This article is part of our Blue Line Buzz series.
Welcome to the first Blue Line Buzz for the 2015 calendar year.
Before this column took a short hiatus for the holidays, there were eight defensemen featured in the last Blue Line Buzz, all of them poised to have major turnarounds in the second half of the season. It's been less than a week into the new year, but four of them are already providing early returns.
If the Canucks want to make the playoffs, Alexander Edler needs to come through in a big way. He's off to a good start and arguably had his best game of the season against the Red Wings on Saturday. He was matched up against the Wings' top line with Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, both of whom were held pointless, and finished the night with a goal, an assist and five shots on net. This is the type of nightly production the Canucks were expecting from Edler, who scored just three goals and 11 points in the first half of the season.
Edler is still on pace to finish with less than 30 points, but even a cursory look at his play this season will show that he's a far better player under Willie Desjardins than John Tortorella. Knowing what he can accomplish with his all-round skill set (career-high 49 points), he's a very good bet to surpass the 30-point mark. He's already matched last year's total for power play goals (4) and his plus-minus improvement from minus-39 to plus-5 accounts for
Welcome to the first Blue Line Buzz for the 2015 calendar year.
Before this column took a short hiatus for the holidays, there were eight defensemen featured in the last Blue Line Buzz, all of them poised to have major turnarounds in the second half of the season. It's been less than a week into the new year, but four of them are already providing early returns.
If the Canucks want to make the playoffs, Alexander Edler needs to come through in a big way. He's off to a good start and arguably had his best game of the season against the Red Wings on Saturday. He was matched up against the Wings' top line with Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, both of whom were held pointless, and finished the night with a goal, an assist and five shots on net. This is the type of nightly production the Canucks were expecting from Edler, who scored just three goals and 11 points in the first half of the season.
Edler is still on pace to finish with less than 30 points, but even a cursory look at his play this season will show that he's a far better player under Willie Desjardins than John Tortorella. Knowing what he can accomplish with his all-round skill set (career-high 49 points), he's a very good bet to surpass the 30-point mark. He's already matched last year's total for power play goals (4) and his plus-minus improvement from minus-39 to plus-5 accounts for a 44-point swing. At 28 years old, he should be at his physical peak, and it really wasn't too long ago that Edler's talent was believed to be Norris Trophy-caliber, having been considered for the award in 2012.
How important is Edler to the Canucks? During a seven-game pointless drought in mid-December, the Canucks suffered five consecutive losses, and over the past five games the Canucks are unbeaten when Edler registers a point. Who knows if this aging Canucks team will fade down the stretch again like they did last year, but one of Desjardins' biggest strengths is that his teams always find ways to win. If the Canucks end up securing a playoff spot, it's a good bet that Edler played a big role. Having the super dependable and understated Christopher Tanev as his new permanent defensive partner has helped turn him loose since he no longer has to cover for Kevin Bieksa's poorly timed pinches.
The Capitals' Mike Green is also off to a solid start, registering two assists in a 3-2 win over the Blackhawks in the Winter Classic and continues to shine as the team's power play quarterback. He no longer averages the same amount of ice time as he used to, mostly attributable to his still subpar defensive game, but his offensive game is still very good, and the Capitals power play is ranked third in the league.
Barry Trotz is using Green much more selectively than previous Caps coaches, though Bruce Boudreau, Dale Hunter and Adam Oates didn't quite have the same amount of depth to work with on defense. Green has been deployed in the offensive zone more than 60 percent of the time this season, the highest percentage since the 2009-10 season when he started in the offensive zone 57.4 percent of the time and scored 76 points in 75 games. After Sunday's loss to Florida, Green has 20 points in 30 games, and factoring in the eight games he's missed, over the course of a full season would be on pace to at least 50 points. That would be his highest total since 2010. Coincidence? Nope.
As always, Green has to stay healthy, but he could re-establish himself as one of the league's most dangerous offensive defensemen. His case could be helped if the Caps can find more secondary scoring, something that could be addressed by the trade deadline.
Arizona's Oliver Ekman-Larsson also notched a two-point game in his first appearance in 2015, just his second multi-point game of the season. Unlike Edler and Green, though, Ekman-Larsson's offensive production was never lacking with 10 goals on the season, but his poor defensively play certainly was. Playing strong defensive hockey means little in fantasy, but considering how difficult it is to project individual plus-minus stats and win the category in fantasy, his minus-12 rating was unsightly.
