Khurram Sher writes Eastern Edge every week, where the focus is on Eastern Conference teams and players. Khurram has also written for GoaliePost.
Russ is on hiatus for the summer, so I’ll be filling in for him. You Dobberities won’t miss out on the Eastern half half of the information for your fantasy leagues in these series of columns, so don’t worry!
Russ is on hiatus for the summer, so I’ll be filling in for him. You Dobberities won’t miss out on half of the information for your fantasy leagues in these series of columns.
I’ll try to keep it the same as the articles from the West. First, I want admit that I’m not as informed about the East as I am with the West, so if there are any controversial items, be sure to make comments at the bottom of the page to open up some discussion.
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.
