The hard luck loser award goes to Tampa Bay rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was unpenetrable for most of the game against the Isles with 45 saves but gave up three goals over the last four minutes. Ben Bishop is close to returning, but the youngster has made a strong case for backup duties over the struggling Evgeni Nabokov... Calvin Pickard has performed well above expectations in the Colorado crease while subbing for the injured Semyon Varlamov, turning aside 28 of 29 Buffalo shots for his 5th win of the season. With a 2.16 GAA and .936 SP, the youngster should have little difficulty in maintaining back-up status when 'Varly returns... Don't look now, but a fantasy star is quickly taking center stage for the Montreal Canadiens as Alex Galchenyuk is making the most of his opportunity of centering the top line. Another goal and assist gives him 7 points in his last five games, raising his overall numbers to 24 points in 34 games. The third-year pivot could still be available in many leagues so snatch him ASAP before it's too late... I would hesitate to write that a veteran forward not named Jarome Iginla is Colorado's most consistent fantasy option on offense these days, but Alex Tanguay has been real solid with 22 points in 30 games. He led the way last night with two goals and an assist. Maybe worth a flier as a borderline starter... Here is to stating the obvious, but Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek are the best fantasy tandem in NHL. With a combined 8 points in the 7-4 win over the Leafs, these two have kept many fantasy squads afloat with no end in sight. Expect the good times to continue much longer... With 34 points in 32 games, Nicklas Backstrom has been the far superior fantasy asset over Alex Ovechkin for Washington. Another 3-point night gives him 9 points in his last 6 games. As undercover a superstar as one can be in today's NHL. Perenially a lock for a PPG clip... Maybe it's time to buy low on Chicago winger Patrick Sharp as he is slowly shaking off his early season rust with two goals in the last three games. Coming off a career-high 78 points in 2013-14, he could be in line for a huge second half. I know many fantasy owners who have soured on him... Watch out for Thomas Vanek in Minny, as the struggling winger has begin to hit his offensive stride while riding shotgun to Zach Parise on the top line. His goal and an assist in the loss to Nashville gives him 9 points in the last ten games. With Parise streaking with 26 points in 26 games, I...

HOME ON THE RANGE Don't get in the way of a stampeding Buffalo Sabres team as they have rattled off four wins in a row and are 7-3-0 in their last ten. The story of this turnaround is G Jhonas Enroth who has the team rallying around his play. In fact, the Sabres are playing so well of late that they have positioned themselves to make a run for a playoff spot.  An incredible run; especially after their horrid start to the season.  Enroth has gone 9-2 and with the shootout win last night evened his record at 10-10-1, so it is safe to start this Sabre.... A big blow to Tampa fans as starting goaltender Ben Bishop left last night's tilt against the Pittsburgh Penguins after one period of play with a lower-body injury. There was no indication of discomfort from the talented net minder but Evgeni Nabokov started the 2nd period. No word yet on the extent of Bishop's injury, but Nabokov should have been owned as a handcuff due to Bishop's injury woes last season.  Let's hope it's nothing serious.... Not much is going right for the New Jersey Devils of late. The Devils managed to play the NY Islanders tight last night and even opened up a 2-0 lead with the "new-and-improved" Scott Gomez who had a goal and an assist and now has 6 points in 8 games with the Devils, all six of those in the last 5 games....Jaromir Jagr is the beneficiary of Gomez' resurgence as he assisted on both goals. Expect Jagr to get back to a point-per-game pace....Marek Zidlicky came alive with a goal and an assist as well. Who knew that Gomez still had it in him? Maybe he never should have left the swamps of New Jersey. This is possibly a good "buy-low" situation in New Jersey...With the win the NY Islanders remained 2 points behind the Eastern Conference leading Pittsburgh Penguins with Jaroslav Halak getting his 16th win on the season. It also made a clean sweep for the home teams last night.  After a modest 4-game losing streak, the Isles are back on the winning track. Let's see how the Edmonton Oilers react to a new Head Coach now that Dallas Eakins has been let go. We had mentioned in our SUNDAY MORNING COFFEE article this past week that a few coaching changes were in order with Edmonton being one of them. Will the ball start to roll on some of the others?  Read here to find out about the others.

