Dose: Elevated by Elliott

The 2015 All-Star break is coming up, so that means we’ll see some busier “off days” than normal, including Monday’s seven-game slate. With that in mind, yesterday’s Dose is likely to cover the rambling quotient for some time. Let’s recap away.

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BLUES 3, AVALANCHE 1

-- About the only obvious thing that may pump the Blues praise brakes just a bit is that they are in the middle of a lengthy homestand. Obviously not saying it is a mirage, but the sheer force of their dominance might be amplified a bit right now.

-- Normally I would not point out a player who is so sparsely available, but I find it interesting that Brian Elliott is only owned in 84 percent of leagues. My guess is that injuries explain that. If you have a team you have not checked up on in a while (hey, it happens, especially for those with a handful of rosters and a life to manage), you might as well give it a quick look. It seems like injuries are the main thing that can conceivably stop him now.

-- The Avalanche only managed 18 shots on goal while St. Louis generated a 27-13 advantage through the first two periods alone. Is Patrick Roy going to sink with The Good Ship Shot Quality?

-- Nathan MacKinnon progress report: nine goals, 27 points in 47 games played. With just 6.3 percent of his 144 SOG resulting in goals so far, one would assume (and repeat, as I believe I have said this before) that he should finish on a better note.

ISLANDERS 7, FLYERS 4

-- High-scoring games can let various forwards soak up stats, but there are also those who run the risk of suffering in a big way if they're on the ice for the other team's offensive breakthroughs. That was the case for Sean Couturier (-5), Matt Read (-5) and R.J. Umberger (-4) in this one.

-- Speaking of Couturier, we can probably press the pause button on that talk about him being more than just a very nice defensive forward for a Flyers team that obviously is abysmal in its own end.

He hasn't scored a point in his last six games and only has a goal to show for the last 11 contests.

-- Could speedster Michael Grabner take advantage of the Isles' wealth of offensive options and score more regularly? He has been lately, generating two points last night and four in five games. Not enough promise to jump on a waiver signing in most formats, but he is at least worth pondering in FanDuel from time to time.

-- Quite a run for Nikolay Kulemin lately: two goals and one assist last night, five goals and one assist in his last five games. The Russian forward hasn't really been firing a ton of SOG (five goals on just seven SOG in that run), so the bounces will even out sooner or later.

HURRICANES 4, MAPLE LEAFS 1

-- As poorly as things have been going for the Buds, I figured this would be the kind of game in which Toronto may regain some composure. So much for that.

It’s hard to believe that the Maple Leafs hit a record of 19-9-3 on Dec. 16 after pummeling the Ducks. Since then, they've gone 3-13-0. Tracing things back merely to the new year, they've won just one of nine contests. They face four of five games on the road before this nightmare run through Feb. 6 finally ends.

-- Eric Staal may have production that seems a little erratic, but it seems like he is engaged. He scored two goals and generated seven PIM and six SOG last night. In his previous game, he did nothing but get four PIM, yet he's generally clocking in around four or five SOG per contest lately. Not a bad sign at all, though the points may come and go.

-- His brother Jordan Staal now has six points in 10 games back. One would like to see him follow his elder sibling's lead and fire the puck on net more often, as he only has 17 SOG in 10 GP.

-- Nazem Kadri ended a five-game point drought by scoring a goal on five SOG. The 24-year-old has 12 tallies and 26 points in 45 games so far in 2014-15.

CANUCKS 2, PANTHERS 1

-- Your humble author almost ended up going to this game, yet the circumstances (including getting sick in Miami, as if my immune system just flat-out got cocky) just were not quite right for this one.

-- Every now and then you need to take a step back and note things like, "Ryan Miller vs. Roberto Luongo being the Canucks vs. the Panthers is kind of a thing, isn't it?"

-- Nick Bjugstad did not score a point in this one, but he fired five SOG and delivered five hits. While he might not be at the level of being an everyday threat to be a true mainstream fantasy add, seeing plenty of SOG and solid peripherals serves as positive signs.

-- Injuries and playing for a low-profile team make it easy to forget about Dave Bolland from time to time, eh?

-- Radim Vrbata collected his 18th goal of the 2014-15 season last night. He is just two short of matching the 20 he scored last season. One would think he could at least approach his career-best mark of 35 goals this season.

FLAMES 2, KINGS 1 (SO)

-- Hey, you have to hand it to Joni Ortio for going off to a hot career start. He is now 4-0-0 with a resounding .958 save percentage after stopping 33 out of 34 shots on Monday. At 23, he does not have the most extensive resume, yet the Flames would be wise to ride this train as far as it goes. Impressive stuff.

-- Jonathan Quick only has one win in 2015 and has lost five in a row (0-2-3). His month-to-month save percentage stats represent a free fall: .942, .915, .901 and now .861. Yuck.

-- Why not turn to Martin Jones a little more often, then? Along with Ben Scrivens, Jones helped the Kings stay afloat while Quick was injured/ineffective last season, so it seems silly not to give him a chance to run with the ball again.

-- Just to reiterate, Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan are worth having in many formats. I imagine that has been mentioned multiple times ... but just in case you missed it.

BLUE JACKETS 3, WILD 1

-- Tough day for Devan Dubnyk. He allows three goals on 23 shots in a loss and sees Darcy Kuemper get healthy enough to be in the mix in some form. This is an unstable situation, especially since Niklas Backstrom's bloated contract forces him to stay in the picture even if the organization might be better off finding out if Kuemper or Dubnyk are starter or platoon material.

-- Seriously, Nick Foligno just keeps producing.

-- With Ryan Johansen on fire, Scott Hartnell goes back to being a great power forward option. He even has 61 PIM after starting off a bit less pesty to begin his stay with Columbus.

-- Jason Pominville must feel like he's in Buffalo again: generating solid numbers while most of his team seems to be imploding on a day-to-day basis.

-- James Wisniewski was quite the sneaky category-stuffer last season. Last night was an example of what he could do: one goal, two assists, +2, three SOG and three hits. Keep an eye on his numbers in case he looks more like 2013-14 Wiz.

DEVILS 5, SHARKS 2

-- New Jersey is high on the list of teams who are just tough to predict. In daily formats, I'd be nervous betting for or against them on many nights for this overarching reason.

-- Scott Gomez generated two assists and now has one goal and four helpers in his last four games. Overall, he has 16 points in 23 contests. Seems like his production is impressive enough that he deserves at least SOME credit, right?

-- Martin Havlat has a three-game point streak (two goals, one assist) and seemingly isn't turning into dust every time he gets hit. That's a lot of progress in a single sentence, folks.

-- I feel pretty strongly that Cory Schneider will be a better fantasy producer in these last three months. Not to say he'll be perfect, but much better than that largely unlucky 16-19-4 record indicates.

-- Could Adam Larsson start to silence the "bust" talk that seemed a little hasty since he's only 22? He has three assists in his last four games and is logging significant ice time to boot.

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