NHL Weekly Wrapup - Who's Hot and Who's Not

Well the regular season is over and the playoff match ups are set and now you are thinking about how to set your rosters for your upcoming Playoff Pool. So this weeks Hot or Not will only focus on the teams that made the playoffs. So what if Joe Sakic leads all centers with 2 goals, 7 assists and 2 game winners in the last week, the Avalanche missed the playoffs so we won't matter in your upcoming pool. In fact, of the top 3 scoring centers in the last week of the NHL regular season (Sakic, Koivu and Stastny) none of them will be going on to play in the post season.

Stanley Cup Final Prediction: Buffalo Sabres vs Nashville Predators

Centers: Derek Roy is on a 6 game point streak with 4 goals and 3 assists in that span including two game winners. The Sabres and Senators have to be favorites coming out of the Eastern conference and you might do well stocking up on a few of their roster players.

My top picks: Daniel Briere and Peter Forsberg

Derek Roy: 4 goals, 1 assist, 2 GWG
Joe Thornton: 1 goal, 4 assists
Stephan Yelle: 1 goal, 4 assists
David Legwand: 3 goals, 1 assist, 1 GWG
Jason Spezza: 3 goals, 1 assist

Who's Not: Evgeni Malkin. Not only is it unlikely that the Penguins will get past the first round but Malkin closed out the season with pointless games and only 4 shots over that stretch. Yes he is a future fantasy star, but not in this years playoffs.

Wingers: The hottest winger in the NHL last week was Thomas Vanek with 4 goals and 3 assists and considering that I predict the Sabres to reach the finals this year that also makes him my top pick at the wing for your playoff pool. In Vanek's last 6 games he managed 6 goals, 4 assists, 1 GWG and 4 multi point games. He is a rising star in the NHL and he should be high on your list of draft targets in this years playoffs. He could be a good middle round steal as the big names fly off the board early.

My Top Picks: Thomas Vanek and Dany Heatley

Thomas Vanek: 4 goals, 3 assists, 1 GWG
Mikael Samuelsson: 2 goals, 3 assists
Dany Heatley: 2 goals, 3 assist
Daniel Alfredsson: 2 goals, 3 assist
Marian Gaborik: 1 goal, 4 assists

Who's Not: Pavol Demitra has not tallied a point in 5 straight games and sat out the Wild's last contest with a strained leg muscle. Considering that the Wild would have to pull off a huge upset over the Ducks to get out of the first round I would stay away from just about anyone from their roster.

Defensemen: Tom Poti put up 1 goal and 4 assists last week as the Islanders squeaked into the playoffs with a shootout win over the New Jersey Devils. Don't get too excited, they won't make it out of the first round.

My Top Picks: Brian Campbell and Chris Pronger

Tom Poti: 1 goal, 4 assists
Sami Salo: 1 goal, 2 assists
Kurtis Foster: 1 goal, 2 assists
Marc-Andre Bergeron: 3 assists
Joe Corvo: 3 assists

Who's Not: Shea Weber is currently on a 5 game pointless streak, I might still recommend him as a later round pickup just because he is a key component of the Predators power play.

Goaltenders: Tough pick here actually. Niklas Backstrom posted three wins and two shutouts in the past week but Wade Dubielewicz single handedly dragged the Islanders into the playoffs with 4 wins. I gotta give it to Dubie just because he is the 3rd string goalie.

My Top Picks: Ryan Miller and Martin Brodeur (because you should never bet against Brodeur)

Wade Dubielewicz: 4 wins
Niklas Backstrom: 3 wins, 2 shutouts
Ryan Miller: 3 wins, 2 shutouts
Martin Brodeur: 2 wins
Tomas Vokoun: 2 wins

Who's Not: With 2 losses and 1 win last week Ray Emery was looking a little shaky. His only win came in a 6-3 drubbing of the Boston Bruins and he was out-dueled by Marc-Andre Fleury who he will face in the first round of the playoffs.

NHL Weekly Wrapup - Who's Hot and Who's Not

This week the Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers have been hot lately and are getting production from their 2nd and 3rd lines. Scan the waiver wires for guys like Mike Comrie, Sean Avery and Brendan Shanahan for some key additions in the last week of the regular season.

