Posted by Sean Allen
If they keep working together like this, there will never be any concern in Pittsburgh about Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin holding the other back from their potential. The Penguins' dynamic duo was in on every goal of a 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Crosby had a goal and three helpers while Malkin notched four assists. Since two of the goals were at even strength the immediate question is, "Did Crosby and Malkin play on a line together?"
The answer is, "all night long." And the answer to the follow-up question is, "Pascal Dupuis." That's right; Pascal Dupuis played every even-strength shift with Crosby and Malkin. The Miroslav Satan-Crosby-Ruslan Fedotenko experiment is apparently over and coach Michel Therrien has decided to align his two stars to work together. The resulting 4-1 win means this combo is in place for at least another game, and that means Dupuis needs to be picked up immediately. Yes, he is the defensive specialist on the line, but he is still bound to start picking up more points by association if he sticks with these two studs.
Of course, if the rest of the team fails to start clicking, Therrien may try tinkering a bit more. Even with superstars like Crosby and Malkin working on it, a team has to be more than one line deep. So don't invest too heavily in Dupuis, because unless the Satan-Tyler Kennedy-Maxime Talbot line or the Fedotenko-Jordan Staal-Petr Sykora line starts doing some damage, more change may be on the way.
Satan and Sykora, by the way, still have a bright outlook as they joined Crosby and Malkin on the first power-play unit and each scored a goal Saturday. Staal and Fedotenko, however, can be let go in shallower leagues if you see someone intriguing on the wire.
Ice Chips
Andrew Raycroft's .875 save percentage isn't inspiring, but it's better than Peter Budaj's .824. More importantly, Raycroft is now 2-0 and Budaj is 0-3. If he gets another start on Monday against the Kings, he is officially in the first chair and Budaj would have the uphill climb back to relevance. … Concerns over Milan Hejduk's decline have been vastly over blown. Well, at least for now considering the linemates he is working with. Hejduk scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season in Colorado's 5-4 win over Dallas. He played every shift with Paul Stastny and Ryan Smyth, and that trio was joined by Joe Sakic and John-Michael Liles to form the first power-play unit. … Speaking of fourth and fifth goals of the season, that's what Aaron Voros managed in the Rangers' 5-4 overtime loss to Detroit. That gives him nine points in eight games on the season. He had just 14 in 55 games for Minnesota last year. It's safe to say he and Brandon Dubinsky share some serious chemistry, and Voros should be picked up in the 54 percent of ESPN leagues he is still available in. … Regardless of how you feel about Fabian Brunnstrom, a pylon sitting next to the net could convert many Brad Richards passes into goals and Brunnstrom is working with Richards and Brenden Morrow on a regular basis now. After missing the score sheet in Thursday's contest (the day after his hat trick), Brunnstrom found mesh again Saturday. He's available in 75 percent of ESPN leagues. … Henrik Zetterberg missed his second game with a sore groin, but Detroit's second line of Johan Franzen, Mikael Samuelsson and Valtteri Filppula did just fine without him, combining for six points. Filppula is the one who got the promotion off the third unit, so watch him while Zetterberg deals with his pesky groin strain. … Alexander Semin scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season. He has 10 points already and 40 goals almost look like a sure thing. … That's six points in five games for Guillaume Latendresse as he skates with Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay. Pounce already! … Andrei Kostitsyn may miss time after taking a punishing hit from Coyotes' defenseman Kurt Sauer. His brother, Sergei, stepped up onto the line with Alexei Kovalev and Tomas Plekanec and would benefit from any missed time by Andrei. … It's already becoming clear why we ranked Ryan Miller so low. Just five games into the season Patrick Lalime has started two of Buffalo's games. He lost the contest with Atlanta in a shootout, but looked good doing it, stopping 35 of 37 shots. A 3:2 ratio for starts is actually what the Sabres had planned on this season, so consider Lalime an asset in deeper leagues if you can get a handle on when coach Lindy Ruff starts him. … Now with four goals in five games, it's hard not to start getting