joffrey lupul – McKeen's Hockey

McKeen’s 17-18 Yearbook Updates

Ryan Dadoun — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 21:20:54 +0000

It is early in the pre-season, but Ryan Dadoun brings a round up of the news so far. Nothing earth shattering, but lots to keep an eye on. McKeen's will do an update end of day Monday based on injuries, camp performance, etc.

In the meantime here is what you need to know.

Anaheim

Hampus Lindholm – Shoulder injury will probably keep him out until early November. That’s not surprising given the initial projections from when he had surgery in May, but it’s his absence is more probable now than it was over the summer.

Ryan Kesler – The hope is to have him back by Christmas after he underwent hip surgery in June. Over the summer it looked like he might be back in November, so the recent news here has been discouraging.

Antoine Vermette – Might end up being the one to fill the void left by Kesler. He’s been practicing on a line with Andrew Cogliano and Jakob Silfverberg. If we’re talking about standard fantasy leagues though, Vermette’s value is still borderline at best.

Arizona

Jason Demers – The Coyotes acquired him from the Florida Panthers. Arizona views him as a top-four defenseman, but it’s not clear who his defensive partner will be. He got a decent, but not great, amount of power-play time in Florida last season while Keith Yandle/Aaron Ekblad served as the team’s primary defensive options with the man advantage and he’ll probably end up in a similar situation in Arizona behind Oliver Ekman-Larsson/Alex Goligoski when it comes to power-play ice time.

Boston

Torey Krug – He suffered a non-displaced jaw fracture on Tuesday and was projected to miss at least three weeks from that date. That will cost him most of training camp and at least three regular season games.

Buffalo

Alexander Nylander – He suffered a lower-body injury on Sept. 8 and hasn’t skated at all in training camp as a result. Good news is that the Sabres think he’ll resume skating in near future, so maybe he’ll still return with enough time to spare to make his case for a roster spot.

Carolina

Lee Stempniak – More of a side note for now, but he’s been dealing with an undisclosed problem that might be more serious than initially believed. He has soreness in his hip/back and had an MRI on Thursday, so we’ll see what the results of that are.

Detroit

Andreas Athanasiou – Still hasn’t signed. There’s the threat of him heading to the KHL and even if he does re-sign in the not too distant future, he’ll be a young player that’s missed a good chunk of training camp/preseason play.

Edmonton

Ryan Strome – It’s a bit of a stretch to mention at this stage, but the Oilers seem to be going with a top line of Maroon, McDavid, and Strome so far. As a fun aside, McDavid also thinks Strome is a good sleeper pick in fantasy leagues. (https://www.nhl.com/news/edmonton-oilers-connor-mcdavid-sees-ryan-strome-as-fantasy-sleeper/c-290885390?tid=277729150)

Drake Caggiula – Similarly, it might be too early to read into it, but so far Drake Caggiula is being tested on the second line with Draisaitl and Lucic.

Los Angeles

Marian Gaborik – Is taking some contact as he recovers from a knee injury. Still unclear if he’ll play in the preseason, but it’s progress.

Nashville

Ryan Ellis – This happened a couple weeks before training camp, so you probably already have it in your projections, but just in case he’s out for four-to-six months with a knee injury. That has led to them mixing up their defensive pairings though. Ekholm and Subban were split up so that Ekholm is now with Josi (although Ekholm-Weber has also been experimented with) and Subban is with newcomer Emelin.

New Jersey

MONTREAL, QC - SEPTEMBER 21: New Jersey Devils center Nico Hischier (13) waits for play to begin during the third period of the NHL preseason game between the New Jersey Devils and the Montreal Canadiens on September 21, 2017, at the Bell Centre in Montreal, QC (Photo by Vincent Ethier/Icon Sportswire)

Nico Hischier – Another stretch, but for what it’s worth Nico Hischier has stood out in preseason games so far, upping what were already good odds of him making the team. Hynes suggested that Hischier has forced talks of him having a bigger role than previously projected. Hischier-Hall is an interesting combo, though of course it’s another preseason pairing so who knows.

NY Islanders

Alan Quine – Quine sustained an upper-body injury in mid-September that was projected to cost him four-to-six weeks. So he’s missing training camp and a couple weeks of the regular season in all likelihood.

Ottawa

Colin White – Suffered a broken left wrist on Monday and is projected to miss six-to-eight weeks. He had been seen as being in a good position to make the team, especially due to Derick Brassard being a question mark. Although…

Derick Brassard – His recovery from shoulder surgery is ahead of schedule, per what Guy Boucher said today. He still might not be ready for the start of the regular season.

Clarke MacArthur – Unfortunately even after his strong playoff showing, he ended up failing his physical. Sucks to say, but it may be that his playing career is over.

Erik Karlsson – As of Thursday he still wasn’t skating due to his foot injury. He’s unlikely to be ready for the start of the season and who knows if he’ll be begin the curve once he finally is given the green light to play.

Philadelphia

Travis Sanheim – It’s still tentative, but he’s off to a good start and seems to have improved his chances of making the team. Had 10 goals and 37 points in the AHL last season.

