Week Fifteen Newsletter

Well, John B. has extended his lead in the Draft over Clayton in Week Fifteen, as it now stands, he leads by 19 points. At about this time last season, the lead in the Draft was only 15 points and it was overcome in the end, as Chris' team really tanked and nearly fell out of the money altogether. This season looks to be a bit different, as John is really starting to hit his stride and he really hasn't hit any long-term injury problems, unlike second or third place. Finding healthy enough players is certainly one of the most important things you can do in a fantasy draft, as explained in August in this article.

John now holds a very healthy lead in skater games played with 494 after fifteen weeks. Benson, who holds down third place in the Draft, is second with 473 and Marcus, who is 6th, has 470 games played by his skaters. John is also in the middle of the pack when it comes to minutes played by his goaltenders, he currently sits in 10th with 3,070 minutes played, but has the 3rd best pairing, who average 1.4 points per 60 minutes played. It's a very statistically-solid approach to winning a hockey pool, to say the least.

Now, there are only three active weeks left with some of our more rubbish players, as in two weeks, we'll commence with our second Waiver Draft of the season. This will be the key time to get all your ducks in a row for the final ten weeks of the year and try to lift yourself up into the money spots. The available players list is now available to peer at, with the top 23 players in each position listed. Have a look now and see who you'd like to pick up.

Poll Question
I had a feeling that I would shoot myself in the foot a little with the two entries at the end of the Mats Sundin poll, but for Week Fifteen, I had asked how the Canucks would fare with Sundin in their line-up for the rest of the season. Of course, I had to add "miss the playoffs" and "who cares?" Well, the two negatives certainly outdid the positives, with 6 of 12 votes going to "who cares?" and 4 votes went to "miss the playoffs." In Sundin's first 3 games, the team is now 1-2-0, so there could be some merit to the poll results, despite the team still being in 5th in the Western Conference.

This week, I'll ask who you think the best player in the NHL has been this season. The list will be the top five players in pool scoring and an 'other,' if you don't think that the first five weren't good enough for you. This will be the 'best player,' instead of the most valuable player to his team, but is it as simple as the top pool scorer?

For our Mover & Shaker this week, we had ourselves a tie when it came to the number of points earned in the week with 34. Two teams enter the tiebreak, one team leaves the winner. Of course, the tiebreaker is the number of positions moved up the standings and since one team can't move any higher (meaning, he's in first), it's Derek who comes away with his second M&S award, both of which, coming after the Waiver Draft. Who says the Waiver Draft doesn't help a basement dwelling team? Before the Waiver Draft players became active, Derek was in 15th place and struggling to make a difference in the year. Now, after picking up two key players and getting some injured players back, Derek now sits in 10th place, but still 23 points from 9th place.

There were a number of players having a good week for Derek, which definitely made up for the four active players that didn't register a point for him in the week. I would guess that four zeros is the most I've seen on a M&S team this season. Having good weeks for Derek were: Robert Lang (5 points), Evgeni Malkin (5), Dwayne Roloson (4) and six players with 3 points each. That's not too shabby at all.

For his second M&S prize this season, Derek earns a Tiger Williams jersey patch card from Upper Deck Masterpieces, a very cool looking card. Following that cool prize, we have ourselves yet another jersey patch card available, this time another classic Canucks player, Richard Brodeur, also from the Upper Deck Masterpieces collection. Very cool!

On the Sheet for Week Fifteen, our Mover & Shaker led the pool in points and places moved in the standings, with 77 and +6, respectively. Our friend Matt E., who took a leap forward with the Red Wings and Canadiens only this year, managed to cash in on a pretty good week for both teams. Both teams went 3-0-0 in the week, the Red Wings also picking up a shutout, which gave Matt 14 point, just from the goaltending. That's pretty decent. Unfortunately, these sort of weeks are few and far between on the Sheet, but when they happen, it's a good time to celebrate. Having big weeks for Matt were Ty Conklin (6 points), Jaroslav Halak (6), Andrei Kostitsyn (6), Pavel Datsyuk (5), Robert Lang (5) and six players with 4 points each. When the teams are hot, they're hot!