Boston Bruins stopped the red-hot Blues 2-0 behind Tuukka Rask's 33-save effort. Rask also stopped red-hot players such as Jori Lehtera, Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko which has been no small feat lately...Patrice Bergeron continued with his 4th goal and 9th point in 8 November games. His goal was the game-winner.  Bergeron is the definition of pure consistency and leadership..... Marc-Andre Fleury notched his fourth shutout on the season, blanking the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre 4-0. Not really known as A shutout goalie, Fleury has raised his game over the past two seasons, so look for his strong play to continue....Beau Bennett had a goal and 2 assists in the game, showing signs that he is getting his game in order. Bennett is still not getting a lot of ice time, but as long as he continues to have games like this, he will be relied upon more.  Remember that this is only his fourth game back after missing the start of the season.  Perhaps he will be the winger that the team needs to fill out their top-six.....Sidney Crosby scored his first goal in 9 games. That's sort of news.... Jimmy Howard continued his 2014 resurgence with a 5-0 shutout of the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Red Wings played a solid game without their superstar center Pavel Datsyuk who is sidelined again with a groin injury. Age is catching up to the talented Centerman, but is still very productive when in the lineup...5 different goal scorers for the Wings, most from their young forward core; Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco and Sheahen all scoring for the Red Wings.... The New York Islanders turned the page on the Tampa Bay Lightning who beat the NY Rangers 5-1 last night but lost to the Isles 5-2. There was an emotional letdown for the Bolts and the Islanders took full advantage by beating ex-Islander goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, who only saw his 4th start of the year... Like the Red Wings, the Isles had 5 different goal scorers and what was surprising was that John Tavares was held off the score sheet. Nothing to worry about though..... Buffalo did it again to the San Jose Sharks, beating them for a second time this season, this time by a score of 4-1. Sabres' starter Michal Neuvirth (LBI) had to leave the game and Jhonas Enroth held the Sharks at bay. Brian Gionta was the scoring star with 2 goals and an assist, but I would steer clear of any Sabres until you see more stability from the team as a whole.... The days of being a defensive-style team is long gone as the Nashville ...

When the Edmonton Oilers made those two trades last year to acquire Viktor Fasth from Anaheim and Ben Scrivens from Los Angeles, I thought that they were on the right track since the Devan Dubnyk experiment was a disaster. I had thought that Fasth would take over as the number 1 goaltender even though Scrivens played better upon arrival, but neither has shown any resemblance of an NHL starting goaltender. Comparing the numbers, Scrivens is just 4-7-1 with a 2.94 GAA and a .899 SP. Fasth on the other hand is much worse with a 2-3-1 record, a 3.63 GAA (whoa!) and a .885 SP. If the Oilers want to save their season, something needs to be done and quickly.  It's nice to have all those young offensive weapons, but they need a goalie who can take over as a true No. 1, with a little help from the defense of course. In fact, Minnesota just put Josh Harding on waivers and with Edmonton sitting near the bottom of the NHL, Harding might be the ideal candidate for this young team. Harding has the talent, and the experience now, to be their guy.  He doesn't cost much against the cap at $1.9 million, and if he doesn't work out, he's an unrestricted free agent at the end of this year. Other options include Martin Brodeur but I don't believe he would want to go anywhere except a Stanley Cup contender. They've gone down the Ilya Bryzgalov road last season and that didn't pan out. Tomas Vokoun could be a decent option but he hasn't played much over the past few years and is up there in age at 38. There are slim pickings out there that is why Harding makes so much sense.  He may have health issues, but he did sport a 1.65 GAA and a .918 SP in 29 games last year. Not too shabby and better than what they are getting now. Harding is worth a shot for a team that is trying to establish themselves as a true NHL contender. Harding wouldn't cost them a young talented player and the cap hit is very palatable. How bad could this be?  Harding just may cause the Oil to stop slipping. POST MARKS: SHARK BITE--Hats off to Troy Grosenick who got his first NHL start the other night and posted a 2-0 shutout of the Carolina Hurricanes. Young troy faced 45 SOG and turned every one aside.  Nothing could be finer than to shut out Carolina for my fir-r-r-r-rst win!.....STEALTH JET--Michael Hutchinson burst onto the NHL scene as the end of last season and opened a lot of eyes with a 2-1-0 record, a 1.64 GAA and a .943 SP. Can't get much better than that huh?  Well, so far this season he is 2-1-0 ...

