Goldie: Remember a School of Block piece from 2 years ago called Of Slumps and Shadowers about backups that mimic their starters? Here's an in-depth piece I wrote that expands on the subject called The Science of Shadowing. Also note that Niemi looked terrific last night against the Sens. Last week, Brent Lemon did a column on [...]
I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the month of Mo, uh, November and see who the top performers were. I've included players from both conferences, if only to provide a reference to where they place overall.
December and early January is one of my favourite times of year. Sure it's the turkey and the beverages, but it also marks a prime opportunity to make some significant (albeit under-the-radar) moves to continue to build my dynasty teams. In this week's segment of Hockey Stock, I touch on a few buy and sell candidates for single-year and dynasty leagues, as well as reveal my trading strategy for the holiday season.
Scottie Upshall is on pace for 27 goals – if he ever plays 75 or more games (which is unlikely), I could see him scoring 30. Very streaky, but he has a nose for the net and a pretty good shot. Nice to see Bouchard finally make his return to the Wild lineup. [...]
Today, in hockey history (thanks to Dean Youngblood in the forum) One week from today I will be flying into Vancouver to meet with Jeff Angus and my graphics designer Glen Hoos, catching the Canucks and the Ducks, as well as other colleagues. One week from tomorrow - don't forget - is the [...]
Elliotte Friedman’s weekly 30 Thoughts column on the CBC website is currently the best read in hockey. Friedman is insightful, articulate, knowledgeable, fair, and most importantly, interesting. He has sources and contacts in the hockey world that most could only dream of. He has an ability which is rare in this day and age - providing a balanced and reasonable opinion on the league, the players, and all 30 of the clubs.
Each week I will post my own observations (I couldn’t completely steal Friedman’s idea so I’ll pick a number other than 30) – with a heavy emphasis on the fantasy side of hockey, of course. Prospects, goalies, sleepers, busts, it will all be covered each week.
Fantasy Impact: The Colorado Avalanche have acquired forward Tomas Fleischmann from the Washington Capitals in exchange for defenseman Scott Hannan.
Sorry about last week. I recently moved into my new home and thought the internet connection would be activated quickly. Here now is the final part of the Fantasy Indicators of Success series taking a closer look at the Western Conference centermen. The fantasy value of a center can easily be identified by interpreting the same two stats used to identify the value of blue-liners and wingers which is PP ice-time and SOG. The reasoning behind it is very simple. PP ice-time usually separates players who are offensive-minded from those that are defensive-oriented. The more PP time they receive usually equates to more offensive opportunities they’ll have to score with the advantage. On a similar note, SOG usually maintains a similar line of thought. The more a center shoots, the higher the chance it goes into the net or creating offensive chances. The opposite also holds true, the less a center shoots, the lower the chance that the puck goes into the net and the lower the offensive opportunities. Now that we’ve established clear indicators on determining the fantasy value of centers, let’s take a closer look at the men up the middle from the Western Conference.
Answer: eight points. Contest closed! Last week, Brent Lemon did a column on Martin Brodeur, using some of the work found in the book “HockeyNomics” by Darcy Norman. The column created quite a buzz and there was a lot of interest in this book. The good people at OverTime Books are giving away one [...]
The keen fantasy manager cares little about who currently dominates the crease. Instead, they care more about who is going to dominate next. Whether you’re molding a keeper team for future seasons or simply taking mental notes for next year’s draft, you gain more wisdom by knowing which goalies are making solid strides today in order to build a foundation for a better tomorrow.
At this stage of the season, you should have plenty of well-defined opinions regarding the fantasy value of goalies like Michal Neuvirth, Ondrej Pavelec, Tuukka Rask, Jimmy Howard and Jonathan Quick. If you don’t, or you still have specific questions regarding any goalie, you can always toss me a question in the weekly fantasy goalie mailbag.
