Posted by Sean Allen, Special to ESPN.com
Apparently the boiling point for young Sidney Crosby is a 4-1 deficit following seven games with only two wins. Crosby surprised Florida's Brett McLean off the draw by jerseying him and landing several punches. McLean would leave the ice bleeding from his nose after barely landing a few shots. A fired-up Crosby rewarded his fantasy owners with 21 penalty minutes, but that hardly makes up for his recent output. Going back seven games, Crosby has four points and a minus-3 rating.
Crosby is not entirely to blame for the Penguins' overall lack of production lately, but as a key member of the power play, he has to share in the responsibility. The Pens are 0-for-24 with a man advantage now after failing on three opportunities in this 6-1 loss to the Panthers. Ryan Whitney is clearly not the answer on the power-play blue line, as his arrival happens to coincide with the current slide. He leads the team in power-play ice time over the Penguins' most recent five games with, of course, no points to show for it. Alex Goligoski's power-play ice time has dropped by more than 30 seconds per game since Whitney's arrival, and considering that he had seven points in five games prior to Whitney's return, the answer to this problem may be obvious.
What is even more obvious is how much the Penguins are missing Sergei Gonchar. A consummate power-play defenseman, Gonchar's absence is showing in every facet of the Penguins' attack. Sure, Malkin and Crosby are two of the most valuable fantasy commodities around, but they could be even better if Gonchar were in the lineup to help on the power play. There is some good news: Gonchar skated with the team on Friday, but he is still expected to need over a month of conditioning.
Until then, the answer is going to need to come from within. Whitney is clearly not the correct answer, and Goligoski has been among the leaders in power-play ice time for Pittsburgh all season (only trailing Malkin and Crosby), with only seven man-advantage points to show for it. Kris Letang's contributions have been muted, and he was last spotted skating as a forward during Pittsburgh's two most recent contests. Philippe Boucher is the one option that hasn't been used to his full potential by coach Michel Therrien. Since his arrival in Pittsburgh following a swap of defensemen with Dallas, Boucher has just two goals in 14 games. This is the same player who scored 19 goals and had 31 power-play points in the 2006-07 season with the Stars. Boucher currently ranks ninth in power-play minutes per game for the Penguins this season and 11th over the past five games (two of which he missed). Currently out with an undisclosed injury, Boucher is definitely a speculative pickup at this point, as the Penguins need someone to take the reins on this power play, and his résumé is better than anyone else on the team.
Ice Chips
Both Marc-Andre Fleury and Danny Sabourin finished the game by allowing three goals on 12 shots. Clearly, this is another issue for the Penguins right now, but Fleury will rebound when the team does and is still worth owning and starting in all leagues. … Nathan Horton scored his ninth and 10th goals of the season. He has four in four games and may be on the verge of the breakout the Panthers and fantasy owners need him to have. … Boston's win streak was snapped by a resilient Sabres team, but Phil Kessel still managed to pot his 24th goal of the season. Tim Thomas took the 4-2 loss, increasing the lead Manny Fernandez has in overall fantasy value between the Bruins' pipes. … Todd Bertuzzi had the winning goal and an assist in the Flames' 3-2 win over Nashville. After a slow November, Big Bert put together a fantasy relevant December and should be on the radar in most leagues again. … Alexander Semin returned to the Capitals lineup after a six-game absence with back issues. His return was marred when he conjured up images of Mr. Gueermo from a recent South Park episode by slapping Marc Staal to the ice in a third-period fight. Besides going slap-happy, Semin managed an assist in the contest. Fantasy owners can't complain about 15 penalty minutes from his "fight." Get him back into your lineup. … Jose Theodore stopped 20 of 21 for his fifth straight win. He is also someone to get back into lineups now that the Caps are rolling. … The Senators lost their fourth of five games into an eight-game road trip, dropping a 3-1 decision to Toronto. Vesa Toskala had a few good saves but was barely tested by the Sens. As it stands, only Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson are useable in any fantasy format, although power-play quarterback Alexandre Picard is an option in deeper leagues while Filip Kuba is out. … The Lightning offense came up cold in a 3-2 loss to Carolina, despite playing fairly well in recent games. Vaclav Prospal scored his eighth goal, and has four points in three games after going nine scoreless. Consider him out of the doghouse, as he bumped Ryan Malone from a productive stint on the top line. Don't go giving up on Malone yet as he remains on a five-forward first power-play unit with Prospal, Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Mark Recchi. … Chris Osgood made a triumphant return between the pipes for the Red Wings. He stopped 33 of 35 shots on an unusually busy night for a Detroit goaltender. Sell high. Even in praising Osgood, coach Mike Babcock couldn't help but talk about a rotation with Osgood and Ty Conklin: "We need him to be on top of his game and get a good rotation going this week and get both goalies playing the best they can and you'll see our goals against go way down." … Keep the faith in Steve Mason. So what if he allowed five goals to a lowly Blues offense? Remember that this 5-2 loss -- where St. Louis scored four goals on the power play -- comes right after a four-game stretch where Martin allowed only one goal. … Rick Nash had two assists and now has 10 points in five games. It's then noteworthy that Fredrik Modin had two points in the contest while skating a decent number of minutes alongside Nash during some second-period line-juggling and on the power play. … It's time to pay attention to Erik Cole and Sam Gagner again. The two players have woken each other up from a season-long slumber in recent games. Playing on a line together with Robert Nilsson, Cole has six points in four games, including a goal in a 4-1 win over Dallas Saturday, while Gagner had two assists Saturday, which also gives him six points in four games. They were both expected to be regular fantasy assets on this Edmonton team, and they may finally be making good on their promise. Andrew Cogliano, the former third member of the "kids line" with Gagner and Nilsson, is still contributing on a line with Gilbert Brule and Ethan Moreau, but don't expect that to continue if he stays on this third unit. … James Neal scored the lone Dallas goal after being held scoreless for two games. Still consider him an option in deeper leagues. … Things got back to normal for the Sharks' line combinations in a 5-3 win over the Islanders, except that things weren't normal at all. The line of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Devin Setoguchi was reunited for the whole contest, yet it was the third line of Mike Grier, Jonathan Cheechoo and Marcel Goc doing all the damage. Grier walked away with his first two-goal game in almost two years and Cheechoo assisted on three goals including both scored by Grier. Now, Cheechoo has looked more palatable of late with eight of his 16 points this season coming in the past six games, but he still remains an outside fantasy option unless he manages to unseat Setoguchi for first line right-wing duties. After all, Mike Grier doesn't score two goals a night all that often. … It's becoming very hard not to love Jonathan Quick. After stopping 31 of 32 shots in a 2-1 Kings win over the Flyers, Quick now has a 1.59 goals-against average on the season, which quickly becomes 0.79 if you only include his five most-recent starts. As noted before, the Kings allow fewer shots through than any other NHL team and Quick is a must-add at the moment in any fantasy format greater than 10 teams.
Sean Allen is a fantasy baseball and hockey analyst for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him here.
