Week Eleven Newsletter

We have ourselves a new leader on the Selection Sheet pool after finishing the week. Mike Corvari surpassed Chris during the week, which is also noted in the M&S column down below. Chris' dominance in the pools has now been broken for the time being. This is headline news! Chris has also lost some footing in the Draft as Stuart has closed the gap to 9 points over the last week. The times... they are a changing in the Sherpa's pools.

Chris did make a good move in the Draft, dropping Sean Avery for Brad Boyes in Week Ten... Boyes has 3 points in 3 games, where Avery is still out. Unfortunately for him, it looks as though Ray Emery (Box 18) has re-claimed the number one job in Ottawa, as he's seemingly now getting the bulk of the work back. On a side note, the Ray Emery sweepstakes will officially start for the Week Twenty Waiver Draft now. Martin Biron also seems to have cooled down in Philadelphia. Chris' goaltending has been his bread and butter and if they're not playing or not playing well... his team may be fair game here in the next few weeks.

It was another blinding week on the poll. Well, I think I've come to the conclusion that any question about one pool or the other is really just useless... I mean, 5 votes. I'm sure there are a few people who are in both pools... and there are people who read this... so... argh! I am glad to see that the Selection Sheet pool is good with 3 of the 5 people who voted in the poll... so that will lead me to keep it the same for next season, I would imagine. That's good news, right?

This week, the fate of the Flames (a more generalized, audience-specific question) will be the hot topic on the poll. Who will be the first high-profile person to leave the team this season? You know something has to change... and it's pretty likely that it'll be someone big. Minor deals aren't going to change the Flames fortunes... and someone's neck has to be hanging out there.

The biggest mover in the Draft had a 37-point week and moved up 2 spots and is now striking distance away from the money... only sitting 12 points out of 3rd place. John B. had himself his best week in the pool as he had points from all but two of his players during the week. Both Anze Kopitar and Dominik Hasek contributed with 8 points during the week, while Alex Tanguay contributed 4 and Mike Comrie, Markus Naslund and Mathieu Schneider all had 3. A hot streak like that had to be rewarded with an honour of some sort.

John's other pick-up in the Waiver Draft also contributed a point during the week. Dan Hamhuis made a good impression on his new pool owner during the week, as his predecessor, Sami Salo has not been doing well at all for the Canucks. Thank goodness for that Waiver Draft.

Moving & Shaking in the Selection Sheet this past week was Mike Corvari. He quite possibly had one of the best weeks ever in the Sheet pool, racking up a monsterous 86 points... and the lead! Mike has been hovering around the Top 5 for the last 5 weeks, but finally finished a week in the top spot, which has to be rather exciting. Doing the business for Mike was Milan Hejduk (9 points), Paul Statsny (8), Ryan Smyth (7), Joe Thornton (6), Henrik Zetterberg (6), Daniel Alfredsson (6) and 7 others with 4 points a piece. Boy, those Avalanche really came together, eh?

Only one team couldn't crack the 20-point barrier in the draft and that was no thanks to his new acquisitions in the Waiver Draft. Marcus received 324 minutes of play from his two new goalies, Pascal Leclaire and Carey Price, but only managed 2 points out of them. It was a rough 17-point week as only Martin Havlat had 3 points to be his highest scorer. He didn't drop any positions in the week, but the two teams below him in the standings made good use of their Waiver Draft selections and gained at least 12 points on him during the week. The race at the bottom is tightening up a wee bit.

Three teams dropped three spots in the Selection Sheet pool during the week, but only one team could be the Basement Dweller. Falling out of the Top 10 in the week was Jonny as he fell from sixth to eleventh with a 52-point week. Geez, 52 points really isn't that bad... unless you're fighting for a Top 10 spot. There were 5 active zeroes on his team page, which facilitated his fall during the week. He'll need a big week to regain some position.

Week Eleven's Player of the Week played in 4 games this week and his team only went 2-2-0 in those games, but he still managed to snake 9 points out of the week. He could thank a big game on Sunday night for solidifying this honour.

