and make my year end update (as I see I flew past my 41-60 update... whoops) and then I'll post my triumphant Cup run/major awards summary later 
We had a really strong close to the year which could have been much stronger if not for lots of injuries; but it was kind of fun in a way as my role players and some guys up from the AHL proved they're ready to go next year
As I'd been complaining most of the year that I couldn't seem to get any chemistry on my top lines that really came together here and even with the injuries I scored almost ten more goals in this set, so even with the two extra games it was a strong finish. We finished in 5th even though we had 109 points, which was 3 points from first...
Our division just dominated the Conference with all five making the playoffs, and we were fighting back and forth all year. Check out how close it ended up (division stats are first then conference standings below)
Annoying...
](./images/smilies/wallbash.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
Anyhow my leaders for scoring were Kovalev with 43, Sully with 41 and Cole with 37. All three missed a few weeks with injuries but Sully lost the least games as most of his injury time was during the Olympics. Cole was out for the last 10 days or so of the season but was on fire to a rediculous degree before twisting his knee. How rediculous? Here's a hint:
And that was against Broduer in New Jersey.Our assists, points and plus/minus leader was the continuing to impress Matt Cullen with 58 assists, 88 points and a +40 rating. He played between Cole and Sullivan early on and then between Cole and Kovalev for the second half. I actually got really impressive all-around stats from my top two lines. I always feel I have to say that my checkers chew up a lot of clock so all of these guys put up these stats with 10-12 minutes less time on ice time than the league's TOI leaders; so I find them even that much more impressive
:1st Line:
Calder 80games: 30g 38a 68p +20 14:59 average
Handzus 63games: 22g 50a +23 16:43 average (1st line PP center, also our 2nd PK line center)
Sullivan 77games: 41g 38a 79p +31 14:47 average
2nd Line:
Cole 76games: 37g 45a 82p +23 15:29 average
Cullen 82games: 30g 58a 88p +40 15:04 average
Kovalev 74games: 43g 39a 82p +40 17:48 average
So I was very happy with my offense
Wheelin' Dealins:
I missed an update
so last detail on deals was games 21-40 when I was hoping to deal F. Kaberle for a more steady defensive option. So a few months after bringing in Witt I made two final defensive deals:The Kaberle deal was with the Isles for Radek Martinek who has been great, costs less and came to the team with the Isles 3rd rounder making the deal a clear win.
I saw that teams were making offers for Clymer and the hell if I was letting him go anywhere if it wasn't here! I love Clymer since he can play checking line or defense (which is great if you have a player you need to hold out part way through a game, with his versatility and endurance he can cover for them). So, in an admitted overpay I sent the Caps Higgins, rights to Emelin and a 2nd rounder that I got from Pitt. Clymer has 12g 10a in 28 games and averaged 7.54 and is only 28 though, so I still like the deal.
That gave me an extra D pretty much so I ended up getting the Sens' 2nd rounder to replace the Pitt pick I sent to Washington by sending Bouillon to Ottawa, speaking of overpaying
I then turned Ottawa's 2nd which would have been at best 25th or so in the round for what should be a top 3 or 4 pick in the round by dealing it and Byron Ritchie to Anahiem
Deadline deals: Nothing major but they actually ended up being critical to my final push; without them I'd proabably have fallen to a 7/8 seed. I mainly dealt youth for experience and better defensive abilities but the checking lines were my focus.
Dealt Mike Johnson because he was always odd-man out of the 2nd line where he should have played to be most valuable; so he sat or played 3rd in place of someone with better D sitting out. He went to the Rangers for Ville Nieminen who took his place as my checking line's LW.
Sent Gratton who was my 3rd line center to Colorado for Ian Laperriere who became checking line (which in my team is 4th line) center and Patrick Sharp to the Avs for both Dan Hinote and Brett McLean.
The reason those deals ended up saving me was that I had two big injuries with guys that were really important to my checking lines; Mark Smith and Matt Pettinger both went down for two to three weeks in back to back games a few games after the deadline
So having Laperriere to anchor my checking line and two other guys who could both play as checking centers was really fortunate for the club.I had two other big injuries late in the season, with Souray going down for 2 weeks bringing him back with a few games left in the season and Cole going down missing the last 6 games of the season. Balastik came up from the AHL where he had 48g43a in 69 games and played very well covering for Cole and I was ecstatic about Ryan Whitney who came up to cover for Souray. He's been with the team ever since and probably will play in the playoffs too.
I'm sure it was due to lower than usual PIM and the breakdown of my special teams in the segment that made up Bonus B which I only got 2 points in... 