Sean Couturier – The Flyers are toying with using Claude Giroux as a left winger. Couturier could be the beneficiary if that happens as he could move up in the depth charts as a result, possibly even on a line with Giroux and Jakub Voracek (which they did test out in practice, but that doesn’t mean they’ll actually use it in games).

St. Louis

Zach Sanford – Suffered a dislocated left shoulder that will keep him sidelined for the next five-to-six months.

Jay Bouwmeester – Has a fractured left ankle that will be re-evaluated in three weeks. Along with Sanford, these ones are fringe just because they didn’t have much in the way of fantasy value even when healthy.

Alexander Steen – Suffered a hand injury in the Blues’ first preseason game on Tuesday that will cost him at least three weeks (at which point he’ll be re-evaluated). Certainly he’s the most noteworthy of the three fantasy wise.

Toronto

Patrick Marleau – It’s looking like Patrick Marleau won’t play alongside Matthews in even strength as Babcock’s preference appears to be a trio of Zach Hyman, Matthews, and William Nylander. Marleau and Matthews should share the ice in power play situations though.

Joffrey Lupul – Team’s says he failed his physical, but now it looks like the league wants to look into it after Lupul’s claim of cheating followed by his retraction(deletion)/apology. Probably doesn’t matter fantasy-wise either way. Even if Lupul is deemed fit to play he’ll probably end up in the AHL at most.

Vegas

James Neal – Has a broken hand that was projected to sideline him for two-to-four weeks. He’s one week into that timetable at this point so perhaps he’ll be okay for the season opener. Still sucks to miss training camp on a brand new team though.

Washington

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 16: Washington Capitals left wing Jakub Vrana (13) makes a pass during an NHL game on March 16, 2017, at the Verizon Center, in Washington, D.C. between the Washington Capitals and the Nashville Predators. Nashville won 2-1 in overtime.
(Photo by Tony Quinn/Icon Sportswire)

Jakub Vrana – More grain of salt stuff, but the Capitals have been giving him top-six opportunities. He played alongside Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov in Wednesday’s preseason game and tonight it looks like he’ll be with Backstrom and Oshie (Kuznetsov/Ovechkin aren’t playing).

Winnipeg

Tyler Myers – Feels 100% after only playing in 11 games last season.

Maple Leafs, Blackhawks share an Umbrella

Gus Katsaros — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 04:55:44 +0000

A SHARED UMBRELLA

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

If there was one thing that could be salvaged from the Toronto Maple Leafs versus the Boston Bruins on Saturday October 25 it was witnessing a different powerplay setup than the usual 1-3-1 that has taken the NHL by storm.

Here’s the play I’m referring to from early in the first period.

Leafs PP Umbrella 1025

Toronto initially sets up the 1-3-1 with Dion Phaneuf at the point, Phil Kessel parked on the left side, Cody Franson on the right. Tyler Bozak mans the slot and James van Riemsdyk plays the slot man.

As the play continues, around the 20 second mark, Bozak curls at the top of the zone and instead of taking position at center, skates right to the strong side goal line.

The umbrella set up key is to ensure having a skater on the strong side as an option for the winger to go down if there’s no option at the point.

Phaneuf is at the top of the zone, the spot signifying the importance of defensemen to have the ability to walk the line and launching pucks to the front of the net. Slap shots are nice and all, but getting pucks in front of the goal with two players in front offers rebound pressure and distinct skill. Shooting into the defending forwards legs will only mean a shorthanded situation the other way, an undesirable result.

Walk the line, defensemen, walk the line.

Wondering if this was only the Leafs first line? Nope, here’s Nazem Kadri, Joffrey Lupul and David Clarkson (yeah, Clarkson – and he’s going to the net too!) in the same set up.

Lupul sneaks down to the goal line with Clarkson, while Kadri and Jake Gardiner station on the wings, with Morgan Rielly along the blueline. The amount of space opened in the middle of the ice is shown very nicely here with some potential for passing lanes or clear shots to the net.

A clear takeaway from both set ups for the Leafs, is the first unit with two right hand shots along the wing (Kessel and Franson), while Jake Gardiner and Nazem Kadri as left handers man the second unit boards.

Chicago Blackhawks

The Western Conference finalist Blackhawks showed the same formation. Checking in on the game in St. Louis on Saturday night, this was the Blackhawks power play.

Chicago sets an excellent example of player rotation during the man-advantage as well while Jonathan Toews shows the strong side support skating right through the crease to become an option down low.

The crossover occurs with the pass down to Toews who slides up the half boards, while Patrick Sharp rotates to the top of the zone, while Patrick Kane darts from the left side, down to the right, beside the net – the space Toews vacated.

Kane gets the puck back along the goal line and moves up the boards like captain Toews did only moments ago, and they both rotate positions.

Both the Leafs and Chicago are using an umbrella, with the Leafs still learning to implement the setup and they look sloppy adopting changes in power play philosophy.

Chicago meanwhile seem to have smoothed out the set up and seem to look more naturally, controlling the puck and rotating in the offensive zone. Here’s the game versus Ottawa the following day back at home.

There’s a perfect image of the umbrella in this game.

BUFFALO SABRES

So what does this mean? Are they the only teams using this setup?

Watch the Leafs opponent tonight, in this snippet here and see how the slot man backs up down to the goal line as the puck gets to the point.

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