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, I’ll give you the Eastern Conference slant on each team’s top six forwards and four defensemen and guys that might challenge them for a spot in the coming season.
Following the lead of my western counterpart, I’ll take a look at players heading into their fourth NHL season and analyze whether or not it is more likely to be magical or mysterious.
It’s been so long since the end of the regular season, you may have thought that I had forgotten about writing a summary of what transpired in Dobber’s top tier of his three-tiered pools. Not so. I don’t take losing well and just received clearance from my doctor to finally take a look back and analyze what went so horribly wrong.
Pittsburgh really schooled Carolina in playoff hockey this round. Okay, it helps when you have two of the top players in the game today and they are both lighting it up. Carolina simply ran out of gas. When Crosby and Malkin rack up seven and nine points respectively in the four games against your team, you just aren’t going to win.
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.
