Thoughts of the day - 10/12

Not going to lie, Heatley looked pretty good last night. He was skating much better than he did last season and had a couple of nice passes and shots. But most importantly, he is clicking with Koivu which is something that he did not do in his two years with Thornton. I was definitely disappointed that he only had 2 SOG though. In his last visit to Ottawa, he had 8 SOG. Still no love loss there.

Setoguchi had a goal but more importantly, he had 6 hits. I don’t see that he will get 6 hits every game but last year, I started to notice that when Setoguchi started to hit, he started to score. Last season, Setoguchi scored in 37 of 90 games played (including playoffs). That is scoring in 41.1% of the contests that he was a part of. However, when he had 4 or more hits, he scored in 6 of 12 games or 50%. So, 3 hits or less, Seto scored 31 times in 78 games (39.7%). Something to keep an eye on because if he does start to hit on a more consistent basis, he could really become a roto stud.

Backstrom looked all world for the first two periods tonight. He was in good position and was able to handle some multi-shot situations. But in the third, he let in a couple of really soft goals. Overall, he has looked a lot better this year than he ever did last year. If you can, I would try to sell high on him.

Erik Karlsson has looked amazing in the short amount of time I have seen him this year. He is not going to help your +/- AT ALL but he is so fun to watch on the PP.

Speaking of +/-, Brian Campbell has been nothing but a model for +/- over the last few years with Chicago. Well, he was a -3 in his game against Pitt. In the last two seasons with Chicago he had exactly zero -3 games. I have a feeling that he is going to take a bit of a hit on his overall +/- this season. I personally am not a big fan of the stat but I know that it is tracked regularly in most roto leagues so it is something to watch for.

Jordan Staal had another point in tonights game. Can you believe that this kid is ONLY 23 years old? It seems like he has been in the league for forever. That makes 4 points in 4 games. I feel like last season was a bit of a blessing in disguise for Staal. Without Malkin or Crosby for the second half of the season, he really had to take things upon himself. I see a bit of a breakout for this kid this year especially when Crosby comes back and Malkin starts to play on his wing.

On that Crosby note, he was scheduled to see a doctor today but did not. Instead he is going to see one sometime this week.

According to comments made by Niemi to the media, he is 50-50 to play on Friday at Anaheim. Griess will be in net until Niemi is ready to come back as Nittymaki is on IR for another couple of months at least. Both Niemi and Havlet are practicing with the team at this point in time but they will continue to be day to day until further notice

Michael Cammalleri will be out for at least a couple of weeks after taking a skate to the thigh in Sundays game against the Jets. Maybe it was karma coming back to bite him because he scored before Winnipeg scored or maybe this is just adding to his band-aid boy lore.

David Krejci left practice early on Tuesday and did not travel with the team to Carolina. It appears to be a leg injury of some sort. There is no timetable for his return but after the Bruins play the Canes on Wednesday, they will be traveling to Chicago to play the Hawks on Saturday.

Corey Crawford did not practice on Tuesday. This is the second day in a row that he has not practiced with an apparent LBI. There could be a concern this could be related to the groin issue that he sustained at the end of training camp. Could this eventually lead to an opening for Salak?

Mattias Ohlund had arthroscopic surgery on both knees on Tuesday. He is considered out indefinitely. He is a decent option in leagues that count blocked shots and hits but he in the majority of leagues, he will not help