Fantasy Hockey Analysis

Fantasy Hockey Scouts: The Fantasy Five - Week 18

#1 Give 'em a Look

This is more for those of you in points-only leagues as he won’t contribute in a lot of categories but Brendan Morrison is on a roll lately with 4+7=11 over his last nine games. Rather surprisingly, Calgary has made quite a resurgence lately and Morrison is one of the reasons as he’s stepped into the #1C void and has had some nice chemistry with Iginla & Tanguay lately while playing upwards of 20 minutes (and on the top PP unit) most nights.

Others worth a look: Kristian Huselius (Clb – LW), Brad Marchand (Bos - LW), Michael Frolik (Chi – W) and Marc-Andre Bergeron (TB – D)

I like Ondrej Pavelec and wouldn’t advise dropping him unless you have a decent alternative but just want to make sure that people aren’t fooled by his decent numbers on the season (2.59 gaa & .922 sv%). He barely played in October after collapsing on opening night but here are his gaa & sv% by month... Nov: 1.55 & .951, Dec: 2.62 & .922, Jan: 3.24 & .908 and Feb: 4.01 & .872. Does anyone see a pattern there?

Others worth a boot: Shawn Horcoff (Edm – C), Tomas Kopecky (Chi – W), Pavel Kubina (TB - D) and Kevin Poulin (NYI – G)

Last week we discussed how the Penguins were without Sidney Crosby but would soon get Evgeni Malkin back... well Malkin did return and promptly suffered a major knee injury that will require surgery and put him on the shelf for six months... so much for that idea. Btw, no real update on Crosby’s situation as he still isn’t feeling well enough to do anything other than light workouts.

Anaheim has an interesting situation right now as Jonas Hiller is on the IR due to a nasty case of fatigue. Not sure if that’s all it is but he’s been trying to catch up on some rest while sitting out the past two games. This pushes Curtis McElhinney to the forefront for the time being and while he’s been a decent backup this season, the Ducks recently signed Ray Emery and he’ll begin his NHL comeback attempt in the AHL. I’m still skeptical that Emery’s body will hold up enough for him to make it all the way back but with Hiller needing the rest, there’s a possibility that he’ll be given an opportunity.

Interesting article by Kent Wilson over at Puck Prospectus that details (with statistical evidence) some guys that have had rotten luck so far this year and who you should expect a turnaround from down the stretch. A few of them, you will notice, have already begun to turn things around.