This article is part of our NHL Barometer series.
This week's article includes a hot Jack in Buffalo, a pair of young wingers on a roll, the Ghost on fire and a pair of big-name players on the wrong side of the ledger.
First Liners (Risers)
Jack Eichel, C, BUF – It's been another rough season for the Sabres, but Eichel has found his game lately. Eichel notched two assists Saturday, giving the 21-year old six goals and seven assists with 37 shots through his past 10 games. The face of the Buffalo franchise missed the first 21 games last season with a high-ankle sprain but was able to post a career-high 57 points in 61 games. With 32 points in 36 games, Eichel is on pace to exceed last year's total.
Joe Pavelski, C, SJ – Overall, it's been a disappointing season for the San Jose captain. Through 34 games, Pavelski has notched just eight goals and 14 assists. But he has shown some signs of production lately, posting two goals and six assists in his past seven games with six of those points coming with the man advantage. Of course, I may be bitter because I took Pavelski over John Tavares in my league, but maybe he can continue this upswing long enough to post solid numbers at the end of the year.
Kevin Fiala, LW, NAS – Fiala took some steps forward last year but spent much of the season bouncing back-and-forth between the NHL and AHL. He suffered a broken leg in
This week's article includes a hot Jack in Buffalo, a pair of young wingers on a roll, the Ghost on fire and a pair of big-name players on the wrong side of the ledger.
First Liners (Risers)
Jack Eichel, C, BUF – It's been another rough season for the Sabres, but Eichel has found his game lately. Eichel notched two assists Saturday, giving the 21-year old six goals and seven assists with 37 shots through his past 10 games. The face of the Buffalo franchise missed the first 21 games last season with a high-ankle sprain but was able to post a career-high 57 points in 61 games. With 32 points in 36 games, Eichel is on pace to exceed last year's total.
Joe Pavelski, C, SJ – Overall, it's been a disappointing season for the San Jose captain. Through 34 games, Pavelski has notched just eight goals and 14 assists. But he has shown some signs of production lately, posting two goals and six assists in his past seven games with six of those points coming with the man advantage. Of course, I may be bitter because I took Pavelski over John Tavares in my league, but maybe he can continue this upswing long enough to post solid numbers at the end of the year.
Kevin Fiala, LW, NAS – Fiala took some steps forward last year but spent much of the season bouncing back-and-forth between the NHL and AHL. He suffered a broken leg in Game 1 of the second round against St. Louis, forcing him to miss the remainder of the Predators' playoff run to the Cup finals. Fiala made a complete recovery this offseason and has earned a place as the team's second-line winger. He posted eight goals and four assists in a nine-game point streak that ended Saturday, giving the 21-year old winger 10 goals and 16 assists on the year.
Ondrej Kase, RW, ANA – Kase is taking advantage of the additional ice time and line placement afforded to him due to the injury to Corey Perry. Anaheim's 2014 seventh round draft choice, Kase produced 15 points in 53 regular-season games as a rookie last year. Kase has notched goals each of his past three games, giving him nine on the season. While his shooting percentage of 17.3 is likely unsustainable, the young winger has increased his shots per game from 1.45 to 2.17, which bodes well for future success.
Jakub Voracek, LW, PHI – Voracek had a career-year in 2014-15, notching 22 goals while adding 59 assists. He plummeted to 55 the following season before mildly rebounding to 61 points. This year, he's dished out 36 helpers in 36 games. Voracek has just eight goals on the season, so he is no longer a true scoring threat, but given his dishing ability, he's an asset in pretty much every league.
Colin Miller, D, VGK – The Golden Knights have cobbled together a fairly nice blue line with cast-offs from other teams. Included in that list is Miller, who came over from the Bruins. Not viewed as an offensive threat in the past with Boston, Miller already has five goals and 14 assists in 34 games for Las Vegas. Miller, who the Kings dealt to the Bruins along with goalie Martin Jones and the 13th overall pick in the 2015 draft for Milan Lucic, posted 19 goals and 52 points in the AHL a few years ago, showing a previous scoring affinity.
Shayne Gostisbehere, D, PHI – Gostisbehere had a difficult sophomore campaign after bursting onto the scene as a rookie. Ghost dropped from 46 to 39 points, but those numbers don't tell the true story of his struggles, which landed him in the press box occasionally. Gostisbehere already has 27 points in 33 games, 16 of which have come with the man advantage, where he's seen an average of nearly four minutes per game.
