Dose: Johnny B. Gaudreau

Odd night in the NHL last night.

Also, an odd night off the ice, at least for me. Have you ever had one of those days that just seems oddly timeless? Or at least a weekday that had to be a weekend day? I swear, maybe it’s because of the relatively large number of games, but last night just didn’t seem like it could possibly be a Monday.

It also was 70 degrees outside, which is at least double the temperature I’ve experienced since, oh, early November.

In other words, things were pretty weird even before we all remembered Mike Smith generates a $5.6667 million cap hit.

(Aside: does anyone else find it really odd how many players sign deals that carry the “mark of the beast” as a cap hit, meaning 666 in fraction form until it’s rounded up? I’d say it’s the laziest joke in hockey, but then I realized that every nickname is just someone’s last name plus -y or -s.)

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FLAMES 4, KINGS 3 (OT)

-- How liberally are you willing to apply your benefit of the doubt? How honest can you be with yourself when you do that? It’s important to at least be aware of when you might be talking yourself into situations.

I think those questions are especially interesting when it comes to young players.

Full disclosure: virtually everything about Johnny Gaudreau makes me want to root for him. Sports are insanely prejudiced toward players who don’t fit a certain mold. To get as far as Gaudreau or Martin St. Louis gets, they have to be so much better than virtually everyone else that teams are forced to throw away their rulers and bench press measurements and realize that some guys are just too good to subvert.

In the case of Gaudreau - who had a spellbinding hat trick against the Kings, the first of his career - I think there’s one interesting thing to consider.

His 27 points in 35 games is already pretty solid, but I note that he went without a point through the first five games of 2014-15. Perhaps at that point, he was getting comfortable with the jump from preseason to "real" games. Maybe he was still earning the trust of teammates and his coach?

... Or maybe he just didn't score in his first five games. Either way, it's silly that he's only owned in 36 percent of leagues, although I will acknowledge that he isn't a great peripheral guy.

-- Marian Gaborik and Anze Kopitar are really raising the level of each other's play. Justin Williams is getting the benefits in more uneven bursts.

If the Kings could get reliable scoring balance from Kopitar - Gaborik and Jeff Carter + revolving cast of characters, perhaps that could trickle down to more exciting results for Drew Doughty, who always seems to be one of those guys who's great-in-reality skills only translate to good fantasy results?

-- It's pretty wild that Mark Giordano already has a respectable season's work for a mid-level fantasy defenseman: 10 goals, 34 points, 25 PIM and a +15 rating. In 36 games. Wow.

-- There's one excuse I'd accept for Los Angeles not buying out Mike Richards: "We're too cheap." Any other explanation is foolish, and if the cap doesn't rise the way they want, the Kings may really regret that decision as it could cost them a nice supporting cast member (dare I wonder, Williams?) or two.

CANUCKS 7, COYOTES 1

-- At what point did Mike Smith’s situation go from “Arizona’s being pretty dumb” to “Putting him out there at this point is kind of cruel and tragic?” How did this guy make the Canadian Olympic team again? Was it really just because he was one of the only dudes who would be zero threat to the two goalies ahead of him? Few players have enjoyed so many perks from such a modest list of accomplishments; he’s basically the Juwan Howard of the NHL.

Really, though, the Coyotes might as well play dumb with Smith and just try to tank. “Wha, Smith isn’t very good? You don’t say? Oh, hi Mr. Eichel, do you enjoy golfing …?”

-- Alexandre Burrows isn't worth owning, but let's give him credit for having a name that's almost a full sentence.

-- Vancouver really feasted on the power play on Monday, converting three of six chances.

-- Radim Vrbata only had an assist on Monday, but with eight SOG, it's clear he was trying to find the net for more.

-- Ryan Miller is 18-7-0, yet he still has a mediocre-if-not-flat-out-bad .906 save percentage. Kind of an odd start to his time in Vancouver.

-- Sixteen points in 33 games is "disappointing" relative to Oliver Ekman-Larsson's skill level, yet he has four points (including three goals) in his last four games.

DUCKS 3, SHARKS 2 (OT)

-- Joe Pavelski keeping it going from last season is one of the happier fantasy stories in San Jose. His 126 SOG in 35 games would pace out to 295 SOG over 82, which would represent a career-high (the only year that would be close would be 2010-11, when he fired 282 in just 74 games). There's little sense in denying that Joe Thornton inflates his stats, but so what?

