Here we go again—another week of fantasy hockey news.  This week, I’m looking at which players are good pick-ups when it comes to raking in the power play points.  

Power play Experts

The power play—it can make or break any team in the NHL, and the same goes for any fantasy team (assuming your league tracks those stats).  While a real-life team can practice special teams on the ice, a fantasy GM doesn’t have that luxury, but he or she can draft, trade or pick-up players with the power play in mind. 

Let’s look at who is getting the bulk of power play goals and assists so far this season.  I know a killer power play sniper is tops on my list to Santa this season. I’ve been good Santa, honest.  I learned my lesson after you left Patrik Stefan under my tree a few years ago. 

Power play goals 

This season (thru 12.19):

Gaborik (12), Heatley (10), Kovalchuk (8), Tavares (8), Crosby (7) 

Last season leaders:

Vanek (20), Ovechkin (19), Cammalleri (19), Green (18), Selanne (16) 

Gaborik continues his impressive first campaign with the Rangers with 12 power play goals in 33 games. Also, those 12 tallies count for half of his total goal count (24).  Not bad.  Oh, and he’s already tied his career high for power play goals in a season (he had 12 in 48 games back in ’06-’07). 

Heatley is doing fine himself and is benefiting from playing on the same line as Joe Thornton.  Something worth pointing out is that Heatley had 15 power play goals in 82 games last season, so he is putting the extra strength goals at a better pace since moving to the Shark Tank (10 power play goals in 35 games). 

Heatley’s former teammate on Atlanta, Ilya Kovalchuk is tied for third in the league with John Tavares.  Of  Tavares’ 15 goals this season, 8 are on the power play—which is pretty great for any first year player.  JT is keeping some pretty good company in the power play goal category.  

Power play assists 

This season (thru 12.19):

Thornton (16), Kaberle (16), St. Louis (15), Plekanec (14), Richards (14) 

Last season:

Crosby (33), Markov (32), S. Kozlov (31),  Getzlaf (28), Backstrom (28) 

Thornton and St. Louis aren’t really a surprise here, considering they are playing with some very capable snipers (Heatley and Stamkos respectively).  Nor is Kaberle, who has always been good on the power play (he had 45 power play helpers back in ’05-’06) and the addition of Phil Kessel to the Leafs can’t hurt any. 

Plekanec has already surpassed the handful of power play assists he had last season (6 in 80 games), and the return of a healthy Andrei Markov will only help him get more (Plekanec assisted on both of Markov’s power play goals in his first game back). 

So there we have it, the current best of the best when it comes to the extra man advantage.  Will the names above still be there at the end of the season?  Maybe.  If Gaborik and Thornton are still leading at the end of the season, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.  

But, I think we’ll see some other names inch their way to the top by the season’s end, especially since there are eight players tied for fourth in power play goals (7) and eleven tied for fifth (6)—so don’t worry Cal Clutterbuck owners (0 power play goals in 28 games), there is still hope. 

Fantasy News Around the NHL 

The Good:

Simon Gagne (LW, Philadelphia) has returned and given the Flyer offense a much needed shot in the arm. Check your league’s waiver wire, he might have been dropped by an impatient owner early in the season.  Gagne had a power play assist and 2 PIMs in his first game back.  Andrei Kostitsyn (LW, Montreal) is on a two game point streak and has three multi-point games in December.  Nathan Horton (RW, Florida) has 13 points in December, including a hat trick and 4 multi-point games.  He has 35 points in 37 games—a vast improvement on his 45 points in 67 games last season. 

Jonas “I Don’t Need No Doctor” Gustavsson (G, Toronto) aka “The Monster” came back from surgery to fix his ticker and pitched his first NHL shutout over the Bruins.  Heck of a come back. 

The Bad: 

Teemu Selanne (RW, Anaheim) is out until early January with a fractured hand and teammate Joffrey Lupul (RW) is out for six to eight weeks after a bit of surgery to fix a herniated disc.  Jason Spezza (C, Ottawa) is out for six to eight weeks with a torn MCL.  Maybe it is karma coming back at him for this: 

Breakable goalie Rick DiPietro (NYI) appears to have suffered a bit of a set back in his conditioning.  He had some leg stiffness while playing with the Islander’s minor-league team.  DiPietro hasn’t played an NHL game since last January and has had multiple knee-surgeries in hopes of patching him up.  But, he still plans on practicing with the rest of the team today.   

The Ugly: 

Scoring defenseman Mike Green (D, Washington) was injured by a hit from behind by David Koci (LW, Colorado).

Jonathan Ericsson (D, Detroit) is out indefinitely after a knee to knee collision with Shane Doan of the Coyotes. 

And to make things even worse for the already depleted Red Wings, Henrik Zetterberg (C) is out for a few weeks after getting his bell rung by Mattias Ohlund (D) in Thursday’s game against the Lightning. 

Scary news this past week for the Minnesota Wild, as they had all of their equipment catch fire before their game against the Senators.  Even though the equipment crew did what the could to replace everything by game time, lots of players are very superstitious and/or picky when it comes to their gear.  The Wild lost the game 4-1.  Either Marian Gaborik put a gypsy curse on his old team, or someone is a big Talking Heads fan. 

The Showdown

Let’s see how some of the players mentioned last week did.

Big Bert and AO tie for most points in the past week.  Never thought I’d see the day.  Savard has been struggling as of late,  he’s on a 5 game pointless streak—which ain’t too good considering he just signed a 7 year contract extension.  

See ya next week, and for those who enjoy such things, here’s a bit of 1980s Christmas cheer.