Week Twenty-Four Newsletter

21 days of play remain in the regular season... teams have anywhere between 8 and 11 games remaining in their schedule. Dieter holds a 19-point lead at the top for the last three weeks of play... so he can be caught by Don and possibly Jeff (22 points back), if Jeff can get out of his slide at the moment. In fourth, Dale C. is 39 points back of 3rd and is 30 points clear over 5th place. It would probably have to be a substantial week or a disasterous fall to move out of 3rd place right now. Larry, our 5th place runner, is only 11 points up on 6th place, Caterina. Caterina climbed into the money this past week and only holds a 1-point lead over 7th place Paul... so the race for the last money position will be tight. 8th place, Trevor, isn't quite out of money contention quite yet... he's only 19 points back of Caterina. Man, this is gonna be a great race to the finish.

Is it true? Is the playoff pool ready to get started?!? You bet it is... it's been slowly coming to the day when you could start looking at it and now it's finally here... kinda got that Christmas feel to it. The deadline for submission is April 10th, as the playoffs will begin on April 11th. If you want to submit a team right away, you have until the 10th to maybe make a change or two... but once the 11th rolls around, I will not accept any more teams or changes. Be sure to read the rules, the pool is much trickier than the regular season... but it should be just as much (or more) fun.

Hot Teams Over the Last Four Weeks:
Dale B.... 260
Derek W... 249
Scott G... 249
Dieter.... 248
Larry..... 248

Cold Teams Over the Last Four Weeks
Fred...... 153
Mike W.... 170
Brian..... 172
Gerald ... 178
Ryan M.... 179

Let's see what happened in Week Twenty-Four...

Player of the Week



Last year's Art Ross Trophy winner, Joe Thornton, comes up with a 10-point Week Twenty-Four to take the honour of Player of the Week. The Box 2 favourite showed why he was one of the more popular picks in the pool, taken 28 times.

On Tuesday, Thornton tallied a goal & 2 assists in the 7-1 win over Chicago. Thursday, it was a goal and 3 assists in the 5-1 win over Phoenix. He had one of the goals in a 3-0 win over Columbus on Friday and finished the week off with a goal and an assist in the 4-3 loss to Colorado on Sunday night. Four goals and six assists makes for a pretty stellar week. He actually beat out another Box 2 centre, Joe Sakic, who had 9 points in the week.

It's a green week for Brydon, who is Week Twenty-Four's Mover & Shaker... a pool-high 77 points and took a moving van into the Top 10, moving up two from 11th to 9th. This is Brydon's second M&S during the year, his first in Week Eleven. It was a points explosion for Brydon, who over the previous five weeks, wouldn't get less than 52 points or more than 58... but with the help of some big scoring performances, broke the mould with his 77 points.

He collected on the PotW, Thornton's 10 points and had big performances from Sidney Crosby (8), Ryan Whitney (6), Scott Niedermayer (6) and Rich Nash (5).

He now sits 22 points behind Trevor for 8th place and only 4 points up on Marcus in 10th place. It's a Filing Services Canada logjam in the Top 10.

Rather than the biggest drop in the Standings this week, which was a drop of three in the middle of a pretty good sized pack of teams, I would rather go with the low-scoring team, which was a 35-point difference from the M&S this week. John B. was our Basement Dweller scoring a minimal 42 points in the last seven days. Six of his players were good enough to pot 4 points each, but that was really the bulk of his scoring as there were quite a few active zeros on his team page.

Martin Brodeur & Sidney Crosby – 108 points
Well, Sid the Kid did his part for the Penguins this past wee and collected 8 points through the week, while Brodeur was yanked on Saturday after giving up four goals against the Carolina Hurricanes. Both players are still 12 points up on number three, Joe Thornton... and there doesn't seem to be any chance they will relinquish the lead to anyone but themselves this year. This, in essence, is the race for MVP, both in the league and the pool.

Pool Trades
Well, with the Playoff Pool being released today, I don't think anyone will be seeing any more trades as everyone seems to be quite content with their Standing or future movement in the pool for the rest of the year. There really isn't much left for days in the pool... and once the regular season is done... that'll be it for trades as the Playoffs won't have any.

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

Injuries
The defending champs are struggling with a couple more injuries of late, including their starting goalie, Cam Ward (Box 18), who had a deep gash on his leg, right above his knee. He could be back early this week, but he did miss all of last week with his injury. The 'Canes are also without defenseman, Bret Hedican (Box 16). He's out with a major groin pull. Ward was taken twice in the pool, while Hedican wasn't taken at all.

Hockey Night In Canada this week...




The Maple Leafs will try and keep their playoff hopes alive against the Sabres on Saturday evening. A tough task indeed, despite Buffalo's recent struggles for wins. In the second half, the doormat of the Western Conference will welcome the steamroller of said conference. The Oilers will play host to the Predators and since the Oilers have been somewhat of an easy two points for opponents... it may not make for much of a second-half. Off to the pub!


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