Western Conference Review

February 17, 2009 6:47pm CST

Anaheim Ducks
J-S Giguere just cannot find any consistency on the ice. In his last start he allowed five goals, over his last nine decisions he is but 3-5-1, and he owns a 3.59 GAA in his last 10 appearances. Those numbers should not inspire any confidence in his owners... Another anchor on the club, Scott Niedermayer, has also tanked of late posting a (-5) over the past two games and he is a terrible (-7) on the month... Rookie Andrew Ebbert had three points in his last game, and now has nine points in his last 11 games. Skating with Teemu Selanne has a way of bringing out the best in guys (Selanne has seven points in his last seven games).

Calgary Flames
Cory Sarich has morphed into Dion Phaneuf. Really he has. Just look at his production over the past five games: one goal and four assists. Sarich has also recorded a +7 mark with 13 PIM in that time. See what we mean with the Phaneuf comparison? For his part, Dion has only one point, a (-1) rating and just four PIM making him more like Sarich than himself... Todd Bertuzzi has points in six of eight February games (2 goals, 7 assists) and with 41 points in 51 games he has one more point that he scored last season in 68 games... At the other end of the offensive spectrum is Jarome Iginla who has all of two goals in 19 games and none in the last seven contests.

Chicago Blackhawks
The Hawks will juggle their lines out of necessity as Patrick Sharp will miss at least three weeks with a knee injury. As a result, look for the top line to be made up of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Troy Brouwer. Yes, that means you should immediately grab Brouwer if you need help up front as he has scored three points in four games without skating alongside the dynamic duo... Nikolai Khabibulin continues to deal with a lower body injury that he suffered last week. He is still listed as day-to-day. Meanwhile, Cristobal Huet has allowed seven goals in his last four appearances though his save percentage in that time is just .901... Dustin Byfuglien returned to the lineup after a two-game benching. He led the team with six shots on goal and dished out an assist in the contest.

Colorado Avalanche
Paul Stastny, out since late December with a broken forearm, could return to the lineup as early as this weekend. Stastny was back at practice on Monday though he wasn't allowed to partake in contact drills. Stastny had 31 points in 34 games before the injury... John-Michael Liles has an injured hand that may or may not force him to the sidelines. J-M has only two assists and poor (-4) mark in his last seven games... Adam Foote returned from a triceps tear to log over 25 minutes of ice-time. While that is great news for the club, it means nothing in fantasy land... Marek Svatos is back at it again, and by "it" that means he isn't scoring having produced just one goal in five games. Oh yeah, he is also a (-6) in that time... Tyler Arnason is centering the second line, but he still only has one point in five games to go along with an atrocious (-8).

Columbus Blue Jackets
Manny Malhotra scored a goal over the weekend, his first goal since January 18 (11 games). After posting nine points in seven games in mid-January, Malhotra has barely been heard from since with only three points in 10 games. He is no longer fantasy relevant... Fredrik Modin will miss at least the next week due to a strained knee suffered on Saturday. Modin has posted nine goals and 16 assists in 49 games on the year, so his loss shouldn't affect many fantasy squads... R.J. Umberger is up to 19 goals on the year thanks to scoring three times in two games. R.J. has scored six times in his last 11 games while dishing out two helpers. Four of those six goals were scored with the man-advantage as well, so R.J. is starting to fill up the stat sheet.

Dallas Stars
The Stars suffered a devastating blow when they learned that Brad Richards will miss 6-8 weeks with a broken wrist. Richards, who has 48 points in 55 games, will leave a gaping hole on the teams top scoring line, one that Mike Modano will likely be asked to fill. Who will pick up the power-play minutes is a bit of a mystery as of this writing... Steve Ott is dealing with a lower body injury that may or may not keep him out of action on Thursday after he was forced to the sidelines on Monday. He hasn't scored a point in three games after coming off an eight-game point streak (6 goals, 6 assists)... Marty Turco have a month. The Stars netminder has gone 5-3 with a 1.82 GAA and a .938 save percentage in February.

Detroit Red Wings
The Wings have publicly stated that they won't be shopping for any extra help in net at the trade deadline as they will go with Chris Osgood and Ty Conklin. The duo is an impressive 36-12-8 on the year, but neither has been consistently excellent, especially Osgood who has produced terrible ratios (3.29 GAA, .879 save percentage). The team continues to say that they are looking for Osgood to step up, but it's been Conklin who seemingly deserves the majority of work even if he doesn't get it (Conklin is 7-2 in his last nine decisions)... Valtteri Filppula scored 19 times last season, but he has managed just six goals in 57 games this season and just one goal in 26 games... Dan Clearly continues to skate on the top line with Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. Clearly has scored three goals and handed out four assists in his last seven games.

