Fantasy Watch: Scouring the Waiver Wire

F Antoine Vermette, Ottawa Senators
Vermette has been an iffy play all season long but has been hot as of late, scoring five points in his last four games. The forward has averaged over 15 minutes of ice time in his last four games and currently holds a plus/minus rating of +7. Netting one power-play assist earlier this week, Vermette has risen his point total to 37 points in 61 games played. Expect Vermette to eclipse his previous career high in points which he set last year at 39 in 77 games played.
Fantasy Take: Vermette is a good play at the moment due to his recent success, but owners shouldn't expect much from the forward. Only use him as a lower end option.

D Erik Johnson, St. Louis Blues
Although he began the season slowly, Johnson has picked up his play this month recording his first ever three game point streak. The defenseman's plus/minus numbers have slipped this month, but his point totals have risen. With 10 points in his last 23 games, Johnson has vaulted himself into a reliable play at defenseman, and has also shown that he can be a presence on the power-play. Scoring four power-play assists this month, Johnson currently has 23 points on the year which leads all Blues defenseman.
Fantasy Take: No question Johnson will be a powerful fantasy force in a few years, but in only his first year, use the defenseman as a second or third option.

D Jaroslav Spacek, Buffalo Sabers
Spacek failed to score a point in all of January but has been on fire ever since the calendar turned to February. Scoring four points in his last four games, and eight points this month, Spacek has been one of Buffalo's top producing defenseman. Receiving a ton of time on the power-play, Spacek has proven to be a great point man, recording five pp assists and one pp goal. Expect Spacek to be relied on more heavily if Buffalo chooses to ship out defenseman Brian Campbell.
Fantasy Take: At the position of defenseman, you could do a lot worse than Spacek. Although his season numbers aren't great, he has gotten hot this month and is a good play in most formats.

F Brandon Dubinsky, New York Rangers
Dubinsky was very quiet in the first half of the season, but has seemed to found his form post all-star break, registering 18 points in his last 24 games. Scoring his second three point night of his career earlier this month, Dubinsky has been on fire this past week, scoring seven points in his last four games. Benefitting from playing with Jaromir Jagr, Dubinsky is enjoying a great second half to his rookie season and is on pace to surpass 45+ points.
Fantasy Take: Dubinsky is having a great February scoring 10 points in his last 10 games. Although he won't keep up this pace, Dubinsky deserves a spot in your lineup for the time being.


For Illegal Curve, I'm Jonny Remis

Morning Musings: A busy Sunday

As usual, there are an exceptionally large number of articles today so I am going skip my morning preamble.

On to the morning papers:

