Week Sixteen Newsletter

Week Sixteen has brought us a new leader. Don has made his move and has created a four-point lead for himself over the slumping Dieter. Don and Dieter are a tale of two teams… in Box 1, Dieter’s Rick Nash has been out with back problems over the last few weeks, while Don’s Markus Naslund has put up 9 points in that time. Dieter has Iginla… Don has Selanne in Box 3. That’s a difference of 8 points in the last 3 weeks. Those are two of the biggest difference as to why Don has done so well over the last little while. Injuries as a whole have decimated Dieter’s squad… Beauchemin, Giguere and Brian Muir have all been out for a while now, on top of who else have been named. It’s been so bad for Dieter that even Jeff has been reeling him in as well.

There is a 34 point gap between third and fourth, but Dale has had a few great weeks of late to start reeling in the Top 3. Fourth to fifth had a gap increase of 13 points last week, so the gap is now 14. Fifth to sixth was tied going into the week and Marcus pulled 2 more points out of Week Sixteen to have that small gap going into the break. Sixth place isn’t safe… Larry pulled 3 more points towards the money in seventh. Even seventh place felt a shadow fall on it… Trevor pulled 2 more points closer to Larry in eighth. Ninth and tenth are certainly not out of the race yet… Dan and Suzanne are 9 points out of eighth and 26 points out of the money.

Isn’t it great to have a race like this at the All-Star Break? There will be some more separation come the second half of the year, which will increase the desire to see what the Playoff Pool looks like and let me assure you… the process is on the go to get it together. If you’ve had a lot of fun with this one, you may want to tell a few more people about the fun you had and get them interested about the Playoffs. The format will be relatively the same and if you were in the Playoff Pool last year, you’ll know that it was quite a bit of fun.

Consistent weeks with a gain (Hot, hot, hot!):
Stuart: +6 positions in the last 4 weeks
Scott: +4 positions in the last 3 weeks

On an elevator goin' down:
Ryan: -2 positions in the last 3 weeks

Let's see what happened in Week Sixteen...

Player of the Week



This week’s Player of the Week isn’t the highest scorer in the pool… he’s just the highest scorer of the players taken. Evgeni Malkin finished the week with 8 points, one behind Predators centre, David Legwand. Malkin finished up the week before the All-Star Break with a 5-point performance in the rout of the Maple Leafs.

In three games this week, Malkin tallied eight points... and then the NHL corrected his statistics from the previous week to give him nine points "gained" in the week. Stupid NHL and they're correcting ways.

Watch Malkin on Tuesday during the Skills Competition and the YoungStars game.

Well, this is where the new shading lines on the Standings will hold true. Tim L. had himself a pretty big week with 79 points and he moved up the Standings, a whole 4 places. Tim is now only 2 points away from the Top 20 and only 23 points away from the Top 15. Another M&S kind of week for Tim and he could make it that far up.

Tim benefited from the Player of the Week, Malkin, and his 8 points, while taking advantage of eight players with 4 or more points in the week. Marty Turco had 7 points, Patrick Marleau, Ray Emery and Martin Brodeur had 6 points, while Daniel Briere had 5 points.

This is Tim’s best position since Week Seven, when he was in 21st then. Tim’s peak position during the season was 15th, back in Week Five. “The Whiz” hopes to keep their hot streak going through the break to get back up to that previous high or higher.

Injuries and a lack of games scheduled really hurt Brian M. in Week Sixteen… his team only mustered a lowly 30 points. Since Brian was already down in 36th position, where there is a lot of separation between the bottom part of the Standings, he didn’t move anywhere on the list. It’s just that his 30 points was quite low… and here’s why.

Mike Modano… out. Chris Pronger… out. Jose Theodore… lost the starters job. J-S Giguere… out. Sean Burke… just got moved to Los Angeles. There were a total nine active players on his roster that didn’t register a point in Week Sixteen. With two trades remaining, it may be an idea to make some moves.

Martin Brodeur – 74 points
The Top 3 players in scoring for the pool all had 6 points in Week Sixteen, so Martin Brodeur remains on top with a 2 point cushion on Sidney Crosby. Brodeur’s 29 wins and 8 shutouts have been huge… both in the pool and in the league itself. Deservedly so, Brodeur will take his act to the All-Star Game in Dallas.

Long-term Injuries and Pool Trades
Just a reminder, since it’s All-Star week, the technical “puck drop” for Week Seventeen will be on Friday evening. All through All-Star week, you are free to study your team and make some trades to improve your team for your run to the playoffs.

The top teams in the pool have made a few trades, the leader, Don, has made all of his trades for the year. A couple long-term injuries could be devastating… but that’s the nature of the beast. Both Dieter and Jeff are down to one trade remaining… as has Dale and Marcus, who are both considering his last one to continue reeling in the leaders.

The wild card of the bunch is sixth place, Paul. Paul has only made one trade this year and he’s in the money. He has made quite a few great picks at the beginning of the year and the only deal he made was to drop Andrej Meszaros for Mike Van Ryn. There could be a couple more defensemen who could be dropped or a couple forwards he could improve with… but it looks like he’ll let his patience do the talking.

I suppose some of the biggest news was that Sean Burke was picked up from the Tampa Bay Lightning on re-entry waivers by Los Angeles, since the goaltending situation for the Kings became very bleak. Burke, the journeyman goaltender of Box 24, was taken twice in the pool, will get some starts for the Kings and will try and turn their injury-plagued season around.

After the All-Star Break, we should see a whole raft of players come back from injury, taking the 5 or so days off to heal their wounded bodies. Players like J-S Giguere, Jarome Iginla and Frank Kaberle; should all be close to returning from their major injuries after the break. For guys like Peter Forsberg and Jaromir Jagr, they won’t be taking part in the All-Star classic in hopes that their minor injuries will feel better for when the season restarts on Friday.

The Minnesota Wild have been hit some key injuries in the past week and will look forward to resting some bodies. Kurtis Foster will be out for up to 6 weeks with a knee injury, Todd White will be out until after the break with a knee injury and now Manny Fernandez will have his knee re-examined after injuring it on Saturday night.

The San Jose Sharks will be without defenseman, Kyle McLaren, for about another week after the break after undergoing some knee surgery this past week. McLaren, who has been taken a few times in the pool, should come back with a lot less irritation in his knee and may have his production increase.

Hockey Night In Canada this week...

Well, let’s not forget about the All-Star Game… hell, I’ve been goin’ on about it throughout the newsletter. Tuesday night, we’ll have the Skills Competition and YoungStars Game and then on Wednesday, it will be the big game… and there should be quite a few pool players participating. There’s a small chance that there could be a webpage to show off which team saw the most All-Star points… but it doesn’t count for much.



On Saturday, the All-Star shortened week's showcase will see another storied battle between the Canadiens and the Maple Leafs in the early game... and the late game we'll see Sean Burke in Kings' colours, taking on the Oilers at Rexall Place in Edmonton.

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