Interesting note: you don't hear about Pavelski as one of those great draft steals, yet San Jose nabbed him in the seventh round (205th overall) of that vaunted 2003 NHL Draft. There was something in the water in 1984.

/smiles goofily

-- Speaking of dudes who were born in '84, Ryan Kesler scored the game-winner for his 12th goal of the season and 27th point in 36 games. Again, love the guy's versatility: 38 PIM, 109 SOG and 84 hits already.

-- Ryan Getzlaf doesn't need Corey Perry. That doesn't mean that the Ducks aren't much better off when both are on the ice, but just in case you were wondering, they're both ludicrously good either way. If forced to choose between the two in real life, I'd probably go with Getz.

-- Joe Thornton had six SOG last night. It's almost as if he just randomly chooses evenings to try to score goals, as he's still just under two SOG (69 in 35) per contest.

PREDATORS 5, BLUE JACKETS 1

-- Craig Smith has the kind of talent to be an interesting consideration in the right situations, though likely on the fringes. He has four points in the last two games, with 14 SOG. He just needs to do that more regularly, as he had one SOG in the previous three games.

-- Shea Weber's chugging along with plenty of assists, but it's weird that it's been a month since he scored a goal. You'd think he'd have beaten a goalie who was closing his eyes and praying while the slapper was coming by now.

-- Mike Ribeiro is basically always underrated in FanDuel. It's a little silly that he only has 40 SOG in 32 GP, though ... passer or not.

-- Not that there's anything THAT wrong with progressing slowly, but I expected a little more from Seth Jones. Greedy? Yep.

PANTHERS 4, PENGUINS 3 (SO)

-- I think Blake Comeau's an easy short-term pickup. Even on a pointless, -2 night, he's doing good things for owners: two PIM, four SOG and seven hits. Not bad for just under 14 minutes of work.

-- Expect Patric Hornqvist to pick up the pace a bit again. It's remarkable that he's at 114 SOG in 31 games.

-- Simon Despres is awfully interesting with three assists in the last two games. He also is a steady PIM guy, as he already has 50 in 32 games. If he can mix scoring and agitating reliably, he could be a really interesting guy going forward.

-- Chris Kunitz only has one SOG and a +1 to show for two games back, but I'd imagine he's probably going to ramp things up again soon.

-- Jimmy Hayes isn't all that interesting in most formats, but his Monday deserves praise: two goals, +3, five SOG and six hits. Outstanding.

-- Brad Boyes and Tomas Fleischmann were healthy scratches. Could they be buy-low trade targets? I think Florida's good enough not to be sellers, but sometimes you can be a good team with players who just don't fit any longer.

CAPITALS 2, SENATORS 1

-- Look, I have no beef with Jay Beagle. I mean, the guy's last name is stupendous. But ... come on, stop playing him with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. It's like pairing filet mignon and truffle-enhanced potatoes with Doritos.

(Note: that's not a great idea.)

If I were Barry Trotz, I’d just rotate Tom Wilson, Eric Fehr and Marcus Johansson in that spot. Maybe give Andre Burakovsky a try every now and then. The “putting a grinder with no finish alongside two stars” idea is pretty outdated, if you ask me.

-- Mike Green has one goal and four assists in his last three games and an outstanding 17 points in 25 contests. Matt Niskanen only has two points in December. Washington's really lucky that it didn't deem Green redundant because of Niskanen, whose most remarkable trait is that he kinda looks like that Dax dude from Punk'd.

-- Brooks Orpik’s dead weight in fantasy terms, yet I was curious if he defied expectations as a possession defenseman. Nope, looks like he remains terrible. Not sure Trotz should have any sway in free agent moves if Washington’s 2014 summer and Nashville’s 2013 summer had his fingerprints on them.

-- What a December for Braden Holtby: 7-1-2, .933 save percentage and one shutout. I expect him to slow down a bit, yet it's great to see the guy many pegged as one of the top fantasy bargains come through.

-- They didn't score, but Mika Zibanejad and Bobby Ryan had four SOG apiece. I wouldn't break them off aside from the occasional one or two-game palate cleanser.

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