Posted by John Pereira, special to ESPN.com
The Pittsburgh Penguins showed they can win without Sidney Crosby in their lineup. With Crosby sitting in a luxury suite suffering from a high ankle sprain, Geoff Taffe and Evgeni Malkin gave the Pens all the offense they needed on the night. Each scored a goal and Pittsburgh got another outstanding effort in net, this time from Dany Sabourin. Sabourin made 31 saves to pick up the shutout in the 2-0 win, making his first start since December 21st to spell the red hot Ty Conklin. A bit of more bad news for the Penguins on the injury front. Colby Armstrong left the game with a bruised hip just 14 seconds into the first period. There's still no word yet on the severity of the injury.
An original six matchup had to be decided by the shootout on Saturday night and it ended a little differently than one would have imagined. Boston coach Claude Julien, who's team was playing in it's third straight overtime game, gave his big guy the rare chance to end it. Zdeno Chara threw his full 6'9" frame behind a slapshot on the shootout and fired it past Henrik Lundqvist to give the Bruins the come from behind win. Scott Gomez and Jaromir Jagr each had a goal and two assists during regulation time. It's certainly a sign that the two could begin connecting at the pace they did in late December.
John Ferguson Jr. lives another day as the revival of the Toronto Maple Leafs continued their winning ways Saturday night. They beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 for their third straight victory after a disastrous start to the new year. Alex Steen and Nik Antropov each had a goal and an assist to lead the way on offense, while Jason Blake and Alexei Ponikarovsky scored as well. The goal by Blake was the first exciting one I can remember him scoring this season and showed us why he is so valuable on the ice. He used good speed to streak down the wing and let loose a wicked wrist shot to beat Ryan Miller. Surely, if the Leafs were to have a firesale before the trade deadline, other GM's were watching and liked what they saw. I'd see if I could pick up Blake on the cheap in the fantasy world and hope that the same thing happens in real life.
Saturday night was a mix of the expected and unexpected in Ottawa. It was no surprise to see the Tampa Bay Lightning's offense lead by Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier. What was a shocker, was to see the powerful Senators look so lame on the ice falling 2-0 to the lowly Lightning. Granted the Senators are missing Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley, two all-star wingers to injury, but one would figure that the rest of the lineup would have been able to muster up one goal at least. So while Johan Holmqvist was able to register his second straight shutout for Tampa Bay, keep in mind the result would have been much different should the Senators have been healthy.
Imagine a game with Rick Nash and a game without a candidate for goal of the year. Seems unthinkable doesn't it? But that's, unfortunately, what happened on Saturday night as the Blue Jackets fell to the Dallas Stars 3-1. Backup Mike Smith made the rare start for the Stars and looked good stopping 29 shots to steal the win. He managed to keep the Blue Jackets at bay despite the fact that his team was outshot at a nearly 2-1 pace. Steve Ott, Stu Barnes and Brenden Morrow provided the offense for the Stars each scoring once. Ott intrigues me the most, as a source of penalty minutes and offense. In a deeper league a player who's accounted for 90 penalty minutes and five goals so far this season, can be quite valuable.
Scott Hartnell came to Philadelphia with a lot of expectations and now he's finally starting to meet them. Hartnell scored three times and added an assist as the Flyers beat the Islanders 5-3. He's on pace to beat his career high in points and has taken the 'Broad Street Bullies' mantra truly to heart. In any single season before, Hartnell had only picked up 111 penalty minutes, this year he could very well surpass 200. He's owned in nearly every ESPN league right now, but a week ago, he was available in about 50 percent. His owner isn't likely to be too attached quite yet to not consider a trade. Martin Biron made the start in net for the Flyers and looked pretty good on the night to show he's still got some gas left in the tank and won't let Antero Nittymaki take the job away so easily.
At this pace, Nicklas Backstrom could give Patrick Kane a run at the Rookie of the Year title. Backstrom picked up four assists as the Washington Capitals beat Florida 5-3. He's certainly living up to the hype as an elite playmaker with 27 assists on the season and should continue to produce at an elite pace as he's playing regular shifts with the likes of Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin and Viktor Kozlov. Speaking of young players, Shawn Matthias introduced himself to the NHL. In only his second career game he scored his first two career goals. Matthias is coming off a great tournament with team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships and was the key player in the Todd Bertuzzi deal with Detroit at the trade deadline last season. He's playing on the power play as well with Olli Jokinen and could be a great add in fantasy leagues.
It was a battle of the goaltenders as the Phoenix Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks met up on Saturday. Ilya Bryzgalov and Patrick Lalime were both sharp allowing only a goal each through regulation time. Lalime, by far, was the better goalie on the night though stopping 38 shots and both shootout attempts to pick up the win in the 2-1 final. The win was Lalime's fourth consecutive for the Blackhawks. He's playing good hockey over that stretch and might be worth an short term add from the waiver wire. Lalime is available in more than 90 percent of ESPN leagues right now and that number should climb quickly as Nikolai Khabibulin continues to ride the pine.
The Los Angeles Kings continued their surprising turnaround with a 4-3 win over Vancouver. Jason LaBarbera stole the show as he made 43 saves in the win. It's now likely a good time to trade LaBarbera away if you own him in a fantasy league as his value is currently quite high. He's just too inconsistent to be counted on, on a regular basis. Alexander Frolov scored a goal and picked up an assist in the win, to bump his yearly total to 36 points. I still say now's the time to trade him as he is a notoriously bad second-half player.
Detroit's three super Swedes didn't disappoint. Niklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg each had three points and Tomas Holmstrom scored once as the Red Wings defeated the San Jose Sharks 6-3. Not to be outdone, Brian Rafalski picked up three assists to bump his season point total up to 41. Rafalski is on pace to shatter his career high for points in a single season. Last season he had 55, and now he's on pace for 70. He and teammate Lidstrom sit one-two in the NHL this season for points from a defenseman. I would have to say that stat alone disproves the theory that Anaheim has the best one/two punch on the blueline in the league.
Scott Nichol doubled his goal output for the season in just one game as he scored two shorthanded goals in a 5-2 win over St Louis. At the other end of the ice Chris Mason was able to hold the Blues at bay making 24 saves on the night. He has a goals against average of 1.00 since the start of January to drop his season total down to 2.74. I'd still want nothing to do with Mason in any league format as he is just too inconsistent and could sink your team with one bad outing in a head-to-head style league.
John Pereira is a fantasy hockey analyst for ESPN.com.
