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Loui Eriksson Voted NHLs Most Underrated Player

Jan 14

Posted by Matt in News | No Comments

Loui Eriksson of the Dallas Stars

Loui Eriksson of the Dallas Stars was voted the most underrated hockey player by his NHL peers

A few days ago, we brought you Sports Illustrated’s poll about the NHL’s most overrated players. Today, we’re gonna take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum. In this SI poll, NHL players voted on who they thought was the most underrated hockey player.

Taking the crown of most underrated player is Dallas Stars winger Loui Eriksson. The Swedish star has grown into a standout player who has recorded new career highs in points every year since entering the league in 2006-07. So far this season, Eriksson has piled on 40 points through 16 goals and 24 assists. He’s on pace to approach the 80 point mark, which would be another career best.

As Eriksson’s offensive numbers begin to grow, so does his defensive prowess. Eriksson is lined up against some of the oppositions best players, and proving he can handle the workload by posting a plus 12 rating at the seasons midway point. Not only is Eriksson turning into a solid defensive forward, but he does it the right way – without taking penalties. In all of last season, Eriksson only picked up four minor penalties, he’s on pace for the same this season with only two penalties thus far. With tremendous talent and ability, along with great numbers that are only getting better by the year, it’s no wonder Loui Eriksson is the league’s most underrated player.

Coming in at 2nd on the list is Eriksson’s teammate, and Dallas Stars winger, Jamie Benn. Just like his teammate, Benn has consistently improved year after year. This season, his third in the league, Benn is a mere 14 points shy of setting a new career high. His 13 goals and 29 assists thus far have him on pace to easily best his numbers from last season, and Benn is also on his way to finishing the season as a plus player for the first time in his career.

Third on the list is Joe Pavelski, the young San Jose Sharks center. In his short six season career, Pavelski has already notched 119 goals and 155 assists for a point total of 274. This year, Pavelski looks to best his previous career high of 25 goals. He is currently tied for second on the team in goals with 16.

Having an incredible rookie season with 7 shorthanded goals, along with being a prominent defensive forward, might have helped Jordan Staal land at number four on the list. Staal was on pace for career numbers both last season, and this season, but has continued to be plagued by the injury bug. Staal is an important piece to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and should help them turn things around once he is healthy again.

Rounding out our top five is Chris Kelly of the Boston Bruins. Kelly has never stood out on the scoresheet, but is one of those depth players that is vital to a teams success. Obviously a lot of NHL players think he could be more than that too. Kelly helped the Bruins to a Stanley Cup Championship last season, and his 23 points have helped them get off to a 28-11-1 record.

Here are the remaining most underrated hockey players:

6. Pavel Datsyuk
7. Patrick Sharp
8. Claude Giroux
9. Frans Nielsen
10. Zach Parise
11. Tomas Fleischmann
12. Mikko Koivu
13. Martin St. Louis
14. Anze Kopitar
15. Ryan Suter

How accurate do you think the NHL players were? If it were your list, who would you have voted most underrated?

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Fantasy Friday

Dec 30

Posted by Chris in Fantasy | 1 Comment

The Hot List:

Evander Kane (forward): Kane has had a huge week with three goals, one assist and 11 shots on goal. Kane appears to have found his groove and is poised to easily surpass his career point totals and could top out at the 60-point mark. Take a second look at the Winnipeg forward if you need extra scoring help.

Jason Arnott (forward): Two goals and two assists over the past seven days with points in seven of his last 10 games. He now has 20 points in 34 games and will easily surpass his points total from last season. The Blues are trending upward and so is Arnott.

Tyler Kennedy (forward): Kennedy seems to be on a hot streak in the second half of December with seven points in his last five games. He scored a career-high 45 points last season and will likely settle around the 50-point mark long term this year.

Mikko Koivu (forward): Although sidelined for a few games in mid-December, Koivu has 19 points in his last 15 games played – including a streak of points in nine straight contests. He’s owned in 76 percent of Yahoo fantasy hockey leagues. If he’s available in yours, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be on your roster.

The Cold List:

Sergei Gonchar (defenseman): Gonchar has cooled off considerably with only three points in the last 30 days, and none on the power play.

Vinny Prospal (forward): Only one point in his last five games. However, Prospal has 13 shots on goal during that same span, so it’s not for lack of effort.

Between the Pipes:

The Chicago Blackhawks are set on riding the hot hand this season, and the current flavor of the week is Corey Crawford. Winner of two-of-his-past-three, Crawford has allows just four goals on 97 shots in those three games. However, backup netminder Ray Emery had been the winner of five straight before suffering a 3-2 loss against Pittsburgh last week that relinquished his starting duties. Eventually the Blackhawks will need to choose a starter to prepare for a long playoff run. Until then, expect the back and forth to continue.

Crosby Update:

The Penguins finally released an update concerning superstar center Sidney Crosby – and the outlook isn’t good. After exploding for 12 points in eight games after initially returning from a concussion, the team confirmed that Crosby is again sidelined indefinitely with concussion-like symptoms. However, high ranking Penguins officials have privately stated that they do not believe his symptoms are as bad this time around and are confident that he will play again this season. Until then, toss Crosby on the IR and wait patiently for his return.

