By JIMMY D / Guerin, Recchi do well in trading places | Jimmy's archive

Neither of the twin towers - Chris Pronger and Jay Bouwmeester – moved and other rumoured deals turned out to be tall tales at the NHL trade deadline.

With two of the league’s best blueliners staying put, the story wasn’t nearly as interesting last Wednesday and TSN struggled to fill the airwaves with interesting banter.

But any day that a Wisniewski (James) and a Wozniewski (Andy) both get traded, it’s a pretty good day in Jimmy D’s warped world.

Several traded players made sudden impacts with their new teams, while others benefitted from the infusion of new players.

Mark Recchi got right to work in Boston, scoring twice in a win over Chicago when inserted on a line with Chuck Kobasew and Patrice Bergeron. If your fantasy league team needs a little burst before the playoffs, he could be your man.

If he’s not, another useful geezer could be. Bill Guerin left the island to ride shotgun with Sid Crosby, had an assist and had five shots in his debut and then a goal and two assists Sunday.

Eric Cole scored in his Carolina debut (or should we say his return engagement) and then went bananas with four assists the next night as the Canes hammered Tampa Bay. For those nervous about scooping Carolina players off waivers, they were 3-0 last week while outscoring foes 20-6.

Jimmy is a believer in this re-discovered chemistry between Cole and Eric Staal and he scooped linemate Tuomo Ruutu (five points in that Tampa game) off waivers in a desperate, last-ditch effort to make the playoffs in his main fantasy league (a dearth of goalie stats continues to haunt Jimmy’s Ice Gremlins).

Even Nik Antropov picked up the pace by scoring on the weekend for the Rangers (who also played last night). While Nik is a Kazakh and not a Russian, Don Cherry must surely be squirming looking at the NHL stats leaders where four Ruskies sit in the Top 7.

That’s something to fret over for the 2010 Olympics – teams have to beat a squad that features Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk. Eeep.

Devilish blueline plus

What do Johnny Oduya, Paul Martin, Mike Mottau and New Glasgow’s Colin White have in common? Yes they are all Devil defencemen and they are all players you ignored when stocking your fantasy hockey team in September.

But here’s another – they are all in the Top 10 in plus-minus, ranging from +22 to +25 as of Monday. Boston Bruins and Devils dominate this category, while Duncan Keith at +28 and Willie Mitchell at +23 have been superb in Chicago and Vancouver.

Here’s one final thing. Jimmy expects those numbers to wane as the Devils fade the next two weeks, perhaps from overachieving all season, perhaps from relaxing now that Martin Brodeur is back. How else to explain consecutive losses to the Islanders last week?

Leery of Liriano

Your fantasy baseball ranks are taking shape, but where do you put A-Rod, now that he is likely out til June with hip surgery. The consensus No. 1 pick the past few years now falls into the middle rounds, but where do you take him?

Your decision of where you put Francisco Liriano is becoming clearer every day. The Twins lefty, back after Tommy John surgery, seems to be better than ever.

Ever heard of a one-hitter in spring training? Ever heard of four perfect innings in spring training? The Twins won a 2-0 one-hitter and the Orioles didn’t get a sniff off Liriano. He three shutout innings in his previous spring start and has started dominating more with a change-up.

jpoole@herald.ca