For some teams this past week, points were pretty hard to come by. Going into the weekend, there were three teams that didn't even reach double-digits when it came to their weekly production. Only one team finished as the low total of the week in Week Fifteen, which gives us our automatic winner of the Basement Dweller mention... it's Larry with 15 points. This is the second time Larry has finished as the low-point total (or tied for) this season, the last one coming in Week Ten (amazingly when Derek won his first M&S). Before the Waiver Draft players became active, Larry was sitting in a healthy 9th place, only 24 points out of third place. Six weeks later, he is now in 15th, 55 points out of 3rd place. Injuries to Tim Connolly, Simon Gagne and Sergei Zubov have all contributed to his lack of success and he could use a good Waiver Draft in a couple of weeks to get himself back in business.

On the Sheet, it's been a rough go for Bart and his squad in Week Fifteen, only managing a week-low 36 points and dropping 4 spots in the standings. Having not made a trade in the pool this season, it has dropped him down to 40th spot in the standings. In Week Fifteen, there were fourteen zeros to Bart's name in the week, which has to be the most telling statistic as to why he fell so far and that's where I'm going to leave that, as the horse has already been beaten to death.

It wasn't a terribly marvelous week when it came to individual success in Week Fifteen, as there were a number of players who did crack 6 points in the week, which is good, but only one player did better than that with 8 points. Henrik Lundqvist played in three of the Rangers' four games in Week Fifteen and managed to earn himself a couple of shutout wins. This coming after being called out after Week Thirteen for being cold.

The Draft pick of Dale C.'s managed to earn two shutout wins during the week. Once, on Monday against Pittsburgh at home, where he made 27 saves in the effort and a second, away to Ottawa, where he made 33 saves for the 4 points. If Dale is going to be successful at getting some money in the Draft this season, he is going to need his number one goalie to step up here down the stretch and earn him more weeks like this last one.

Lundqvist was taken last (17th) in the first round of the Draft and now sits 14th in pool scoring, which is a very profitable pick. Another quick win and he could be vaulted into the top ten, which is even more impressive. That has certainly earned him a place on the Eastern Conference All-Star team, where he'll take part in during the end of Week Seventeen.

I thought I would stay on the Eastern side of the league for my cold player of the week, as Miroslav Satan is turning into somewhat of a off-season acquisition bust this year. The Penguins needed to refill some of their scoring after Marian Hossa went to Detroit and signed to help try and fill in some of those goals (or more) was Satan. This season, he has only potted 12, while playing with the likes of Sidney Crosby and only has 26 points for the entire year. Larry was counting on big things from Satan this year, but he has only aided Larry in one of the bigger free falls of the year.

Other News and Notes

The Bruins had to do an emergency call-up of Tukka Rask from the AHL, as Box 32 goaltender, Manny Fernandez, was not able to dress for the team's game against the Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon. Fernandez was out with an undisclosed injury, but it isn't thought to be major, as Rask was sent back down to the AHL after the game had ended. Fernandez is a prime candidate to be a first round selection in the second Waiver Draft in Week Eighteen.

The Sabres are still moving players around on the blueline this year, as Henrik Tallinder was subject to a game in the press box. The Box 29 defender has sat already this season and his production has not been great, having only 6 points in 36 games for the Sabres. He'll likely figure back into the line-up in their first game next week, so don't read too much into this scratching, unless you're trying to find someone who earns a lot of ice-time on your team.

Well, it isn't exactly the minors, but I don't have an icon for sending someone to the Junior ranks. The Flames decided to let Mikael Backlund get more playing time by sending him to Kelowna of the WHL, who owns his junior rights this season. Backlund won silver with Sweden at the World Junior tournament and played very well. He wasn't getting the ice-time the Flames would have preferred in the Swedish Elite League this year, so the juniors was the next best option. Now that he is in the junior ranks, Backlund will not be allowed to join the Flames again this season, until the playoffs, possibly.

The Hurricanes were hoping that Tim Gleason would be good to go on Saturday afternoon against the Bruins, but a lower body injury kept the Box 29 defenseman out of the line-up, after suffering the injury on Thursday night. It does seem likely that he'll figure back into the line-up right away, barring any more setbacks or mis-diagnosis.

It was a touch of the flu that kept out Niklas Kronwall of the Detroit line-up on Saturday night against the Sabres. Of course, the Draft pick of Dennis', should be back in the line-up for the Red Wings' next game, since the flu bug doesn't keep players out for very long. The Wings defender has had a decent season, having 20 points in 39 games this season.

