gooding, Michael Clifford, Cam Robinson, or Dobber himself.

11. I’m still wondering in the back of my mind whether the Flyers will send Carter Hart back to the AHL since Cam Talbot is also now on the roster and hasn’t played yet. But if Hart stays, it makes me wonder why they acquired Talbot in the first place.

Or, maybe Brian Elliott is being given a showcase start for a potential trade. Or, maybe the Flyers are being super cautious in case another goalie is injured. Regardless, I’m confused. Maybe this mess will be untangled soon. (feb23) UPDATE: Hart is expected to miss at least 10 days with a lower-body injury. (feb24)

12. Jayce Hawryluk was lined up on the second line for Florida on Thursday night with Mike Hoffman moving to the third line. It’s a move we’ve seen a few times this year and with the Panthers believing they’re in the playoff race, this isn’t a matter of simply giving a young guy a bigger role to see what they have, they think he can produce right now. Whether that’s misguided or not, we’ll see. (feb22)

13. I have never been a fan of Red Wings’ coach Jeff Blashill. His lineup decisions constantly baffle me (the blue line and power play especially), his treatment of talents like Andreas Athanasiou infuriate me, and the way he handles young guys has typically been underwhelming.

However, of late, Jonathan Ericsson has been a healthy scratch and that has led to Filip Hronek getting his way into the lineup. Not only into the lineup, but to the top power play unit, and a top PP unit that actually features their top players (Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou, Thomas Vanek) rather than the talent being spread across two units. This is wonderful news for Hronek’s fantasy value.

One problem is that even if he maintains PP1 status, he might not crack the 20-minute mark per game with any regularity. That’s fine, though. Guys like him can still have fantasy value (just think of Will Butcher and Mikhail Sergachev from last year), though he’d be more valuable in points-only leagues.

Acquiring Hronek is a big gamble because Blashill’s moods change with the wind and he might be back in the press box a week from now. It’s a gamble worth taking given his current usage, though, in 12-team leagues or larger. (feb22)

14. Detroit could look quite different next year with Gustav Nyquist likely to be traded, Vanek on a one-year deal, Niklas Kronwall a pending UFA, and Nick Jensen just traded to Washington. That doesn’t include Filip Zadina likely being on the main roster.

Where Athanasiou will fit in is uncertain. It shouldn’t be a concern, though, given Athanasiou has shown he can be plenty productive without top-tier line mates. He just needs more ice time. This guy should be over 18 minutes a game, not playing just 13 seconds more per game at 5v5 than Justin Abdelkader. (feb21)

15. Jamie Benn scored a pair of goals in Dallas’s 5-2 win over St. Louis on Thursday, the first multi-goal game for him since October 6. He had four such games last year, including two hat tricks, and eight such games in his 41-goal season back in 2015-16.

Benn does enough across the board that he’s still been very good in multi-category leagues but the drop in scoring for a power forward about to turn 30 years old is a bit concerning. (feb22)

16. Frank Vatrano has signed a three-year extension with the Panthers that will pay him an average of $2.53 million per season. Now that he has received a regular NHL opportunity, Vatrano has scored a career-high 20 goals in just 59 games while seeing ice time with some of the Panthers’ big boys. At age 24, Vatrano has sleeper potential and the new contract should solidify his spot on the Panthers. (feb24)

17. Go here to read Cam Robinson's take on the Charlie Coyle / Ryan Donato swap.

One thing I'd like to add is that this is a smart gamble from Minnesota. Coyle was probably gone in a year anyway and this year is shot. They're essentially giving up one year of Coyle to find out whether or not Ryan Donato can make good on the potential he's shown in lower leagues.

Remember that Donato was very highly thought of in the fantasy community coming into the year, and also by the Bruins as they had him on the top PP unit way back when. For a team that seemingly wants to re-tool on the fly than full-out rebuild, this is a solid move. (feb21)

18. The Avs are invested in Philipp Grubauer beyond this season, but I’m wondering if there’s at least an outside chance that they bring Semyon Varlamov back next season. Varlamov has had significant stretches of the kind of numbers that you don’t want near your fantasy hockey team, but he has been playing better lately with four wins over his last five starts and six quality starts over his last seven games. So, the shutout won’t necessarily result in more playing time for Grubauer. (feb24)

19. Patrick Kane has an incredible 68 points in 39 games stretching back to Nov. 24. He recently surpassed Mike Hoffman’s earlier season point streak of 17 games for the longest run of the season.

Kane has produced 43 points on his current 20 games run. 43.

In the last 10 years, the top streaks are:

– Kane: 26 games in 2015-16 – Sidney Crosby: 25 games in 2010-11 – Taylor Hall: 19 games in 2017-18 – Steven Stamkos: 18 games in 2009-10 – Corey Perry: 19 in 2009-10 – Phil Kessel: 18 in 2008-09

Don’t take these lengthy point-streaks for granted. They don’t come around too often.

And don't go handing that Hart trophy to Nikita Kucherov just yet. If Kane can drag the Blackhawks to the postseason – and they're only one point back right now, his massive point totals and lack of surrounding talent will be difficult to argue against. (feb20)

20. As for Kucherov, last Monday’s five-point performance against Columbus was the seventh time this season he tallied at least four points in a single game. For reference on how absurd that is, no player in the league had more than three four-point games in 2017-18. He’s well on his way to setting a 20-year single-season high in points. It’s been absolutely remarkable. (feb19)

21. Jeff Skinner absolutely needs to re-sign with Buffalo. The roster and the coaching style fits him like a glove and he doesn’t want to mess with that.

Sure, he could make an extra $1 million per season somewhere else and perhaps that means an extra $6 million over the length of his contract, but he risks failure, embarrassment and – in an extreme case – perhaps even a buyout five years down the line.

He need look no further than teammate Kyle Okposo when determining how signing with a bad fit can take your status as a star down a few notches. And how does Milan Lucic feel when he walks down the streets of Edmonton?

With the Sabres, Skinner knows he can succeed because he’s thriving right now. Don’t mess with that, his best shot at a long and storied career is right where he is now. (feb18)

Have a good week, folks!!

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/21-fantasy-hockey-rambles/21-fantasy-hockey-rambles-6/

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thrashermaxey · 5 years

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Ramblings: More Trades, Goalie Shutouts, Pens’ D Problems (Feb 24)

With the trade deadline fast approaching, I'm hoping there might be a pearl of wisdom or two in what I’m going to write here. Because of the fluid situations on many teams, there are also observations that could be outdated by tomorrow. All we can do now is get into where things stand now and see what happens next.

To put it another way, it should be a crazy 36 hours coming up. You know we’ll be updating things constantly here with our fantasy takes and our Trade Tracker.

In one of the early games, Sam Reinhart recorded a hat trick in the Sabres’ 5-2 win over Washington. Reinhart has been heating up lately with six points in his last five games. There shouldn’t be much concern that Reinhart is not playing on Jack Eichel’s line at the moment. Reinhart’s 55 points in 61 games already represents a career high, so he’s followed the “fourth year breakout” theory to a tee.

Jeff Skinner appeared to dodge a bullet, as he returned to the game in the third period after getting his leg twisted with Carl Hagelin’s stick in the second period. There was obvious concern that the Sabres would be losing Skinner and his 36 goals for an extended period, but this injury appeared a lot worse than it turned out to be.

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Dobber checked in with the Fantasy Take of the Stars acquiring Mats Zuccarello, which includes a comprehensive list of players potentially helped or hurt by the trade.

Bubble wrapping their assets in the event of a potential trade, the Rangers held out all of Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes, and Adam McQuaid on Saturday. Yet they still managed to defeat the Devils, who were holding out Marcus Johansson for the same reason. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a season where so many teams have decided to scratch players who are on the trade block. If these teams are out of the playoff race, then there’s no incentive for them not to do this. In fact, I’m surprised that teams haven’t done this sooner. The loser of course is the paying fan, who potentially misses a player or two that they were hoping to see.

The Zuccarello/Hayes scratches meant that Ryan Strome picked up 19 minutes of icetime. He took advantage of the situation, scoring twice. This will be a year or two too late for fantasy owners who were saving Strome in their keeper pools, but Strome has been scoring at a point-per-game pace over his last seven games. Maybe, just maybe, Strome is someone who benefits from Zuccarello leaving and Hayes possibly leaving by Monday.

Back to Zucc: He is expected to be in the Stars’ lineup today (Sunday) against Chicago.

