By JIMMY D / Road trip Jimmy catches two NHL games | Jimmy's archive

Jimmy has concluded that watching his NHL fantasy players in action creates a hex on them.

On Tuesday, Jimmy was in Denver for the Avs-Ducks game. Ryan Smyth was still out of the lineup for Jimmy’s Jackals and Milan Hejduk was held off the scoresheet in a 2-1 loss.

Five nights later, Jimmy was in Montreal – with the two little Jimmys in tow for their first NHL game – and the Flyers were shut out 1-0. Braydon Coburn was injured and didn’t play, Cristobal Huet was outplayed last week by Carey Price and didn’t play and Alexei Kovalev and Tomas Plekanec were non-factors.

That’s a lot of players and not much fantasy production. Maybe Jimmy should stop going to games and just follow the boxscores online.

Observations from Montreal

- Carey Price doesn’t do much exciting, but he does seem to always be in the right spot to get hit with the puck. Huet owners like Jimmy D can see the writing on the wall here in Habland and it’s spelled P-R-I-C-E W-I-L-L B-E T-H-E S-T-A-R-T-E-R S-O-O-N.

- Daniel Briere will never live down his alleged snub of Montreal by signing with the Flyers. They boo him every touch of the puck, all game, every game. Folks, he got 10 million reasons for his year alone to sign in Philly. It’s also obvious he is not the league’s most proficient player at 5-on-5 as teams that are quick and physical render him a non-factor.

- With injuries on defence (Derian Hatcher and Coburn) and at forward (Simon Gagne), the Flyers seriously need an experienced blueliner and a playmaker to even make the playoffs. Peter Forsberg would be a great fit, but if he wants to come back to win a Cup, he should look elsewhere.

- Francis Bouillon (Jimmy calls him Frankie Soup Broth) surprised us with his physical competitiveness. Jimmy passed him over many times in drafts because he was a light-weight dwarf easily pushed off the puck. Somehow, that is no longer the case.

- For those of you betting at home, that makes 11 wins in 14 tries for the Habs over the Flyers after Sunday’s 5-3 win at Philly.

Observations from Denver

The Ducks will win the Stanley Cup.

They are deep, fast, defensively responsible and stacked with a tremendous mix of veteran guile, speed, size and grit.

Their 2-1 win at Colorado was textbook examples of how they don’t panic, don’t make mistakes, then pull out an ugly win at the end. Perfect playoff hockey in early February.

And they played this game with Doug Weight and Brad May both scratched from the lineup. They are the perfect Cup construction and they have Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne fresh as daisies after sitting 45 games.
Congrats to grumpy old Brian Burke on back-to-back Cups. Nobody will touch this team. It won’t even be close.

- Chris Pronger delivers at least a dozen short, sharp cross checks on every shift. Never a big windup, never gets called, but Jimmy figures every opponent has welts all over his back and arms after playing Anaheim.

- Ryan Getzlaf is going to be a complete beast. He is almost one now. Size, speed, control in tight spaces, good passer, pro gun and a bit of that Messier-style edge that you aren’t always sure he is gonna play nice.

- Jose Theodore played with poise and moved very well. It looked to Jimmy like he might be finally returning to the form that won him the Vezina and Hart trophies (what year). Consistency has been the trouble.

- Scott Niedermayer cheats up into the play a lot and always gets back. The Ducks generated three or four great chances off his daring, yet calculated bursts. Dude never makes a mistake.

Wonder why the Ducks never give up any third-period goals? By the time they shorten to two defensive pairings, you have to score with either Pronger on the ice or Niedermayer on the ice. And neither happens very often.

Thanks to our online ticket site for excellent seats at a great price in Denver. Right on the red line and 16 rows up from the ice, close enough to see George Parros’ cheesy, porn-star mustache and to hear Ian Laperriere yap about a penalty for playing with a broken stick.

For those keeping track at home, it was Lappy being yappy.

In Montreal, Jimmy bought upper-level tickets then upgraded with the scalper community outside Centre Bell so that Jimmy juniors could be closer to the ice.

Next week, we check into baseball spring training to bring baseball poolies up to speed on the brief offseason. Believe it or no, there were things other than the Mitchell Report happening in MLB.

Stay busy, stay lucky.
Jimmy D

jpoole@herald.ca