Much of it can be blamed on the team's horrendous goaltending, but things are looking up. The Coyotes are slowly creeping back to .500 and Ekman-Larsson's plus-minus has improved every month, going from minus-11 in October to minus-4 in November to plus-2 in December. Mike Smith looks like a lost cause this season, but if Devan Dubnyk can solidify the net by performing a little more consistently, Ekman-Larsson could creep back into the conversation as one of the league's top all-round fantasy defensemen. He already leads the league with seven power play goals.
Justin Faulk snapped a five-game pointless drought with an assist against the Flyers to round out the four players who are off to good starts. The 22-year-old is one of the league's most unheralded offensive defenseman, partly because the Hurricanes are bound for the lottery and partly because they play in North Carolina.
Faulk broke out last year with 32 points in 76 games but in reality his ceiling is much higher than that. Last year, in five of the seven months of league play he scored at least five points, a model of consistency on a team still in flux. Though he hasn't been quite as consistent this year, he was one of the league's best offensive defensemen in November with 13 points in 15 games. If the Hurricanes ever figure it out, Faulk is a 50-point defenseman, and he may come close to that total this year. Curiously enough, for someone who's so good at moving the puck, he doesn't shoot it often enough and over the past two seasons has just four power play goals. If there's anything fantasy owners should ask for, it's for him to shoot the puck.
Around the League
Other top performing defenseman so far in January include Kevin Shattenkirk, who has six points in his past two games, and Jason Demers, who collected 15 penalty minutes in a 7-1 drubbing of the Wild and is looking like a brand new player in Dallas.
In regards to Shattenkirk, he's the real deal. The 14th overall pick in 2007, he's never failed to score at any level, from his three years at Boston U to his 26-point rookie NHL season with the Avalanche to his time with the Blues, during which he's averaged over 0.5 ppg. Advanced stats suggest that Shattenkirk's current production is likely to continue, and given that he plays on a much stronger team than Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie, he's a good bet to regress the least, if at all.
For Demers, though he's still averaging less than 20 minutes a game, moving to the Stars has helped him get back on track. After recording just three assists in 20 games for the Sharks, Demers has seven points in 17 games for the Stars and averaging a little over 1:30 more in ice time per game. He's available on waivers in most leagues and could be worth a pickup for what little risk he carries. Brendan Dillon has also performed better offensively with his new team with four assists in 17 games but the improvement is far less pronounced, and Demers possesses more offensive upside anyway.
Recent Transactions
It's probably too late for the Stars to make a charge for a playoff spot. They were awful defensively to begin the year and allowed five goals against the Blackhawks on Sunday, but prior to that allowed only six goals in their past four games, all of them wins. Kari Lehtonen is a big reason for that, but also because Jim Nill continues to keep re-tooling the defense.
His latest move was to claim David Schlemko off waivers from Arizona, a 27-year-old who plays a very conservative style and has been under the tutelage of defensive whiz Dave Tippett for nearly his entire 207-game NHL career. Jettisoning Schlemko indicates that the Coyotes are going to give Brandon Gormley a full-time gig and have Andrew Campbell and Chris Summers serve as depth. It was unlikely they would re-sign Schlemko, an impending UFA, in the off-season, so the team decided it was better off giving his ice time to someone with a future on the team.
To make room for Schlemko, Jyrki Jokipakka was demoted to the AHL. The 23-year-old Finn needs more AHL seasoning before becoming an NHL regular, though considering how quickly he's progressed that may be the case only for this season. Schlemko should provide more of a defensive presence in the lineup, though how big of a role he gets will depend on how quickly he adapts to his new team and displaces (or rotates with) Jordie Benn as the team's no. 6 defenseman.
The Lightning also made a minor move, calling up Nikita Nesterov from the AHL. A fifth-round pick from 2011, like most Russian defenseman Nesterov is a very good skater. He makes a good first pass and plays with an edge, and given the Lightning's offense, he has a good chance to cash in on a few assists and collect some penalty minutes. He's a good short-term pickup for fantasy owners looking for a little help on defense. Averaging just over 15 minutes a game, he'll be sent down eventually but he's worth a shot for those feeling lucky.
In Ottawa, Marc Methot has begun his conditioning assignment in the AHL in preparation for his return. He's appeared in just two games this season and isn't much of a fantasy asset, but his defensive presence in the lineup could mean an offensive spike for both Erik Karlsson and Cody Ceci. Tyler Myers will return to the Sabres lineup soon, as will Paul Martin for the Penguins, who will likely demote Scott Harrington to make room. Dan Hamhuis should be skating for the Canucks soon, but there's still no real timetable for his return.