excited about Phil Kessel's start to the season. Once pegged as a budding superstar, he is almost two years removed from his bout with cancer and all would welcome a return to his path to stardom. He's available in 50 percent of ESPN leagues, and now might be the time to lock him up. He's riding shotgun on a line with Patrice Bergeron and Marco Sturm, and opponents have a tough time checking that line and the unit featuring Marc Savard, Michael Ryder and Milan Lucic. The Bruins are going to be very good offensively this season. … Manny Fernandez had an OK game in the 4-2 win over Ottawa, but he and Tim Thomas are still in a virtual tie for the full-time starters gig. … It doesn't count for fantasy, but it should be noted that Antti Miettinen was again the hero for Minnesota, as he scored the lone shootout goal in a 1-0 win over Tampa Bay. Still skating on a line with Mikko Koivu and Andrew Brunette, you can check Friday's blog entry by Tim Kavangh for a recommendation on Miettinen. … It's time to rethink the Lightning's supposed high-power offense. Through five games the team is still winless and has just eight goals. Holding on to any players that aren't on the top line should be considered purely speculative at this point, as Gary Roberts, Mark Recchi, Radim Vrbata, Matt Carle and even Steven Stamkos have been fantasy irrelevant. Of that grouping, only Stamkos should be held onto for his potential. Vrbata was even a healthy scratch Saturday. … Jason Arnott is expected back for Thursday's contest with Calgary, but the Predators didn't miss him much in a 6-3 drubbing of Columbus. Although the forwards fared well broken into units of Ryan Jones-David Legwand-Martin Erat and Patric Hornqvist-Rich Peverley-J.P. Dumont, it was Shea Weber who put an exclamation point on the game. Weber had a goal, three assists and was plus-5 to move to seven points in six games. Fellow blueliner Ryan Suter was plus-4. … You can't be too angry at the Blue Jackets performance, though, as Fredrik Norrena and Dan LaCosta had to split time allowing the Predators' goals while Pascal Leclaire nursed his sore thumb. Leclaire is expected back for Tuesday's contest. … New coach Joel Quenneville made only one significant change in his first game behind the bench for the Hawks: Nikolai Khabibulin started his second straight game; the first time a Hawks goalie has gone back-to-back this season. Khabibulin has the cleaner stats so far this season, but remember that he has already been waived this season in a desperate attempt to shed his contract, and the Hawks are committed to Cristobal Huet on paper. Huet will get a chance to recapture his job, so consider this a buy-low opportunity. … Quenneville also kept the Hawks lineup mostly intact, and Kris Versteeg was once again the lucky linemate of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Kane had two goals and an assist while Versteeg and Toews were held to just one helper each. That's three points in two games for Versteeg as the winger for the Hawks' young duo. Look for him in deeper leagues. … All three St. Louis goals came against Patrick Sharp, as he was minus-3 on the night. He skated with Martin Havlat and Dustin Byfuglien, who each managed to only be minus-2. … The absence of Sam Gagner due to an awkward fall into the boards on Friday caused some line-juggling for the Oilers' Saturday game. Shawn Horcoff, Erik Cole and Ales Hemsky, of course, stayed together, but it was the second and third line that clicked for the comeback victory. Marc-Antoine Pouliot was lined up with Ethan Moreau and Fernando Pisani to begin the second period, and the trio quickly combined for two goals. Dustin Penner, Andrew Cogliano and Robert Nilsson hooked up for another goal. It's worth noting as the 4-0 Oilers look like quite an offensive machine. … Five games, five goals for Todd Bertuzzi. We may be able to continue a count like that for a while. Never underestimate what playing with Jarome Iginla can do. … He allowed four goals, but Antero Niittymaki stood on his head in the process. Stopping 40 San Jose shots, Niitty's great performance once again comes on the heels of Martin Biron stinking up the Flyers' net. Get Niitty now, and worry about the share of netminding duties later. If Niittymaki finally has the season he is capable of, you don't want to be left holding nothing but Biron. … The Daniel Briere-Simon Gagne-Mike Knuble connection was together again for the first time this season. It resulted in Briere's first two goals.
Sean Allen is a fantasy baseball and hockey analyst for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him here.
