EHM The Blue Line

Meh Thomas was solid last season and I'm hoping for a similar display this time around. So long as the B's have as good a season this season as they did last then I'll be fine.

You can keep your Oiler thanks

drat....no actually I kind of like Souray...does some of everything.

I've got Souray in the Yahoo league I do with some people every year. I hope he does well.

And this morning I got invited to join yet another league (another yahoo one). My wife's cousin asked me to join his league. They're drafting Friday night though. One day after the season starts?

So, tonight is the big night. I'm so hockey starved I'll probably get up at 4AM to watch Colorado-San Jose on TV before going to work. Looking forward to Saturday when I'll be at the Red Wings-Blues game with by dad and brother, that's going to be great!

I was bored at work earlier in the week so I took the time to enter the ESPN projected stats for our teams in a spreadsheet (bench players not included, unprojected or unassigned replaced by bench where applicable). My team is looking great for goals and power play goals, good for wins and GAA, average for assists, PIM, shots and SV% and poor for +/-.

I have no idea how accurate their projections usually are since this is my first time playing fantasy hockey so take the numbers with a huge grain of salt. Also note that we'll be playing head to head so as long as you are better than your opponent in a category during the matchup period it doesn't matter by how much.

Here are the leaders I came up with for each category:
G ABU
A SUN
+/- STIN
PIM KENT
PPG MARS
SOG ABU
W ABU
GAA KENT
SV% KENT

The autopicked team (STIN) is pretty average in all categories except for a great +/- and terrible goalie stats.

Marsac wrote:So, tonight is the big night. I'm so hockey starved I'll probably get up at 4AM to watch Colorado-San Jose on TV before going to work. Looking forward to Saturday when I'll be at the Red Wings-Blues game with by dad and brother, that's going to be great!

Thankfully, I have ESPN America and will see two games TOR - MTL and COL - SJ
Drop the puck!

Marsac wrote: Here are the leaders I came up with for each category:
G ABU
A SUN
+/- STIN
PIM KENT
PPG MARS
SOG ABU
W ABU
GAA KENT
SV% KENT

WOOOOO!!! Win in three categories! I hardly can wait the season to get properly going, since I'm gonna tear you all apart!

Or then not... I've never been very good at blustering Anyhow, it's nice that the season starts at last!

kuulapaa wrote:

Marsac wrote: Here are the leaders I came up with for each category:
G ABU
A SUN
+/- STIN
PIM KENT
PPG MARS
SOG ABU
W ABU
GAA KENT
SV% KENT

WOOOOO!!! Win in three categories! I hardly can wait the season to get properly going, since I'm gonna tear you all apart!

Or then not... I've never been very good at blustering Anyhow, it's nice that the season starts at last!

I'm just glad that i don't turst ESPN's predictions.

I can't wait for the Bruins to play the Caps tonight! I'll get home from work, have dinner, and then it will be game time! I think my fantasy team's fate rest on just how good the Bruins do this season since I took so many Bruins. It's a risky proposition but it will be fun.

YEar totals don't matter boys. IT is all about how you do each and every single week.

For example..it is time for the Black Ice to put a licking on Marsac's sack of.....potato heads. The Icemen cometh, the icemen seeeth, the icemen kicketh thy butt.

Yes, that's the fun thing about head to head scoring. You can have a not so great week and still win. You can also have a really good week and not win. Plus, there's the smack-talking!

Oh you know I be bringing that!

Ovenchicken can score 90 goals, get 100 assists and his team could lose EVERY SINGLE game they play.

Actually, I predict they will. It will get so bad the owner will have to deal Ovenchicken for Avery

Man I have spent the last 1/2 hour trying to figure out a trade with someone....anyone.

I keep looking and looking...and there is nothing I want to do (well I would trade Coburn for Getzlaf) that makes any sense right now. Maybe later.

batdad wrote:Oh you know I be bringing that!

Ovenchicken can score 90 goals, get 100 assists and his team could lose EVERY SINGLE game they play.