Centers: Mike Comrie snapped a 5 game pointless streak on Friday by contributing a goal and two assists and followed it up on Saturday with 2 goals. He potted the game winners on both nights.

Ollie Jokinen: 1 goal, 6 assists, 1 GWG
Saku Koivu: 1 goal, 5 assists, 1 GWG
Vincent Lecavalier: 2 goals, 4 assists
Sidney Crosby: 2 goals, 4 assists
Michael Nylander: 2 goals, 4 assists

Who's Not: Other than my entire center corps? How about Pavol Demitra, and yes he is on my roster. Demitra is pointless in 4 games, at this point in the season drop him for a hot replacement... or a bag of pucks.

Wingers: Peter Schaefer had back to back multi-point games and managed 5 assists last week.

Jaromir Jagr: 3 goals, 3 assists
Daniel Sedin: 3 goals, 2 assists
Zach Parise: 2 goals, 3 assists
Simon Gagne: 1 goal, 4 assists
Evgeni Malkin: 1 goal, 4 assists

Who's Not: Paul Kariya is on a 4 game pointless streak and has only 1 point in 8 games as the Predators have lost 5 of their last 8.

Defensemen: Don't look now but Mark Streit is on another streak, he has 5 points in his last 5 games as the Canadiens make a push for the last playoff spot in the East. And in case you missed it, super prospect Jack Johnson was called up by the Kings and will play the remainder of the season. If you are hurting for points from your d-men take a chance on Jack.

Tomas Kaberle: 2 goals, 3 assists
Ryan Whitney: 3 goals, 1 assist
Mark Streit: 2 goals, 2 assists
Chris Pronger: 2 goals, 2 assists
Brian Rafalski: 4 assists

Who's Not: Brian Campbell is on a 4 game pointless streak. Don't panic, he should snap out of it.

Goaltenders: Miikka Kiprusoff has singlehandedly kept the Calgary Flame in the last playoff spot in the West and put up 3 wins and a shutout last week. An interesting side note, Niklas Backstrom posted 0 wins and 1 shutout last week, he got the shutout in a 1-0 shootout loss to Kiprusoff and the Flames. How often do you see two shutouts in 1 game?

Miikka Kiprusoff: 3 wins, 1 shutout
Martin Brodeur: 3 wins
Evgeni Nabokov: 3 wins
Marty Turco: 2 wins, 1 shutout
Roberto Luongo: 2 wins

Who's Not: Dwayne Roloson lost twice last week and let in 6 goals on 48 shots. However, if you are desperate enough to be starting an Edmonton Oiler goalie at this point in the season you obviously have nothing to lose by continuing to start him.

Who to watch this week: Any New York Ranger. The Rangers seem to be on a mission and their lines are clicking right now. For some reason Martin Straka was available in my league this morning and I dumped Pavol Demitra for him. Sean Avery, Brendan Shanahan and Michael Nylander all put up multiple points last week. On the defensive side, as noted above, Jack Johnson has been called up by the L.A. Kings, if you need some help on the back end this may be a good gamble.

NHL Weekly Wrapup - Who's Hot and Who's Not

It's all about the hot line combo's. The San Jose Sharks Joe Thornton, Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek are redhot and all 3 appear in the top 5 lists for their positions. In Minnesota it is the combo of Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra have combined for 66 points in the Wild's last 24 games. These two are centered alternately by Mikko Koivu or Pierre-Marc Bouchard, if you look at the center rankings Demitra, Koivu and Bouchard are all in the top 5 for the week. If any of these players are on your waiver wire, now is the time to pick them up.

Centers: Joe Thornton led all centers with 1 goal and 7 assists in the past week and is currently on a 10 game point streak to challenge Sidney Crosby for the NHL points race.

