With the second month of the NHL season just about over it is interesting to see where teams are going, what certain players are doing (and not doing), and whether you can harness this knowledge to make fantasy adjustments. Are you catching any trends? Did you notice anything special?
I received a lot of feedback following my 60 thoughts on 30 teams column a couple of weeks ago. Some of you liked the article and some of you really thought it was...well, a piece of crap. But whatever your opinion, don’t hesitate to comment on the articles through the forum . It’s good to hear from you and to debate the opinions we write week in and week out. We’re not always right and it’s up to you, the reader, to decide whether to accept our views or not, but one thing I can guarantee is that we’ll always make you consider the moves to make in your fantasy leagues. You can also post suggestions on topics you’d like us to cover in our respective columns, so go ahead and put in your two cents’ worth.
This week, the Croaks are a 'Questions for the Frog' special, featuring several questions received over the past week.
The Calgary Flames are struggling right now, as you may or may not know. If you are a Miikka Kiprusoff fantasy owner, chances are you are well aware of their inconsistent play. Kiprusoff, fresh off signing a huge, long-term deal, has looked very, very average this season. He is getting a lot of minutes, which may be one reason for his poor start. The Flames never really addressed their back-up position this off-season, and it has showed. Kiprusoff is an elite goalie and if you believe in the law of averages, will bounce back. The weak goals he has continually let in are extremely troubling, however.
As far as fantasy defensemen go, there haven’t been many better than 37-year-old Sergei Zubov and there haven’t been any that have been better for longer.
At first glance, the so-called “goalie controversies” around the NHL right now (Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Toronto) are played off like tumultuous situations in which unhappy coaches are forcing their unhappy netminders to battle for playing time. Even the word “controversy” conjures up images of aggravation and discontent. This stigma is mainly due to the mainstream media, which love and live for this mangled term we’ve come to know as “controversy”. It sells papers - it heightens ratings.
The best keeper-league (and roto-league) owners don’t get that way by stubbornly sticking to their opinions for too long, despite evidence that they were clearly on the wrong track. No, the really good ones know when it’s time to change gears and roll with the trends. At the same time, they need to balance what truly is a contradicting trend with events that are just ‘hot streaks’.
The Canada/Russia Super Series was thought to finally, truly present a level playing field on which two old foes could fight out a rivalry left relatively cold since the Cold War. But it was just another tease- and another way for Canada to flex its considerable hockey muscles. Caught in its shadow, the annual ADT Canada-Russia Challenge has been largely ignored. But now that the games are actually being played, something very surprising is happening: there's a challenge to be had for the Canadian Hockey League.
With the arrival of the NHL All-Star ballots, our thoughts can now turn to who are the most deserving players to represent their respective conferences. These are my choices for Eastern Conference Fantasy All-Stars (positions based on Yahoo eligibility) at the quarter mark of the season (all statistics are prior to last night’s games):
(Note - this article is six days old, originally published by The Hockey News)
If you do the fantasy hockey thing long enough, you learn to pick up streaky players when they start to light it up. You’re not going to have a player get you a point each game, but the good ones are generally consistent.
My kids just received their grades for the first quarter of school. All you ask of your children is that they do the best they can, but when it comes to NHL players, giving their best effort just isn’t good enough for fantasy poolies. They are not paid millions of dollars to try, they are paid to produce. So with the first quarter of the NHL season, I’ll give out some grades to notable fantasy players and provide an insight on their outlook for the remainder of the school year …er… NHL season.
