Fantasy Hockey Notes 10/20/2009

- You know the hockey world is upside down when the Phoenix Coyotes are not only tough to beat, but almost impossible to score against.  Ilya Bryzgalov leads the league with a 1.14 GAA, a .953% and is 5-1.  He was recently named the NHL's first star of the week.  This won't last forever, but if you own Bryzgalov ride it out as long as you can, maybe even do a little bit of selling high.

(Photo by AP)

- Another surprise (sort of) in early part of the season is the play of Craig Anderson of the Avs.  I've been a Craig Anderson fan for a couple years now and to me its not really that surprising.  He posted a .935% two years ago and a .924% last year, both with the Panthers.  This guy has proven he can handle a lot of rubber and is proving it again so far this year with a 6-1 record to go along with his 2.09 GAA and .935%.

- Staying with goalies, Ty Conklin posted his first shutout of the year against Anaheim on Saturday.  How long can this guy split time or be a backup before someone finally gives him the reigns?  As good as Chris Mason played for the Blues at the end of last year, Conklin should be their man.

- Probably the hottest line in hockey right now is the Anze Kopitar, Ryan Smyth, Justin Williams line.  People that have followed me through from the chat to this blog know that I'm a big fan of Kopitar and have been singing his high praises for years.  He's finally on a line that he has some chemistry with and is putting all that raw talent to good use.

- TB Lightning forward Alex Tanguay has been dropped to the third line after getting just one assist in seven games on Vincent Lecavalier's line.  I doubt this move will last and they'll try to get him back on the top line again, but ultimately I see him being traded at the deadline at which his value could really rise.

- Speaking of Vinny, he has zero goals in 7 games thus far.  Buy low, he'll turn it around at some point.

- Young blueliner Erik Johnson has been moved off the top power play unit for the Blues.  Its still pretty early in the season so this move could be just to see how well the others do in that spot.

- We have a possible goaltending controversy in Chicago right now.  Cristobal Huet is playing about as good (or bad) as we thought he would opening the door for rookie Antti Niemi.  Niemi has drastically outperformed Huet to this point and if it continues, the Hawks will once again have their $5 mil goalie riding the pine.

- Its still really early to tell, but Scott Clemmensen looked good in his first game with the Panthers and Tomas Vokoun is looking at a timeshare already.  If Clemmensen plays as well as he did last year with NJ, he'll get the majority of the starts.

- Bruins forward Milan Lucic has been placed on long term IR with a broken finger.

- I don't know what's going on with Wojtek Wolski, but its not good for him or his owners.  For the second time this year he was benched by coach Joe Sacco.  No reason has been given, but considering he has 7 points in his first 8 games, something has to be very wrong to be getting benched.

- After missing the last two games for Detroit, Pavel Datsyuk should be back in the lineup Thursday against the Coyotes.

- When your star goalie is struggling, you'll look for anything positive.  Roberto Luongo gave up just one goal in a 2-1 win on Saturday.  Okay, so he only faced 18 shots and it was the Wild.  His owners should take whatever they can get out of him right now.