Our Michael Hurcomb takes time out to review some intriguing storylines from the season's first few months that should be of interest to Fantasy owners.

How will the firing of John Stevens and the hiring of Peter Laviolette in Philadelphia impact Fantasy?

You might believe it will be for the negative after Washington routed Philadelphia, 8-2, in Laviolette's first game and scored only once in his second game on Monday against the Canadiens, but the coaching change shouldn't produce such drastic results.

Stevens was a defenseman by trade, but behind the bench in Philly, you really couldn't tell. He always had Philadelphia among the top scoring teams in the NHL after he took over as coach for Ken Hitchcock during the 2006-07 season.

Laviolette preaches an up-tempo, aggressive style of play. Don't forget he took Carolina from being one of the worst offensive teams in the NHL to one of the best. He did well transforming players like Ray Whitney, Erik Cole and Cory Stillman into feared offensive threats.

We shouldn't expect a massive drop off from players like Mike Richards, Danny Briere, Jeff Carter, James van Riemsdyk or Scott Hartnell. Heck, Laviolette might be able to even jump start a struggling scorer like Claude Giroux.

The concern comes on defense and how long it will take the Flyers to fully implement Laviolette's system.

Players like Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, Matt Carle and Braydon Coburn are still going to be useful for Fantasy purposes since Laviolette wants them to get involved on the offensive rush. No, it's goalie Ray Emery that could feel the brunt of the change in philosophy.

Emery is going to have to stand on his head at times because the opposition could get a lot of key scoring chances. When Cam Ward played under Laviolette, he never really had a great goals-against-average or save percentage. Even when Laviolette was with the Islanders earlier this decade, Chris Osgood and Garth Snow never had eye-popping numbers either. Fantasy owners might have to deal with some harsh numbers from Emery.

Also, the same excitement followed Todd Richards to Minnesota this offseason as he was expected to erase the memories of Jacques Lemaire's boring defensive style with a trendy up-tempo offensive game he learned under Todd McLellan in San Jose. Yeah, the Wild are in the bottom 10 for offense, averaging 2.68 goals per game, and only starting to come around after the first two months of the season.

Patience might be the best phrase Fantasy owners should preach, but by no means is it time to sell some of your slumping Flyers' skaters.

Is Jimmy Howard going to finish with more Fantasy points than Chris Osgood?

The whole reason Detroit let Ty Conklin walk in the offseason is because they felt Howard would do fine as a backup to Osgood and come at a much cheaper price. Through the first two months of the season, it has been more of a timeshare in net than a traditional starter and backup role.

Osgood had a pretty awful 2008-09 season largely due to injury and shot confidence. He is pretty much dealing with the same issues in 2009-10.

"For me, personally, I've got to get to the level I've been in the playoffs for this team right now," Osgood told NHL.com. "Last year we were so far ahead I didn't have to, but the position we're in now, I've got to get to that level now, and continue it through the rest of the regular season."

Howard played a lot in November since Osgood was battling an illness. Howard was 6-2-0 in November with a 2.09 GAA, and surprisingly Osgood became his biggest supporter.

"It's awesome for Jimmy," Osgood said. "It was a blessing in disguise when I got sick and Jimmy got to go in and play real well. We're going to need Jimmy to be there. We've got a lot of games. I'm behind Jimmy 100 percent just as the rest of the team is."

Osgood has 16 appearances to Howard's 15. Coach Mike Babcock has never been shy about rotating goalies, but this isn't Dominik Hasek and Osgood. Or Conklin and Osgood. It's a first-year full-time NHLer and a seasoned veteran.

Detroit would love nothing more for Osgood to regain his health and dominant prowess in net. Osgood should eventually rally past Howard and overcome his current 12.8 Fantasy point deficit to the young netminder.

Who benefits the most from Teemu Selanne's (hand injury) absence?

The Ducks lose one right-handed scoring presence in Selanne and gain one in Joffrey Lupul, who returned from a seven-game absence because of back spasms.

In his first two games back, Lupul has scored three goals and is scoring at a 43 percent rate. He wasn't able to do that with Selanne in the lineup. In fact, Lupul has learned to play on the left wing since Selanne and Corey Perry occupy the right side of the ice on the team's top scoring lines.

When Lupul arrived from Philadelphia via the Chris Pronger trade, he realized he wasn't going to be the main focal point on offense and would be a complimentary scorer. But he is familiar with Randy Carlyle's system from his first stint with Anaheim, and Lupul scored 28 goals for Anaheim during the 2005-06 season.

The likely candidates to pick up Selanne's production on the power play are the front-line stars of Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan, but Lupul has the most to gain from a Fantasy perspective since he can be a scoring presence on the wing to help bridge the gap until Selanne is healthy.

Is Drew Doughty worthy of being a top three Fantasy defenseman?

Let's see. He can score (has seven goals on 48 attempts). He can move the puck (15 assists in 31 games). He logs heavy playing time (averaging 23:48 of ice time). He takes advantage on the power play (12 of his 22 points have come on the man advantage). He also is starting to develop on the defensive end (at plus-9 after posting a minus-17 as a rookie).

We just ran through a checklist of everything you would want from a Fantasy blueliner and Doughty passes with flying colors.

It's hard to imagine that in his second season Doughty is this far advanced, especially for a defenseman, which is one of the hardest positions to learn in the NHL. But to his advantage he has a great work ethic, and the Kings pretty much threw him to the lions in his rookie season.

Doughty was the Kings' top-logging defenseman in 2008-09 and learned a lot of what not to do during a up-and-down season. The Kings are far more advanced where they were last season, and dare we say, contenders for a playoff spot in the mighty Western Conference.

Doughty is on pace for 18 goals, 59 points and a plus-24 rating. Those numbers would definitely put him in the top three for Fantasy defensemen.

He might not have the long track record of such names like Chris Pronger, Zdeno Chara or Sergei Gonchar, but you can't argue with Doughty's production and he appears to be a Fantasy staple for years to come.

What should Fantasy owners do with Martin Havlat?

Praying couldn't hurt.

To think Havlat would have only two goals, 11 points and a minus-17 rating through his first 23 games is ludicrous.

Here is a guy that had 396 points in his first 470 NHL games. He might have gotten the short end of the stick from Chicago as they opted to exchange his scoring presence for Marian Hossa's in the offseason, but Havlat was brought in to Minnesota to be the guy that replaced Marian Gaborik.

Unfortunately, Havlat is a shining example of a major letdown following a career year during a contract season.

Havlat had everything to play for in 2008-09. The oft-injured forward missed only one game while finishing with a career best 48 assists, 77 points and plus-29 rating. He kept the momentum going with 15 points in 16 postseason games and then landed a six-year contract from Minnesota.

Havlat had the right attitude after Chicago failed to bring him back. He wanted to show his former team they made the wrong decision by letting him go. Too bad his body hasn't responded the same way. Havlat has dealt with some injury issues since the preseason and is only on pace to appear in 63 games, which would actually be par for the course.

The good news for Fantasy owners, however, is that Havlat has managed to score 20 goals in all but one of six seasons he has appeared in at least 50 games. He has at least 50 points in those five seasons as well. The only year he failed to meet those totals was during his rookie year with Ottawa in 2000-01 (19 goals and 42 points in 73 games).

If you have made it this far with Havlat, then now is not the time to cut bait. Minnesota is finally beginning to hit their stride under coach Todd Richards. They were 11th in scoring (2.82 GFA) in November, so the tide finally seems to be turning. As long as he can stay healthy, Havlat figures to benefit handsomely.

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