The duality of a goalie’s first game is something I’ll forever battle with internally. On the left side of my brain, it’s merely a single game over the course of a seven-month season. On the right side, however, it’s clearly the most important game in regards to their start. And that’s when the battle ensues, as I must weigh the pros and cons of their success and failure to begin the regular season, and how that might affect their performances in the coming weeks.
Last summer I was invited to join a head-to-head keeper league involving many DobberHockey members. At the time I was trying to limit my hockey pool involvement a bit, as I was having trouble keeping up with my nine different teams. However, after checking the league out a bit and talking to the members, joining seemed like my only option. A year later, I am thrilled with my decision. The league is very active, very competitive, and quickly became my favourite pool to track.
I came up with the idea this summer after watching a television series entitled “The League.” It is a comedy based on effect of fantasy sports (in this case, a football pool) on five guys. If you haven’t seen the show, I recommend checking it out. What I want to do is combine fantasy sports (in this case, a hockey pool), and some entertainment. Each month a review of the Ultimate Fantasy Pool (creative name, I know) will be posted at DobberHockey. By seeing how our league operates, I hope to provide some perspective and ideas in terms of trading and valuing players. Most importantly, I hope to make it a fun read. Enjoy!
The Frozen Pool section of DobberHockey is one of the main reasons why people visit this site. Jason Arbuthnot has created a wide variety of tools to help you analyze, compare, and evaluate essentially anything relating to the world of hockey. One of the more popular tools has been the line combination chart, which gives the exact breakdown of forward lines and defensive pairings in all situations.
For example, a quick look at Mike Comrie’s preseason statistics show that he played almost 50% of the time with Evgeni Malkin and Eric Tangradi (43.79%, to be precise). It is pretty clear to see how this tool can be useful, as quality of linemates is one of the most important factors when evaluating players in all fantasy hockey leagues (especially potential sleeper picks like Comrie).
As The Carpenters put it, we’ve only just begun. Read on to find out about the latest – and greatest – tool developed by Mr. Arbuthnot.
Following the lead of my Western counterpart, I'll give you my perspective on 15 Eastern Conference players who could ultimately end up making or breaking your fantasy season.
Every year, there are always players that seemingly come from nowhere to post unexpectedly high numbers or record a significant jump in performance, pushing someone over the top to help them win their league. Players like Stamkos, Myers and Miller come readily to mind.
Every year there seems to be a few players that come out of nowhere to magically to give you a surprising boost, (Henrik Sedin, Ilya Bryzgalov, Craig Anderson, Jimmy Howard, or Tom Gilbert last season), or one that you ranked so highly but ended up destroying your season because you invested so highly on them, (Steve Mason, Bobby Ryan, or Evgeni Malkin). With two days before the first puck drops in the 2010-11 season, hopefully I can provide you with a last-minute look of some players out West who will either make or break your fantasy season.
Fantasy Impact: The Vancouver Canucks have traded defenseman Shane O'Brien and forward Dan Gendur to the Nashville Predators for winger Jonas Andersson and Ryan Parent.
Fantasy Impact: Calgary has signed Brendan Morrison to a one-year contract worth $725,000.
The preseason has finally come to an end and now we wait with feverish anticipation for the real season to begin. With three days off before Thursday’s Opening Night celebration kicks off the new season, today is a perfect opportunity for me to drop updated goalie previews for the start of the fantasy season.
(Former Herning Blue Fox and current Oshawa General Nicklas Jensen)
The hockey season is well under way in all those leagues not called the NHL. Who's winning the battle for top spot, and who has emerged to stake their claim in the first round? Find out in the first official Bugg Bytes ranking of the season featuring the top 35 players in the 2011 class.
Jared Knight will be a popular Boston Bruin someday. Heck, he might even be a fan favourite in Beantown.