Joe Thornton: 1 goal, 7 assists
Pavol Demitra: 2 goals, 3 assists
Mikko Koivu: 2 goals, 3 assists
Pierre-Marc Bouchard: 1 goal, 4 assists
Tyler Arnason: 5 assists

Who's Not: Rod Brind'Amour was blanked in the Hurricanes two games last week and has been on a steady decline since leading all scorers earlier in the season. He has still produced a solid 75 points on the season but there are definitely better choices out there. I know I just dropped him from my roster for the home stretch.

Wingers: Jonathan Cheechoo seems to have found his way back to prominence as he put up 6 goals and 2 assists in the past week and 13 points in his last 7 games.

Jonathan Cheechoo: 6 goals, 2 assists
Marian Gaborik: 3 goals, 3 assists, 1 GWG
Milan Michalek: 3 goals, 2 assists, 2 GWG
Daniel Sedin: 2 goals, 3 assists, 1 GWG
Pavol Demitra: 2 goals, 3 assists

Who's Not: Martin Havlat managed only 1 point in 4 games last week and has not scored a goal in 12 straight games. Coincidentally the Black Hawks have lost 8 of 12 in that span.

Defensemen: Christoph Schubert put up a goal and 3 assists last week, but before you rush out to add him to your lineup note that 3 of those points came in 1 game. In fact, 7 of his 22 points this year have come in only 3 games.

Christoph Schubert: 1 goal, 3 assists
Dion Phaneuf: 4 assists
Joe Corvo: 1 goal, 3 assists
Dan Boyle: 2 goals, 3 assists
Bryan McCabe: 1 goal, 2 assists

Who's Not: Kevin Bieksa may have 38 points on the year for the Canucks but he has none in his last 7 games.

Goaltenders: Henrik Lundqvist? Yep, the Rangers are perhaps the hottest team in the NHL right now and Lundqvist snatched 4 wins and 1 shutout last week.

Henrik Lundqvist: 4 wins, 1 shutout
Jaroslav Halak: 3 wins, 1 shutout
Frederik Norrena: 3 wins
Miikka Kiprusoff: 3 wins
Roberto Luongo: 2 wins, 1 shutout

Who's Not: Martin Biron and the Flyers are sinking fast. Biron has lost three straight and last week managed a paltry GAA of 4.04 and a save percentage of only .882

Who to watch this week: Mikko Koivu has 10 points in his last 8 games with 3 multi-point games in that stretch. The Wild play 3 times this week, twice against free falling Calgary and once against the surging Avalanche. I'm heading to the waiver wire right now to exchange him for Rod Brind'Amour.

NHL Weekly Wrapup - Who's Hot and Who's Not

Centers: Patrick O'Sullivan is currently on a 5 game point streak (1 goal, 6 assists) for the Los Angeles Kings. The rookie center scored his first goal since January 27th on Sunday, the game winner no less, to go along with 2 assists on the night. If you are looking for a flavour of the week you might do well to snag O'Sullivan while he is hot.

Joe Thornton: 4 goals, 6 assists, 1 GWG
Joe Sakic: 3 goals, 6 assists
Sidney Crosby: 4 goals, 4 assists
Mike Modano: 4 goals, 2 assists, 1 GWG
Patrick O'Sullivan: 1 goal, 5 assists, 1 GWG

Who's Not: Brought over from the Washington Capitals to provide some offensive talent to replace some of the injury riddled Buffalo Sabres leading scorers Dainus Zubrus has been a dissapointment. In the 9 games since the trade Zubrus has managed only 2 points, if you picked him up after the trade deadline hoping to cash in on the high scoring Sabres lineup, stop, drop and pick up someone who is hot (i.e. Patrick O'Sullivan).

Wingers: Milan Michalek has been on fire in his last 4 games with multipoint performances in each. 2 goals and 7 assists in that span make him a fantasy impact player again this season. If an impatient owner let him drop earlier this season snag him now for the stretch run.

Milan Michalek: 2 goals, 7 assists
Alexander Semin: 4 goals, 4 assists, 1 GWG
Bill Guerin: 5 goals, 1 assist
Jussi Jokinen: 1 goal, 5 assists
Keith Tkachuk: 3 goals, 2 assists, 2 GWG

Who's Not: Markus Naslund has been having a horrible season with only 54 points for a low scoring Vancouver Canucks team. In the month of March he has only produced 3 points and is now on a 5 game pointless streak. If you are still holding onto him hoping for a resurgence, stop. The time is well past to cut him loose.

