Stalberg NHL Second Star of the Week

[PatrickShart]

Craig Anderson was named Monday as the NHL's First Star for the past week, with Chicago Blackhawks forward Viktor Stalberg earning Second Star and Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin taking Third Star.

Anderson, who has the Senators rocketing up the East standings, allowed just three goals in the three starts he made, while posting a .970 save percentage. Besides blanking the Rangers with a 34-save performance, he turned aside 29 of 30 shots against the Penguins and 33 of 35 to defeat the Northeast Division rival Canadiens.



"He's just so steady back there right now," teammate Jason Spezza said after the 3-0 win in New York. "You can tell he has confidence. When your goalie exudes that kind of confidence, your team exudes that kind of confidence. He's done a great job of calming things down when we get scrambling a little bit. There's times of the game when the other team is going to take momentum, and he's done a good job to take it back."



Stalberg already has a career-best 14 goals this season after putting five on the board last week, including his first career hat trick to highlight the Blackhawks' 5-2 win Tuesday over the Blue Jackets. Among his three goals that night was the game-winner, and he added the decisive goal again two nights later as the Hawks topped the Wild. Stalberg was held scoreless Saturday by the Red Wings, but bounced back one night later with a goal and an assist in a win over the Sharks

.

"It was fun to get that," Stalberg said of his hat trick. "It was something I had a couple of chances before to get, and it hasn't happened, so great feeling obviously. A couple of guys made some nice plays out there for me."



Malkin continued his recent tear that has seen him move to within one point of Vancouver's Henrik Sedin for the NHL scoring lead. His week started quietly enough, with single-goal performances against the Senators and Panthers sandwiched around a scoreless outing against the Capitals. But against the Lightning on Sunday, he erupted for a natural hat trick in the third period to propel the Penguins to a 6-3 victory. He also assisted on two goals earlier in the game to up his point total to 51 for the season.



"I don't think about that," Malkin said about the scoring race. "We played a great game and got two points and have done a great job the last three games."

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

Glad he keeps improving and producing.



Now if only Kanelik could start playing as well as Stalberg.



Yes folks... for the time being the extra berg has been removed and from this point forward the suffix of -lik will be applied to all failures.

 

[winos5]

Stalberg has played well. Deserves the recognition. Lets hope he keeps up the intensity, good hands and back checking he has displayed the last few games.

 

[LordKOTL]

Exactly. I may not be totally sold on him being a steady scoring threat for the remainder of his career, but right now he's producing like he's top-6 and is not a defenisive liability (no more so then the rest of the FWDS). That's always a good thing. and he is defintily in my "keep in in the top-6", and "Don't trade unless abso-fucking-lutley necessary" books.



He's out-producing a lot of guys now what should be out-producing him. I hope he keeps it up 'cause right now, he's one of the guys keeping us afloat.



Great job Stalberg! Thanks for the helping of crow!

 

[PatrickShart]

Sometimes it takes players time and experience to hit their stride/find their role in the NHL.



At the exact same age....



Stalberg - 160gms - 35g - 31a - 66pts - 8gwg - 358 SOG



And guess who this Hawks was at the same age/experience... -



160gms - 25g - 30a - 55pts - 5gwg - 282 SOG

 

[LordKOTL]

...and in virtually the same amount of experience, another player had the following stats:



161 GP - 42G - 46A - 88pts.



Yet, now, with us, he's considered a goat.



Players can fall out after huge rookie/journeyman campains, and other take a long while to get going.



I'm hoping Stalberg continues to improve, believe me, but he could also fade into obscurity. Right now I hope he doesn't.

 

[Ton]

Sometimes it takes players time and experience to hit their stride/find their role in the NHL.



At the exact same age....



Stalberg - 160gms - 35g - 31a - 66pts - 8gwg - 358 SOG



And guess who this Hawks was at the same age/experience... -



160gms - 25g - 30a - 55pts - 5gwg - 282 SOG

Just a wild guess, Sharp?

 

[PatrickShart]

yes sir...

 

[howcho]

Lenny and Squiggy?

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

Darn I thought those numbers were for Karopotsev.

 

[CLWolf81]

Exactly. I may not be totally sold on him being a steady scoring threat for the remainder of his career, but right now he's producing like he's top-6 and is not a defenisive liability (no more so then the rest of the FWDS). That's always a good thing. and he is defintily in my "keep in in the top-6", and "Don't trade unless abso-fucking-lutley necessary" books.



He's out-producing a lot of guys now what should be out-producing him. I hope he keeps it up 'cause right now, he's one of the guys keeping us afloat.



Great job Stalberg! Thanks for the helping of crow!

Good enough a reason as any for my favorite two words --- trade bait.

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

Trade baitlik!!!

 

[LordKOTL]

Just a wild guess, Sharp?

yes sir...

Darn I thought those numbers were for Karopotsev.

Nope. Frolik. Sharp is injured, not in the doghouse.



And really, for every late-bloomer like Sharp (and if he stays the course, Stalberg), there are others like Frolik or Samsonov that started out on fire and ended up petering out like your dick after seeing the spread of Roseanne in "Gear" magazine. Stalberg is still quite young and could go either way. Right now though, he's arguably one of 3 guys carying the team. Ride the wave as long as we can until it crashes.

Good enough a reason as any for my favorite two words --- trade bait.

