The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review believes the Penguins are dodging a bullet because one of hockey's great two-way players, Canucks center Ryan Kesler, is nursing a hip injury and won't be available for Thursday night's season opener.
Center Jordan Staal, entering his sixth NHL season at age 23, might be poised to see his offensive numbers spike just like Kesler's did.
Both became NHL regulars because of strong defensive play, and Canucks captain Henrik Sedin suggested Staal could follow Kesler's lead and become a dynamic offensive player.
"I see so many similarities between Jordan and Kesler," Sedin said. "It seems like Jordan has been in the league forever, but you must remember how young he is. The offense will come."
Even if Staal doesn't post 30-plus goals ever season, the Penguins won't complain. At worst, he's the league's best third-line center and a penalty-killing monster who elevates his game in the playoffs.
There's nothing wrong with that, but Staal may be capable of more. Coach Dan Bylsma's believes Staal's good health — he missed all of training camp and the first half of last season after foot surgeries and a broken hand — will lead to a strong season.
"We see many players struggle after not having training camp and miss half the year," Bylsma said. "No one gives Jordan credit for that. He got better in his numbers; he played a more significant role."
The Tribune-Review notes that instead of methodically working himself into NHL shape last season, Staal became the Penguins' first-line center for the first time. With Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin out with season-ending injuries, Staal became the player that the opposition focused on.
"He did well," Sedin said. "He makes great plays all the time, just like Kesler. It took Kesler a while before he scored lots of goals. It will be the same thing with Staal."
Bylsma said he witnessed a new Staal during training camp. Finally able to enjoy a healthy summer and camp, Staal was more poised with the puck than in previous seasons.
"I think there's been a significant boost in the way he's skating and going to the net," Bylsma said. "You're going to see him get better. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get 10 more points (than his career high) this year."
Drafted three years before Staal, Kesler only recently became an offensive force. Staal could be on the same path.
"He's going to keep getting better and better," Sedin said. "You'll see."
The Vancouver Province believes that Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo is loose, calm and confident headed into '11-12 and there are some good reasons. For starters, the season is just beginning and he's not going through the rather significant style changes he made last year. There's comfort in that.
The changes this year are subtle in comparison. His glove hand will be higher and he wants more active hands. Again, he wants to evolve his game. His emotions, too. He's setting out to stay more even keel. He wants to be less reactive. Sounds like a good idea, which may be easier to hope for than to execute.
At least he knows what he's getting into in this market. By now, he must have seen and heard it all.
"This is my sixth year here, I've become accustomed to certain things," he said. "You become used to it. I understand the type of market I'm in. When the team is not playing well, when I'm not playing well, when we're not winning games, (the scrutiny) is going to there."
Maybe more than ever. For all the positives Cory Schneider will do to help Luongo by absorbing some of his workload, there may be some negatives in having a backup who is ready to start in the NHL. As long as Schneider is here, the city and its hockey fans will be mired in a goalie controversy.
"You're going to have questions about it probably on a daily basis if things don't get out on the right foot," Luongo said.
"I know what you guys are asking me and I can figure out what's being written and said. But as an athlete you can't let that stuff get to you. We're all human, I would say 99% of the time I'm okay with most of the stuff.
"But I don't know anyone who wants to hear negative stuff about themselves."
With the peaks of last year's stellar stats, The Province notes, came Luongo's valleys. He struggled and was benched in Chicago. He was terrible in Boston in the finale. It hasn't deterred him.
"No matter what happened last year, this is the game I love and the game I love to play," Luongo said. "I want to get back at it as soon as possible. It's fun being around the guys again, doing what I love."
Luongo may be a lot of things, but overrated isn't one of them. You could argue he's come full circle. From overrated to overlooked. It could be a good thing. Most believe the pressure is more intense than ever. But the expectations are lower than ever. That's the way it's going to be until the playoffs.
"But we have a lot of work to do to get back there," Luongo said. "It's a tough grind. We have to focus on right now. We can't worry about the playoffs.
"Once we get there, we'll be ready for it."
QUOTABLE
"So far, everybody expects for me like every game we're playing during the season that we need to win by a shootout or that we can't give up more than one goal," new Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov told Philly.com. "That's not going to happen every night. Some nights, yes, it will be like that. Some nights, not. It's hard to predict."
He continued, "I can't promise everything. But I can promise that I will be faithful, be honest and work hard."
The Ottawa Citizen describes how 37-year old Sergei Gonchar knows time is running out on his career and that the chances of him winning the Stanley Cup this season are remote, but he says he feels a lot more comfortable with his environment than he did at this time a year ago.