Actually, I predict they will. It will get so bad the owner will have to deal Ovenchicken for Avery

As we all know, there are fantasy leagues and there are fantasies. In one of them we are together and in another one you're all alone with all Ovenchickens and Averys.

In my fantasies I wouldn't give a used hockey stick and a bucket of pucks for Avery, and in a fantasy league I wouldn't deal for him in any circumstances. And what comes to your predictions, they were half right. Ovechkin can score big numbers, when he continues the way he started. Actually my first and second round draft picks both started well, another one scored 2+1 and another one took a win and SV% of .929. How about your's?

My single player from opening night was true to the team spirit with 1 PPG and a -2 rating.

batdad wrote:Man I have spent the last 1/2 hour trying to figure out a trade with someone....anyone.

I keep looking and looking...and there is nothing I want to do (well I would trade Coburn for Getzlaf) that makes any sense right now. Maybe later.

I believe it's gonna be harder to trade this year. There are fewer teams which means we have better players and might be satisfied with what we've got.

batdad wrote:YEar totals don't matter boys. IT is all about how you do each and every single week.

For example..it is time for the Black Ice to put a licking on Marsac's sack of.....potato heads. The Icemen cometh, the icemen seeeth, the icemen kicketh thy butt.

If I were you I would just drop my goalies right now and save myself from further embarassment. If I lose this matchup I intend to blame it soley on the schedule, alot of my players will barely see the ice in the first week.

The only positive on my team for the first day was that Komisarek got 15 PIM.

Hey Marsac....Goalies? I don't need them this week. 19 shots day 1. Heh.

Not a bad start to day 1. Theodore with a nice win (something which i sucked at last year), Wolski gettin on a line with Stastny and Hejduk and baggin himself a pair. 7-0-5 after day 1... 2 to go...

So if anyone is interested in any of my dmen....make something happen. I am able to make a 2-1 trade with Coburn coming to play, and can move him off IR. Any of my dmen are available to improve my team.

IT appears Jonathon Ericsson may have to go on IR. Left with an injured ankle.

Goligoski beating Letang for PP time last night, so far so good.

Loui Eriksson already signed a new deal, so much for the contract year factor.

Markov got hurt. I need a new good D-man. if someone has a free IR slot and want to gamble on Markov, he might be available at reasonable price.';)'

darn it, if I had started Enström instead of Niedermayer I would have taken the matchup. I'll get you next time, batdad!

Impressions from the Red Wings game:
Howard looked bad, really bad.
The Cleary-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi line? Meh. Zetterberg seemed to be stuck in playmaker mode and the other two aren't exactly snipers.
Brett Lebda, I really don't like that guy. He joins the rush and pinches at all the wrong times IMO.
Brad Stuart on Tkachuk's deflection goal, what the hell? He would have been more effective sitting on the bench than just standing there. Replace Lebda with a big, nasty D-man who likes to hurt people...
Datsyuk is even more amazing live.
Lidström is as solid as ever defending the rush.
Jason Williams looked alot better than I had expected.
The arena is really poorly designed, the only time there was any atmosphere to speak of was when Sundin took the ice for the ceremonial puck drop.

I was just looking around at our league setup and noticed that ESPN has a "Consolation Ladder" that runs side-by-side with our league's main playoffs. It appears this is for the teams who don't make the playoffs, which means our relegation system will be a little more exciting.

Previously, I intended for the bottom four teams to be relegated. But now it looks like ESPN's consolation ladder will mimmick the 'relegation playoff' format commonly used as a part of a relegation system. So, those bottom four teams will have a chance to avoid relegation by doing well in the relegation playoffs.


So, having said this, our post-season will now work like this:

- Top eight teams make the playoffs. These teams go through a standard playoff bracket to determine the Minstrel Memorial Cup winner.

- The remaining six teams (teams ranked 9 through 14) will play in the relegation playoffs. The two winners of this playoff will avoid relegation, while the remaining four will be relegated to our waiting list.


Personally, I think this will be great for our league. It will solve the problem of having GMs giving-up towards the end of the year once they realize they're gonna be relegated. Now, they'll have their own playoff to play in, and will have a second chance to avoid relegation.