The team I’m keeping a close eye on this week is Edmonton, in particular Dustin Penner and Patrick O’Sullivan. Penner had six points in three games last week and had five points tonight, playing with Ales Hemsky and Sam Gagner. O’Sullivan has three in his last two games and is a streaky player. Note that the flu is going through the dressing room but I expect to see a productive week from the Oilers potent offense.
Not even ten games in and players with track records are being dropped in many leagues. I am not immune to the impatience of slow starts by some proven players, but I am very reluctant to drop a player who is an established performer. There may come a time to cut your losses, but that time isn’t now. It’s been said that the NHL season is not a sprint, but a marathon. Where you are in the standings right now is irrelevant as long as you are in first place at the END of the season. This week, we’ll go on a whirlwind tour of the Eastern Conference.
Although the AHL season is not even 10 games deep yet, it is never too early to take a look at some of the scoring leaders down on the farm. You made the right move by coming to this site to get a leg up on your pool competition – but the work never stops! Want to find out about the next Rich Peverley? How about an update on a blue-chip prospect? Many of the top AHL scorers are veterans and career minor leaguers (like Jason Krog), but there are also some intriguing players (like 28 year-old Alexandre Giroux, who has scored 65 goals over his past 75 regular season AHL games), as well as promising youngsters being groomed for NHL stardom (like Kyle Turris).
We’re now into the third week of the NHL season, a lot has been happening. Similar to last week, I’ll walk you through the Western Conference to see what’s been happening and catch you up with the latest trends plus this week’s hot pickups/cold starters.
One of the biggest obstacles in a backup goalie’s career is playing consistently in very limited chances. For Josh Harding, this is the one thing that has plagued both he and his fantasy owners for years. He has only played in 60 games in just over four seasons (started only 45), due in large part to the strong play of Niklas Backstrom. As a result of Harding’s sporadic play, his fantasy value remains virtually non-existent until he’s traded or Backstrom gets injured.
According to TSN, the Bruins have traded winger Chuck Kobasew to the Minnesota Wild for Craig Weller, Alexander Fallstrom and a second-round pick in 2011.
So how does a 25-year-old fringe NHLer creep under everybody’s radar to thrive in a plum role on a line with an up-and-coming superstar? And will Matt Moulson continue to thrive or is he destined to fizzle?
My debut picks for the 2009/10 season went better than expected. It is always tough to gauge a team by their preseason results (see Vancouver). For my first week selections, I went with coaching matchups with a lot of my picks as well as goalies that seemed to be in midseason form (see Miller). My record for the first week was 7-4. Within those seven wins, I got two plus (+) predictions correct to hopefully increase your payouts if you wagered some of your hard earned cash.
Looking at the NHL schedule for week three...
Please remember these rankings are the result of weighing all statistical categories equally, which rotisserie rankings do. Being number one in goal scoring is the same as being number one in penalty minutes. The top 100 favours skaters as they occupy 60 percent of the scoring categories, but dominant goaltenders are recognized.