After the Wayne Simmonds hit (see below) on Brian Dumoulin which resulted in both Dumoulin and Kris Letang leaving the game (Letang injured in the ensuing melee), the Penguins’ best hope appeared to be that the outdoor game would be rained out.

Simmonds' hit on Dumoulin. pic.twitter.com/F2trugCpEM

— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) February 24, 2019

Even without one of their defensive pairs, the Pens were able to take a 3-1 lead late into the third period before the Flyers scored twice to tie the game before the end of regulation. Then Claude Giroux scored the overtime winner to seal the Penguins’ fate in what had to be their most demoralizing defeat of the season. Dumoulin has a concussion and will miss time, while Letang was being evaluated for an upper-body injury and may miss time. Between the injuries on defense (Olli Maatta also sidelined) and the division rival Blue Jackets’ recent upgrades, the Pens are now in tough to make the playoffs. That’s something we haven’t heard in a while. You know that GM Jim Rutherford is on the phone looking for blueline help.

If Letang misses time, it goes without saying that Justin Schultz is a must-add. Schultz scored his first goal of the season to give him three points in the five games since his return. I’m crossing my fingers that Letang is back in two weeks when my fantasy playoffs begin. That’s what you live with when you own Letang, as I have for 8+ years. Maybe I’ll start a podcast called Keeping Letang, which will be like a group therapy session for owning injured players. The frustrating part is this injury happened during a scrum when he was tackled by Shayne Gostisbehere (on the same fantasy team, coincidentally) and could have easily been avoided. The silver lining is that I also have Schultz as insurance.

Jakub Voracek, who scored the game-tying goal with just 20 seconds in regulation, ended up with a three-point game. Voracek had been held without a point in his previous three games but had a nine-game point streak before that.

Speaking of the Blue Jackets, things are just peachy right now as they load up to try to win at least one playoff series. Matt Duchene scored his first Blue Jackets goal and added an assist, while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 26 shots he faced in a 4-0 win over San Jose. Bob now has shutouts in consecutive nights, so right now you’re getting the Bobrovsky that you thought you were drafting. He’s won seven of his last nine games and has pitched shutouts in three of his past six games. More importantly, he’s out of John Tortorella’s doghouse. At least for the moment.

Anyone else feeling smug as fuck as Bobrovsky posts B2B shutouts heading on a team loading up as we approach H2H fantasy playoffs? The legend of H2H playoff goalie Bob continues to grow.

— Stephen Laidlaw (@SteveLaidlaw) February 24, 2019

To expand on that, here are the post All-Star Game numbers for Bobrovsky:

2017-18: 15-7-3, 2.36 GAA, .921 SV%

2016-17: 13-8-3, 1.99 GAA, .936 SV%

2015-16: 4-6-0, 3.00 GAA, .899 SV%

2014-15: 14-2-1, 2.39 GAA, .927 SV%

2013-14: 12-6-2, 2.13 GAA, .932 SV%

If you’re drafting Bob, it’s for this time of year. Aside from the 2015-16 blemish, he’s been lights out when you’ve needed him the most.

I wrote a few paragraphs about the Dzingel trade and how the Blue Jackets and Senators are affected. You can check them out here. The two teams are essentially swapping left wingers, so I’ll summarize my piece by saying that one could theoretically replace the other on their new teams.

By the way, bad news for Erik Karlsson owners. Karlsson didn’t play in the third period and may have “retweaked his groin,” an injury that forced him to miss nine games this earlier this month and last month.

It was a good day for shutouts if you needed one. Aside from Bobrovsky, here are three more.

Curtis McElhinney stopped all 24 shots he faced in a 3-0 win over the Stars. Curtis Mac is timesharing with Petr Mrazek, but that hasn’t stopped him from posting wins in 9 of his last 11 games. During that stretch (since New Year’s Eve), McElhinney has a 2.18 GAA and .925 SV%. Mrazek has pitched shutouts in two of his last four starts, but I’d still give lifetime backup McElhinney the upper hand in this goaltending battle if Rod Brind’Amour had to pick a starter for Game 1 of the playoffs.

Philipp Grubauer made 38 saves to earn his first shutout as a member of the Avalanche. The Avs are invested in Grubauer beyond this season, but I’m wondering if there’s at least an outside chance that they bring Semyon Varlamov back next season. Varlamov has had significant stretches of the kind of numbers that you don’t want near your fantasy team, but he has been playing better lately with four wins over his last five starts and six quality starts over his last seven games. So the shutout won’t necessarily result in more playing time for Grubauer.

The legend of both Robin Lehner’s personal turnaround and the Islanders’ team turnaround continues, as he stopped all 36 Canuck shots in a 4-0 shutout win. The Isles’ goaltending situation mirrors the Canes’, as both goalies from each team are worth owning while both teams sit in the league’s top 10 in goals against (the Islanders first overall in team GAA). Lehner and Greiss are owned in the majority of Yahoo leagues. Surprisingly, McElhinney and Mrazek are not (both owned in around 30% of Yahoo leagues).

The Canes/Stars game featured two significant “outjuries” (as the Keeping Karlsson podcast calls them).

Ben Bishop returned for the Stars, stopping 28 of 30 shots he faced in a 3-0 loss. Bishop is posting his best numbers (2.29 GAA, .924 SV%) since the 2015-16 season, when he was the starting goalie for the Lightning. Get him back into your lineup.

Jordan Staal was back in lineup after missing the past two months with a concussion. He recorded an assist in just under 14 minutes of icetime centering Micheal Ferland and Teuvo Teravainen. Injury returns can be just as effective as trade deadline upgrades, particularly if the team has been getting by without the player.

Some contract news that probably flew under the radar for many: According to Ren Lavoie, Frank Vatrano has signed a three-year extension with the Panthers that will pay him an average of $2.53 million per season. Now that he has received a regular NHL opportunity, Vatrano has scored a career-high 20 goals in just 59 games while seeing icetime with some of the Panthers’ big boys. At age 24, Vatrano has sleeper potential, and the new contract should solidify his spot on the Panthers.

With Connor McDavid serving the first game of his two-game suspension, Sam Gagner moved up to the Oilers’ first-unit power play. He scored his first goal (even strength) in his second stint with the Oilers, helping them to a 2-1 win over Anaheim. With no McDavid, there isn’t really much to the Oilers offense beyond Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, which wasn’t the case when the Oilers first drafted McDavid. Maybe that asset mismanagement will result in them adding one of Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko in the draft this summer. I bet Twitter would explode if the lottery balls bounced that way.

Corey Perry might get a call from the league for suckering Darnell Nurse here…

Things that make you go…. 🤔 -ND pic.twitter.com/4eWqkfQKVf

— Oilersnation.com (@OilersNation) February 24, 2019

Enjoy the trade deadline coverage, wherever you are watching!

For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-more-trades-goalie-shutouts-pens-d-problems-feb-24/

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thrashermaxey · 5 years

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Injury Ward: Gibson, Hall, Schultz, & Pastrnak Is All Thumbs

Here’s this week’s latest in the world of injuries! As always, follow me on Twitter @BrennanDeSouza for the latest updates.

John Gibson – The Ducks goaltender suffered an upper-body injury when teammate Jaycob Megna crashed into him following a drive to the net by Matt Duchene of the Senators. While we don’t know exactly how long Gibson will be out, we do know that he hasn’t been practicing. Through 46 games this season he sports a 2.93 GAA and .914 SV%, which may not be good enough for the Vezina conversation, but those numbers are extremely impressive considering how terrible the Ducks have been recently.

Ryan Miller – Isn’t quite ready to return, but is very close. Which means Chad Johnson and Kevin Boyle will be Anaheim’s goaltending duo against the Canucks on Wednesday!

David Pastrnak – Picture this, it’s Sunday night and you’ve just finished a lovely dinner with your co-workers. You’re walking to your car when all of a sudden you fall and injure your left thumb. Extremely relatable scenario, right? Especially if your name is David Pastrnak. Okay but seriously, are we sure that Pastrnak was merely walking to his car? Is it really possible to fall while walking? I like to think he was engaged in a spirited trot, happily skipping towards his car when all of a sudden gravity got the best of him. Forgive me for being so insensitive, but when you write about injuries every week, it’s nice to have a break from the same old boring “upper-body, day-to-day”. Speaking of timelines, I should probably mention that Pastrnak will be out for the next two weeks, after which he will be re-evaluated. Danton Heinen took Pasta’s spot on the top line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand on Tuesday against the Blackhawks. He put up three points in a 6-3 win.

