Hey guys! Sven back with the Buy, Sell, Hold segment for the second year. It’s pretty straight forward, players who are buys: you should pick up. Players who are sells, you should think about dropping. Players who are holds, you may be thinking about dropping but don’t just yet! Just for clarification, the % I am going to put next to the players’ stat line is their %own on ESPN. For Buys, I usually focus on guys with a %own less than 50%. Let’s get started!
Since Corey Crawford went down with his latest injury the Blackhawks have had six games and Scott Darling, G (L, 38 SV, 3 GA, .927%) has started four of them until Antti Raanta, G (W, 23 SV, 1 GA, .960%) won last night in the second game of a back-to-back. In fact, Raanta has only played in six games so far this season to Darling’s seven so it begs the question, has Darling usurped Raanta as Crawdad backup? It sure seems that way. It’s clear that Raanta isn’t a guy you can count on for long streaks of solid play. He’s fine in spot starts and sheltered minutes, but some time in the AHL wouldn’t hurt him at all, and so far it seems that the 6’ 6” Darling has caught the attention of Blackhawk’s Head Coach Joel Quenneville. When asked about the situation Quenneville didn’t offer much insight, but does he ever? He did have this to offer on Darling though "He's played well, every time he's been in the net he's been consistent, looks big (and) handles the puck well. Keep him going." That bodes well for Darling sticking around, but either way it doesn’t seem like we’ll have to wait very long to find out how this situation is going to shake out because Crawdad was a surprise participant in the morning skate for the Hawks this past weekend. He didn’t speculate on when he’ll return to the lineup but the fact that his foot is well enough for him to skate on is a good sign that he’ll be back in the next few weeks at most. If I had to put money down I’d say Darling has earned the backup job and it’s Raanta who will head down to the AHL when he returns. In the meantime, both should be owned in deep leagues. Anyway, here’s what else I saw in the world o’ fantasy hockey this weekend:
Will the real Henrik Lundqvist please stand up?
In the fantasy community we’re used to Lundqvist being a reliable and dominant goaltender. He’s one you could build a team around and feel confident with. Please, blog, may I have some more?
That didn’t take long. Patrick Roy had his first outburst as head coach of the Colorado Avalanche in his first game behind the bench. He got into a shouting match with Anaheim head coach Bruce Boudreau at the end of the Avs 6-1 win over the Ducks. Please, blog, may I have some more?
It finally happened. The Colorado Avalanche was the team that was the first to beat the Chicago Blackhawks in regulation when they thumped the Hawks 6-2 last night. Matt Duchene had a goal and three assists to fuel Colorado and deal Chicago its first regulation loss since last March. Please, blog, may I have some more?
