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Since we’ve reached the midpoint of the NHL season, I thought I’d take the opportunity to provide a recap of the fantasyhockey.com Yahoo fantasy league thus far.
| 1. | What a Duchenebag | 79-40-11 | .650 | 169 | ||||
| 2. | Grees Lightning | 69-46-15 | .588 | 153 | ||||
| 3. | Dirty Concussion © | 65-53-12 | .546 | 142 | ||||
| 4. | Vancouver Giants | 64-52-14 | .546 | 142 | ||||
| 5. | BIG JON STUDD | 61-52-17 | .535 | 139 | ||||
| 6. | Calgary Bounce Crew | 58-50-22 | .531 | 138 | ||||
| 7. | Portland Phink | 62-60-8 | .508 | 132 | ||||
| 8. | Body Czech Republic | 59-57-14 | .508 | 132 | ||||
| 9. | NieuwendykForever | 59-57-14 | .508 | 132 | ||||
| 10. | I’M BRIAN BELLOWS! | 61-60-9 | .504 | 131 | ||||
| 11. | No Shift Sherlock | 50-70-10 | .423 | 110 | ||||
| 12. | Rahway Indians! | 44-70-16 | .400 | 104 | ||||
| 13. | Rick Nash Bridges | 43-75-12 | .377 | 98 | ||||
| 14. | ClubCantYandleMeNow | 39-71-20 | .377 | 98 |
The runaway leader’s current roster:
| Pos | Forwards/Defensemen |
| C | Patrice Bergeron |
| C | Jarret Stoll |
| LW | Daniel Sedin |
| LW | David Booth |
| RW | Dustin Brown |
| RW | Tomas Holmstrom |
| D | Dustin Byfuglien |
| D | Lubomir Visnovsky |
| D | P.K. Subban |
| D | Bryan McCabe |
| Util | Brooks Laich |
| Util | Logan Couture |
| BN | Dave Bolland |
| BN | Mike Green |
| BN | Rene Bourque |
| IR | Chris Pronger |
| Pos | Goaltenders |
| G | Antti Niemi |
| G | Carey Price |
| BN | Niklas Backstrom |
I’ll attempt to explain the secret to the success of first-place team What a Duchene***, who is a first-year participant in the league. Maybe I’ll have to send him a job offer soon. I’ll just have to make sure he watches the language.
I’m sure that the league leader in quite a few leagues owns Byfuglien, who has unexpectedly been fantasy hockey’s most valuable defenseman. To think, he was an afterthought in many leagues at the start of the season after his trade to Atlanta and the announcement that he would be moving back to defense. I added him off waivers in another league I participate and guess what? I’m in first place in that league.
By the way, Buff now shares the NHL lead for scoring among defensemen with ageless wonder Nicklas Lidstrom (41 points each). As well, Buff’s production on this team has made up for the lack of production of Green, who was the consensus top defenseman in drafts this season.
According to the Yahoo rankings, Daniel Sedin is currently this team’s most valuable player. I’m thinking that if Daniel stayed healthy all season last season, he may have challenged brother Henrik Sedin for the Hart Trophy. As it stands, the two Sedins are tied for third in league scoring (55 points), only two points behind Steven Stamkos while closing in on the concussed Sidney Crosby.
For a recap of more teams in this league, listen to the Saturday January 15 episode of the Weekly Slapshot Podcast. You can also read Garrett’s and my analysis on our respective teams below in the comments.
What a Duchene will be a difficult team to catch down the stretch, as several teams attempt to catch up, including mine (4th place Vancouver Giants). Good luck to all teams in the second half!
Tagged: Patrick Marleau, Ilya Kovalchuk, Martin Brodeur, Zach Parise, Henrik Sedin, Patrick Kane, Sergei Gonchar, Dion Phaneuf, Nikita Filatov, Tuukka Rask, Tim Thomas, Tomas Vokoun, Brad Richards, Chris Stewart, Scott Hartnell, David Backes, Anders Lindback, Pekka Rinne, Sergei Kostitsyn, Matt D’Agostini
Do you have a question about your fantasy hockey team? Email Ian at ian@fantasyhockey.com, and he’ll add it to the Fantasy Mailbag. Or follow fantasyhockey.com on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates, general hockey discussion, and any fantasy hockey questions that you have. You can also become a fan on Facebook.
What a Duchene also credits his success to acquiring D. Sedin in the auction draft for $48 when Ovechkin went for $84 and Crosby went for $60. What about Byfuglien, you ask? A lousy 4 bucks.
I’m embarrassed to say that my most expensive pick was Patrick Marleau, who cost me $45. With a (-19), he has been moderately less of a disappointment than Ilya Kovalchuk, whom Evan Reynar bought for $51.
Other disappointing Devils:
Martin Brodeur – $36, Evan (Calgary Bounce Crew)
Zach Parise – $54, David Satriano (ClubCantYandleMeNow)
Allow me to throw my hat into the ring. I am team GRees Lightning (hard to tell, i know) and am currently in second place and have been inching closer to Duchene over the past few weeks while also separating myself from the rest of the pack.
My most expensive draft picks were Henrik Sedin at $44 (the cheaper of the two Sedin brothers) and Patrick Kane $41. Sedin has treated me well as he is currently tied for 4th in the league in points with 55 while leading the league in Assists by more than 10 more than the next guy. Kane has been doing alright but that 7-8 games he missed with injury hurt me.
My worst purchases were Gonchar at $12 (unfortunately my best Dman but has been picking it up), Dion Phaneuf at $10, Filatov for $7, and Tuukka Rask at $16 (although he has also been picking it up.) In the long run, though, none of these picks cost me too much money so I was pleased with my drafting results. Having Tuukka not start over Tim Thomas could have really hurt me in the goals category (I also picked up Vokoun for $12) but this leads me straight into my best purchases…
Tim Thomas was definitely my best purchase and probably the steal of the league for a whopping $2. Nobody had faith in him and picked him up very late when most people did not have much money so I swooped in a grabbed him to hand cuff the Boston goalie situation in case Rask didn’t in fact get the starting gig. This plan has worked out beautifully so far. My other best pickup was Brad Richards for $23 dollars. Everyone always forgets about the Richards in Dallas (Mike only went for a dollar more, though) and he may in fact be my team MVP so far. He leads my team in SOG and PPP and has the most goals on my team right now with 18 (a pretty low number, but my main goals guy was injured and I have 7 others currently that have 10 or more goals). Recently getting back Chris Stewart (another solid buy for $12) should definitely help my team out as he was on a tear before he decided to get himself injured in a fight.
My team mostly lacks a solid blue line, +/- (cough*Gonchar*cough), SOG, and the aforementioned goal scoring department, but I’m hoping Chris Stewart can help boost the latter two of those. However, I’m near the top of the league in Assists, PPP, PIMs (with Hartnell and Backes leading the way), and all goalie stats (leading the league in SV% and shutouts).
Along with my decent draft, I think my key to success has been being able to grab hot guys off of the waiver-wire as I’m second in the league in roster moves. Anders Lindback definitely helped pad my goalie stats while Rinne was out, and I currently have the hot hands of Sergei Kostitsyn and D’Agostini but I’m always on the lookout to drop these guys and grab some others if they stop producing. Also, having solid starters in net sure helps out as well.
Ha, that was a lot longer than I initially intended it to be. Got a little carried away there.