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Hockey World Blog Season Previews 2010: Minnesota Wild

Sep 23

Posted by EB in Season Previews | 14 Comments

Key Offseason Losses: Derek Boogard, Owen Nolan

Key Offseason Additions: John Madden, Matt Cullen

Last Season Ranking: 13th, West

Captain Mikko Koivu looks to lead a rebuilding Minnesota Wild this year to a less than likely post season appearance.

Captain Mikko Koivu looks to lead a rebuilding Minnesota Wild this year to a less than likely post season appearance.

Offense: The Minnesota Wild have a 1-2-3 punch in captain Mikko Koivu, Martin Havlat and Andrew Brunette. Koivu and Havlat are both balanced players capable of putting the puck in the net while Brunette is a good set up man.

Antti Miettinen, new addition Matt Cullen and winger Guillaume Latendresse are also key roles for the team. Miettinen should reach the 40 point mark if not even more this season. Cullen will be the pivotal tool for the team’s second line, netting only 16 goals last season, but adding 32 assists between both the Carolina Hurricanes and the Ottawa Senators. Latendresse, since coming to Minnesota, has really clicked posting 37 points in 55 games played. Latendresse is really an under rated player and should be considered for depth in any fantasy team.

From there another true player worth watching, partly because of the name, the other part of his physical play style, is Cal Clutterbuck. If Clutterbuck can stay healthy, the team may have a decent three lines that should help the team in close games.

Defense: You can guarantee veteran Marek Zidlicky will post at least 40 points this upcoming season. Brent Burns looks to stay healthy after playing reduced schedules in his last two seasons and Nick Schultz looks to do better than his previous seasons career high of 20 points. The remaining 3 defenseman look to add some talent as well as a lock down defense keeping the shots toa minnimum.

Goaltending: Niklas Backstrom will be the number one goalie again with Josh Harding normally backing him up, however harding has recently torn an ACL and MCL and is expected to be out for a bit leaving either Anton Khudobin or Wade Dubielewicz to see NHL play time.

Backstrom has had trouble fighting with back problems last season, but if healthy, could put up some decent statistics. Those statistics though will come in the likes of save percentage only, as with the lack of depth in the defense, Backstrom will be facing a lot of shots this seasons. If you do happen to pick him up on your fantasy team, play him as your number two goalie, and watch for good match-ups as it is very possible he could rebound from a poor season last year in shutouts. He only had 2 shutouts last season, a career low, but two seasons ago he had 8.

Season Outlook: The Minnesota Wild are still one to two players away from a competitive team, which not only sucks for the fans, but the team itself. Strong minded players will determine if the team is competitive or not on a day to day basis, but it is highly unlikely that the Wild will make the post season this year. Watch them for what it is worth and try not to worry too much, you could be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. The Wild are developing and should be back in the mix in a few years.

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Minnesota Wild

Sep 23

Posted by EB in Season Previews | No Comments

Minnsota's third jersey is but one of many changes to the upcoming Wild season.

Minnsota's third jersey is but one of many changes to the upcoming Wild season.

The Minnesota Wild, who finished only one spot out of the playoffs last season, looks to take the ice with a drasticly different team this year.

Head coach Jacques Lemaire announced he will not return to coach the Wild on April, 13 2009 and will be replaced by Todd Richards. Richards was once a professional hockey player, and since retiring from playing, has been the assistant coach of the Milwaukee Admirals and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL, as well as an assistant coach of the San Jose Sharks last NHL season. Richards looks to invigorate the team by transitioning from Lemaire’s defensive minded play style to a more aggressive, up-tempo style of play.

To carry out the transition, the team has decided not to resign wingers Stephane Veilleux and injury prone Marian Gaborik, but to replace them with veteran Petr Sykora and Martin Havlat. Sykora won the Stanley Cup last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, contributing 46 points in 76 games played in the regular season, as well as 1 assist in the 7 games he played in the playoffs. The high flying Havlat is coming off of a career high 78 points with the Chicago Blackhawks. He scored 29 goals in 81 games played during the regular season, with 48 assists and a very good +29 rating. In the playoffs he averaged just under a point per game with 5 goals, 10 assists for a total of 15 points in 16 games played.

The team has a solid core of players, with veterans Owen Nolan and Marek Zidlicky, young talented Brent Burns, and hard hitting Cal Clutterbuck.  Just in case any rough stuff happens, the Wild also have heavyweight enforcer Derek “The Boogeyman” Boogard. The Wild were lead last season by center Mikko Koivu with 67 points; 20 goals and 47 assists in 79 games played.

Lastly, the team has goaltender Niklas Backstrom. Backstrom, who surprisingly only became the Wild’s starter in the ’07-’08 season after Manny Fernandez was traded to Boston. Backstrom has won the William M. Jennings (lowest goals against) and Roger Crozier Saving Grace (best save percentage) awards. Last season he went 37 wins and 24 losses in 71 games played. He was in the top 3 amongst goaltenders in all three categories of save percentage (.923%), goals against average (2.33) and shut outs (8).

The Minnesota Wild are a competitive team, who have seen the playoffs in 3 of their 8 seasons in the NHL. With a new coach, a new strategy as well as a few new stars among the team, this year they look to make it year 4. Look for the Wild to be fighting hard for the first place within the Northwest Division against the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames.

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