Tampa Bay’s defence gets better with Hedman’s return, a rookie burns the Oilers and the Habs’ number one defenceman plays like it; lineup news, Fantasy tips and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. HEROES Victor Hedman – Accumulated three assists in Tampa Bay’s 6-3 win over the New York Rangers. He’s missed more than five weeks with a broken hand, but Hedman now has 10 points (3 G, 7 A) in seven games. Since the start of last season, Erik Karlsson and Mark Giordano are the only defencemen with a better points-per-game rate than Hedman. DEFENCE SCORING DEFENCEMAN TEAM GP G A PTS PTS/GP Erik Karlsson Ottawa 105 26 65 91 0.87 Mark Giordano Calgary 89 20 52 72 0.81 Victor Hedman Tampa Bay 82 16 49 65 0.79 Duncan Keith Chicago 103 11 65 76 0.74 Shea Weber Nashville 102 29 42 71 0.70 In his limited playing time this season, Hedman is also putting up career-best possession numbers (58.3% Corsi) though, in this very small sample, he’s had the ice tilted in his favour (63.9% of shifts starting in the offensive zone). Tobias Rieder – Drafted by the Edmonton Oilers, in the fourth round in 2011, the Coyotes rookie winger scored a pair of shorthanded goals, 58 seconds apart, to lead Arizona past Edmonton, 5-2, Monday. Rieder has nine points (6 G, 3 A) in the first 16 games of his NHL career and while his on-ice shooting percentage is high (12.8%), he’s doing a nice job generating shots on goal (2.69 per game after five against the Oilers) while skating on a line with Sam Gagner and Shane Doan. P.K. Subban – Montreal’s stalwart defenceman played 28:09 at Colorado Monday, registered a goal and an assist, along with team-best possession (28 shot attempts for, 14 against, 66.7%) while starting more of his shifts in the defensive zone. ZEROES Henrik Lundqvist – The Rangers’ star goaltender allowed five goals on 15 shots against Tampa Bay in a 6-3 Lightining win Monday. It’s the sixth time this season that Lundqvist has given up at least four goals in a game and his save percentage sits at what would be a career-low .905. Viktor Fasth – It was looking like the Oilers goaltender might be making some progress with his recent play before he surrendered five goals on 24 shots against Arizona, dropping his season save percentage to .891 which, for the Oilers, isn’t much of an alternative to Ben Scrivens (.888). Couldn’t one of them put up decent numbers? Dominic Moore – The Rangers’ checking centre was locked into the defensive zone (5 shot attempts for, 17 against, 22.7%) in Monday’s 6-3 loss to Tampa Bay, really pinned in when matched up against Tampa Bay’s line of Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov, with Kucherov and Johnson on for 11 shot attempts for and one against (91.7%) when matched up with Moore. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Sami Vatanen – The third-leading defence scorer left Monday’s win over Boston after Simon Gagne’s goal cut the Anaheim lead to 3-2. His 20:55 ice time for the game was his lowest in nearly a month. Eric Brewer – Left Monday’s win over Boston with a suspected lower-body injury. If the Ducks, already missing Francois Beauchemin, Clayton Stoner, Mark Fistric and Ben Lovejoy on defence, are suddenly without Vatanen and Brewer, they’re going to be digging deep for reinforcements. They already have rookies Josh Manson and Mat Clark taking regular shifts. Jesse Blacker is an option and Stoner should be nearing a return from mumps. Connor Murphy – Played 37 seconds against the Oilers before leaving with an upper-body injury after a big hit by Oilers forward Tyler Pitlick. Michael Sgarbossa – An undrafted free agent acquired from San Jose in 2012, Sgarbossa played six games for the Avalanche in 2012-13 and made his season debut, playing 10:51 in Monday’s 4-3 loss to Montreal. He had 12 points (3 G, 9 A) in 18 AHL games before getting called up. SHORT SHIFTS Tampa Bay C Tyler Johnson had two goals and an assist in the Lightning’s 6-3 win at the Rangers and is now tied for eighth in the league with 26 points (8 G, 18 A) in 25 games…LW Ondrej Palat contributed a goal and an assist and has 19 points (7 G, 12 A) in 26 games. Blue Jackets G Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 of 25 shots faced in a 2-1 win over Florida…Panthers LW Sean Bergenheim had stellar possession (19 shot attempts for, 5 against, 79.2%) in the 2-1 loss at Columbus. FIRSTS David Pastrnak – Boston’s rookie winger, skating with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, registered an assist, in his third NHL game, for his first career point. In the first three games of his career, the 18-year-old has been on the ice for 47 shot attempts for and 29 against (61.8% Corsi). Colin Smith – The Avalanche centre played 6:06 his NHL debut, a 4-3 loss to Montreal Monday. Smith had 12 points (4 G, 8 A) in 18 AHL games before his promotion. Kerby Rychel – In his second NHL game, registered an assist for his first NHL point and, incidentally, had nice possession stats (13 shot attempts for, 8 against, 61.9%) despite starting one-third of his shifts in the offensive zone. FANTASY FOCUS It’s a busy night on the ice, with 10 games, so here are a handful of players that you may want to get into your lineup, or at least monitor – we’re