Bobby Butler made a hell of a move last night as he scored twice in a 3-1 Ottawa win over the Calgary Flames. Butler only played a little over 8:00 of ice time in the victory in case anyone had noticed. That was not the only peculiar event last night that got our attention. Here are a few more.
A Look Back…….
Florida takes Dallas behind woodshed 6-0 — Clearly this was not even remotely expected but they came in and were ready to place in Dallas. Dallas, however, forgot that memo very clearly. Stephen Weiss not only had a goal and two assists but was also an astounding +6. Kris Versteeg also had three points in the road rout. Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen had 11 wins on the year but was no match for Florida’s timely assault. The defense had hung him out to draft and most were a -2 or -3 on the night. It was a long, strange one for fantasy owners at the AAC.
Nicklas Backstrom acts like stone wall — Columbus went up 2-0 and was outshooting Minnesota 15-2 early on. The Blue Jackets would keep on shooting but in the end lost 4-2 mostly because Backstrom stood on his net making 43 stops. He was able to hold off Columbus long enough until the rest of the team decided to show up. Minnesota has a great 1A and 1B combo which seems to be a staple on good Minnesota teams in the past.
The Pens storm back with five unanswered — Pittsburgh was down 3-1 after 1 and then 3-2 after 2 but still did not quite feel in the game. Then Aaron Asham spoke and apparently people listened as the Penguins scored 4 goals in the first 10:30 of the period en route to a 6-3 win that looked fairly routine after the onslaught. James Neal had three points including a clutch power play goal in the third period but Evgeni Malkin (1 G 1 A) had the goal that everyone was talking about. I almost forgot Neal’s three points came in about 6:00 of actual elapsed time on the ice. That is fantasy efficient.
SCHEDULE TIME:
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 |
|||||
| Teams | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carolina | at | Montreal | 7:00 PM | ||
| New Jersey | at | Buffalo | 7:30 PM | ||
| Chicago | at | Vancouver | 10:00 PM | ||
| Anaheim | at | Los Angeles | 10:30 PM | ||
Get ready and expect four fun tilts tomorrow night all with rivalry like atmosphere. Carolina and Montreal still hold a grudge all the way back from 2006. New Jersey and Buffalo have a pretty good give and take as well. Then you get the obvious Chicago-Vancouver lovefest along with the Freeway Faceoff between Anaheim and Los Angeles. Sure it is a light schedule but it will have some solid pop potentially.
Here is quickly what has caught our eye for Wednesday Night.
A LOOK AHEAD……..
P.K. Subban, D, Montreal Canadiens — At some point, he just has to score out of mercy. When a player has no goals and 51 shots in 17 games, the red flags do begin to go up some. Especially consider that he had 14 goals last year and was expected to come close to 20 this year. Nothing really has gone right at all for Subban in the early going and the best thing is he does get a Carolina team coming in that faces many problems from several different angles. This may be the night that Subban finally gets it on track on the goal sheet.
Martin Brodeur Vs. Jhonas Enroth — This was not quite how it was drawn up but it still shapes up to be quite the little goaltending matchup. Brodeur has very solid career numbers against Buffalo and though he is not really the goalie he once was, he is still a man who can turn back the clock from time to time. Now Enroth comes in after holding the fort down in a 3-2 SO win over Montreal where he did look a little human early but Montreal was never able to get that third goal. One gets the feeling that even the first to two may win this duel but I think it actually takes three with a lot of high quality saves in this one. It will be fun to watch.
Cam Fowler, D, Anaheim Ducks — The next two days will tell us a lot about Fowler. Yes he has to carry the Ducks offensive production from the backend for about a month but he will be going up against a very angry Los Angeles team. We could have used several different players from this matchup but Fowler and his eight points intrigued us the most because of what he could do against LA. The speed and skills are all there for him. Expect some high paced action from both sides and good Fowler/Doughty production if you have managed to luck out fantasy wise in that regard.
As always expect a fun night and you can follow us @TheProgramBTR for the latest hockey and fantasy hockey news. Also, do expect Chris Stewart to get a suspension for his hit on Mr. Kronwall last night. Good lucky fantasy owners.
