This is my second year as a part of the Industry Experts League, and once again I find myself in the thick of things as the season progresses. I had been meaning to get this update out sooner, but other articles took priority! The best of the best in the fantasy hockey world are here, from NHL.com to Yahoo! to TSN (among others).
With roughly 32 games left for each team in the remainder of this fantasy season, now is really the time that starts separating contending teams from the pretending teams. This week we’ll take a look through the Western Conference to review what’s been going since the calendar rolled over to 2010.
Chris Boyle is back with his monthly roto rankings. But for the second month in a row, the smart-ass remarks will have to wait as Boyle was busy sunning himself in the Caribbean, sipping on some wobbly pops. So you'll have to wait until February for the hilarity of his fine wit to resume.
Over the last week, the NHL was laden with situations where new faces created tighter spaces in the crease. And for scouts everywhere, it provided us with plenty of entertainment. I mean, what other choice did Dan Bylsma really have after John Curry allowed five goals on 14 shots against Vancouver on Saturday? He simply had to put in the 19-year-old Alex Pechursky, who was signed on an emergency basis. But for so many good reasons, it was the right choice.
There are very few player-for-player transactions in the NHL these days, thanks in large part to the salary cap. Players are hard – if not impossible – to evaluate on strictly a skill basis, as their attached salary figure usually dictates true value. Last month, Montreal and Minnesota swapped maligned offensive players. Guilliame Latendresse, who was having trouble breaking out of the bottom six in Montreal, was sent packing to Minnesota. In exchange, the Wild traded away Benoit Pouliot; a player picked only three spots after Sidney Crosby in 2005. Almost immediately both players started to pay dividends for their new teams. Latendresse went from playing 11 minutes per night with Montreal to over 16 with the Wild. And instead of skating with Maxim Lapierre, he is lining up with Marty Havlat. Are there other players in the league right now who have the same potential to break out if traded? Why yes, there are!
You have to be patient with prospects, and that’s especially true with goalies and defencemen. Forwards are most likely to jump into the NHL at a young age and have a fantasy impact, but there’s a certain breed of forward that requires just as much patience as goalies and defensemen: power forwards.
My DobberHockey Saturday predictions are on fire right now. Unfortunately for me, every other day of the week has turned sour over the past 10. My bookie loves me again. Hopefully a good six hours of research for this article can conjure up some winners like always for the Dobber faithful. Heading in to this weekend my Saturday picks boast a winning percentage of 62.9.
There are a lot of early games, so be sure to check the time of NHL action on Saturday.
A tough decision can be made easier with these charts showing you the best five and worst five schedules for upcoming seven-day periods. Some of you used them last year but for the benefit of new readers here is a refresher. The number next to the team indicates the 'multiplier' to use on a player's point-per-game pace to give you an idea how many points to expect for that week.
Updates from the three DobberHockey pools - the Experts, and the two Pro conferences (Campbell and Wales).
Superstar-in-waiting John Tavares is mired in a horrendous slump. After recording 19 points in his first 21 games, the well has run dry and he recorded only ten points over the next 26 contests.
