An epic performance from Kris Letang, Ekblad’s historically impressive campaign, a swap of fourth-line centres, Fantasy tips and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. Customized New York Jets Jerseys . HEROES Kris Letang – With the Penguins missing Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Letang had five assists in a 5-3 win over Winnipeg, giving him 12 points (1 G, 11 A) in his past six games. Letang has had health issues but, since the start of the 2010-2011 season, he’s been one of the most productive defencemen in the game. DEFENCE PER GAME SCORING LEADERS, SINCE 2010-11 PLAYER TEAM GP G A PTS PPG Erik Karlsson Ottawa 301 69 175 244 0.81 Kris Letang Pittsburgh 246 43 146 189 0.77 Dustin Byfuglien Winnipeg 317 72 150 222 0.70 Shea Weber Nashville 333 77 136 213 0.64 Keith Yandle Arizona 341 44 171 215 0.63 Aaron Ekblad – The Panthers’ rookie defenceman recorded two assists in a 5-4 loss to Detroit and is providing rare production for a teenage defenceman. Since 1990, the highest scoring teen defencemen, by points per game (minimum 40 GP): TOP PER-GAME SCORING SINCE 1990, TEEN DEFENCEMEN PLAYER TEAM YEAR GP G A PTS PPG Aaron Ekblad Florida 2014-15 45 6 21 27 0.60 Bryan Berard N.Y. Islanders 1996-97 82 8 40 48 0.59 Tyler Myers Buffalo 2009-10 82 11 37 48 0.59 Cam Fowler Anaheim 2010-11 76 10 30 40 0.53 Scott Niedermayer New Jersey 1992-93 80 11 29 40 0.50 Erik Johnson St. Louis 2007-08 69 5 28 33 0.48 Michael Del Zotto N.Y. Rangers 2009-10 80 9 28 37 0.46 Jacob Trouba Winnipeg 2013-14 65 10 19 29 0.45 Erik Karlsson Ottawa 2009-10 60 5 21 26 0.43 Zach Bogosian Atlanta 2008-09 47 9 10 19 0.40 Drouin, Paquette, Killorn – The Tampa Bay line dominated play against Carolina, with better than 83% of even-strength shot attempts, holding the territorial edge in their matchup with the Hurricanes line of Riley Nash, Chris Terry and Jeff Skinner. ZEROES Lucas Lessio – The rookie Coyotes winger was crushed in possession (one shot attempt for, 15 against, 6.3%) at Philadelphia. Chris Terry, Riley Nash – The Hurricanes forwards were buried against Tampa Bay, with Terry matching Lessio’s numbers (1 for, 15 against, 6.3%) and Nash only slightly better (2 for, 21 against, 8.7%). Goaltenders: Roberto Luongo – Florida’s veteran puck-stopper was pulled in favour of Al Montoya after he surrendered five goals on 17 shots in a 5-4 loss to Detroit. Ray Emery – Philadelphia’s backup has struggled, even when given the opportunity to play more with Steve Mason injured. After allowing two goals on four shots, he was pulled after 5:50 against Arizona, and the Flyers brought Mason in off the bench for his first appearance since January 10. Among the 44 goaltenders to play at least 15 games this season, Emery has the worst save percentage (.887). BLUES-PENGUINS TRADE LAPIERRE-GOC TRADE PLAYER GP G A PTS CORSI% REL CORSI% O-ZONE START% Maxim Lapierre 45 2 7 9 42.6% -7.2% 38.4% Marcel Goc 43 2 4 6 49.8% -0.6% 43.8% Maxim Lapierre – In a swap of fourth-line centres that will both be unrestricted free agents in the summer, the Penguins acquired the more combative of the two, as the 29-year-old agitator has recorded more than a penalty minute per game four times in nine NHL seasons (though it’s worth noting that this season’s 16 PIM in 45 GP is a career-low pace). Unfortunately, he gets caved in, possession-wise, so it’s not as though he can be expected to improve territorial play. Marcel Goc – The 31-year-old centre has been playing a fourth-line role in Pittsburgh, but has played more (17-18 minutes per game for nearly three seasons in Florida) previously. Goc plays a solid two-way game, and while he’s not going to play on the edge the way that Lapierre can, Goc is a better player with more ability to move up the depth chart if need be. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Taylor Hall – The Oilers winger took a shot off the leg in practice Monday and missed Tuesday’s loss to Minnesota. With Hall out, Benoit Pouliot moved up to play with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle. Mikhail Grabovski – Scored a goal in his return to the Islanders lineup, where he skated on the wing with John Tavares and Josh Bailey, filling in for an injured Kyle Okposo. A nice opportunity to put up points alongside skilled linemates. Patrick Eaves – Playing his first game for Dallas since December 2, Eaves skated with Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, scored a goal, and had 11 shot attempts (6 SOG), while playing a season-high 18:00 at Montreal. Chris Thorburn – The Jets winger played a season-high 13:34 at Pittsburgh, scoring a goal and an assist, giving him four points (3 G, 1 A) in the past four games. Mathieu Perreault – Returned to the Jets lineup, his first game since January 16, when he was injured by Daniel Carcillo’s cross check. Mikael Granlund – The Minnesota centre played his first game in a month, skating 17:25 for the Wild in