Casey Mittelstadt – Suffered a lower-body injury during Tuesday’s morning skate and the game-time decision was made to keep him out of the lineup against the Islanders. Coach Phil Housley said he’s day-to-day for now.

Corey Crawford – Feels great and back to normal! On Saturday, he practiced for the first time since suffering this concussion. As Blackhawks beat writer Mark Lazerus pointed out, when Crawford was injured earlier in the season, it took 12 days for him to play an actual game following his return to practice. I’d expect him to return within the next week or two – but there’s no official timetable from the team. Cam Ward has actually been outstanding recently – something I never thought I’d say this season. Ward is undefeated in his last four starts during which he’s stopped 94% of the shots he’s faced.

Ben Bishop – Could return from an upper-body injury on Thursday against the Lightning or Saturday against the Hurricanes. Backup goaltender Anton Khudobin has given the Stars a chance to win whenever they’ve called upon him this season, he sports a 2.45 GAA and .924 SV% through 24 appearances.

Tyler Bertuzzi – Needs clearance from Detroit’s medical staff before he returns from a concussion. If all goes well, he could be in the lineup on Thursday against the Senators. If he isn’t able to pass tests before then, he should return sometime this weekend – the Red Wings play a home-and-home series with the Flyers on Saturday and Sunday.

Jeff Carter – Has been skating. Coach Willie Desjardins thinks Carter is a few days away from a return, but that’s what we’ve been hearing for more than a few days. While he hasn’t been ruled out of Thursday’s game against the Canucks just yet, I think it’s more likely he returns on Saturday against the Bruins or Monday against the Capitals.

Paul Byron – Will miss the next three games as he won’t be travelling with the team through Nashville, Tampa and Florida. Expect another update early next week when the Canadiens return from their road trip.

Blake Coleman – An upper-body injury caused the Devils forward to be a last-minute scratch against the Blues on Tuesday. Since it was such a late decision to keep Coleman out of the lineup, I don’t think the injury is too serious.

Taylor Hall – Is still on a recovery routine that doesn’t require him to skate every day. Coach John Hynes remains adamant that Hall will return at some point during this season, but we haven’t been given any real substantial updates. It’s been almost two months since he last played, but the team has no reason to rush him back as they aren’t really in the playoff conversation.

Craig Anderson – Took a tennis ball to the eye while at the gym which prevented him from dressing for Tuesday’s game against the Hurricanes. He’s expected to travel with the team as they embark on a four-game road trip that beings on Thursday in Detroit.

Brian Elliot – Has been sent down to Philadelphia’s AHL affiliate – the Leigh Valley Phantoms – as part of a conditioning stint. It’s been three months since he last played a game, so this will give him a good opportunity to ease back into the action. I’ll remind you that Elliot had won four of six games prior to the injury and posted at least a .920 SV% in all six of those games.

Olli Maatta – Is expected to miss at least a month of action with a separated shoulder. While the team is hopeful he won’t require surgery to fix his shoulder, nothing has been guaranteed just yet.

Zach Aston-Reese – The Penguins forward has been a full participant in practice, which usually means he’s close to a return. If he’s not back against the Oilers on Wednesday, he should be back this weekend – against the Flames on Saturday or the Rangers on Sunday.

Justin Schultz – Is expected to return sometime this week. Now that Olli Maatta is on the shelf with a shoulder injury, the Penguins’ blueline is looking pretty weak. I’d be surprised if Schultz wasn’t in the lineup on Wednesday against Edmonton, but you’ll have to give him some time to return to form – he’s been out since October 13th.

Erik Karlsson – Coach Pete DeBoer revealed that is all-star defenseman is recovering from a muscle injury which may be groin-related. The team is very aware of the fact that muscle injuries are easy to reaggravate if they aren’t fully healed, so they’re giving Karlsson as much time as he needs to rest. Why they couldn’t have told us this four weeks ago, I have absolutely no idea. He should return to the lineup very soon – possible even on Thursday against the Capitals.

David Perron – Coach Craig Berube is hopeful that Perron will join the team as they begin a three-game road trip on Thursday against the Coyotes. If he doesn’t return Thursday, he should be in the lineup on Saturday against the Avalanche or Sunday’s tilt with the Wild

Ondrej Palat – Skated before Tuesday’s game against the Flames but wasn’t in the lineup and remains day-to-day. While Palat has seen some time on the top line with Nikita Kucherov recently, it looks like Yanni Gourde is skating with Brayden Point and Kucherov for the time being.

Jacob Markstrom – Coach Travis Green is hopeful that Markstrom will play on Wednesday against the Ducks. While it was probably never an option for him to play during Monday’s game against the Sharks, the fact that he was dressed and on the bench makes me think whatever he’s dealing with isn’t too serious. The Canucks recently acquired Marek Mazanec from the Rangers, who may get the start if Markstrom isn’t feeling well enough to play.

Thatcher Demko – On February 7th it was announced that Demko would miss 7-10 days with a knee sprain. So, we’re probably a few more days away from a return.

Nikolaj Ehlers – Should return to practice this week. While you shouldn’t expect him to be in the lineup on Thursday against the Avalanche, you can start hoping for a return on Saturday against the Senators. At the very latest he should be back in the lineup next Wednesday (February 20th) against Colorado.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/injury-ward/injury-ward-gibson-hall-schultz-pastrnak-is-all-thumbs/

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thrashermaxey · 5 years

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Injury Ward: The IR is Getting Full

For the latest line combinations and injury updates, follow me on Twitter @BrennanDeSouza! Here are this week’s updates from around the league…

Hampus Lindholm – Missed Sunday’s game against the Avalanche with a lower-body injury. I haven’t been able to find anything else in terms of timetable and the severity of the injury. Hopefully, we get some more information in the coming days.

Cam Fowler – Had surgery to repair fractures to his orbital bone, cheekbone, and upper jaw bone. While the team hasn’t released an official timeline just yet, I’ll remind you that last season, Ryan Getzlaf needed six weeks to recover from a cheekbone fracture (which also required surgery). It looks like Brandon Montour will take on a bigger role with both Lindholm and Fowler injured.

Antti Raanta – Practiced with teammates on Tuesday morning, but it doesn’t look like he’ll start against the Golden Knights on Wednesday. I expect he’ll be available on Friday when Arizona faces Colorado, but whether or not he starts is a different matter. While Darcy Kuemper has had a few bad starts this season, his 2.70 GAA and .917 SV% are actually pretty good!

Zdeno Chara – Suffered an MCL injury against the Avalanche last Wednesday, and is expected to be out for a month as a result. I know a 41-year-old Chara isn’t as effective as he used to be, but I’d definitely be concerned for both Jaroslav Halak and Tuukka Rask as key injuries to Boston’s best defensive players start to pile up. Just something to keep an eye on.

Patrice Bergeron – The Bruins’ forward suffered a rib and sternoclavicular (base of the neck where the collarbone meets the breastbone) injury and will be re-evaluated in about a month. Bergeron had 19 points in 26 games prior to the injury, and his absence will obviously break up one of the league’s best lines. It appears David Pastrnak will now play with David Krejci and Anders Bjork, while Brad Marchand will skate with Joakim Nordstrom and Jake DeBrusk. If you’re looking for someone to ‘replace’ Bergeron, Krejci will probably take on a much bigger role. However, Bergeron is an extremely special player that you just can’t replace. He has such a huge impact at both ends of the ice, and the team is going to need big contributions from their whole roster over the next month.

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Charlie McAvoy – While he won’t play on Wednesday night, his status for Friday against the Penguins and Saturday against the Bruins is “questionable”. It’s encouraging to see he hasn’t been ruled out of those games already, especially since he’s now practising with the team. While this is all very encouraging news, keep in mind he’s recovering from a concussion, so it’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly he’ll be back.

Victor Rask – Was a full participant in Tuesday’s practice, which means his return is just around the corner. He has been medically cleared, so expect him to see him in the lineup within the next few games. Honestly. I’m most interested to see whether Rask’s return pushes Sebastian Aho back to the wing.

Alex Goligoski – Will be a game-time decision on Wednesday.

Ben Bishop – Will miss about a week with what seems to be a lower-body muscle strain. Anton Khudobin has been a great back-up this season, with a 2.37 GAA and .925 SV%. Unfortunately, Dallas faces some potent offences over the next week, including Pittsburgh, Ottawa, and Colorado. So, I’m not sure if you want to jump on Khudobin unless you’re really desperate for goalie help.