Edmonton Oilers
Erik Cole's name continues to come up in trade rumors. After a brief period of strong play in January he has once again reverted to a non-entity on the ice with not a single point in nine games... Ales Hemsky continues to score. In his last four games he has scored two goals and handed out five assists, and overall he has 50 points in 46 games... Dwayne Roloson has made 12-straight starts for the club and his record in that time is 7-4-1. He is obviously the only goalie worthy of being owned right now... Dustin Penner has five points in his last three games as he continues his hot and cold ways... Tom Gilbert will be asked to shoulder more of the load on offense, especially the power play, with the loss of Lubomir Visnovsky and Denis Grebeshkov. Lookie there, Gilbert has responded with five points in his last three games to do just that.

Los Angeles Kings
Alexander Frolov has been hot as a pistol of late with 15 points in his last 11 games. That's some kind of run for the winger who is seven goals short of his second 30-goal effort... Jon Quick suffered a rare beat down on Monday night as he allowed three goals on just eight shots before being removed from the game. Quick still hasn't allowed more than three goals in five games, and in the month of February he is 3-3-1 with a .907 save percentage... Tom Preissing continues to be sidelined with dizziness. He has missed seven-straight games... Jack Johnson skated just under 27 minutes in the team's last game. The club is 7-2-3 since Johnson returned to action. He has only three points and is a (-4) with 23 PIM in that time.

Minnesota Wild
Marian Gaborik (hip surgery) has begun skating. However, there is no reason to expect him to return before the final week of March, if then. Considering how many times he has let everyone down, it wouldn't be at all shocking to hear that he has suffered some setback that will knock him out of action until the playoffs... Owen Nolan continues to produce tremendous numbers when in the lineup. In his last four games he has three goals and three assists. Going back a bit further, he has 14 goals in 24 games... When Pierre-Marc Bouchard scores a goal, the club wins. The Wild are 30-4-1 when he scores a goal dating back to Christmas of 2006... Kurtis Foster continues to rehab his broken leg in the minors skating with the Houston Aeros of the AHL. He hopes to return by the end of the month.

Nashville Predators
The Predators power play continues to limp along. Currently ranked just 29th overall, they have just two markers in 35 attempts with the man-advantage over the past 10 games... Part of the reason for the clubs failures with the man-advantage is that Shea Weber, the point man on the first unit, has stunk up the joint worse than a rotten piece of rotten cheese of late with just a measly assist in his last 11 games... Pekka Rinne upped his record in February to 5-2, and his .932 save percentage on the month is his best mark of the season and the third-straight month it has been at least .920... If your league counts blocked shots, hopefully you have Greg Zanon on your club as he leads the league with 170 of them. He has only nine points on the year though, so he has no value at all in standard leagues.

Phoenix Coyotes
Martin Hanzal has returned to the lineup after missing some time due to an injured shoulder. Since he hasn't recorded a point in seven games, his fantasy significance remains minimal... Enver Lisin has been successful of late with four goals in 11 games, though that doesn't mean the youngster should be on anyone's fantasy roster... Derek Morris has four points in nine games. He is looking forward to a big payday when the season ends and he becomes a free agent... Ilya Bryzgalov's record has dropped to well below .500 at 19-23-4 on the year thanks to his recent run of futility. Ilya has won one game in nine appearances, and he has allowed four or more goals in four of his last five games, only breaking the streak with a shutout against the Stars.

St. Louis Blues
Since the start of February, Chris Mason has had only one hiccup (he allowed five goals to the Canucks on February 10). On the month he has a fantastic GAA of 1.69, this after posting a 1.72 mark in six appearances in January... Andy McDonald has returned to the lineup, and he has spent the majority of the time on the left wing as the team is taking it slow with him after he missed 36 games with his broken ankle. It hasn't hurt his production in the least as he has four points in the four games... Defensemen Carlo Colaiacovo really seems to like the home cooking he is getting in St. Louis. After producing one point in 10 games with the Leafs this season, Carlo's offense has exploded with the Blues as he has 12 points in his last 14 games.

San Jose Sharks
Marcel Goc will likely miss the next 2-3 weeks with a lower body injury. Goc isn't a fantasy factor with nine points on the year. In other injury news, Jeremy Roenick is on the cusp of returning from a shoulder injury... Patrick Marleau has 30 goals on the year, the third time he has reached that mark. He is just four goals from his career best total of 34 set in 2005-06, and he figures to blow past that mark given that he has 28 games to go... Jonathan Cheechoo finally scored, though one goal in 19 games certainly isn't anything to jump for joy about... Joe Pavelski continues to center the club's extremely successful second line, and he has scored a goal in three straight games. Going back a bit further, "Little" Joe has five goals and eight assists in his last 13 games.

Vancouver Canucks
Alex Burrows has been placed on the top line alongside the Sedin Twins. With his combination of toughness (82) and scoring (13 goals), he is almost certainly already owned, so make sure if he is on your roster that he is active... Mats Sundin has finally found his stride like we knew he would. Sundin has scored four goals and dished out four assists in his last six games as he has returned to the point a game pace that he has been at since the early 1990's... Roberto Luongo is 5-0 in his last five starts despite a pedestrian GAA (3.00) and save percentage (.899).