z-Archives (other articles)

The Olympics are approximately three months away. Team Canada’s roster will be announced on December 31st. That gives Olympic hopefuls only six or seven more weeks to show what they can bring to help Canada recapture their 2002 form after a horrendous showing at the 2006 games in Turin, Italy. This is the final version that I will put together, and the theme for this roster is “duos.” Instead of the prototypical scoring line/checking line/energy line format, I have put together four duos and then included four players that can rotate between the pairings depending on things like chemistry, health, and strategy.

The only way to bury the haunting ghosts of past failures is to focus fully on the current task at hand. In a season where slumps and losing streaks have hit outrageous levels for some, the importance of non-statistical goaltending factors is stronger than ever before. So if you’re going to battle the pangs of tough weekly losses in your own fantasy league with any success, you need to heighten your sense of situational awareness.

For many of the top fantasy goalies, their path to the top is never a straightforward journey. It’s a winding climb, a fall followed by a rise, followed by another fall. We’ve all heard the saying, “You have to lose before you can win…” and it certainly rings true for the likes of Craig Anderson, Ondrej Pavelec and Jaroslav Halak. But another phrase we hear often is, “You play like you practice…” and that is where the art of internal compete is revealed.

The ranking reflects the statistics accrued through Nov 13^th and does not compensate for games missed. So although somebody like Malkin is projected for large numbers, his injury affected his ranking.

I decided to change pace slightly this month because of the abundance of new names on this chart. I have taken the consensus pre-season projections I collected (6 fantasy sources) and offered a comparison to where their 2010 statistics have projected them forward. Will they be able to hold on? Or are they one-hit wonders?

You draft players to your fantasy squad, not coaches.  But coaching obviously can alter a team’s on-ice personality and impact their performance. So what happens to a team when a defensive-minded coach takes over?

Let’s take a look at how Jacques Lemaire’s return to New Jersey has affected your beloved Devils.

Every December, the best junior players from around the world gather to play in one of the most exciting hockey tournaments on earth – the World Junior Hockey Championship. For fantasy hockey owners, it is a great time to check up on keeper league prospects, as well as to see the cream of the undrafted crop. However, it also is a great opportunity to engage in some fantasy hockey arbitrage. The strategy that I am about to lay out for you is one that I have used very successfully year after year (unfortunately, writing an article about it probably will halt my ability to use it in the future, as the majority of my competition reads this site).

The true test of a warrior’s valor is not if his skin gets pierced, but how he fights when the blood flows from his body.

So far this season, goaltending has been nothing short of a battle for sheer survival. Heavy traffic in front of the net, blatant crease-crashing, bad bounces, even elusive factors like the H1N1 virus, a skate blade to the inner thigh, a cracked rib and more are turning positive performances into terrible outings in an instant.

Every couple of weeks during the 2009-10 season I will roll out my High Five/Low Five. The list is open to teams, players, coaches, and fans – basically anything hockey-related qualifies. The High Five are five things that have impressed me (with an emphasis on recent games), while the Low Five are five things that have me shaking my head.

It has been over two weeks since I first mentioned an all-new Goalie Guild feature exclusively for those at DobberHockey. Usually I’m very quick to release these things, but for this particular beastly and intimidating service, I had to take my sweet, sweet time. So after some excruciating hours in front of the computer, along with the close tracking of specific struggling goalies, I’m proud to launch the Fantasy Goalie Flow Chart.

The Anaheim Ducks, Hockey Canada, and fantasy GMs everywhere are hoping Ryan Getzlaf is going to have a career season, so what’s with the slow start?