Week Four Newsletter

Okay... only 3 votes! C'mon... is anyone actually reading this thing? Well, out of the 3 votes, it was from people who did know that they had 5 trades in the Selection Sheet pool. By the looks of the amount of trades this week, there are quite of few people who know that they have trades. You know, if someone doesn't know... just hold out for about a week or two after you benefit from your trades and then tell those who don't know.

Are you already looking towards dropping players in the pool? I mean, I know there's quite a few people trading guys, but even in the Draft... are you anxiously awaiting the Waiver Draft? The first one is coming in November... the 10th week of the season. I know it a little ways away, but I'm sure there are quite a few of you who are anxious to drop one or two guys.

Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't see this before, because I have. Aaron went from being the Basement Dweller in Week Three to the Mover & Shaker in Week Four. Aaron literally moved out of the basement in 17th position to 10th place with his 37 points this week.

Aaron had some great weeks from Jarome Iginla (8 points), Ryan Getzlaf (5), Ryan Kesler (5) and Dustin Brown (3). All players except one, Jordan Leopold, had points for Aaron in the week and he also had points from the return of Ray Emery (2). Aaron did suffer with some injuries and some scratches, but if his players are having weeks like this, he should be in good shape going down the early part of the stretch.

The Mover & Shaker is the Selection Sheet was Ernest, he moved up 11 spots to 19th with a 62 point week, only second in points for the week to our current leader. It was the move up the standings that earned him the Mover & Shaker this week. Of note, Ernest had 10 players who had 4 or more points in the week, with his best players being Jarome Iginla (8) and Sidney Crosby (5). It was an incredible hot streak that could very well continue for the next couple weeks with some of the players he has.

The life of being in last place. It was a week-low 16 points for Dale C. thanks to a good number of zeros on his team sheet. With Igor Grigorenko still in the minors, Alexander Semin on the shelf with an ankle injury, Dan Boyle also out with an injury, Mike Van Ryn not seeing much confidence from the coaching staff and Marc Denis playing as the back-up in Tampa; Dale is having a tough time making any headway to start the year. On the bright side, Dale will get Semin and Boyle back from injury, supposedly this week. Things should be looking up for the basement dweller.

Dropping down spots in the Selection Sheet pool was Lorne. He dropped a whole 10 spots, mostly due to the amount of teams around him that just outscored him. Lorne finished up with 41 points in the week, 10 points better than the worst week, but like I had mentioned, there were 10 teams who were better than Lorne that came up from behind him to pass him in Week Four. His team only featured five players that didn't have any points, which isn't awful by any means, but it was just enough to have him drop down significantly.

Well, there isn't much doubt about this week's honouree in the Player of the Week column. It's a big testament to how well the Flyers are doing or you can say it's one of the major factors of why they're doing so well.

Martin Biron (Chris) had back-to-back shutouts during the week and earned another win on Saturday to take his week-long total to 10 points.

Biron had shutout the Thrashers on Tuesday for his first 4 points and then he shut down the Devils on Thursday. And if you know Chris, you heard about both of those results during the week, as he gloats on top of the Draft standings. Then on Saturday, he outlasted the Hurricanes as he had to last into overtime for that result. Biron will also have a chance at another 10 points with another 3 games this week.

On the cold list, Jarret Stoll (Dennis) hasn't done too much this season, which has been rather disappointing for the Oiler faithful and Dennis, who was probably looking for big things after picking him in the 10th round. Stoll has only managed 1 point in the 8 games he's featured in.

Also not producing at a reasonable click, Barret Jackman (Dieter) still hasn't registered a point for the Blues in 6 games. He only managed 27 points last season, which I suppose should mean he would have something by now, but he is somewhat of a slow starter most seasons anyways.

Other News and Notes
Well, as if getting to a poor start to the season was bad enough, the Thrashers fired coach, Bob Hartley, and lost Kari Lehtonen (Jeff) indefinitely after re-aggravating an older groin injury. Until Lehtonen's groin has stopped with the swelling, only then can he get an MRI on it to know what the extent of the damage is.

In Saturday afternoon's game between the Rangers and Bruins, Martin Straka (Don) took a slap shot to the hand, which left him with a broken finger. A broken finger has generally only cost a player about 2 or 3 weeks worth of time missed. The next 3 weeks for the Rangers would cost Straka about 10 games.

A scary moment in Pittsburgh when Scott Walker (Box 21) was taken to hospital with a torso injury in which he couldn't breathe when he left the ice. Despite being taken to hospital, he was on the plane headed for Philadelphia for Sunday's game, but it doesn't seem likely that he'll see much ice-time in the next week or more.

The Calgary Flames have now lost forward David Moss (Aaron) to a concussion after Saturday's win against Edmonton. Moss has had a pair of assists in 6 games and hasn't necessarily been a great start for the young forward, but time lost is very detrimental to any pool team.

Selection Sheet Trades
Well, Week Five will see quite a few new trades to help teams upgrade their standing in the pool. Scott and Riley went to the West and East, respectively, in their deals. Scott picked up Chris Osgood (Box 12) and Wojtek Wolski (Box 9), while Riley picked up Cam Ward (Box 18) and Andrej Meszaros (Box 22).



The Rangers will host the Leafs as the marquee match-up on Hockey Night in Canada this coming Saturday. There are 8 Rangers chosen in the Draft and they'll all take on the 8 Leafs that were taken, saying that Kyle Wellwood (John P.) and Carlo Colaiacovo (John P.) have returned to the Leafs line-up. The other 6 Leafs have played all 9 games on the schedule so far, while the Rangers have missed out on games from Sean Avery (Chris) and Paul Mara (Ryan). Avery isn't likely to have returned from the injured reserve by then and there is a small chance that Mara could be a healthy scratch again if his numbers don't pick up. Despite those losses, there are quite a few players playing, which means it could be a big night for points in the pool.


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