z-Archives (other articles)

 

The Calgary Flames are struggling right now, as you may or may not know. If you are a Miikka Kiprusoff fantasy owner, chances are you are well aware of their inconsistent play. Kiprusoff, fresh off signing a huge, long-term deal, has looked very, very average this season. He is getting a lot of minutes, which may be one reason for his poor start. The Flames never really addressed their back-up position this off-season, and it has showed. Kiprusoff is an elite goalie and if you believe in the law of averages, will bounce back. The weak goals he has continually let in are extremely troubling, however.

 

 

 

My kids just received their grades for the first quarter of school. All you ask of your children is that they do the best they can, but when it comes to NHL players, giving their best effort just isn’t good enough for fantasy poolies. They are not paid millions of dollars to try, they are paid to produce. So with the first quarter of the NHL season, I’ll give out some grades to notable fantasy players and provide an insight on their outlook for the remainder of the school year …er… NHL season.

 

 

There are only a few NHL goalies that wear the catching glove on the right hand. Mathieu Garon, Jose Theodore and Josh Harding always look a little weird in net, but do they have any real advantage, or is it just a coincidence that Garon and Theodore are playing so well in November?

 

 

 

 

Ah, competitive rebuilding. The plan that has allowed the Edmonton Oilers to take a few extra months off while the rest of the hockey world slogs on into the summer. The plan that has allowed the Oilers to stockpile 15th overall talent. The plan that has brought the Oilers past the first round only twice in a decade. And while it may be the New NHL, it's the same-old for the Oil. Not only has the team splurged on free agents like Dustin Penner and Sheldon Souray, they've given their farm team a good workout. Cogliano, Gagner, Brodziak and Gilbert are just the tip of the iceberg. Here are three more names headed to the big club in the near future.

 

 

 

There are several key veterans in the Western Conference who have been facing a lot of scrutiny for their slow, unproductive starts.  Some of them are your prototypical buy-low type of player, while others should not be touched with a 10-foot pole.  Read on…

  

 

Drafting your team is not the end of your duties as a fantasy hockey manager.  The addictive nature of fantasy leagues comes in large part from your ability to control the fate of your team, haggle with your fellow managers, and ultimately look down on them in victory.  However, nothing spoils a great deal like the looming power of veto.

 

 

So you’ve decided to focus this week on obtaining goalies that play consistently and actually produce. Well, there are some remarkable stories that are evolving this month, including the explosive number of “unproven” goaltenders like Ondrej Pavelec, Carey Price and Jason LaBarbera playing a surprising number of minutes.

 

But other stories are freaking us out, including goalies that haven’t been as successful as we were led to believe, such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Miikka Kiprusoff and Vesa Toskala. But if there’s one story that’s capturing my attention more than any other, it has to be Jose Theodore’s recent revival and the current rotation situation in Colorado.