Breaking The Ice

As the Holiday season kicks into full gear, NHL fans are reminded that the season is nearing the halfway mark. The 09/10 NHL season is a third of the way done and fantasy owners should be using this checkpoint as a means of grading their given rosters. Gone are the mind games - "hot starts," "debilitating injuries" and the "he'll heat up" – reality has set in.

Tim Conolly has managed to play in all 32 Buffalo Sabres games.

Roberto Luongo and Andrew Raycroft have similar numbers.

Eric hasn't been the best Staal.

Anze Kopitar is lost without Ryan Smyth.

Henrik doesn't need Daniel.

Some are more interesting (Luongo), some are confusing (Staal) and some are just mind boggling (Conolly).

That's because the season's biggest story through 30 games has been the injury bug. In most cases a few owners get stung early and lose a few of their top picks. However, this season has seen some of the biggest names go down at a frantic pace. This has affected almost all owners in all leagues. To date, the following A-listers have checked into the injury ward: Simon Gagne (hernia), Johan Franzen (ACL) Marc Savard (foot) Shea Weber (foot), Daniel Sedin (foot) Ilya Kovalchuk (foot), Eric Staal (upper-body) Alexander Ovechkin (knee/upper-body) Cam Ward (leg), Jason Williams (fractured right fibula), Ryan Smyth (upper-body), Alexander Semin (wrist), Milan Lucic (finger/ankle) Pascal Leclaire (cheekbone), Evgeni Malkin (shoulder) Andrei Markov (knee), Ales Hemsky (shoulder), Scott Gomez (groin), Martin Havlat (hamstring) and the carnage continued with Jason Spezza (knee) on Monday and Henrik Zetterberg (Shoulder) Thursday.

On top of that, Phil Kessel, Marian Hossa and Patrick Elias all had off-season surgery and missed the first month or so.

That is one impressive list!

In one of my pools, 4 of my top 5 picks are on that list. In a 10-team league, I'm currently sitting in 4th place.

The reality? No matter how many people get injured or come up short on reaching their "fantasy potential," you can still win your pool. Put it this way, when you call in sick to work, someone is picking up the slack for you. For every Roberto Luongo, there is an Andrew Raycroft (I don't believe I am writing this) waiting in the wings. There have been enough games played this season to see some patterns in fantasy output. Yes injuries happen, but that is not the reason you lose this year.

Let's dig a little deeper…

Going Top Shelf:

Last 7 days.

1. Daniel Sedin (VAN) – A very good return for the injured Swede: 4G, 2A, +2, 2PP

2. Ilya Kovalchuk (ATL) – Snapped a three-game scoring drought: 1G, 3A, -1, 3PP, 12 PIM

3. Nathan Horton (FLA) – Simply on fire this season (23 goals): 3G, 4A, +5, 1PP

4. Stephen Weiss (FLA) – See Horton: 2G, 3A, +5, 1PP

5. Mason Raymond (VAN) – Career high 12 goals this season: 3G, 2A, +3, 4 PIM, 2PP

Stone Hands:

Last 7 days.

1. Jeff Carter (PHI) – Legion of Doom indeed: 0G, 0A, -3, 2 PIM, 0 PP

2. Steven Stamkos (TB) – Boy wonder took a break: 0G, 0A, -1, 0 PIM, 0 PP

3. Patrick Marleau (SJ) – From hero zero: 0G, 0A, 0 +/-, 0 PIM, 0 PP

4. Oli Jokinen (CGY) – Rough week for the 1st line C: 0G, 0A, -2, 4 PIM, 0 PP

5. Drew Doughty (LA) – A mini sophomore slump: 0G, 0A, -1, 2 PIM, 0 PP

Between the Posts:

Things are going very well for the Chiacgo Blackhawks lately. Besides leading their division, the Hawks are coming off back-to-back shutouts and their team defense leads the league. After a slow (some would say rough) start to the season, Huet has turned up the heat as he ranks 4th in GAA. However, he ranks 20th in save percentage and the Hawks allow a league best 24.3 shots on goal per game. This might be a good time to package him in a move for an elite forward (think Parise/Kane/Sedin's).

With Ray Emery out, the goaltender situation in Philadelphia seems to be Brian Boucher's for the taking. After being let out to dry Tuesday vs Pittsburgh, he returned Thursday to steal the win against the Penguins. He has posted nice numbers since taking over the starters job: 21 goals against in 7 games. However, he has imploded (10 goals in 2 games) during that stretch, which was enough for the Flyers to claim Michael Leighton off waivers and ink John Grahame. Proceed with caution.

The knock against Mikka Kiprusoff coming into the season was that he wasn't getting any better. After seeing his numbers drop in the first few games of the season, it is safe to say Kipper is back. The 3 goals he allowed last Sunday to the Avalanche broke a streak of 10 consecutive games in which he allowed 2 or fewer goals, and included 2 shutouts. Ride the wave as long as possible.

I have Nikolai Khabibulin in one of my pools and when he went down I made a joke along the lines of "what am I gonna do, pick up Jeff Deslauriers?" IF he was the joke, I am now the punch line. He has posted a 2.17 GAA and a .931 save percentage over the last 2 weeks. He IS available in your league, and YOU should pick him up ASAP.

Weekend Warriors:

A list of players looking to do big things this weekend (Fri-Sun).

1. Zach Parise (NJ) – The boy wonder filled the stat sheet in November, but has not scored in 8 games. That changes this weekend (OTT, ATL). In 18 career games vs. the Sens he has 19 PTS.

2. Ryan Miller (BUF) – Arguably the hottest goalie in the league, the Sabres host the Penguins and lowly Leafs this weekend. Miller is 19-7-0-0, with 4 SO and a 2.22 GAA lifetime vs the Buds.

3. Cristobal Huet (CHI) – Huet has been a wall of late and while he has tough competition (BOS, DET) this weekend, it's not that bad. He is a career 10-4-0-0, with 3 SO and 2.06 GAA.

4. Brad Boyes (STL) – A slow start to the season for Brad, but is looking to heat up like he did last season. Over his last 11 games, the RW has 9 PTS. Tonight he plays the Lightning (15 PTS in 10 career games) and Vancouver on Sunday.

5. Marian Hossa (CHI) - After sitting out the first 22 games with a right shoulder injury, Hossa hasn't missed a step. The weekend sees him against the Bruins (career: 42 games, 38 PTS) and the Wings, who will be playing the second game of a back-to-back, and who's fans will most likely

Breaking the Ice will appear every Monday and Friday.