In the weekly piece “Eastern Edge”, TJ Branson breaks down the latest fantasy information from the standpoint of the Eastern Conference – the streaks, the slumps, the line combinations and much more.
Following the lead of my western counterpart this week, I’ll take a look at some players heading into their fourth NHL season and try to look into the near future to see if there might be some magic in their fourth NHL season.
With the announcement of the three finalists for the NHL Rookie of the Year, some (well yours truly at least) thought there may have been one deserving candidate left off the ballot. Certainly Tyler Myers, Matt Duchene and Jimmy Howard are all worthy candidates, but there is one player whom a strong case could be made for.
No question this year's Cinderella has to be the Montreal Canadiens. They knocked off the President's trophy winning Washington Capitals after being down three games to one. Absolutely stunning. The road doesn't get any easier for Les Habitants who now have to face Sidney Crosby and his defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.
With the end of the regular season in sight, it's time to take a look back at how your Eastern Conference fantasy players have fared this season and hand out some April flowers.
For all of you who forgot what day it is today, Happy April Fools! I hate this day. You just can't trust anything you read or hear about and you are screwed if you wake up and don't recall right away what day it is.
While we are on the subject of deception, how about those Ottawa Senators? Talk about a split personality, they have got to be the streakiest team in the league. It all started very early in January, when they lost five games in a row and then followed that by winning 11 in a row and 14 of 16 games heading into the Olympic break. Ottawa stumbled after returning from the time off, going 1-7-1 and now they have won five straight games. Bizarre.
In fantasy hockey, it's really all about the numbers. This week we'll take a look at some key statistical categories over the past month and who is doing well in these areas. All statistics do not include last night's games.
We are at the point in the season where the teams who have no chance or virtually no chance of making the playoffs start to record some unexpected victories. The reason is likely two-fold. First, a team out of contention has the immense pressure to win lifted off their shoulders. Players can stop squeezing the stick so hard and let up a little, reverting back to doing what got them there. Secondly, some of the top teams will rest or seriously limit their superstar’s ice time, thereby throwing the underdog a bone.
Looking back over the past few years, some teams that ended up just out of the playoffs closed the final ten games of the year with an excellent finishing kick. Last season, Buffalo ended the campaign in tenth place and on a 7-2-1 run. The season before that, Buffalo, Chicago and Edmonton all finished the year 6-3-1. In 2006-07, Toronto (6-3-1), Montreal (7-3-0) and Colorado (7-2-1) gave the eighth seeds a run for their money.
Contrary to the letter put out on February 12 by the owners of a certain Florida franchise, I think the future (and that includes next season) is very bright for the core of this team. While change is almost always needed from year to year, "significant change" may not be.
Welcome to the final of three parts looking at Eastern Conference teams games remaining and subsequent fantasy breakdown.
At the Olympic break, all NHL teams had between 19 and 22 games remaining in the regular season. But not all games are created equal. In the Eastern Conference, one team (Atlanta) had 14 home games remaining, while another had only seven (Ottawa). One team had ten games remaining against teams that have 75 points or more, while another had only four left against the top teams.