Tuukka Rask, G, BOS – Rask has been rolling lately. The time off in mid-November due to his poor play seems to have been the elixir to resolve whatever caused his struggles. Rask stopped 30 shots to win 3-1 on Saturday and has gone an impressive 8-0-1 in his past nine to bring his season record to 11-8-3. His 2.28 GAA is now fifth in the NHL among starters behind only Corey Crawford, Andrei Vaskilevskiy and Jonathan Quick.
Cam Talbot, G, EDM – Just like Rask, Talbot went through a rough patch but is on a roll now. Talbot's hot streak was broken up by an upper-body injury that cost him two weeks. But since returning, he has won four in a row, giving the Edmonton goalie seven straight wins.
Others include Leon Draisaitl, Derek Ryan, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Jamie Benn, Brian Boyle (great story continues), William Karlsson, John Tavares, Derek Stepan, Sean Couturier, Ryan Getzlaf (productive in return from injury), Ryan Johansen, Steven Stamkos, Patrice Bergeron, Mathew Barzal (first career hat trick Saturday), David Backes, Taylor Hall, Rickard Rakell, Brock Boeser, David Pastrnak, Patrick Kane (goal #300 Saturday), Nikita Kucherov, Josh Bailey, Michael Raffl, Brendan Gallagher, Claude Giroux, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Michael Grabner, Brent Burns, John Klingberg, Seth Jones, Torey Krug, Noah Hanifin, Tyler Myers, Josh Morrissey, Mark Giordano, Morgan Rielly, Brian Elliott, Ben Bishop, Henrik Lundqvist, Cory Schneider, Marc-Andre Fleury and Corey Crawford.
Training Room (Injuries)
Tyson Barrie, D COL – Barrie, the Avalanche's main threat from the blue line, broke his hand in Saturday's game. No official timetable has been given for his expected absence, but he is likely to be sidelined at least four weeks. Barrie signed a four-year, $22 million extension to remain a member of the Avalanche in July 2016. Nikita Zaitsev may get the first chance to fill Barrie's role.
Others include Auston Matthews (concussion, returned to lineup with a goal and an assist Saturday), Connor McDavid (blocked shot with foot Saturday, X-rays negative), Vincent Trocheck (blocked shot in ribs Saturday, unknown), Alexander Wennberg (undisclosed, will be "out for a while"), Logan Couture (in concussion protocol, no timetable for return), David Krejci (lower-body, missed fourth straight game Saturday), Zach Parise (back, skating with team), Nino Niederreiter (ankle, day-to-day), Ryan Ellis (knee, full practice this past week), Zach Werenski (undisclosed, missed third straight game Saturday), Devan Dubnyk (lower-body, may not return until January) and Roberto Luongo (lower body, skated with full gear Thursday for the first time since suffering his injury).
Fourth Liners/Press Boxers (Fallers)
Nazem Kadri, C, TOR – Kadri failed to score again Saturday against the Rangers, extending his point drought to 10 games. On the year, Toronto's second-line center has 13 goals and 10 assists in 37 games. Those numbers show just how good he was before the current slump. Kadri and his teammates are too talented for the streak to last too much longer, so for now, drop him to your bench, but activate him once he hits the scoresheet again.
Max Pacioretty, RW, MTL – The Canadiens' captain is having a rough December. It's been an uneven year for Patches, and the current month has been no different. Pacioretty has failed to light the lamp this month, notching four assists with no goals in nine games. In fact, he has just one goal since Nov. 11 and just eight on the year. To put that number in perspective, Pacioretty has not lit the lamp less than 30 times in his last five full seasons and has over 200 goals in his career.
Kevin Shattenkirk, D, NYR – Like Pacioretty, it's been an uneven year for Shattenkirk. He got off to a horrific start, as he tried to show he was worth the four-year, $26.6 million deal he signed with his hometown Rangers. Those struggles resulted in him getting moved off the team's top-D pairing but he seemed to find his game, especially on the power play. But he has regressed again lately, failing to light the lamp since Nov. 6 with just seven assists in 20 games in that stretch, while his defensive liabilities have been on display way too often.
Mike Smith, G, CGY – Smith's overall numbers (14-12-2 record, 2.57 GAA and .919 save percentage) are still solid, but he has just two wins this month. The Flames should turn it around before long, but this is further evidence how difficult it is to chase wins. Smith has already started 31 games and should end up with 60-plus starts, paving the way for a campaign of at least 30 victories.
Others include Dylan Strome, Mikael Backlund, Jared McCann, Anthony Beauvillier, Sonny Milano, Anders Bjork, Aaron Ekblad, Johnny Boychuk, Rasmus Ristolainen, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Antti Raanta, Robin Lehner and Pekka Rinne.