He likes the style new Sens coach Paul MacLean has brought to the team, a marked change from the way former coach Cory Clouston wanted him to play.
“It’s similar to the way I played in Pittsburgh and I know more of the details,” he said. “It’s more automatic to me, it’s more a habit to me on the ice, rather than learning something new and thinking through the game, about where you should be.”
Gonchar freely acknowledges he had a terrible 2010-11 season, along with the rest of the team.
After signing a three-year, $15.5-million US contract as a free agent, he never found his feet, finishing the year with seven goals and 20 assists.
With the exception of 2008-09, when he played only 25 games due to injuries, it was his lowest offensive output since the 1997-98 season with Washington.
Naturally, he’s hoping to find his old form and he likes being paired with the more physical, stay-at-home Jared Cowen in even-strength situations, which should allow him to join the rush more often.
If, as expected, the Senators struggle to score goals, Gonchar’s role on the power play will also be vital to any success.
As the Senators spent time Wednesday practising their play with the man advantage, Gonchar and Erik Karlsson held the point positions on what appears to be the first unit.
“I think we’re going to see more power plays at the beginning of the season — we usually do — so it’s very important to have a good one early, making sure we have lots of chances to score and to create momentum,” Gonchar said.
The Ottawa Sun, incidentally, notes that Jason Spezza, Nikita Filatov and Milan Michalek rounded out the first unit Wednesday.
BRUINS VS FLYERS LINEUP
The Boston Globe has tonight's projected lineup for the Flyers game: Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Nathan Horton/ Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Rich Peverley/ Benoit Pouliot - Chris Kelly - Tyler Seguin/ Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton/ Zdeno Chara - Joe Corvo/ Dennis Seidenberg - Johnny Boychuk/ Andrew Ference - Adam McQuaid
The Philadelphia Daily News believes this will be it for the Flyers this evening: James van Riemsdyk - Claude Giroux - Jaromir Jagr/ Jakub Voracek - Danny Briere - Wayne Simmonds/ Scott Hartnell - Sean Couturier - Matt Read/ Andreas Nodl - Max Talbot - Zac Rinaldo/ Matt Carle - Chris Pronger/ Kimmo Timonen - Andrej Meszaros/ Braydon Coburn - Matt Walker
Here's the thing about Teddy Purcell's shot, writes The St. Petersburg Times:
"It's outstanding," Lightning coach Guy Boucher said.
But …
"I don't think he knows how outstanding it is."
Same with Purcell's skating.
"We keep telling him he has great speed. He just doesn't know how much."
Same with Purcell's game.
"He just doesn't know," Boucher said, "how good he is."
It is time for the right wing and the Lightning to find out.
Purcell, 26, has an enormous opportunity this season. He will be on a line with center Vinny Lecavalier and Ryan Malone in Friday's opener at Carolina. And with Simon Gagne gone as a free agent, Purcell is in line for more minutes and more chances to contribute and solidify himself as the top-six forward Tampa Bay sorely needs.
The article posits that if he plays like he did during last season's playoffs — when he had six goals and 17 points in 18 games — his new two-year, $4.725 million deal will be a bargain.
But if Purcell, acquired in March 2010 from the Kings for Jeff Halpern, falls into his old pattern of inconsistency, well, that will be a concern.
Consider that last season, despite career bests of 17 goals, 34 assists and 51 points, Purcell had stretches of 19, 15 and 14 games with one goal.
"I was more consistent throughout the playoffs," Purcell said Wednesday at the Ice Sports Forum. "That's something I've tried to work on since I got to Tampa Bay. I've talked to the coaching staff, trying to be a more consistent player instead of having so many ups and downs. I want to be more of a complete player and more of a go-to guy."
Boucher offered this: "A leopard doesn't change his spots. He's still the same person he was last year with a bit more confidence but still not the confidence he will get eventually."
How good is Purcell?
"You haven't seen it yet," Boucher said. "You think you've seen it because he's played great, but he's even better than that. That's what I think."
Some notes from today’s Kings practice from LA Kings Insider:
Dustin Penner is “80 percent,” according to Terry Murray, but won’t play tomorrow. Penner skated for 40 minutes today and remains day-to-day.
Jonathan Quick will start tomorrow, but Murray would not commit to a starting goalie for Saturday.
Murray said Drew Doughty would be able to play a full complement of minutes in all situations.
The forwards will skate the way they practiced today, and Murray cited Brad Richardson, in particular, as having a strong camp.