Colorado Avalanche winger Milan Hejduk (Benson) awoke this week with 5 goals and 4 assists during the week. Like it was mentioned before, Sunday night was his biggest effort where he managed a 6-point night... a hat-trick and 3 assists versus the Blues in a 9-5 win. Hejduk scraped through the other 3 games during the week getting a point in each. If it wasn't for Hejduk, Benson would be currently sitting in fourth place in the standings for the Draft.

It wasn't a week to remember on the scoresheet for David Legwand (John P.), but he did manage to reel in a new 6-year contract extension during the week. Legwand didn't register a point during the week for the Predators and he was a leading cause for John P. to fall a couple positions in the standings.

Other News and Notes

David Vyborny (Box 2) was dropped in the Draft and for good reason. You could easily speculate that his hip injury had been hindering him all year and that could very well be the reason for the severe lack of production. Being in Box 2 could also have been a little too much pressure for him as well... but that really can't count into any professional opinion. He's now on the IR and probably hasn't been considered for any pool trades anyways.

Ladislav Nagy (Box 7) became a healthy scratch over the weekend for the Kings. He has also seen a drop in production this season, which is hardly the reason why the Kings picked him up over the off-season. Nagy has only scored 5 goals this season and he was really relyed upon to make the Kings more competitive in the Pacific Division.

Kurtis Foster (Box 5) was a scratch for the Wild, but he has also been missing quite a few games because of injury as well. The Wild are in the middle of a good division battle and they'll need Foster down the stretch for a good run. I would imagine that he'll be used sparingly in the next few weeks to ensure that his health is optimum for the stretch run.

Bryan Smolinski (Box 20) is on the verge of being added to the injured reserve list with a knee injury. The Habs have not had a lot of success with their minor-league talent this season and they would prefer not to use them for as long as possible or until they shape up in Hamilton. Smolinski could be sidelined for a good while, however, which would be a ticket to the IR in no time flat.

Another defenseman not panning out the way that his new employer thought he would is Vitali Vishnevski (Box 22) in New Jersey. He has only managed a goal and an assist so far in 28 games for the Devils this year and Brent Sutter probably needed to send a message on Sunday with him sitting. I wouldn't think this move would be for too long.

Winger Ruslan Fedotenko (Box 21) found his way to the injured list with a hurt shoulder. He is still currently listed as out day-to-day, which could mean just about anything. As of Monday morning, there really hadn't been anything down the line to suggest a good time frame as to how long he'll be out.

Marek Malik (Box 22) landed in the press box in the game against the Devils on Sunday night. Malik has had some injury problems as well this season and it shouldn't come as a surprise, knowing his history, if he needed a break from the regular schedule to keep himself healthy. Malik does have 3 assists in 14 games this season, which is far from what the Rangers expect of him.

There was some rumbling in the Waiver Draft about possibly picking up Dany Sabourin (Box 24), but nothing really materialized. Now, that may have been a decent pick-up as Marc-Andre Fleury (Dennis) has now fallen with an ankle injury. Fleury hurt himself in the game against Calgary and was not seen in the game against Vancouver on Saturday night.

Selection Sheet Trades
Week Twelve will feature 7 fresh moves, as of 10:15am on Monday morning. There wasn't anything too groundbreaking in the move department, except for the usual upgrades. Don decided to be rid of Miikka Kiprusoff (Box 6) for his much better counterpart, Roberto Luongo (Box 6).

Todd Bertuzzi (Box 9) is still the most popular drop in the pool this season... he's been dropped nine times, including once going into Week Twelve. The most popular pick-up is Patrick Kane (Box 9), who has taken the spot of Bertuzzi and a couple others this season at eight times.


Saturday night will feature yet another Northwest Division battle between the Canucks and the Oilers in Edmonton. The Oilers have struggled during the year and will host a Canucks team that has been rather dominant against their division rivals. The Oilers are hoping that scratching a pair of their better players during Week Eleven will send a message to the rest of the team this week and they increase their scoring production.

The early game will again be the Leafs and Canadiens taking each other on at the Bell Centre in Montreal. The Senators will host Atlanta, but that unfortunately will be on in the Ottawa area... unless you have all the CBC channels in your cable/satellite package.

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