Salo's role starting to diminish: The Sports Xchange reports D Sami Salo became the lone Canucks defender yet to score this season when fellow blueliner Alex Edler ended his 32-game drought with a power play marker during Saturday's 7-3 romp over Edmonton. Once counted on to contribute offensively, Salo has just two assists in 20 games and is seeing his role diminish on the team. He's averaging fewer than 20 minutes (18:12) for the first time in his career and has slipped out of the top-four rotation on the power play even though he has a 100-mile-an-hour slap shot. Despite all that damning statistical evidence, head coach Alain Vigneault leapt to the defense of Salo, who has another year left on a contract averaging $3.5 million a season. "When Sami's on the ice and playing to his strength, he's one of the best two-way defensemen we have," Vigneault said. (Updated 11/30/2009).
Injury Report
No information available at this time (Updated 11/30/09).
Fantasy Analysis
While it's true that Salo has always been used against the other team's better offensive players and is key to the penalty killing, the fact remains Salo is being used less often than any other time in the last seven years, creating plenty of speculation about the future for the 35-year-old Finnish defenseman. "It's not easy," Salo said of his declining minutes. "You want to play as many minutes as you can. It's never easy, but it's a team game and I'm going to do everything to support the team. Things haven't gone my way this year, and that means I have to work extra hard to make them start going my way." As for the power play, it's understandable Salo's role has diminished with addition of Christian Ehrhoff and extra-attacker specialist Mathieu Schneider, along with incumbents Kevin Bieksa and Alex Edler, whose own cannon of a slap shot annually rivals Salo's blasts at the Canucks' hardest-shot skill competition. It doesn't help Salo either that he is always injured. Salo has low-end Fantasy appeal until he gets back on track. (Updated 11/30/2009).
No information available at this time.
No information available at this time.
Salo's role starting to diminish: The Sports Xchange reports D Sami Salo became the lone Canucks defender yet to score this season when fellow blueliner Alex Edler ended his 32-game drought with a power play marker during Saturday's 7-3 romp over Edmonton. Once counted on to contribute offensively, Salo has just two assists in 20 games and is seeing his role diminish on the team. He's averaging fewer than 20 minutes (18:12) for the first time in his career and has slipped out of the top-four rotation on the power play even though he has a 100-mile-an-hour slap shot. Despite all that damning statistical evidence, head coach Alain Vigneault leapt to the defense of Salo, who has another year left on a contract averaging $3.5 million a season. "When Sami's on the ice and playing to his strength, he's one of the best two-way defensemen we have," Vigneault said. (Updated 11/30/2009).
Injury Report
No information available at this time (Updated 11/30/09).
Fantasy Analysis
While it's true that Salo has always been used against the other team's better offensive players and is key to the penalty killing, the fact remains Salo is being used less often than any other time in the last seven years, creating plenty of speculation about the future for the 35-year-old Finnish defenseman. "It's not easy," Salo said of his declining minutes. "You want to play as many minutes as you can. It's never easy, but it's a team game and I'm going to do everything to support the team. Things haven't gone my way this year, and that means I have to work extra hard to make them start going my way." As for the power play, it's understandable Salo's role has diminished with addition of Christian Ehrhoff and extra-attacker specialist Mathieu Schneider, along with incumbents Kevin Bieksa and Alex Edler, whose own cannon of a slap shot annually rivals Salo's blasts at the Canucks' hardest-shot skill competition. It doesn't help Salo either that he is always injured. Salo has low-end Fantasy appeal until he gets back on track. (Updated 11/30/2009).
Injuries are starting to pile up and trends are developing as we look ahead to Week 5. Our Michael Hurcomb has all of the latest injury news and shares a few of his recommendations in his latest Fantasy Planner.
Is it worth stashing Rick DiPietro on your bench in the hopes he makes an impact this season? That's just one topic our Michael Hurcomb and Ross Devonport debate in their latest edition of Fantasy Faceoffs.
Roberto Luongo made 27 saves for his first shutout of the season to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 2-0 victory against the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night.
Is Marian Gaborik a ticking time bomb? Should owners sell high before he inevitiably gets hurt again? Our Michael Hurcomb and Ross Devonport debate that and more in their Fantasy Faceoffs.