John Klingberg – Will be out for at least five to six more weeks as he recovers from hand surgery. There seems to be some uncertainty surrounding Klingberg’s timetable, so don’t be surprised if he needs more than six weeks off before he returns. I know I endorsed Miro Heiskanen as Klingberg’s replacement, but it appears Esa Lindell is now on the top power-play. Lindell has three points in his last two games, but I’m still not convinced he’ll stay on the first unit for the duration of Klingberg’s absence. I think Heiskanen will get another chance.

Thomas Vanek – Will “probably” be in the lineup on Wednesday when Detroit faces Boston.

Vincent Trocheck – Suffered a scary injury against the Senators which required surgery to repair “significant damage” to his leg. We don’t know exactly how long he’ll be out, but I’d expect his absence to be measured in months, not weeks.

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Jonathan Quick – Has been taking part in a few intense drills, and there’s a chance he starts practising on Wednesday or Friday. As bad as the Kings have been this season, rookie Cal Petersen has been incredible in three starts, sporting a 1.64 GAA and .951 SV%. I’d like to see how he handles the Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen on Wednesday, before adding him to my own roster. I definitely like Saturday’s matchup against the Canucks for Petersen.

Paul Byron – Has been skating, but won’t face the Devils or Sabres this week. I wouldn’t expect him to face the Bruins on Saturday either. I’ll probably have another update for you next week before he actually returns to the lineup.

Shea Weber – Hasn’t yet been cleared for contact but has been putting in a lot of work on the ice. I’d expect him to return to the lineup within a week or two. Expect Montreal’s power-play to improve once Weber returns, his cannon from the point is something the Habs have been missing.

P.K. Subban – I understand that GMs don’t want to reveal too much about certain injuries because it might cause the rest of the league to target their player in a certain area. But boy is it frustrating when the best update we get on one of the league’s best defenseman is, “I think we’re making progress. It could be a little while longer. Not totally sure of the situation. I hope it’s not going to be too much longer.” That’s all Predators’ GM David Poile has given us for now, let’s hope for more information in the coming days.

Viktor Arvidsson – Out six to eight weeks with a broken thumb. It looks like Craig Smith will take Arvidsson’s spot on the top line alongside Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg for now. I wouldn’t rush to pick Smith up just yet, I don’t think he’ll hold onto this spot for the entirety of Arvidsson’s absence.

Sami Vatanen – Skated by himself on Tuesday morning, but didn’t participate in practice. As a result, I wouldn’t expect him to be in the lineup against Montreal. His status should be day-to-day going forward.

Nico Hischier – Will play against Montreal on Wednesday night.

Mats Zuccarello – A groin injury will keep him out against the Islanders on Wednesday night. He hasn’t been practising, but the injury doesn’t appear to be anything too serious.

Brian Elliot – Will miss the next two weeks with a lower-body injury. The injury came at an extremely unfortunate time, as Elliot’s had a .944 SV% and 1.55 GAA in his last seven games.

Sidney Crosby – Was a full participant in Tuesday’s practice and looks extremely close to a return, but his status officially remains day-to-day. With that being said, he was skating on the top power-play unit in practice and took line rushes with Jake Guentzel and Patric Hornqvist. Usually, a player doesn’t get that involved in a practice unless they’re about to return. Don’t be surprised if he plays against the Stars on Wednesday.

Patrick Maroon – Has been skating as he continues to recover from an upper-body injury, hopes to return soon.

Jaden Schwartz – Will miss the next three games (Wednesday against the Predators, Friday against the Predators, and Saturday against the Jets) with an upper-body injury, after which he will be re-evaluated.

Alexander Steen – Day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Andrei Vasilevskiy – Fractured his foot in practice, and will miss the next four to six weeks of action as a result. There’s definitely a huge drop-off in talent between Vasilevskiy and interim starter Louis Domingue, but playing behind a strong Tampa team should help Domingue put up some wins over the next few weeks.

Auston Matthews – Next week would mark four weeks since Matthews suffered his shoulder injury, but don’t expect him to return right at that four-week mark. At this point, the team is just taking it day by day and monitoring how he feels. He doesn’t think his shot is as strong and accurate as it was before the injury, so there is progress to be made.

Brock Boeser – Has been skating, but it doesn’t look like his week-to-week status has been lifted. I expect to have a more detailed update for you next week.

Alexander Edler – Skated on Monday morning and is currently with the team as they begin their California road trip on Wednesday against the Ducks. He hasn’t been ruled out for the trip, so there is a chance he makes his return against San Jose on Friday or Los Angeles on Saturday. A more realistic timetable would see him return during the team’s five-game homestand following the road trip.

T. J. Oshie – Hasn’t been skating and is officially day-to-day. Don’t expect him to play against the Blackhawks on Wednesday. Likely dealing with a concussion.

Evgeny Kuznetsov – I’m going to go ahead and copy/paste Oshie’s update in here because Kuznetsov’s status seems to be the exact same as Oshie’s right now. Let’s see how many of you notice. Hasn’t been skating and is officially day-to-day. Don’t expect him to play against the Blackhawks on Wednesday. Likely dealing with a concussion.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/injury-ward/injury-ward-the-ir-is-getting-full/

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thrashermaxey · 6 years

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20 Fantasy Hockey Thoughts

Every Sunday, we'll share 20 Fantasy Thoughts from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week's "Daily Ramblings".

Writers: Michael Clifford, Ian Gooding, Cam Robinson, and Dobber

1. Micheal Ferland has been a wrecking ball in Carolina. For example, last Sunday, he scored, added eight hits, and even had four faceoff wins, to help out those leagues that count that. Boy was I wrong about this guy. I had him trending the opposite way in the Guide. I should have read it better – the Hurricanes wanted sandpaper, they have a hard-working coach. So, of course they would give Ferland top billing. I miffed this one, just a poor read. Seems so obvious now. (oct15)

2. After years of being a source of many dominant fantasy hockey teams, the Red Wings don’t have much for fantasy owners to get excited about anymore. But one early sleeper from the Wings is rookie blueliner Dennis Cholowski, who leads the team in both power-play minutes and total minutes (21:48/GP). Cholowski scored a goal and added an assist while taking five shots on Saturday to give him five points in six games, including four power-play points. He could easily hit a rookie wall at some point, but he’s owned in just seven percent of Yahoo leagues. That’s surprisingly low ownership for a player earning first-unit power-play minutes, even if it is for a likely lottery-bound team. (oct20)

3. In case you hadn’t noticed, Anders Nilsson just recently enjoyed a three-game run, all wins, where he posted a 1.67 GAA and .943 SV%. Yes, I was as surprised as you are. Do remember, though, that after last season, he backstopped Sweden to a World Hockey Championship.

A long-term question is whether Nilsson will unseat Jacob Markstrom as the de facto number one in Van City. I’d say that Nilsson would need more consistency than we’re used to with him before I would proclaim that he will be the guy two months from now. He could also easily force a timeshare with Markstrom, which might be the more likely scenario here. The Canucks are playing well right now, but their defense is the envy of no team. So, over an entire season, I still wouldn’t consider either Nilsson or Markstrom to be a must-own. (oct17)

4. It’s finally happened, folks. Evgeni Kuznetsov is a superstar. We’ve been as patient as any sane human could ever hope for. Four years of KHL action that had Caps fans and fantasy junkies salivating at the prospect of him tearing it up in the Nation’s Capitol. It took nearly 100 games to push near the point-per-game mark, then a quick backslide and now, now it is here!

Sure, it’s only been six weeks, but all the magical ingredients are coming together. He’s 26-years-old and still in his statistical prime. He’s clicking on a heeeealthy 16.7 percent of his shots, all the while eating up the entirety of all-situations deployment next to the best finisher of all-time (Alex Ovechkin).

Speaking of time-on-ice, he’s getting a lot of it. Through seven games, he’s played 20:57. That’s more than three minutes above the mark he set last season – which represented a career-high at the time. His time-on-ice total places him firmly in the top 10 for forwards to begin the season. With over four minutes of that coming on the man-advantage, you can’t ask for better deployment. The scary thing is, he hasn’t even begun filling his apple basket by feeding Ovi for the patented one-timer. Of Kuzya’s six power-play points, four of them have been goals. That rate will dip, but the PPA’s should more than make up for it. He’s also shooting more than ever before, averaging 3.43 per game. His previous career-high was 2.35.