Defencemen: Ryan Whitney is punishing me for letting him drop onto waivers back around the New Year. He leads all d-men over the last week with 1 goal and 5 assists for the surging Pittsburgh Penguins.

Ryan Whitney: 1 goal, 5 assists
Scott Niedermayer: 6 assists
Rob Blake: 3 goals, 2 assists, 1 GWG
Marc-Andre Bergeron: 2 goals, 3 assists
Lubomir Visnovsky: 1 goal, 4 assists

Who's Not: After a productive first half of the season Zdeno Chara has been dissapointing lately. In 22 games since the start of February Chara has only 8 points with only 2 of those in the month of March. I wouldn't suggest dropping the tallest defenceman in the league, but I would certainly suggest that you leave him on your bench. He is on mine.

Goaltenders: Peter Budaj is undefeated in regulation in his last 10 games with 2 overtime losses and 1 shutout in that span. The Avalanche are surging coming into the playoff stretch and Budaj is perhaps the hottest goalie in the NHL.

Peter Budaj: 3 wins
Marc-Andre Fleury: 3 wins
Niklas Backstrom: 3 wins
Mathieu Garon: 3 wins
John Grahame: 2

Who's Not: Would you believe Martin Brodeur? Marty lost 2 of 3 last week including a stinker in Carolina where he was pulled after letting in 4 goals on 12 shots.

NHL Weekly Wrapup - Who's Hot and Who's Not

As the NHL playoffs loom closer there is a lot of competition around the NHL for goaltending jobs (see Tampa and Carolina) and some high powered performers seem to be wearing down near the end of the season.

Centers: Jeff who? Jeff Hamilton scored 3 goals and added 2 assists for the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night to follow up on his 2 assist night earlier in the week. Hamilton leads all centers in scoring for the week despite the fact that he played in only two games all week long.

Jeff Hamilton: 3 goals, 4 assists, 1 GWG
Andy McDonald: 3 goals, 2 assists, 1 GWG
Vincent Lecavalier: 4 goals, 1 assist, 1 GWG
Craig Conroy: 3 goals, 2 assists
Mike Fisher: 4 goals, 1 GWG

Who's Not: Despite playing 4 games last week Straka put up a donught. He is currently working on extending his 7 game pointless streak.

Wingers: Darcy Tucker may not have put up the most points over the last week as a winger, but he certainly put them up when they mattered most. Tucker potted 3 goals in the past week since returning from his injury and managed the game winner in both of the Leafs wins last week. If he is still floating around your waiver wire pick him up immediately.

Daniel Alfredsson: 1 goal, 6 assists
Ilya Kovalchuk: 2 goals, 3 assists, 1 GWG
Milan Hejduk: 3 goals, 2 assists
Marian Hossa: 2 goals, 3 assists
Jarome Iginla: 2 goals, 3 assists

Who's Not: Since his trade to the high powered San Jose Sharks offense a lot of people were expecting Bill Guerin to put up some helpful numbers. Not so much. Guerin is on a 7 game point drought and has only 6 PIMs in that stretch and none of those came in this last week of play. It might be time to think of dropping him back to the waiver wire unless you are desperate for his PIM boost, assuming it comes back.

Defencemen: Thanks to a 3 assist night last night Sergei Zubov leads all dmen with 1 goal, 5 assists and a game winner over the last week. In his 3 games this week he has also contributed a +2 rating, 2 PIMS, 1 PPG and 3 PPA to go with 5 shots on goal.

Sergei Zubov: 1 goal, 5 assists, 1 GWG
Alexei Zhitnik: 6 assists
Kevin Bieksa: 1 goal, 3 assists, 1 GWG
Eric Brewer: 1 goal, 3 assists
Phillippe Boucher: 1 goal, 3 assists

Who's Not: It's a tie. Sheldon Souray and Zdeno Chara managed a measley 0 points over the last week. Both the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins were a little anemic in the last week but both teams exploded for big wins over the weekend, without contributions from their top dmen.

