April Flowers – Western Conference
Writing from the beautiful city of Paris, I’ll follow along the same lines as my Eastern Conference counterpart and dish out some end-of-year fantasy awards.
DobberHockey’s Expert Panel – First Round
Here are the individual and averaged predicitions for the first round of the NHL playoffs from Dobber, Angus, Bugg, Ma, Miller, and more! The panel's consensus picks were 12-3 last year, and we boast an impressive 34-11 record over the past three seasons!
*Note: charts will be updated as the crew submits their responses, so be sure to check back!
Predicting Playoff Warfare
As they say back where I’m from around this time of year, “Time to saddle up and ride, boys.” Yes, the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs are here and that means my second-annual Playoff Beast Tracker is back! Just like last year, I’ll update this chart on a nightly basis with stats that truly matter when it comes to analyzing goalies in the postseason.
If I had to compare the goaltending heading into the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs to anything, it would probably be trench warfare. Some of these goalies won’t look pretty, but they will still win games and effectively help their team win the Cup. It will be a dirty, lung-bursting job for many young and inexperienced goalies, but it will still get done, as there are seven goalies with no playoff experience, including five of the eight “starters” in the Western Conference.
IIHF U18- Fantastic Four
Canada and the United States are favorites once again, but as always Europe- and one particular country who handed the red and white an exhibition upset- are potential spoilers at the IIHF World Under 18 Hockey Championships in Minsk, Belarus.
Avoiding Sand and Gravel
A good prospector knows which streams to avoid.
Panning for gold is hard enough work as it is – and time consuming – so when you have little or no chance of finding nuggets, you stay away.
2009-10 Prime Cuts (Part 1 of 5)
The third annual Prime Cuts roster is here! Check out the Prime Cuts rosters from 2007-08 and 2008-09. The thinking process that goes in to selecting the team is similar to Pierre McGuire’s “Monsters” for 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 favours 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 favourite article to write each year, and I hope you will all enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it!
Part 1 of the series will name the backup goaltender, the bottom defensive pairing, and the fourth line.
April Flowers
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.
2010 DobberHockey Playoff Challenge
The 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to begin only a few short days from now, and what better way to celebrate than with the 2010 DobberHockey Playoff Challenge! The fine folks over at PickUpHockey 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.
Don't forget to pick up the 2010 DobberHockey Interactive Playoff Draft List! You check off the boxes of the teams you feel will come out of the first rounds and who will meet in the Final. Click "GO" and this MS Excel spreadsheet will auto-sort for you, ready to print, your draft list. Includes updated injury news, playoff studs and duds, as well as Dobber's own draft list for you to refer to. This is all you'll need to win your playoff pool!
Seven Lucky Changes to Alter Your Fantasy Fate (Part 3)
Sorry I missed last week’s article. I’m taking a vacation and doing a bit of backpacking in Europe and couldn’t scramble to get an article together. Hopefully you are still alive this week so that I can make it up to you.
Depending on your league settings you could be heading down a few different paths. Among them: those who are gunning for a money spot in Roto leagues, or those in the playoffs for H2H leagues. If you are in a tight league where every little stat matters, making the smart adds/drops could definitely determine whether you are the league champion or just another one of the nine to 13 disappointed losers in your fantasy pool. .
The Current State of Wild Goaltending
The current state of Minnesota Wild goaltending displays a promising and bright future, thanks in large part to their 2009 NHL Entry Draft picks making big waves this year in their respective junior leagues. Combined with solid experience and good youth at the AHL and ECHL levels, the Wild have bright stars illuminating the team’s path and a classy depth chart worthy of that recognition.