z-Archives (other articles)

It was another week of torture for many fantasy owners, as starting goalies struggled to hit the .900 save percentage mark by allowing more goals than usual. This is like some kind of eerie twilight zone, because it seems that no matter how hard some of these goalies work, their stats aren’t improving at all. It’s like rolling a huge rock up a mountain only to watch it roll down the other side and crumble into a million pebbles. So what exactly is wrong with all of these so called sure-handed starters? Well, that’s the problem. Round these parts, there’s no such thing as a sure thing. Heck, there’s no more meaning to the phrase “comfortable lead” either. And so the beat goes on, at least for another week.

Teams have hit the five-game mark of the season, so this is a perfect chance to make a good, educated decision on whether or not a goaltender’s value has gone up or down from your pre-season expectations. The season has started with a noticeable scoring blitz, more so in the West, as many goalies still have some inflated numbers and pretty dismal records. As a result, more backups are getting early chances to show their stuff, which has in turn shown me a really interesting and effective trend regarding their development.

Les Stars sont 1-3-1 cette saison, ce qui leur donne le 27ème rang sur 30 équipes. Le temps d’agir est maintenant – mais pas de la façon que vous croyez.

Welcome once again to “An Expert’s Audit”. This audit will be posted here as well as on my fantasy hockey blog . During the season I do weekly reviews of teams for people who email in to me for a look-see, they’re less indepth but just as much fun. Dobber audits will continue to appear here monthly and if you’re interested in having your keeper team “worked over” then you can begin by emailing Dobber about it.

It’s not easy to make it in the NHL, it’s a big step up from junior hockey and the American Hockey League. So it’s not unusual for players to struggle as rookies and then take a big step up during their second season once they know what to expect and have made the necessary adjustments to their play and approach to the game. Here are nine sophomore players who seem to have adjusted very well to the NHL since they are off to very nice starts this season.

When the Rangers made a huge splash last off-season with the signings of Scott Gomez and Chris Drury, it was assumed that those two would stabilize the center position in New York for the next half-decade. Although the center position is very stable, it is due in large part to the emergence of Brandon Dubinsky. His strong play has forced the Rangers to slide Drury to play right wing with Gomez. Dubinsky was fantastic in is rookie season skating with Jaromir Jagr, and he has continued his development this season skating on a line with Aaron Voros and Nikolai Zherdev.