Nabokov was pulled after allowing four goals on eight shots in a 7-2 loss to the Wild on October 25th. Yeah, a .500 SV% is enough to get you pulled that is for sure. He will look to rebound tonight against a banged up Blue Jackets team who are starting a rookie goaltender.

Nabokov stopped 21 of 22 shots in a win over the Flames on Tuesday. He has stopped 44 of 47 shots (.936 SV%) in his two starts this season. With two back-to-backs in the same week, this will likely be the only time he will start two games in a week. He draws a tough matchup vs. the Wild.

Nabokov allowed two goals on 25 shots in a loss to the Devils in his Lightning debut last Tuesday. With Tampa Bay playing in the second game of a back-to-back tonight, they will give Nabokov the nod vs. the Flames. Calgary is 4-3-0 while scoring 2.57 G/PG.

Nabokov went 15-14-8 with a 2.74 GAA and .905 SV% with the Islanders last season, but this year he will play behind a powerful Lightning offence. It looks like he will make his debut tonight against a New Jersey team he is very familiar with after years on Long Island. He was 1-2-0 with a 3.66 GAA and .863 SV% against the Devils last year.

Nabokov went 15-14-8 with a 2.74 GAA and .905 SV% with the Islanders last season, but this year he will play behind a powerful Lightning offence. He will make his debut tonight against a New Jersey team he is very familiar with after years on Long Island. He was 1-2-0 with a 3.66 GAA and .863 SV% against the Devils last year.

We had expected the New York Islanders to take the next step in their development and qualify for the playoffs. Without their star center John Tavares-lost to an injury suffered at 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the team actually went 12-7-3 but it wasn't enough to overcome a poor start to the season. With the emergence of Kyle Okposo and the new additions in goaltending, there will be some improvement before the Isles move to Brooklyn for next season. The Vanek-Moulson trade proved to be a non-event so Vanek was later shipped off to Montreal, where he was criticized for his poor playoff performance.  There were quite a few new additions via free agency which will give the team stability in net and a more balanced offensive attack. GOALIES Out with the old in Evgeni Nabokov and in with the not-so-old with Jaroslav Halak and Chad Johnson signing via free agency to backstop the upstart Islanders. After grabbing everyone's attention back in the 2009-2010 playoffs with Montreal, Halak signed with the St. Louis Blues via free agency on the heels of his playoff excellence but could never take the Blues to the next step during his tenure.  Now with the improving Islanders, Halak will get another chance to prove his past playoff performance was not a one-off type of deal.  Also brought in was Johnson who had success as the backup to Boston's Tuukka Rask last season with a 17-4-3 record, a 2.10 GAA and .925 SP. Things will be different on the Island as the Isles are far from the same type of team as the Bruins.  The team felt that Kevin Poulin would benefit from a regular workload at Bridgeport rather than spot starts in the NHL. Expect Halak to get the majority of the starts, 55-60. DEFENSE The makeup of the Islanders' defense is pretty interesting. They have the experience with two 38-year olds in Lubomir Visnovsky and Radek Martinek, one for offense and to play the power play point and the other in a more defensive role. Then there are few support defensemen in Tom Hickey, Travis Hamonic, and Brian Strait who are in their mid-20's but don't offer much in terms of offense. Then there is the young stable of up-and-comers in Matt Donovan and Calvin de Haan, both saw limited action in the NHL last season. There are more on the way but we will take a look at those in the PROSPECTS section below. Lubomir may not be the force he once was, but he is more than capable of putting up decent numbers with JT and the rest of the young Islanders rounding into form. ...