Thursday, December 25, 2008

The Puck Stops Here: Merry Christmas


This being Christmas day, I would like to wish all out there a merry Christmas.  For those of you who do not celebrate Christmas, happy holidays.  This will be a brief post due to the holiday and the limited action we have seen over the last week.

Ryan Whitney is officially back.  That's the good news.  The bad news is he looked slow, choppy, and didn't handle the puck well at all.  He will get better and be a worthy fantasy defenseman.  I have never been a Whitney fan, I think he is a lazy hockey player, and because of this he will never attain that top ten defenseman status, but he will be a solid contributor as he gets back in shape.  I hope he proves me wrong, but I have never seen a defenseman glide around on the ice as much as him.  Temper your expectations for the time being.

Paul Statsny will be out for probably 6 to 8 weeks, assuming the break isn't worse than a normal bone break.  I have to downgrade every person in the Avalanche lineup.  Statsny is by far their most talented offensive player and losing someone of his ability will hurt everyone around him.   Teams don't have to key in on him leaving more men to pay attention to other players.  You may see a slight production in one or two players but not enough to really make them worth while.

If I own Alex Semin, I am selling ASAP.  He is starting to mimic Marian Gaborik.  A player who is supremely talented and can light the lamp but can't seem to stay healthy.  Cash in Semin's point-per-game average and ridiculous plus/minus while you still can.  Semin can still fetch another top 15 forward if you act fast and catch the right owner.  I just don't trust him staying healthy for an extended period of time.

Sorry for the short post, I'll make it up to you next week.  Until then, I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday.





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1 comments:

Mike Colligan said...

The latest out of Washington is Semin is having trouble even walking with his recent back reinjury..."asap" might not be soon enough to dump him. Doesn't sound good.