Three Stars of the Week: Week 20
It’s your post-long weekend edition of Three Stars!
The Senators had a decent last seven days, going 2-2-0. The offence has continued to generate, something that’s been an issue most of the season.
Three Stars
- Derick Brassard — Brass had five points, including three goals, over the past four games. His line with Mark Stone and Zack Smith has looked good, but surprisingly Stone hasn’t been the driver all the time. Brassard has looked very good, either driving up his trade value, or arguing to Pierre Dorion that he should stick around another year.
- Matt Duchene — After two straight weeks in the top spot, he continued this week with six points in four games. He and Hoffman continue to impress together, and Marian Gaborik didn’t look bad at all plugging in on their wing.
- Thomas Chabot — There was a lot of competition for this third spot, with multiple players having a good game or two. In the end, I gave the nod to Chabot for a couple assists, and for racking up more than 20 minutes in two games this week. He’s turning into a player that Guy Boucher can’t afford to scratch.
Trending Up
- We’ve been fooled before by small sample sizes, but Cody Ceci doesn’t look bad since being freed from his pairing with Dion Phaneuf, even getting two assists against the Rangers. For his part, Mark Borowiecki also had two assists this week regularly playing with Ceci. I’d be comfortable with this being a third pairing in the future.
- Mike Hoffman continues to impress, with his OT winner against the Sabres being particularly nice.
- Magnus Paajaarvi continues to pile on the shots on goal, with 10 more this week. If he’s auditioning for an NHL spot next year, that’s probably the best way to do it./
Trending Down
- Ben Harpur, fresh off signing his two-year extension, played two games, watching his ice time drop from 13 minutes to 11 minutes to being a healthy scratch for Fredrik Claesson (who put up a beauty assist)
- The Flyers acquired Petr Mrazek for a conditional 3rd and a conditional 4th. If that’s all it took, I kind of hoped the Sens would’ve made more of a push to acquire an NHL goalie with some upside./
Who to watch
Ryan Dzingel has been away for a personal issue, but once he returns, I expect him to return to being a major contributor. I noticed in particular during the Predators game that the lineup really missed him.