It is November 16 guys. Think on that for a moment. Not counting the days off, there are 144 days left in the season. We have yet to even reach the quarter mark so the fate of your fantasy team is far from sealed. If you are one of the lucky few to have come out of the gates flying, soak it up but do not get complacent. Likewise, if your team looks out of it now, chin up.
Over the past two weeks, you’ve had a couple of in depth walk-throughs of my Frozen Pool tools. You’ve had some time to test them out for yourself and you’re ready for the big time.
The value of a winger can easily be identified by interpreting the same two stats used to identify the value of blue-liners, which is PP ice-time and SOG (shots on goal). The reasoning behind it is very simple. PP ice-time usually separates players who are offensive-minded from those that are defensive-oriented. Similarly with SOG, the more a winger shoots, the higher the chance it goes into the net or creates offensive chances.
By this point in the year, you should have a pretty good idea who your draft day steals were and who the main contributors of your roster are. You should also be able to notice which categories you might need to target through a free agent/waiver wire pickup, and let’s be honest – we all have to go fishing in that pool from time to time. The reason could be an injury (or number of injuries) or simply a miss on a sleeper pick or any other number of factors. Whatever the reason, here are a few Eastern Conference faces that might be able to help you out for a little while.
This week we focus a bit more on the most frequently used line combinations in the last week or so. The middle of November is often when injuries begin spiking badly. There were 119 injuries as of Monday morning which is up from 102 last week. That is nearly a 17% jump which means there may be some new line combinations to keep an eye on. It is time to take a look at what Week 6 has to offer.
Welcome back to An Expert’s Audit. Every month we’ll take a look at a reader’s keeper league team in the hopes of helping him toward a championship. If you’re interested in getting an audit for your own keeper team you can begin the process by emailing Dobber about it.
I stumbled upon the website for a new hockey book a few months ago, and I wanted to share more information with the DobberHockey community about it. The book, titled Behind the Moves: NHL General Managers Tell How Winners Are Built, piqued my interest right away. I was familiar with the author (Jason Farris) from a few of his previous books, but it was the subject and description of this book that interested me the most.
Jason spent a lot of time talking with and learning from countless past and present NHL general managers about the complexities of their jobs. Since fantasy hockey is primarly a way for us as fans to play the role of a general manager, I figured this book would interest a lot of you, as well.
Have you ever looked at your team's fantasy roster and wonder why the hell they're not much further up in the standings?
This column is a part of the Province newspaper's "Replace the KB" blogging competition. Give it a thumbs up here!
There are few certainties in the world of hockey each and every season. Daniel and Henrik Sedin will be near the top of the scoring race. Tim Connolly, Ales Hemsky, and Sami Salo will keep their respective team doctors busy. Teemu Selanne will continue to defy father time, and Pierre McGuire will remind us why every single young Canadian is the next Bryan Trotter/Joe Sakic/Steve Yzerman/all of the above.
There will always be disappointments, and this year is no different. Some proven stars are off to brutal starts, and some inconsistent players are unsurprisingly struggling. Let’s get to the first quarter LVP’s (Least Valuable Players) at each position.
The hysteria surrounding the upcoming 2012 draft class has started as the CHL Subway Super Series is underway and the Under-20 World Junior Hockey Championship is quickly approaching. The 2012 draft class has been deemed “deep” by most experts as it features several high profile forwards and plenty of defensemen with top four upside. As exciting as the current crop of upcoming NHLers is there could be even more hype surrounding the 2013 NHL draft class when this time rolls around next season.
