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 Conference counter-part, here are the Eastern Conference 2008-09 Fantasy Awards finalists and winners.
The subject of supplementary discipline and just what constitutes a penalty in the playoffs are hot topics right now. Before I get started here, I have to say that I have the utmost respect for the NHL and the great job the officiating crews do consistently applying the rules game in and game out (no really, I HAVE to say that or Gary Bettman will fine me $20). I truly believe the NHL’s Commissar of Crime, Colin Campbell is in a no win situation and is trying his best to be consistent and fair.
I know what you’re thinking: “did he fire six shots or only five?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I’ve kinda lost track myself. But this being an Easton Synergy SE16, the most powerful hockey stick in the world, and would explode in my hands if I were to cross-check you in the head, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well do ya, punk?
Now that the season is all but over, I thought it would be fun to go back and look over my draft list and see how my predictions fared. I’ll warn you now; my predictions tend to fall on the conservative side. Below is a cross-section of players from the Eastern Conference that I was wrong about in my forecasting:
Alexei Ponikarovsky of the Toronto Maple Leafs has always been cast as a supporting offensive role type of player, never good enough to generate points without the help of other, more “offensively-gifted” players.
Tobias Enstrom’s overall numbers are a little deceiving. Fully half of his 22 points have come over the 14 games since Mat Schneider was dealt. Enstrom has logged 25 minutes or more ice time in ten of the last 14 games, including four efforts over 27 minutes.
It’s been far too long since the last update of Dobber’s three-tiered hockey pools. This update will cover from the beginning of January until the end of February. The last update at the end of December had Experts Audit (Ian Fergusson) in first place.
The two hottest teams in the league right now are the Pittsburgh Penguins (9-1-0) and Carolina Hurricanes (8-2-1). No one should be all that surprised with the Pens hot streak; they have two of the top players in the game on their payroll. I didn’t expect to see Carolina this hot down the stretch.
I thought Dobber was out of his mind when he wrote in his guide before the season started, that he considered Yann Danis a better goalie than Joey MacDonald and would steal the latter’s job. Over his last five games, Danis only has three wins, but his ancillary numbers have been spicy hot, sporting a sweet 0.968 save percentage, a 1.00 goals-against-average and two shutouts.
With the recent news that Alexei Kovalev is not accompanying the team on their short two game road trip, we are going to see what the Canadiens are made of. Kovalev is an All-World talent, but can sometimes disappear for long stretches. This will be a wake up call for him.
