Ice Chips: Week 12
Chris Higgins is back for the Canadiens and he looks like he hasn’t skipped a beat. He may have been dropped in your fantasy league due to his long-term injury, so see if he’s available.
Ilya Kovalchuk decided to shoot for the all-time shots-in-a-game record by firing off 12 last night. That eclipses the 10 and 11 shot nights he had back in October.
Tomas Vokoun should be coming back in the next few weeks. With the way Chris Mason has been playing, you gotta wonder if the Predators are going to be fielding any calls about Mason’s availability. Mason would jump at the chance to be a true No. 1 goalie.
More bad news for Wayne Gretzky — it looks like Ed Jovanovski tweaked his groin, adding to the list of walking wounded in Phoenix.
The Marian Gaborik watch continues. Actually, it hasn’t really gone anywhere since he’s still in “will he/won’t he limbo land.”
Peter Forsberg’s undergoing further tests for his latest concussion, courtesy of Alexander Ovechkin. Could this be the end of the line for Forsberg?
The unpredictable Senators got a wrench thrown into their plans with Jason Spezza’s knee injury against the Lightning. His status is that he’s out “indefinitely” — most likely because it will require some testing to see how bad it is. Still, “indefinitely” is never a good thing.
Who’s flying under the radar? Jozef Stumpel, perennial underachiever, has tallied up six assists in the Panthers’ small winning streak.
Mark this in the “unfair” category — Anaheim’s Twin Towers of Defense have more combined points (37 for Chris Pronger, 30 for Scott Niedermayer) than SoCal rivals Los Angeles’ top two forwards (33 for Alexander Frolov, 32 for Anze Kopitar).
You think the Sharks wished they kept Tom Preissing instead of moving him in the Mark Bell three-way trade? Bell’s woes have been well documented here, but Preissing is leading the league in +/- with a +23, while racking up 16 points.
When was the last time a rookie led the league in shorthanded goals? I have no idea, but Jordan Staal popped in another one last night, making that five shorties among his 10 goals this season.
Sidney Crosby’s got a 10-game point streak going on. How long will it last? The Pens line up against the Devils, Thrashers and Leafs next. Look for the Devils to have the best chance at stopping Sid the Kid.
Tuomo Ruutu’s leading the league in shooting percentage at almost 25 per cent. It’s just too bad he’s got one of the lowest shot totals in the league.
The Week Ahead
- No games on the 24th or 25th! Everyone take a breather and celebrate Festivus!
- We hit the ground running with 12 games on the 26th. Watch out for the Ducks and Sharks as they rematch last week’s street fight.
- Check out the Thrashers-Pens on Wednesday, December 27. Chances are, it will be a high flying game.
- How will the Spezza-less Senators do? They’ve got a mild schedule with only the Flyers and Islanders coming up. After that, hopefully there will be a clearer prognosis on Spezza’s return.
- The Red Wings are developing a little nastiness with Columbus (perhaps some leftover venom over Sergei Fedorov?) and the two play again on Thursday, December 28.