Gagne-Kopitar-Williams/ Richardson-Richards-Brown/ Parse-Stoll-Hunter/ Clifford-Lewis-Moreau
Mike from TO: Hey Chris, As always I am a fan of your blog and used your rankings to help me with my draft last night. I was hoping to get your opinion on the team. I think I was able to snag some quality players in later rounds...
It's a keeper (my keepers were: Backstrom, Parise, Hall, Nash, Green, Thomas)
The league stat categories: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP and W, GAA, SV%, SO
The Team: C - Backstrom, Richards, Spezza LW - Parise, Hall, Nash RW - Gaborik, Selanne, Jagr D - Green, Pronger, Wisniewski, Gonchar G - Thomas, Brodeur, (Rask on bench) BN - Corvo, Percell, Gagne
As always - THANKS and I can't wait to follow you again this year."
Chris: Thanks for reading Mike, as always. That has the makings of a killer team, actually. It's strong for an 8-team league and if it's deeper than that, even better. Wisniewski's suspension hurts for now, but I do think Corvo will produce really well in Boston and the +/- will be solid.
Hopefully this is H2H or a three-slot (per position) roto league because your team is really deep everywhere and it'd be a shame to waste all that production. Love the goaltending. Strong roster all-around. Well done.
Jim: Hi Chris! I haven't e-mailed you in a while, but it was the off season ya know. ;-)
Great job with your column as always... and nice job with the player lists, truly an incredible resource!
We had our league's fantasy draft tonight and picking 4th I was amazed to have Alex the Great fall into my hands! I could not believe it... (though 1 team was auto-picked).
Anyway I'm pretty pleased with my team... stacked in goal and some high caliber snipers. My D is a bit weak and I took some chances with some injury prone guys in the later rounds, but you have to sacrifice somewhere sometimes. Hoping for some bounce-back years from a few guys.
Here's the breakdown:
POINTS LEAGUE - 10 teams:
Roster Positions: F, F, F, F, F, F, F, F, F, F, D, D, D, D, G, G, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN Forwards/Defensemen Stat Category Value Goals (G) 2 Assists (A) 1 Powerplay Points (PPP) 1 Shorthanded Goals (SHG) 2 Shorthanded Assists (SHA) 1 Game-Winning Goals (GWG) 2 Shots on Goal (SOG) 0.25 Goaltenders Stat Category Value Wins (W) 3 Saves (SV) .10 Shutouts (SHO) 3
My team:
Round Pick Player Position 1. (4) Alex Ovechkin F 2. (17) Ryan Miller G 3. (24) Rick Nash F 4. (37) Jimmy Howard G 5. (44) Alexander Semin F 6. (57) Martin Brodeur G 7. (64) Kris Letang D 8. (77) Marian Hossa F 9. (84) Mikko Koivu F 10. (97) Alexander Edler D 11. (104) Michael Cammalleri F 12. (117) Tomas Plekanec F 13. (124) Andrei Markov D 14. (137) Daniel Alfredsson F 15. (144) Andy McDonald F 16. (157) Erik Johnson D 17. (164) Devin Setoguchi F 18. (177) Steve Sullivan F 19. (184) Sergei Gonchar D 20. (197) Martin Erat F 21. (204) Tyler Seguin F 22. (217) David Jones F 23. (224) Victor Hedman D
Thanks for taking a look. Hope to hear back from you. Enjoy the season... and good luck to your young and up and coming Oilers!!! ;-)"
Chris: Thanks Jim. I really can't wait to see the Oilers this year. Should be fun.
To get Ovechkin fourth in a goal-weighted league is pretty sweet. Nash, Semin and Hosss are no slouches in that department either. Your goaltending is set, but with three of the top six picks invested there it better be. Getting Letang that late is incredible. He should have a beastly season. Edler will be a deal too.
Setoguchi has the SOG boost for you and he should thrive with more ice time in Minny. Alfie is still a great deal that late. Erik Johnson there? Nice. Sullivan... can't ask for a better spot in PIT and that late he's easily worth it. Even McDonald is a pretty nice bargain.
I don't remember if your league is roto or H2H, so I'm not sure if you'll be able to fully capitalize on all three starting goalies you have or not with those two goalie slots. But either way, you're more than covered in case of injury and any of those three should make for good trade bait if you need it at all this season.
Email: chris.nichols@sportsnet.rogers.com
Submit your brief fantasy hockey question for a Hockey Hearsay blog via email. One per person, please and include your first name and hometown to represent!