Sure, we can dangle him, but really, our needs right now are for a #2/#3C or a good stay-at-home physical defenseman who's not slower than a turd in a blizzard--the defenseman moreso. The Center can be taken care of--especially if Sharp gets back he's slotted there (I am actually surprised he hasn't been this year before going out). The Defenseman is a hot commodity right now and unles the exact player we need is coming back, why get rid of him--especially on a player we're taking a chance on?

 

[CLWolf81]

Why, KOTL? Consistency. We know what he's done in the past. We've dogged him frequently for it, as its well deserved. Now he goes on a hot streak and everyone is now kissing up to him?



I'm sure you could put Bickell on the same line with Kane and Toews and he'll put up big numbers. In Stalberg's case, its about who your linemates are and how to make your abilities work for the line. He's proving that it works and its working out well.



In Q's case, its hiding a big potential weakness and makes it a strength by just having Stalberg be more of a skating pest than a scoring machine.

 

[MassHavoc]

He still sucks.

 

[LordKOTL]

Why, KOTL? Consistency. We know what he's done in the past. We've dogged him frequently for it, as its well deserved. Now he goes on a hot streak and everyone is now kissing up to him?



I'm sure you could put Bickell on the same line with Kane and Toews and he'll put up big numbers. In Stalberg's case, its about who your linemates are and how to make your abilities work for the line. He's proving that it works and its working out well.



In Q's case, its hiding a big potential weakness and makes it a strength by just having Stalberg be more of a skating pest than a scoring machine.

He's gone on two tears this year--and in between this one and the last one the entire team was playing like shit on a hotplate smells. 1st one I chalked up to an anomaly and this one I'm thinking that it's possible he might have started to put it together. Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, as more time passes in the season I think we'll have a clearer picture about how he will play. What we need is given.



I really wouldn't care if he's traded as long as his near-term production is handled (and either Sharp coming back or Kane waking up would solve that). The thing I'm worried about is Stan shipping him away for someone who's ill-fitted to the team. Stan failed to address the D-situation properly in the offseason (where our main struggle is), and completly ignored the center situation. I am worried that Stan will not make the right trade and we'll be on the losing end of a Bochenski-Versteeg trade.

 

[Ton]

Most young players--especially secondary scorers--have inconsistencies through out the year. Secondary scorers like Versteeg, Brouwer, Ladd weren't exactly consistent either.



Brunette, Frolik and Carcillo were all given time on the top 2 lines and none of them even came close to being as effective as Stalberg. Out of the 43 games hes played, he has scored points in 20 of them--even when he wasn't productive he had a plethora of chances that he just couldn't convert on. To put that in perspective, of the 46 games Kane has played he has scored points in 27 of them.



Besides, Stalberg has played on virtually every line this year. He's probably been on the top 2 lines for around 30 games or so, while the rest of his time has been spent on the 3rd and 4th lines. Do that to Kane and see his production dip too.

 

[LordKOTL]

I don't think Ladd and Carcillo were pegged to score. Carbomb for periods looked a lot better than Stalberg in a similar stretch, and played on a lot of different lines as well. Different roles though--Carcillo was expected to crash and bang and ended up doing it too well. Stalberg has shown he's a good secondary scorer but had a horrible year last year and now looks like he's coming into his own with two hot streaks this year with a slump in the middle that, in all honesty, was a team-wide phenominon.



I still think though that Stalberg played himself out of the trade bracket. His stock is high, yes, but right now he's producing well and it would be every hard to get our needs met on the trade market. In terms of risk factor, sending him away would be too high of a risk unless we got the perfect d-man coming back.

 

[PatrickShart]

I don't think Ladd and Carcillo were pegged to score. Carbomb for periods looked a lot better than Stalberg in a similar stretch, and played on a lot of different lines as well. Different roles though--Carcillo was expected to crash and bang and ended up doing it too well. Stalberg has shown he's a good secondary scorer but had a horrible year last year and now looks like he's coming into his own with two hot streaks this year with a slump in the middle that, in all honesty, was a team-wide phenominon. I still think though that Stalberg played himself out of the trade bracket. His stock is high, yes, but right now he's producing well and it would be every hard to get our needs met on the trade market. In terms of risk factor, sending him away would be too high of a risk unless we got the perfect d-man coming back.

12g and 24 points for a guy playing his first full NHL season is 'horrible'?



Other first "horrible" years then...

Sharp - 14g - 31pts

Filpula - 10g - 17pts

Franzen...yr 1 -12g/16pts .....yr 2-10g/30pts

Brouwer - 10g/26pts (who was hated on as well)



Maybe expectations shouldn't be that unless someone steps on the ice and doesn't score 30g....it isn't "horrible"? Or that a 24yr old 6th round pick should be given the time to find his role and develop his game?

 

[bookjones]

12g and 24 points for a guy playing his first full NHL season is 'horrible'?



Other first "horrible" years then...

Sharp - 14g - 31pts

Filpula - 10g - 17pts

Franzen...yr 1 -12g/16pts .....yr 2-10g/30pts

Brouwer - 10g/26pts (who was hated on as well)



Maybe expectations shouldn't be that unless someone steps on the ice and doesn't score 30g....it isn't "horrible"? Or that a 24yr old 6th round pick should be given the time to find his role and develop his game?

You don't even have to use "STAR" names like that as I pointed out in the preseason about his salary-to-production-to-role ratio for last season being exactly where it seemingly should be based on comparables:



http://www.indianheadnation.com/top...ckhawks-0-2-0/page__view__findpost__p__101190





Haters gonna hate man, lol.