Week Nineteen Newsletter

Well, much like the Northwest Division, we're having a new leader almost every night... or just a lead change every other night. Dieter and Don have been jockeying for one and two for the last couple weeks and Jeff has been on the outside looking in, until this Sunday. Both Jeff and Don are only 4 points behind Dieter for the lead and if all three aren't careful, Dale (in fourth) has been gaining on all of them for the last few weeks.

On the border of the money, Larry has protected his fifth place position, while Paul has slipped past Marcus for another week (gaining another point on him). Marcus, only seven points behind, stayed at pace and ahead of Trevor for another week. Caterina kept on moving up, tying Trevor for eighth place, moving 8 points further ahead of her gender rival, Suzanne in 10th.



Hot Teams Over the Last Four Weeks:
Dale C.... 240
Caterina.. 233
Jeff...... 233
Tim L..... 226
Don....... 224
Dieter.... 224

Cold Teams Over the Last Four Weeks
Fred...... 123
Derek W... 142
Mike R.... 152
Gerald.... 154
Brian M... 154

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

Player of the Week



Henrik Zetterberg of the Detroit Red Wings was the best player of the week in Week Nineteen. The busy Red Wings had four games during the week (and are right back at it on Monday), while the Swedish winger tallied nine points in those games.

Zetterberg potted five goals and four assists during the week, which in essence was only three games worth of scoring since the Wings were shutout by the Blues on Thursday night. Zetterberg was one of the catalysts of the big win on Sunday night against the Flames, having a pair of each goals and assists. Quite the impressive outing. The Red Wings only have three games this week, but I'm sure the scoring will not be halted... one of the games is against Philadelphia.

Big points does generally mean some big moves and Russell had his big points this week to move up three spots in the Standings, also giving himself some breathing room on top of 30th place, Ryan. A whopping 72 points brought him up into the green for the week in the pool and he found a few hot streaks in order to do it.

Four players with six points (Sakic, Brodeur, Malkin, S. Kozlov), two with five points (D. Sedin, Sykora) and three players with four points (Luongo, H. Sedin & Emery) all chipped in to make the big move. When you get that sort of production in a week, it would be hard not to get the M&S award.

A very up & down season for Jim this season has reached somewhat of a low this past week, slipping down the totem pole a harsh five spots. It wasn't a pool-low in points, just a pool-low in spots moved. There were 10 zeros on his pool roster this past week, including Kiprusoff. Jim hasn't made any trades this season at all, which is quite possibly one of the reasons for the slip, but with lots of good players throughout his roster, it isn't quite a surprise that there hasn't been a move made. Maybe with the slip there will be a re-assessment of his squad.

Martin Brodeur – 88 points
Marty won two of three games this past week including a shutout for a big 6 points, while Crosby only managed 3 points during the week and therefore lost his two point lead. This is pretty much a two-horse race now down the stretch as the next contenders for the title are at least 14 points behind Crosby. With the way Brodeur is playing, it will be hard to discount the Devils from major Cup contention this Spring.

Long-term Injuries and Pool Trades
On Saturday morning, the Top 6 may have been a little harder to get into... or back into (for those who were once there, as Paul made three more moves to ensure his finish in the money. He cut away a little bit of the fat that has kept him down out of the bigger money. Jason Smith was dropped for Brett Clark, Chris Osgood was dropped for J-S Giguere (a popular move) and Mike Van Ryn was dropped for Tomas Kaberle. The rest of the Top 10 quakes... as he still has one move left.

Trades Remaining in the Top 10:
Dieter... 0 Paul..... 1
Don...... 0 Marcus... 1
Jeff..... 0 Trevor... 4
Dale C... 1 Caterina. 0
Larry.... 0 Suzanne.. 2

Well, that move from trades in the pool to trades in the league... and we'll start with a doozy, which everyone should be talking about here in Calgary on Monday morning.

The Boston Bruins became sellers in the trade market, as everyone sort of predicted, by shipping out Box 22 defenseman, Brad Stuart, and non-pool player Wayne Primeau to Calgary for Box 9 forward, Chuck Kobasew and Box 11 defenseman, Andrew Ference.

Impact: Stuart, taken five times in the pool, moves back to the Western Conference where he first made a name for himself (in San Jose). The former 3rd overall selection should bring a bit more stability to the Flames, but it doesn't necessarily bring more scoring from the back-end. With Stuart and Ference having the same point totals this year, all the Flames are really gaining is a bit more veteran experience. Stuart likes to bang and crash, which will suit the Flames as well. In Primeau, they will get another Stephane Yelle type centre, who will be in to take more draws and be a little more responsible in their own end. The price of Kobasew and Ference doesn't seem to steep for the Flames, as they never really sorted to fit in to the Sutter-style of play, although Chucky was a favourite of Sutter's for quite a while. Kobasew, once healthy again, could find himself being a good winger for Marc Savard or Brad Boyes, in the free-wheeling offense of the Bruins.

Now, this wasn't a three-way deal, but Eric Belanger (Box 9) was a part of three different teams in a matter of two days. First, Belanger was dealt to the Predators from the Hurricanes for Josef Vasicek. But instead of actually wanting Belanger for themselves, the Predators looked to better the defense corps by acquiring Vitaly Vishnevski from the Thrashers for Belanger. In total, the Hurricanes re-acquired Vasicek for face-offs, the Predators added size with Vishnevski and the Thrashers needed to help their league-worst PK with Belanger. Belanger was only taken once in the pool, so it shouldn't have much of an effect on things to come.

Three teams will be missing Alexei Yashin for an indefinite period of time. We all know how Yashin deals with injuries... and it's tendinitis in his knee. He could milk this one for quite a while. Don't take it from me though... I'm just sayin'.

A couple teams are missing their best Eastern Conference defenseman... and they have been for a while. Now Brian Pothier is listed as out indefinitely with concussion-like syndromes. Pothier, who had a good start with the Capitals, has run into some serious injury problems this season.

Hockey Night In Canada this week...




Well, that's better. Nothing like a Saturday with a tripleheader to sit through. For lunch, you'll see the Thrashers in Ottawa to take on the Senators... for dinner... it'll be the Oil slickin' out the Bell Centre in Montreal to play the Habs... and then another Northwest Division battle here in Calgary, when the Avs come to town to collapse on the Flames. Four Canadian teams... lots of pool players... there will be a bit of potetnial jockeying in the Standings on this particular Saturday.


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