Last year, we had an unseasonable number of high-end scorers. Nine players cusped the 90-point threshold. Will anyone be surprised if Kuznetsov breaks that milestone this season? I don’t know about you, but I snuck a little preseason coin on him grabbing the Hart Trophy. At 82-1 odds I would’ve been stupid not to, right? Right? Right. (oct19)

5. Jeff Skinner entered Saturday afternoon’s game against LA with just one goal in his first seven games as a Sabre, mainly playing on a line with rookie Casey Mittelstadt and veteran Kyle Okposo. But on Saturday, Skinner found himself on a line with Jack Eichel and Jason Pominville and produced exactly what the Sabres hoped he would when they acquired him from Carolina, scoring three goals in a 5-1 win. In fact, his entire line combined for nine points in this game. Eichel recorded three assists, while Pominville scored a goal and added two assists.

Eichel’s previous linemates, Sam Reinhart and Conor Sheary, found themselves centered by Vladimir Sobotka, which is obviously a significant downgrade from Eichel. Reinhart has yet to score a goal in eight games, while both Reinhart and Sheary have been held without points in their last three games. Obviously, lines are constantly in a state of flux, but as an owner of both Reinhart and Sheary in separate leagues, I’m not thrilled about the deployment at least in the short term. (oct20)

6. Here's some more good news for Sabres' fans, they're not in the basement! It might not sound like much but for a team with such a storied history in the cellar, their 4-4 start must be considered a step forward. What's even more heartening is the play of their prospects in AHL Rochester. Victor Olofsson and his ridiculous release crossed over from the SHL this fall and has been terrorizing goaltenders in the AHL early and often. The 23-year-old led the SHL in goals last season and is leading the AHL in points (14) and sits tied for third in goals (5).

Fellow Swede and SHL import, Lawrence Pilut is second among AHL blueliners in points with 10 in six games. The most relieving start has to be from former eighth overall pick, Alex Nylander. The Sabres top pick from 2016 has struggled in two teenaged seasons in the American League. But, so far in 2018-19, he has produced eight points in eight games and looks ready to really knock the door down for a NHL gig. He hasn't been a passenger either. Of his eight total points, seven have been primary and five have come at even-strength. It's just him and Olli Juolevi who haven't cracked the NHL from the top 10 in 2016. The race is on to see who gets the call first. (oct19)

7. Ryan Suter has seven points in eight games. He looks none the worse after that nasty ankle break last spring. He’s playing over 25 minutes a contest, which is likely a better place for the 33-year-old than 27-29 range he’s lived in in the past. He may not be flashy, but Suter is as consistent as they come. He's played at or above a 40-point pace in eight consecutive years and nine of his 13 career seasons. (oct19)

8. Roope Hintz got a turn on the Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin line Friday. Hintz always been an interesting talent. He found good success in the Finnish Liiga but none more than his playoff run in 2016-17 with HIFK. He led the league in scoring that spring and that helped catapult him to a 20-goal rookie season in the American League last year. He's a young player to watch. The change-up was the result of an Alexander Radulov lower-body injury. Something to keep an eye on. (oct19)

9. Elias Lindholm sure looks like he's found his forever home. The talented Swedish forward has toyed with fantasy owners for years. He had the lofty draft slot, the silky skills and the promise of more production to come. However, over the course of his five NHL seasons, he'd never broke the 50-point barrier. That mark is certainly in danger this season.

A goal and an assist in Calgary's 5-3 loss Nashville on Friday brings him up to five goals eight points in seven games. That's all well and good, but what I like to see is the insanely juicy deployment. Lindholm is locked onto to Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan at even-strength and on the top power-play unit. He's skating over 19 minutes a night with 4:41 coming on the man-advantage. You can't ask for much better than that. The shooting percent is ridiculous (35%) and due for a fistful of a market correction, but this a player who has always appeared to have 60-plus point upside and he's trending nicely towards that this season.

Things haven't been as rosy for the other major forward addition in Calgary. James Neal has just two points in seven contests. With the Flames putting the Mikael Backlund-led 3M line back together, Neal is struggling to find much offense next to Sam Bennett and Mark Jankowski/Derek Ryan. The second unit power-play deployment isn't helping much either. To make matters worse, he has just 11 shots in seven games, five of which came in game two of the season. It's time to cut ties if you haven't already. (oct19)

10. The Predators have placed Pekka Rinne on injured reserve, which makes Juuse Saros a must-add if he’s still available in your league (47 percent owned in Yahoo leagues at the time of this writing). Saros has played in four games this season, and all have resulted in wins.

If Saros is still unowned in your league, I can’t stress enough how you need to go add him now. Go directly to the waiver wire. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. And even when Rinne returns, you should try to find a way to retain Saros given the Preds’ status as one of the league’s top teams. Remember that Rinne is on the final year of his contract, so a phase-in could be in the works. Even if Saros is pushed to the bench when Rinne returns, owning a strong backup is in many ways better for your fantasy team than owning a weak starter. (oct20)

11. How quickly things can change. In a recent Ramblings, I mentioned the solid play of Semyon Varlamov. Since then, coach Jared Bednar has decided to turn to Philipp Grubauer not once, but twice. Grubauer made Bednar’s decision look smart on Saturday, making 42 saves in a 3-1 win. This is shaping up to be an all-out competition in the Colorado net, with both goalies playing extremely well. Despite facing an average of 35 shots per game (one of the highest in the league), the Avalanche hold one of the league’s highest team save percentages. (oct20)

12. Has Keith Kinkaid earned the starting job for good? Even though Cory Schneider has the larger paycheque with the longer term, this job could be Kinkaid’s to lose. Either way, Kinkaid is the perfect third goalie to own right now. (oct17)

13. I mentioned that you should probably hold Kevin Shattenkirk in spite of his healthy scratch last week because of his 50-plus point upside on the blueline, but I’m not going to tell you to do the same with Brandon Saad. Unless you play in a very deep league, Saad is most likely replaceable given the number of available forward scoring options. Saad could very well become fantasy relevant again at some point, but it’s been a calendar year since he’s been able to produce at a 50-point pace. (oct17)

14. If you own Pavel Buchnevich and are wondering whether to drop him, it appears that his scratch this past week isn’t due to a lack of scoring. Buchnevich has scored two goals and added an assist in his six games, which isn’t drop-worthy on its own. In fact, Buchnevich could rebound from this and become a more complete player who competes harder, assuming the coach’s message gets through. If you’re in a league where every game played matters and there’s an equal or better option, then make the move. Otherwise, I’d be fine with holding here.

On a side note, if you’re a Shattenkirk and/or Buchnevich owner, you’ll know by now that coach David Quinn doesn’t care about your fantasy team. I say that facetiously, though. Sarcasm doesn’t translate well over the internet sometimes. (oct17)

15. When the Erik Karlsson trade was announced, the first thing that popped in my head was how this was going to affect the power play. For years, Brent Burns had been the focal point, ripping shots at will. That helped push him over 300 shots per season for three years. My assumption had been that Karlsson would be a facilitator on the PP with Burns retaining his shot-ripping role.

It hasn’t quite worked that way. And there is cause for concern here. Burns’s shot rate on the PP is his lowest in a decade, about 25 percent lower than last year, and he’s lost about three minutes per game at five-on-five (which I did not anticipate). The latter could lead to a loss of six or seven points alone. Unless that production is made up on the power play, this could be a very down year from what we had been expecting from him. (oct16)

16. In an effort to maximize the odds that Jake Allen will pan out, the Blues put all their eggs into that basket. To give him confidence and remove any competition for his job. But now, we’re seeing the downside to that. Chad Johnson has been decent but is not going to bail this team out the way Carter Hutton did last year. It’s Allen or bust. Mike Yeo could be the first coach fired this year. (oct15)

17. I have this ‘breakout’ vibe on Jakob Silfverberg, a la Josh Bailey (last year) or Brad Marchand (three years ago). That’s how good he’s been looking. That’s why it’s such a shame that he left last Sunday’s contest with an upper-body injury in the third. Back in August, I mused that Silfverberg was the perfect Bailey/Marchand situation template: Has more offensive talent than he’s shown, has solidified his production window in around that 50-point range, and it’s now at the point where we don’t expect more (just as it was with Marchand and Bailey). And then ‘whoa’, he gets 65 points out of the blue. So far Silf has seven points in six games so let’s hope he returns soon. (oct15)

18. I talked about Silfverberg and the Bailey breakouts but Kyle Palmieri is also a suitable candidate. He’s 27 and we have very firm expectations for him and what he can do, as it’s been very stable and reliable in that range. He also plays with Taylor Hall, which can’t hurt. The big Devils’ line (Palmieri, Hall, Nico Hischier) is also the first PP unit. (oct15)

19. It was a real shame seeing Elias Pettersson go down like that last week. As far as players go, and my early impressions at that point in the season, it’s Pettersson and Auston Matthews. Pettersson is an elite player and I had no idea just how elite until watching two of his games in the NHL. I feel like he’s gonna do what Mathew Barzal did last season, production-wise. It would be a shame if this injury has any long-term implications on his health (i.e. susceptibility to concussion). (oct15)

20. Matthews has been on another planet. You don’t need me to tell you that. But it’s as if adding John Tavares on another line has freed things up for Matthews to the point where he’s just toying with the poor suckers that the opposition trots out there to try to stop him. I had always considered him a Patrick Kane-type of talent, but now I wonder if he’s a Sidney Crosby-type of generational talent. I don’t use that label very easily. (oct15)

Have a good week, folks!!