Edmonton, with Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek on his wings. Ryan White – The former Habs shift disturber made his first appearance for the Philadelphia Flyers, after recovering from surgery on his left pectoral muscle. Curtis McElhinney – Stopped 25 of 28 shots in a 4-3 win over Washington. The 31-year-old is due to see more action for the next 4-6 weeks while Sergei Bobrovsky deals with a lower-body injury. SHORT SHIFTS Islanders D Johnny Boychuk had a pair of assists in a 4-1 win against the Rangers; he has 10 points (2 G, 8 a) in his past 12 games…Coyotes RW Shane Doan contributed two assists in a 4-3 loss at Philadelphia, giving him eight points (2 G, 6 A) in his past six games…Jets LW Evander Kane registered three assists in a 5-3 loss at Pittsburgh, and has nine points (4 G, 5 A) in his past nine games…Jets C Adam Lowry had a goal and an assist; the rookie has six points (1 G, 5 A) in the past seven games…Penguins LW David Perron had a goal and an assist in a 5-3 win against Winnipeg, giving him 10 points (5 G, 5 A) in his past 10 games…Red Wings C Riley Sheahan picked up a pair of assists in a 5-4 win at Florida, and has five assists in the past five games…Red Wings LW Stephen Weiss had a goal and two assists in a 5-4 win at Florida. He has five points (1 G, 4 A) in the past four games…Panthers C Aleksander Barkov had a goal and two assists in a 5-4 loss to Detroit. The second-year Panthers pivot has nine points (3 G, 6 A) in the past nine games…Hurricanes LW Eric Staal had a goal and an assist in a 4-2 win over Tampa Bay, giving him 12 points (9 G, 3 A) in the past 13 games…Predators C Mike Ribeiro recorded three assists in a 4-3 win over Colorado, and has 12 points (1 G, 11 A) in the past 10 games…Flames LW Johnny Gaudreau scored a pair of goals in a 4-1 win over Buffalo, and has 14 points (9 G, 5 A) in the past 14 games…Flames C Joe Colborne had a goal and an assist, giving him eight points (5 G, 3 A) in the past 10 games. The line of Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Tatar and Darren Helm carried more than 75% of the play at Florida, with Tatar (24 shot attempts for, 6 against, 80.0%) leading the way…Despite favourable possession stats (15 shot attempts for, 12 against, 55.6%), Canucks D Dan Hamhuis was on for three even-strength goals against in a 4-0 loss to Anaheim. Islanders G Jaroslav Halak turned aside 40 of 41 shots in a 4-1 win over the Rangers…Canadiens G Carey Price stopped 40 of 42 shots in a 3-2 win over Dallas…Wild G Devan Dubnyk stopped 23 of 24 shots in a 2-1 win at Edmonton…Ducks G Fredrik Andersen had a 17-save shutout in a 4-0 win at Vancouver. FIRSTS Petr Straka – A second-round pick of the Blue Jackets in 2010, who was not signed, then eventually signed by Philadelphia as a free agent, Straka made his NHL debut for the Flyers, playing 10:08 in the win over Arizona. He had 17 points (11 G, 6 A) and was minus-3 in 39 AHL games. FANTASY FOCUS Three games tonight, three players to consider for your lineup: Patrik Elias – Fresh off an appearance at the All-Star game, Elias has been producing more lately, with seven points (2 G, 5 A) in his past seven games. Andre Burakovsky – The Capitals rookie winger has four points (2 G, 2 A) in the past three games, and is playing on the top line with Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. Bryan Bickell – Riding a wave on the wing with Brad Richards and Patrick Kane, Bickell has 10 points (5 G, 5 A) in the past 11 games. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca Custom Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jersey . But in the aftermath a 115-91 pounding of the Utah Jazz on Saturday night, Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey insisted it was still invaluable for evaluating the depth of his team early in the season. Customized Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jerseys . Miamis two-year reign was over. And Bosh almost sounded relieved. The Heat got rolled in the NBA Finals by San Antonio, losing in five games, the last three of them lopsided, and for the first time since 2011 there would be no championship parade in Miami.SALT LAKE CITY -- San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili is expected to miss two weeks with a strained left oblique. Ginobili was hurt during the second half of San Antonios 103-100 victory at the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday. The Spurs have won 10 straight heading into Monday nights game at Utah. Ginobili had an MRI on Monday that confirmed the injury. He willl remain in San Antonio for the remainder of the Spurs road trip. Customized Minnesota Vikings Jerseys. Forward Tiago Splitter also is expected to miss two weeks with a strained right calf, but he travelled with the team to Salt Lake City and will continue his rehab during the road trip. Ginobili was playing in just his fourth game since missing 22 with a broken left hand. cheap jerseys from chinacheap jerseys ' ' '