The Oilers didn't dress Box 7 forward, Robert Nilsson, as he was supposedly shaken up during Friday night's game and wasn't ready to go against the Blues. It doesn't sound like the injury is very serious and he won't likely miss much time with the injury. The Oilers also placed goon Zach Stortini on the IR with a leg injury, which looks to be rather serious and he could be out for quite a while.

It's another trip back down to the minors for Box 25 forward, Shawn Matthias, on Monday. The Panthers are pretty close to getting some of their injured forwards back into the line-up this week and the team wants the young centre to get some quality minutes with the farm team, before calling him back up again. The team isn't in a big rush to use the young centre, so it's probably best if you waited on him in the Sheet pool until next season.

Bad news for our Draft leader, John B., one of his key forwards, Jason Arnott, was injured on Saturday night with a lower body injury and didn't dress against the Blackhawks on Sunday night. There was no immediate indication as to how long that Arnott will be out of the line-up, but his point production of 27 points in 37 games will be missed out of both respective line-ups.

The goaltending problems continue in Ottawa, as the coaching staff has not been happy with their veteran tandem. On Saturday, Martin Gerber was scratched from the line-up in order to have AHL call-up, Brian Elliot, get the start for the Senators against the Rangers. The Sens still lost the game 2-0, but Elliot reportedly played well in the game. Grant's second starter in the Draft may get scratched again for another Elliot start, but that decision may be a game-time one.

The Coyotes continued their roundabout ways with their blueline corps. On Saturday, Keith Yandle was out of the line-up and was replaced with Ken Klee. Both players figure into the pools, Yandle, a Waiver Draft pick up of Jeremy's, while Klee is a Box 29 defenseman.

The Coyotes may have a little bit of a solution when it comes to their blueline problems, as Kurt Sauer has now been lost to the team for the next four weeks with a lower body injury. Sauer, a Box 13 defenseman, was injured in the team's game on Saturday night. The Coyotes have also lost rookie forward, Viktor Tikhonov to an upper body injury indefinitely, which caused the team to call-up Box 6 forward, Daniel Winnik.

Young defenseman, Alex Goligoski, was scratched again from the Penguins line-up on Saturday. The Waiver Draft pick-up of Dale B.'s has been in and out of the line-up with some of their veteran defensemen are coming back from injury. Goligoski has 9 points in 17 games for Dale since the Waiver Draft.

The Blues didn't have Alexander Steen in the line-up against the Oilers on Sunday night. It turns out that Steen had blocked a shot in Vancouver on Friday night with his foot and the foot was not good enough to go on Sunday night in Edmonton. X-rays had shown that there wasn't any breaks in his foot, so he shouldn't be out of the line-up for very long. This is good news for Jeremy, who is climbing the Draft standings quite quickly and needs all the help he can get to make the money spots.

Box 28 defenseman, Jeff Finger, was out of the line-up in Philadelphia on Saturday night because of an upper body injury. Finger hasn't been a great defensive help for the rebuilding Leafs, playing an average of 21 minutes per game and has a -8 rating this season. He'll need to be a bit better if the team wants to improve in the second half of the season.

The Leafs didn't let Nikolai Kulemin spend too much time in the AHL after demoting him in the week. Kulemin was called up on Sunday to take practice with the team and will likely suit up in the Leafs' next game on Tuesday, at home to Nashville. The skill of Kulemin wasn't going to keep him the minors for too long.

On Saturday night, the Capitals didn't have Sergei Fedorov in the line-up, as he felt that playing on back-to-back nights was not going to help his healing ankle. Fedorov missed quite a few games with his ankle injury and didn't want to miss many more by severely re-injuring his ankle in a game. Watch for Fedorov to be back in the line-up when the Capitals next take the ice.

Click here to see an updated injury page.


In a divisional trade this weekend, the Blackhawks sent forward Michael Blunden to the Blue Jackets, who sent forward Adam Pineault in return. Both players have minimal NHL experience, but both may have better shots at cracking the NHL full-time with their new clubs.

Hockey Night in Canada

It's another small schedule for Week Sixteen's Hockey Night in Canada on as the Ottawa Senators play host to the Montreal Canadiens in the early game across the country. If there is a lopsided match-up on paper, this would be it. The Senators are struggling to keep their heads above water, while the Canadiens are playing for top spot in the Northeast Division. In the late game, it's another lopsided match-up, as the young Coyotes visit Calgary to visit the Northwest leading Flames. The Coyotes do bring some youthful vigor to their games, but they don't have the experience to keep their heads screwed on straight to win a lot of games.