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/20-fantasy-hockey-thoughts/20-fantasy-hockey-thoughts-46/

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thrashermaxey · 6 years

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Ramblings: Pastrnak vs. Wheeler, Giordano, Panthers’ Goalies (Sept 2)

Pastrnak vs. Wheeler, Giordano, Panthers’ Goalies

I usually leave the player comparison articles to Rick, where he breaks it down in every which way with his weekly Cage Match. But I couldn’t help getting into one player comparison that I encountered during my weeks-long auction bidding league. That would be the choice I had to make between David Pastrnak and Blake Wheeler.

My keeper league allows each team to sign one free agent to a five-year contract. I could choose between Pastrnak, Wheeler, and a whole host of other players. Actually, it wasn’t much of a decision. I was able to match any offer on Pastrnak since I owned him last season, plus it makes a whole lot more sense to lock up a 22-year-old player for five years than it does a 32-year-old player. So Pasta was my guy, and I was willing to pay more for him.

I will predict that sometime over the next 12 months, Dobber will definitely move Wheeler down from his #8 ranking and probably move Pastrnak up from his #23 ranking in his Top 300 Keepers. Okay, so the first prediction isn’t exactly going out on a limb, but it tells where things are headed as opposed to where they are right now.

What the ranking does say is that the season that carries the most weight in any keeper league is the one that’s right in front of you. Wheeler scored 91 points last season. Pastrnak scored “just” 80. But if I want to win more championships, I feel like I need more David Pastrnaks than Blake Wheelers on my team.

But what about single-season leagues? Currently Yahoo has Pastrnak at 12 and Wheeler at 18, while ESPN has Wheeler at 8 and Pasta at 11. Aside from his recent 68-assist, 91-point campaign, Wheeler’s career high is 78 points from two seasons before. So there is quite a bit of variance as to where his point total could end up. If you’re wondering where the spike in points came from, look no further than the power-play totals. Wheeler finished second in the NHL with 40 PPP; before that, his career high was 21 PPP.

One stat where Wheeler is a known commodity is goals, where he has ranged between 23 and 28 goals over the past five seasons. This may come as a surprise to you, but Wheeler has never scored 30 goals in a season. Remember, he was a late starter for a first-round pick, as his rookie season didn’t happen until he was 22. But the magical fourth season happened right on cue (64 points in 80 games, his first season in Winnipeg). So in a way, he’s taken on a different curve from other high first-round picks, which should make his age a little less concerning.

In spite of the Jets’ elite-level offense and top-level power play (23.4% success rate, 5th in NHL), I wouldn’t expect Wheeler to hit 90 points again. However, 25 goals and 80 points are very real targets.

Pastrnak had a lower point total, yet he is only entering his fifth NHL season. He also has the benefit of a higher goal total (34 and 35 over the past two seasons), which matters because goals are harder to find than assists in multicategory leagues. Both players take similar shot totals (about 250), and let’s assume Wheeler posts a slightly higher power-play point total (30) than Pastrnak (25).

I think this comes down to the type of league that you play in. If you’re in a pure single-season points league, then I would look toward Wheeler. In a multicategory single-season league, I might also go with Wheeler, but it’s even tighter and it really depends on the categories. Anything keeper, though, and it’s Pastrnak all the way for me.

One other thing: If you’re worried that Patrice Bergeron’s recovery from groin surgery might spill over into the start of the regular season and cut into Pasta’s production, don’t be. In the month that Bergeron missed (from February 26 to March 24), Pastrnak scored 17 points (7g-10a) in 13 games with Riley Nash as his main center. Granted, Nash has moved on to Columbus, but it also serves as proof that Pastrnak is a strong enough player on his own.

Don't forget to pick up your Fantasy Guide, if you haven't done so already. I should also mention that inside the draft guide is a coupon code for a $7.99 discount off the Fantasy Hockey Geek Draft Kit, which to me is a must if you play in a multicategory league. Enter all your league settings, use Dobber's projections, and away you go choosing the players that will help you conquer your league exactly the way it's set up.

Question posed to me this week: Does Mark Giordano’s fantasy value improve with Dougie Hamilton being shipped out of Calgary? Well, for starters, we know that the Flames have big plans for the defenseman acquired in return. A few days ago, Noah Hanifin was signed to a six-year contract with a cap hit of $4.95 million. Hanifin was mainly a second-unit power-play option during his time in Carolina, since Justin Faulk owned the first-unit power play. But there’s a possibility for increased usage for Hanifin in Calgary. We’ll have to wait and see, but remember that Hanifin is a player that new Calgary coach Bill Peters is familiar with.

During his three seasons in Calgary, Hamilton averaged around 2:25 of power-play time per game. This was slightly lower than Giordano, whose average was closer to the 3:00 mark. In fact, that was the criticism of the Flames in their usage of Hamilton – that he should have been the first-unit guy for what they had invested in him. TJ Brodie is the other name in the mix, and his power-play time was similar to that of Hamilton. So I’d expect Gio to be on the first unit again, followed by either Hanifin or Brodie in the power-play pecking order.

What concerns me about Giordano is declined returns. After a 56-point season in 2015-16, he has settled in as a 12-13 goal, 38-39 point defenseman over the past two seasons. His shot total improved dramatically in 2017-18 (151 shots to 214 shots). However, Gio is turning 35 once the season starts, and 35-year-old players don’t tend to have spikes in production at that stage in their careers. So I’d have to say that in spite of solid icetime (nearly 25 minutes per game in 2017-18) and power-play time, his numbers probably won’t change much. And neither does his fantasy value.

How the Panthers’ goaltending situation will play out is anyone’s guess. Roberto Luongo was by far the better goalie last season (2.47 GAA, .929 SV%), but injuries have been a major concern. Lu was held to 35 games after missing time with both a thumb injury and a groin injury (the more significant of the two). Yet James Reimer could end up starting more games than Luongo, not necessarily because Luongo will be injured a lot but possibly also to give Luongo more rest in order to be effective. So it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Lu owners to handcuff James Reimer. Because Reimer could simply end up with more starts.

Compared to Luongo, Reimer struggled mightily last season (2.99 GAA, .913 SV%). On the other hand, Reimer has proven to be a timeshare-level goalie in the past, posting a 2.53 GAA and .920 SV% in 2016-17 and a 2.31 GAA and .922 SV% in 2015-16. If you’re looking in the discount bin for a goalie, you could probably do a lot worse than Reimer.

There’s not much in the way of news to speak of. But there was an interesting at-length interview with John Tortorella on the state of the Blue Jackets from The Athletic. A few takeaways:

He won’t let the contract situations of Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky affect his coaching. Both have a year left on their contracts.

Seems as though he’s cleared the air with Jack Johnson after Johnson signed with Pittsburgh and commented that he wanted to be a part of a winning culture, causing Torts to fire back. Not really any fantasy implications, as Johnson shouldn’t be on your radar at all.

Joonas Korpisalo will need to earn his playing time, even with the fact that he needs to clear waivers to go to the AHL and Bobrovsky’s uncertain contract situation. Bobrovsky is a top-5 goalie, so I can’t Korpisalo making a major fantasy impact unless Bob gets hurt.

Zach Werenski played through a torn labrum (shoulder) and basically couldn’t use his left arm. Because of the offseason surgery, Werenski should be considered questionable for opening night.

For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-pastrnak-vs-wheeler-giordano-panthers-goalies-sept-2/

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thrashermaxey · 6 years

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Ramblings: Thoughts on Raanta, Shattenkirk, Stone, plus more…

Thoughts on Raanta, Shattenkirk, Stone, plus more…

Don’t forget to pick up your Fantasy Guide, if you haven’t already. There’s so much in there that I haven’t read it from cover to cover, but I find myself referring to it every day.

