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.