• Damien Cox of the Toronto Star pronounces Vesa Toskala the Leafs' number one netminder for the foreseeable future. The Leafs fought back from a 3-1 deficit last night and prevailed in overtime over the rival Canadiens. Meanwhile, Mats Sundin is on a collision course with a couple Leafs' records writes Lance Hornby in this morning's Toronto Sun.
• It was only a matter of time before Brent Sutter had a tirade and put his mark on the team; Mark Everson of the NY Post has the details. If not for Kevin Weekes the result may have been different writes Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger.
• When discussing the issue of head-shots, Larry Brooks of the NY Post stresses that the NHL needs to make sure if focuses on punishing the crime, not the criminal.
• The Rangers were outclassed by the Senators on Saturday night writes John Dellapina of the NY Daily News. To add insult to injury, the Rangers lost Sean Avery with an apparent separation or dislocation of his left shoulder.
• Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun is impressed with the Rangers' assortment of forwards but wonders if the team's defense is good enough to sustain a long playoff run. Garrioch says the team has the same concern which is why it is attempting to acquire Ed Jovanovski.
• The Senators are now 3-0 on this young season and have been a perfect 19-for-19 on the penalty kill.
• As Marc Herrmann of Newsday explains, the Islanders don't really have any star power in their lineup and that's perfectly fine so long as the team has a chance. The Islanders have waived Freddy Meyer making the way for the team to sign defenseman Bryan Berard.
• The Flyers had a weak first period versus the Oilers; couple that with a late second period goal by Geoff Sanderson and that was enough to propel the Oil to a 5-3 victory over Philadelphia.
• All the Oilers' off-season acquisitions have contributed in the team's first two wins and Craig MacTavish says that is awfully important; Joanne Ireland of the Edmonton Journal has the story. After explaining that he was "pretty embarrassed" by the way he performed for the Flyers last season, Geoff Sanderson was excited to be able to produce against his former teammates in Philly. With another solid game last night, Dustin Penner has impressed in his short career as an Oiler thus far.
• The Bolts defeated the Thrashers 5-2 on Saturday night and Lightning forward Brad Richards was awfully impressed by the team's overall performance. Tampa winger Vaclav Prospal has been quick to put his 2006/07 struggles behind him and that has been the key to his solid start to the 2007/08 campaign.
• Regardless of the amount of new players the Thrashers have brought into the lineup, according to Marian Hossa the team is being outworked.
• Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the recap of the Pens' wild 5-4 victory over the defending champion Ducks.
• Ted Leonsis is awfully excited that his team has started the season 2-0 writes Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post.
• After losing 2-0 to the Caps, the Canes, to their credit, did not use the injuries to Cory Stillman, Mike Commodore and Bret Hedican as excuses last night. The Canes agreed to a 2 year, 2-way deal with defenseman David Tanabe before last night's contest in Washington.
• It looks like Johan Franzen may out for a while after he collided with Blackhawks' forward Tuomo Ruutu. After reading George Sipple's article in this morning's Detroit Free Press, it is clear that Robert Lang and Mike Babcock had their fair share of issues.
• It was quite a thrill for Buffalo native Patrick Kane to be able to score the shootout winner versus former Sabres' legend Dominik Hasek on Saturday night.
• The Bruins provided coach Claude Julien with much improved effort in their 3-1 victory over the Coyotes last night. Marc Savard left Boston's game versus the Coyotes last night with apparent abdominal discomfort but he hopes to be back on the ice Wednesday for the team's next game. In other Bruins' news, Aaron Ward is excited to be able to reacquaint himself with the point on the powerplay writes Fluto Shinwaza of the Boston Globe.
• The Sabres are hoping they can get Ales Kotalik back in the lineup from his sprained MCL for Thursday's game against Atlanta. Meanwhile, Kotalik's teammates improved on their performance on Saturday night but still have a long way to go, as they were defeated 3-2 by the Isles.
• The Flames' comeback effort was spoiled once again, this time with only four seconds remaining on the clock in overtime, as Calgary was defeated by the Canucks 4-3. Randy Sportak of the Calgary Sun runs down the key performers from last night's contest. According to coach Mike Keenan, Dion Phaneuf was the Flames' best player last night.
• Ben Kuzma recaps the Canucks' perspective of the team's 4-3 victory over Calgary in this morning's Vancouver Province. While Roberto Luongo did go down mid-game with an apparent injury, the tough netminder did not miss any time and looked fine finishing off the game.
• There are, once again, new line combinations in Colorado for tonight's game versus the Sharks.
• Ray Stein of the Columbus Dispatch has a Q & A on the Blue Jackets and other sports happenings.
• Wild coach Jacques Lemaire was very happy with the way his team played last night versus Columbus. In other Wild news, Michael Russo of the Star Tribune believes that it is ridiculous that Benoit Pouliot is currently playing in the AHL.
• Impressive rookie Torrey Mitchell took an unusual route to the NHL for a kid growing up in Quebec.
• The Panthers are off to a rough start having been beaten by a combined six goals over their first two regular season contests. The Panthers went through the motions in the second and third periods writes George Richards of the Miami Herald.
• The Kings did a poor job of protecting a 3-1 lead and it cost them as the Blues came back and defeated them 5-3 in the Kings' home opener.
• Blues' rookie Erik Johnson scored his first NHL goal on Saturday night and it turned out to be the game winner. In one of the more sentimental stories on this Sunday morning, Andy Murray coached against his son Brady last night and Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Dispatch has the story.
• Dallas defenseman Mattias Nortstrom wants to forget the team's performance versus Nashville on Saturday and focus on the team's solid performance versus Boston the night before.
• As John Glennon writes in this morning's Tennessean, goaltender Chris Mason was only seven minutes away from his second consecutive shutout.
• Coach Wayne Gretzky has been preaching to his young team to keep the powerplay simple writes Jim Gintonio of the Arizona Republic.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.