We’ve officially reached a time in which there is little to no hockey news of much consequence. So I had to reach out to the good people of Twitter for some topics today.

Maybe I'm having writer's block, I don't know. But I could use a topic or two to write about in the Wednesday Ramblings. Hit me up and I may write about your topic if I can compose more than a few words about it.

— Ian Gooding (@Ian_Gooding) August 21, 2018

Here are my responses to some of your topics, all of which were related to hockey and none of which were related to hair products (I guess you guys think Cam has better hair than I do, which I’d kind of have to agree with). I apologize if I couldn’t get to yours; however, I’ll keep them on file and may respond in a future Ramblings, when I could run into writer’s block again (which is quite possible).

THN ranking Antti Raanta 8th in the league for goalies … ahead guys like Rinne, Price, Quick, Jones. https://t.co/iUunUIYN2D

— ᗰɿқ૯ ⚽️ (@MikeGT79) August 21, 2018

I’ll clarify that the above article isn’t necessarily a fantasy article – it’s probably more of a Vezina Trophy power ranking (although fantasy value and Vezina Trophy votes should be positively correlated).

Am I brave enough to rank Raanta in that spot? No I’m not. There are at least 4-5 goalies listed below Raanta (John Gibson and Frederik Andersen are two more beyond the ones that you’ve listed). But sometimes you have to take a bold stance because you’ll look good when it pays off. But there’s also method to Mr. McCaig’s madness.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Raanta is criminally underrated. That is at least partially due to the team he plays for. We tend to associate bad team with bad goalie, but in Raanta’s case this is simply not true. Does your league count GAA and SV%? Then you should probably know that Raanta’s .930 SV% and his 2.24 GAA were the best in the league among goalies who started at least 35 games. Maybe he caught lightning in a bottle, you say. Well, Raanta’s .927 SV% and 2.20 GAA are the best among goalies who played in at least 100 games over the past four seasons.

The low win totals obviously decrease Raanta’s value, and it’s hard to have much faith that the rebuilding team won’t hang him out to dry. That’s why I wouldn’t put him in the top 10… yet. But we’re at least at the point where we can say yes, absolutely, Raanta is a darkhorse to win the Vezina.

See the Twitter responses to this question for further discussion and a debate between Raanta and Andersen, who are each valuable in different types of goalie scoring formats.

Could just wing it and debate Mark Stone being left out of the top 20 wingers.

— Chris Wassel (@ChrisWasselDFS) August 21, 2018

I won’t try to steal Rick’s thunder, because he’s got a Cage Match involving Stone coming up. But if it’s Yahoo you’re referring to, we’ve already discussed that their rankings aren’t perfect. Want a few reasons Stone’s ranking might be low?

Injuries – an average of 64 games played over the last two seasons

Relatively low shot totals – never taken more than 160 shots in a season

Plus/minus risk (and possible production risk) from playing on a struggling Senators team

Having said that, I think Stone is an absolute steal at 136 in Yahoo leagues. There are those reasons to be concerned about him, especially in multicategory leagues. But we’re talking about a player who produced at a point per game last season and could very well do so again.

How’s that for winging it?

Veterans (30 and over) most likely to surprise with 65+ points who didn't have good seasons last year

— Rex Devereux (@rexdevereux94) August 21, 2018

That’s a hard one that I’m drawing a blank on. But am I allowed to answer one question with another?

Shattenkirk?

— Cameron (@DH_jcameronmetz) August 21, 2018

Okay, well I don’t think Shattenkirk will reach 65 points. And he’s not quite 30 yet. But he should at least be on your list for potential bounce-back players with what I believe will be a safe 40 points (health permitting) with upside for 50.

Ranked at 193 by Yahoo, Shattenkirk is a defenseman that you could pull significant value from as a late-round pick. Because he was playing through an injury, Shattenkirk wasn’t on pace for his best season (41 points over a full 82 games). But this was a blueliner who recorded a much higher scoring pace (56 points in 80 games) the season before split between St. Louis and Washington. He had also recorded at least 40 points in each of his last six full seasons.

Unless you consider Anthony DeAngelo to be a significant threat, Shattenkirk should be in no danger of being bumped from the first-unit power play. With a mostly youthful defense, the Rangers should lean heavily on their $6 million defenseman. Don’t forget about him in fantasy drafts, because he’s not at the point where we can say his production has fallen off a cliff.

Pick 4 dates. Read your articles from those dates. Could spark something.

— Bet Consensus (@betconsensus) August 21, 2018

I like the creativity in this suggestion, so I’ll pull one date at random… let’s go with one year ago today, the closest date to that being August 20. I wrote about different league platforms (Yahoo, CBS, ESPN, Fantrax), Travis Zajac/Pavel Zacha, Henrik Lundqvist, and Brock Boeser. You can read it here.

I’ll give you the summary if you don’t feel like clicking:

Zacha could not capitalize on Zajac’s early-season injury and never really recovered after that, finishing his second season with the same number of goals as his first (8) and just one more assist (17). In fact, his power-play production dropped from 13 PPP to 5 PPP, with a corresponding drop from 1:50 PPTOI/GP to 1:18 PPTOI/GP. He will obviously need more time to reach his full potential, but an improvement in power-play time would really help his numbers.

I predicted another 30-win season for Lundqvist, which he fell four wins short of. In defense, we probably didn’t know at the time that the Rangers would start a rebuild at the trade deadline. I also noted that his ratios were trending downward (2.74 GAA and .910 SV% in 2016-17), which was enough reason for me to let someone else reach for him. The save percentage improved (.915 SV%), but the goals-against average did not (2.98 GAA). My stance on Lundqvist today hasn’t changed; however, more fantasy owners probably now know that he is a low-G2/high-G3 at best in 12-team leagues.

Boeser: “He could either basically lead the Canucks in goal scoring, or he could spend significant time in the AHL.” I’d say the first statement came true, as Boeser led the Canucks with 29 goals in spite of missing 19 games. Barring another injury, I’d say Boeser has a better than 50-50 chance of scoring at least 30 goals. His 16% shooting accuracy is higher than that of many players, but his incredible shot should be the reason that you shouldn’t be too worried about regression.

I did also mention that the Canucks had 15 forwards signed to their roster at this time last season, which was the highest of any Western Conference team. Want to know how many they have now? The same number. The kicker is that number does not include Elias Pettersson, Nikolay Goldobin, Tyler Motte, Jonathan Dahlen, Reid Boucher, or Darren Archibald. So if the Canucks could dress seven forward lines, they’d be all set! Needless to say, I wouldn’t target the Canucks as a source of potential sleepers unless you’re looking right at potential super rookie Pettersson. But I will also predict that within this massive logjam of forwards, there will be one or two solid sleepers that will emerge, since the Canucks really only have one bonafide scoring line at the moment.

That was fun. I might have to try that again sometime.

You could do a very early Calder selection plus dark horses!

— PQsFantasyHockey (@FHPQuinn) August 21, 2018

Pettersson for Calder? He should be on short lists right now, I would think. I’ll predict that it won’t be Rasmus Dahlin, simply because of the time it takes for young defensemen to blossom. Casey Mittelstadt is another legit option. As is Eeli Tolvanen, if he can push his way onto a scoring line and the Predators are willing to take the training wheels off.

Dark horse picks? I’m going to say someone from the Carolina Hurricanes. I suppose Andrei Svechnikov isn’t a true dark horse pick. Martin Necas might not be either. But what about Valentin Zykov? Apparently he is still a rookie. Zykov played in 10 games last season (scoring seven points) while playing just 2 games the season before. I mentioned in an earlier Ramblings that the Canes moving Jeff Skinner could benefit Zykov tremendously.

In case you’re wondering, according to the Hockey Operations Guidelines, “To be considered a rookie, a player must not have played in more than 25 NHL games in any preceding seasons, nor in six or more NHL games in each of any two preceding seasons. Any player at least 26 years of age (by September 15th of that season) is not considered a rookie.”

For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-thoughts-on-raanta-shattenkirk-stone-plus-more/

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thrashermaxey · 6 years

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Ramblings: Teams To Target, Injured Goalie Dilemmas, plus more…

Teams to target, injured goalies, plus more…

Hi everyone, it’s Ian pinch-hitting for Steve tonight.

In a matchup of two of the league’s hottest scorers, one was able to keep his white-hot streak intact, while the other saw his long-time streak end.

