Week #2 - Here comes the M*A*S*H unit

After some big time fantasy players were sidelined with injuries in week two, I wanted to chime in with my two cents:
Boston – well the injury bug has hit hard in Beantown. Marc Savard has been sidelined for up to 6 weeks with a broken foot, Milan Lucic is gone for at least 3 weeks with a dislocated finger and Dennis Wideman has been injured, but returned just last night. For the other B’s these two big injuries should translate into additional ice-time for the like of David Krejci, Brad Marchand (just called up), Blake Wheeler should and the newly arrived Daniel Paille (from Buffalo). In Krejci, the sleek play-making center will get more opportunities to create and that’s good news for fantasy owners as he has a meager 3 assists so far in 8 games. Paille’s arrival was a salary dump for the Sabres, but not as great as one for the Bruins – who essentially moved Chuck Kobasew to the Wild and then picked up Paille. The Bruins save more $ against the salary cap as well as get a bit bigger in terms of the comparison between Kobasew and Paille. To date, Marchand has not lived up to his junior hype in the AHL, and will have to show he deserves the opportunity in Boston with Savard gone. Don’t rush out to get him right away.

Minnesota – reached out and acquired Chuck Kobasew with the hope that they will get some secondary scoring, on a team that has not generated a lot of offense. Pierre-Marc Bouchard has been sidelined indefinitely with a concussion and the hope from Wild management is that Kobasew can provide for the loss of some of his offense. From a fantasy perspective, Kobasew will likely skate with James Sheppard on the team’s 3rd line, but we’re not betting that he’s going to make that large of a difference statistically to make you want to get him.

Pittsburgh – Sergei Gonchar is out for 6 weeks with a broken wrist. This will be Gonchar’s 3rd big injury in three years. The good news, is that it’s only 6 weeks and not longer, and that hopefully he’ll be rid of the injury bug for the remainder of the season. This unfortunate news will mean a slight decrease in the Pens PP, but it will mean more minutes and fantasy points for Letang and Goligoski in particular. With Gonchar out, these two young guns will likely man the points for the vaunted Pens PP. I expect a dip in their special teams production, but only slightly until Gonchar returns.