Enlightened You Shall Be (2010): Recap
For the next couple of weeks I thought I’d go back and revisit a few of my pre-season columns to see where I stood, while comparing them to now.
Deconstructing Demeanor
Even though the regular season is over, whatever you do, don’t shut off your fantasy radar. The chance to uncover some quality goalie intel is deceptively high. In fact, you can a better feel for a goaltender’s true fabric and long-term value during the playoffs than at any other point during the regular season.
A Born Leader
As the NHL season came to a close, fans were captivated yet again by Joe Pavelski. “Little Joe” or “The Big Pavelski” as he is sometimes referred to, has displayed an elite skillset to complement his clutch performances. It took him some time to get going, but once he did, Pavelski strung together a career-high 66 points, which was two more than superstar teammate Dany Heatley. And Pavelski did it in six fewer games.
2010-11 Prime Cuts: The Goalies & Bottom Six
The thinking process that goes in to selecting the Prime Cuts roster is similar to Pierre McGuire’s “Monsters” team on TSN (I promise that is the first and only time I will compare my thinking process to Pierre’s). Since this is a fantasy hockey site, the selection process favors players that have had strong seasons on the score sheet, obviously. However, not just goals and assists are weighted – perhaps a player has started to shoot the puck more, or play better defensively. Intangibles like heart, grit, and determination factor in to the selection process as well. It is far and away my favorite article to write each year, and I hope you will all enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
The second part of this series will name the bottom six forwards and two goaltenders.
Strategic Asset Management
How do we build a winning team? Everyone knows the old adage of buy low, sell high but how exactly does that look over the course of a season? To answer the question well, we need to look at how poolies' perceptions vary over the year.
It turns out that perceptions follow a very predictable pattern. Once we identify that pattern, it’s much easier to position our teams to derive value from it. Taking advantage of this “perception cycle” is a very good way to accelerate a rebuild or just to make your keeper team stronger as the years go on.
April Flowers
This week I will follow the lead of my Western Conference counterpart and take a look back at the season that was.
Lucic vs. Burrows
Welcome to Cage Match, a new article series pitting the fantasy merits of players up against each other and seeing what shakes out. The first rule of Cage Match is you definitely do talk about Cage Match. Spread the word, I love the attention!
Devil of a Draft
The New Jersey Devils walked away the big winners at the 2011 NHL Draft lottery, moving from the eighth spot to fourth. How does this change the complexion of the Draft?
April Flowers (2011)
With the end of the regular season in sight, it's time to take a look back at how your Western Conference fantasy players have fared this season and hand out some April flowers.
2011 DobberHockey Playoff Challenge
The 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to begin only a few short days from now, and what better way to celebrate than with the 2011 DobberHockey Playoff Challenge! The fine folks over at ArmChairPools are hosting the pool this spring, and it is completely free to enter! Playoff pools require quite a bit of luck (or intuition, whatever you may call it) to win compared to regular season pools, thanks to the fact that the success of the players you pick is heavily dependent on how long their teams stick around.