Goaltenders: With 2 wins and 2 shutouts this has to go to Evgeni Nabokov. Nabokov has 3 shutouts in his last 4 games and has stopped 109 out of 111 shots over that period for a .982 save percentage and a miniscule GAA.

Evgeni Nabokov: 2 wins, 2 shutouts
Henrik Lundqvist: 3 wins
Peter Budaj: 2 wins, 1 shutout
Nikolai Khabibulin: 2 wins, 1 shutout
Andrew Raycroft: 2 wins, 1 shutout

Who's Not: Johan Holmqvist has battled back and forth this season with Marc Denis for the nod as the starter for the Tampa Bay Lightning. As little as two weeks ago he looked like he owned that position outright. Not so much lately, Holmqvist started only 1 game last week, a 5-1 blowout loss to the Vancouver Canucks. In his previous start he managed only 5 minutes letting in goals on the first two shots he faced.

NHL Weekly Wrapup - Who's Hot and Who's Not

The story this week is Buffalo. Specifically the way that almost every healthy player left on that roster has stepped up to keep the Sabres atop the Eastern Conference, except maybe Daniel Briere (I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he is now the only Sabre on my fantasy hockey roster right?).

Centers: Jochen Hecht has 19 points in his last 15 games. That is a significant part of his 44 total points on the season. His dual position eligibility couple with his current production makes him a useful option in many leagues right now.

Jochen Hecht: 2 goals, 5 assists
Jason Spezza: 2 goals, 5 assists
Olli Jokinen: 5 goals, 1 assist, 1 GWG
Pavol Demitra: 3 goals, 3 assists, 1 GWG
Pavel Datsyuk: 6 assists

Who's Not: After a 6 game stretch where he potted 9 points Daniel Briere has only managed 1 point in his last 3 games. His team has managed 17 goals in those three games (1 of which Briere missed with the flu) yet Briere only managed 3 measly shots on goal.

Wingers: Drew Stafford is certainly benefiting from the raft of injuries in Buffalo. Over the past week has has managed 3 goals, 1 assist and 2 GWG. Stafford has 8 points in his last 6 games to go along with those 2 game winners a +2 rating and 7 penalty minutes (thank you Ottawa).

Dany Heatley: 4 goals, 2 assists, 1 GWG
Rick Nash: 4 goals, 1 assist, 1 GWG
Jason Blake: 3 goals, 3 assists
Marian Hossa: 3 goals, 2 assists, 1 GWG
Drew Stafford: 3 goals, 1 assist, 2 GWG

Who's Not: Evgeni Malkin. Yes you did read that right. Since the Penguins acquired Gary Roberts at the trade deadline Malkin has managed exactly 0 points in 4 games. The good news is that he is still shooting the puck so this is likely a mere blip in the road to fantasy greatness.

Defensemen: Tony Lydman recently snapped a 9 game pointless streak with 1 goal and 3 assists in his last 3 games to continue the Buffalove.

Matt Carle: 1 goal, 4 assists
Marc-Andre Bergeron: 2 goals, 2 assists
Wade Redden: 1 goal, 3 assists, 1 GWG
Chris Pronger: 1 goal, 3 assists
Tony Lydman: 1 goal, 3 assists

Who's Not: Aside from my entire defensive line, Matthias Ohlund is the proud owner of a 9 game pointless streak. He has a fairly decent 27 points on the season, until you notice that 21 of those points came in the first 3 months and he has put up only 6 points in his last 26 games.

Goaltenders: Who else but Ryan Miller. 3 wins propels Miller to the top of the goaltender rankings in the last week.

Ryan Miller: 3 wins
Ed Belfour: 3 wins
Kari Lehtonen: 3 wins
Peter Budaj: 3 wins
Miikka Kiprusoff: 2 wins

Who's Not: The Roly Poly Goalie (Dwayne Roloson, can you tell I have a 2 year old daughter?) has lost 4 straight including 3 last week in the wake of the Ryan Smyth trade.