digging deeper here: Tom Wilson – Anyone playing with Alex Ovechkin and NIcklas Backstrom has value, but the second-year winger also has points in each of the last two games (and fights in the last three). Nathan Gerbe – The mighty mite has been effective, skating with Riley Nash and a variety of wingers, putting up five points (2 G, 3 A) in the past six games and he’s ben rocking better than 56% possession for the season. Zemgus Girgensons – As the Sabres enjoy a dose of respectability, Girgensons is taking on a bigger role and has seven points (4 G, 3 A) in the past seven games. Matt Nieto – Scored his first goal in 23 games last game and has been putting up great possession stats (a team-best 60.5%). Nick Spaling – Getting a chance to play on Sidney Crosby’s wing, Spaling has three points (1 G, 2 A) in the past six games, playing more than 16 minutes in each. 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 Cheap NFL Jerseys China .The third-seeded Murray, who won here in 2009, will face seventh-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa next on the indoor hard court. NFL Jerseys Free Shipping . The Wizards announced Friday that Webster had surgery to repair a herniated disc in his lower back. The operation was performed Thursday in Los Angeles. http://www.cheapjerseyswholesalenflauthentic.com/. - The Washington Redskins have signed free agent offensive lineman Mike McGlynn. Cheap Jerseys NFL . At Manchester United, Ferguson developed Beckham into one of the worlds most recognizable sportsmen, but the midfielder left United in 2003 for Real Madrid under a cloud after his relationship with the manager broke down. Wholesale Jerseys China .com) - A pair of programs shooting for their 10th win of the season get together at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, as the NC State Wolfpack tangle with 22nd-ranked West Virginia during the challenge round of the Gotham Classic.The City of Winnipeg has a stomach flu going around and I caught it. That made training a little difficult. I lost a lot of ground but gained a new understanding of just what it means when athletes get the flu, even a week before a big game or fight. I have been useless. Cardio was cut in half and I instantly dripped sweat. My technical skills hitting the heavy bag had no rhythm, and looked horrible. Im not looking to get into an MMA match, and I cant imagine what it must be like to go into one with a flu, having been part of the last one or two weeks of a fight camp. Its an official excuse in my books. However, training must go on, also, work and all things media related. This is the beauty of my career. Like most up and coming MMA fighters, I have a full time job to fit training around. I also do a lot of media work to promote my One Fit City movement. There are no days off trying to get the Nation of Canada healthier, One Fit City at a time. Fighters have to train, work, and promote themselves. There is no one who will make them stars; they need to do it themselves. It all takes time and energy. This week, after returning to something that resembled training Thursday, the plan is going to involve a lot of plyometrics and heavy lifts. This is where you, the fan at home can try adding to your workout. There is a lot of disconnect with fighters, fans, and strength coaches. Most fighters have media at their workouts for the last 10 days. Thats when the conditioning and power circuits are in place. Strength coaches usually are not well spoken or very interesting people so they dont get to come on and explain the science or the buildiing of a program.ddddddddddddSo fans think fighters do nothing but circuits. Early on, if an athlete needs to tune up their power, we use big power movements. Elite Performance is one of those gyms where you can drop weights, Olympic lift, and bend bars with weights. In fact, Jeff Fisher demands it. So for me, old, frail, retired, radio show, blogging, me, its going to be rough getting back to this next week for real. If you are a fan looking to try some of this stuff, you may want to consider one of two things. First, invest and go see and use a gym that trains pro athletes. Across the Nation there are some amazing gyms that have popped up. You can get the assistance from a professional strength coach and train in a facility that has real pro athletes getting better. Second, visit the local University. Same concept as a private facility, less cost, but there are usually a lot less options for when you can train. So this week, add into your training regime two days, preferably Monday and Thursday, that have big strength and plyo lifts. Im going to be doing something like this - 3 Warm up front squats x 8-10 - 5 sets of back squat x 6 super set with 4 max medicine ball jumps - 5 sets of dead lift x 6 super set with 6 single leg skate jumps Then I have a super-secret set of plyos and various balance/isolating leg exercises. They are just exercises I pick that day based on how Im feeling and whats needing more work, lateral jumping or vertical. Have fun, add some heavy strength creating work to your plan. Make some changes that you will notice in your lifting. Then, think about trying some conditioning classes. Give kickboxing a try. ' ' '