Patrik Laine scored goal number 39, giving him eight goals over his past four games and 14 goals over his past ten games. Laine was already hot when Paul Stastny joined the Jets, but he has cranked the volume even higher since Stastny’s acquisition. This is a match made in heaven for both players, as Stastny now has six points over his last five games and is suddenly a must-own in fantasy leagues. The third man on that line (Nikolaj Ehlers) also has six points over his last five games, as well as 12 points over his last 10 games.

Unfortunately for his fantasy owners who have been able to count on at least one point per game for quite a while, Taylor Hall’s personal point streak ended at 26 games. How great has it been? Hall scored 22 points over his previous 15 games played. Or to put it another way:

New Jersey Devils scoring leaders this season:

Nico Hischier – 41 Taylor Hall's last 26 games – 38 Taylor Hall's first 36 games – 36 Jesper Bratt – 34 Kyle Palmieri – 33

— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) March 7, 2018

I posted this the other night, getting some reaction from the Twitterverse:

So if Tuukka Rask and Ben Bishop and Antti Raanta are the goalies on one of your fantasy teams, what do you do?

— Ian Gooding (@Ian_Gooding) March 6, 2018

So here’s an update on my injured goaltending tales of woe. I added Craig Anderson and was able to wait it out with Rask, who returned on Thursday night. So I ended up with three goalies I could start: Rask, Anderson, and Charlie Lindgren. Fortunately I made the right call and started Rask and Anderson over Lindgren. I can probably get by with those three goalies for now, although I’m not super confident in Lindgren and I dropped Anderson from another team last week.

On that other team, two of my three goalies suddenly became unavailable on Monday: Antti Raanta (who I added when I dropped Anderson) and Sergei Bobrovsky. Needless to say, I was sweating because this is the week before my fantasy playoffs start and I haven’t clinched a playoff spot yet (although I am currently holding one). And my other goalie is Jaroslav Halak! It appears that Bob could start tonight (Friday), as he was able to suit up as the backup on Thursday. As well, I was able to add Darcy Kuemper and start him on Wednesday against the Canucks, picking up a victory in the process. So I’m feeling a little more settled with this team as well.

Speaking of which, don’t sleep on the Coyotes as a team that could help your fantasy squad down the stretch. At this point they have as many games left as the Bruins, Panthers, and Senators (16), which is the most of all teams. If you’re not sold on adding Raanta or Kuemper (both of whom I added to this team over the past week), keep in mind that the Yotes are 9-2-2 over the past 30 days. So their place in the standings is a bit misleading compared to the team that they are now, just because of their awful start.

Here’s a couple Coyotes to target: Derek Stepan has 13 points over his last 14 games. He’s still unowned in over two-thirds of Yahoo leagues. Clayton Keller is more likely to be owned (nearly half of Yahoo leagues). He has 13 points over his last 13 games and can play all three forward positions in Yahoo leagues, so he might be useful if you can find him.

Not long after I dropped Thomas Vanek after a very uneventful first few games with the Blue Jackets, he scored twice on eight shots on goal and earned a plus-3 rating on Thursday. My prediction on Vanek has been incorrect in that he is not on the Jackets’ first-unit power play. Vanek was held without a point and had taken just four shots on goal in his first four games with his new team.

Seth Jones had a similar game on Thursday, scoring a goal and adding two assists on seven shots on goal in nearly 24 minutes of icetime. Jones has eclipsed Zach Werenski as the defenseman of choice for the Blue Jackets, pushing the higher-drafted Werenski to the second-unit power play. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if this reverses itself next season, if not perhaps sooner.

The Jackets’ top-unit power play on Thursday consisted of Jones and the following forwards:

60% PP ATKINSON,CAM – DUBOIS,PIERRE-LUC – PANARIN,ARTEMI – WENNBERG,ALEXANDER

Werenski was able to slip in a little bit of time on the first-unit power play, as his power-play goal was assisted by Jones and Dubois. The Jackets’ power play is 30th in the NHL and went 1-for-5 on Thursday, so expect John Tortorella to continue to keep it in a state of flux while they fight for a playoff spot.

With an assist on Thursday, Mark Stone extended his point streak to ten games. He has 15 points over that stretch, but surprisingly only two of those points are goals.

Although his contract is constantly mentioned as one of the worst in the league ($7.25 million for four more seasons after this one), Stone’s current linemate Bobby Ryan entered Thursday’s game with eight points over his last seven games. He was held without a point on Thursday, but the Sens’ high number of games remaining (see above) makes Ryan not as bad a player to target late-season as you might think.

Because of Reilly Smith’s upper-body injury, Tomas Tatar was moved up to the Golden Knights’ top line with Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson just in time for his first meeting with the Red Wings since they traded him at the deadline. But it was the third line that did all the scoring for VGK, as Cody Eakin and Alex Tuch each scored two goals on Thursday.

Shutout shoutout to Marc-Andre Fleury, who made 28 saves.

It seems as if every Tampa Bay Lightning forward has been worth owning on fantasy teams as one time or another this season. The latest is Anthony Cirelli, who scored a goal and added two assists with a plus-3 on Thursday. Since his callup from the AHL, Cirelli has five points (2g-3a) in just four games. Cirelli hasn’t really lined up with any high-level Bolts (Alex Killorn and Adam Erne were his linemates on Thursday), so I wouldn’t get too excited about him… yet. He has some pedigree, though, as you may remember him from Canada’s World Junior team last season.

With a goal and two assists and a plus-3 of his own, Ryan Spooner now has ten points (2g-8a) in just six games as a Ranger. Do you think he likes it there so far? Spooner was held without a point in his previous two games, but has multiple points in the other four. Spooner’s Ranger breakout has helped the recent fantasy value of linemate Kevin Hayes (six points over his last six games).

Roberto Luongo’s 40-save shutout was his second of the season and 75th of his career. Since his return from injury, he has made James Reimer obsolete. The Panthers’ recent success has a lot to do with Luongo, who has seven wins and a 2.31 GAA and .934 SV% in the nine games since his return.

Nick Bjugstad scored again, giving him ten points (5g-5a) over his past eight games. Bjugstad was at the top of my list of potential adds this week for my Sportsnet piece Finding Fantasy Value.

With three helpers and a plus-3 on Thursday, Keith Yandle has seven assists and a plus-5 over his past four games. Since February 1, Shayne Gostisbehere is the only defenseman that has more assists than Yandle (15 assists in 16 games). Needless to say, Yandle has been a big help to teams in the fantasy playoffs and should continue to be a major asset given the Panthers’ favorable schedule.

The addition of Yandle last season was thought to have hurt Aaron Ekblad’s fantasy value, as Ekblad was held to just 21 points with a minus-23. But Ekblad has rebounded nicely with 29 points in 65 games, including assists in five of his last six games. Coincidentally, Ekblad and Yandle are regular even-strength defense partners.

Is Pekka Rinne in the discussion for comeback player of the year? The Predators’ win streak is now at ten games, while Rinne is on a personal eight-game win streak. I’ll admit I didn’t target him thinking that age was catching up to him and Juuse Saros would grab an increased number of starts. But at the moment, is there any goalie that you would feel more confident in a playoff pool right now than Rinne?

With another two goals on Thursday, Rickard Rakell is red hot with eight goals over his last five games.

One goalie I’ve seen dropped in one of my leagues recently is Jake Allen, who was called on to start on Thursday after Carter Hutton was scratched at the last moment with an injury. Allen was solid, stopping 34 of 35 shots he faced. Allen hasn’t earned a win in a month and hasn’t been great, but he hasn’t received any kind of run support from his offense.

Blues have scored one goal in Jake Allen's past eight periods in goal

— Tom Timmermann (@tomtimm) March 9, 2018

Entering the third period, in San Jose, Jake Allen had gone 276 minutes 39 seconds without a lead by the Blues.

— Jim Thomas (@jthom1) March 9, 2018

Let’s just say as the Blues fall out of the playoff race, some of Allen’s teammates aren’t bringing it right now. I’m pointing the finger at you, Brayden Schenn. Normally Schenn is a multicategory beast, but the offense has dried up (no goals and two assists in his last seven games). Same with Alex Steen (no goals and two assists in his last eight games).

Schenn was the player I targeted in multiple leagues this season for his multicategory value and where I could draft him. I hadn’t thought about this until now, but now I’m wondering whether it’s worth my while to keep him in my shallower single-season league. Since January 30, Schenn has basically been average with just three goals and seven points in 16 games. It’s been a great run but it’s starting to fizzle, so it wouldn’t be inconceivable to drop him if you need to do everything possible to keep your fantasy season alive.

For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-teams-to-target-injured-goalie-dilemmas-plus-more/

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