Week Three Newsletter

Alright, the update has been completed. The website is being updated regularly now, but I'm still getting into the practice of routine with it again. The trash talk pages are likely to be showing up this week, for all of those who really enjoy using them. The newsletter continues to take a while to produce, but I'm hoping it's being read on a regular basis. All of the injury news should help everyone with their picks.

I'm not spending too much time with the headline this week, it's time likely better spent getting the Trash Talk page up and running now, don't you think?

Poll Question
The votes are going up! Hooray! The question this past week was surrounding the players that were not taken in the Draft and having good starts to the season. I wanted to know which one of these players you wished you had taken at the Draft and are likely looking forward to picking up at the Waiver Draft. There were six candidates for your selection and it was rookie defenseman, Michael Del Zotto of the Rangers, who took six of 18 votes (six votes better than Week Two) in the poll. Flyers blueliner, Matt Carle, also got plenty of consideration in the poll as well. It was really surprising that Craig Anderson, the backstop in Colorado wasn't getting more consideration, finishing with only two votes in the end, as he's having a whale of a start for the Avs.

For Week Four, I want to know which injury is hurting their NHL team and fantasy team the most. See the list to the left and make your selection.

Well, there is a bit of a pattern emerging with the Movers & Shakers after three weeks, the M&S team finishes the week in first spot. In Week Three, it was Dale C. that made the big charge in a low-scoring week. Dale finished the week with 36 points, lifting him to a 1-point lead over Wes, who finished with only 23 points in the week.

Dale's big week came from most of his players, as he saw 12 of 14 players pick up points in the week, including Martin Brodeur (6 points), Marian Gaborik (5 points), Tim Connolly (4 points) and five others with 3 points a piece. That's the kind of production that will earn you these honours on a regular basis.

It will be interesting to see how long this production does last, especially since there are a number of players on his team that have suffered some long-term injuries over the past few seasons, including some players who are considered injury-prone.

Of courses, the lead in the pool does automatically give the lead in the first jersey race in these first eight weeks. The race for the jersey is particularly tight again after Week Three, which is good news to the excitement of the whole thing. Four teams have now cracked the 70-point mark, with two teams hot on the heels of that mark too.

I have decided that the winner of the first jersey will get to choose which one he'll take home. I am expecting to see them in the next week or so as well, so there should be pictures posted of the prizes when they arrive.

Being the Basement Dweller is a good way to keep yourself away from earning a jersey in this small competition. Chris M. finished the week with only 15 points and it was a pretty close race for the bottom mention as well. Chris beat out three teams, who all had 16 points in the week for the honour. Chris didn't get any points from either goalie and six of his skaters. Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews accounted for half of his team's scoring, with 4 points a piece in the week.

I can't honestly remember when a player from the Phoenix Coyotes earned the Player of the Week honour, but here we are. The troubled team had a pretty good week, thanks in large part to their goalie, Ilya Bryzgalov, who finished the week with 8 points. Bryzgalov also now shares the top spot in goaltender scoring in the Draft with 14 points.

During the week, Bryzgalov went 3-0 including a shutout for his 8 points. On Monday, he made 30 saves and put in a little extra time in the shootout for a 1-0 win over the Sharks. Thursday, he made 22 saves in an overtime victory over the Blues. Finally, on Saturday, he made another 22 stops in a 4-1 win over the Bruins. Not only did he win those games, he beat three pretty good teams in order to earn the top honour.

Congrats to him and Leon, who picked him in the fifth round of the Draft.

You know, it's rather surprising to see that Alex Tanguay has only one point in seven games with a team that is actually starting to score. All of the top guns in Tampa are picking up the pace and getting into the groove of things, but Tanguay is proving to be a less-than-perfect fit there in Florida. I don't think anyone was really expecting a playmaker like Tanguay to flop like this, early in the season.



I suppose if you have checked out the website over the past 16 hours or so, you would have noticed that there were some technical issues with the standings. Every team appeared to be in either 1st or 2nd, which really couldn't be the case, especially for those teams that are 54 points behind in the standings. Well, that has been sorted out (thank goodness!), but it was just a small technical issue with the new Office suite. Bastards decided to switch a couple things up on me and I wasn't ready for it. Nevertheless, we're now in business and it should all appear the way we expect it.

It was a great big week for John P. in the Sheet, who jumped up to 2nd spot in the standings, thanks to a 71-point week, a clear 7 points better than anyone else in the pool. Not bad for a guy who didn't have his team sheet posted until today. John made a pretty good jump in the standings, from 12th to 2nd with that big week, a whopping 10 places up the charts.

John got a good week from Craig Anderson (9 points), Mike Knuble (6 points) and Martin Brodeur (6 points), helping him make the jump up into the money spots. It could very well be a race to get Anderson in the pool, who is lighting it up for the Avalanche to start this year.

It was also a pretty big week for Roopi, who galloped up the standings, moving 13 spots to 12th spot. He had one of the better weeks as well, picking up 64 points. With another week like that, he could very well be in the money spots. The Sheet pool is a finicky beast though... one week can be awesome, the next can be terrible. You have to be aware and look at your trades carefully.

Other News and Notes

The depth of the Avalanche was certainly questionable at the beginning of the season. Forward Chris Stewart was added to Box 7 of the Sheet, playing in four games and registered one assist. He hasn't figured into the line-up over the past couple games and he may only figure in as a depth player now.

It has not been a good start to the season for Jere Lehtinen, who was ruled out of the game against the Blackhawks on Saturday night. Lehtinen is suffering with a chest injury, which seems to be muscular. He was a fantasy long shot at the start of the season, being placed in Box 8 of the Sheet pool and he will continue to be one for the time being. If he can get himself back to 100% health, he could be valuable again.

A midday scratch in Edmonton saw Ales Hemsky on the shelf for their game against Wild on Friday night. Hemsky came down with a serious fever and he was ruled out early on Friday. The fever should not keep him out of the line-up against the Canucks on Monday night, much to the relief of Stacey, who is in the middle of the money hunt to start the year.

The Wild are struggling out of the gates and injuries are quickly becoming the biggest reason for the slow start. We can now add Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Martin Havlat to that list. Bouchard will now be on the shelf for a while with a concussion. The Box 5 forward doesn't seem to have a timetable for his return at the moment. As for Havlat, it only seemed like a matter of time before the Box 1 forward was going to go down. He is down with a groin injury, which is seemingly similar to teammate Petr Sykora's injury. He's considered day-to-day, but has already missed two games.

The Predators lost the services of Dan Hamhuis over the weekend, scratching him on Saturday night with an upper-body injury. Hamhuis suffered the injury on Thursday night after being hit hard behind his own net and didn't return. The Preds have called up Cody Franson to take his spot, but the injury is only considered somewhat minor and he'll be out on a day-to-day basis.

It appears that Bruno Gervais has fallen out of favour with the Islanders coaching staff, as he's been a healthy scratch for a couple of games. Gervais has played in only four games for the Islanders, failing to pick up a point in those games. There is no indication of any injuries from many of my sources, so he is being scratched, which doesn't help his fantasy value at all. Gervais wasn't taken at all in Box 27, so there is no immediate fear there.

Rookie forward, Peter Regin, who is the Sens young player for Box 25, has sat out of the line-up with an apparent upper-body injury. On Saturday, he was technically cleared to return, but the coaching staff did keep him out for one more game. Regin was not going to get a lot of consideration, being in the same box as John Tavares, but with 3 points in 4 games, he could get some if the prodigal son was to go down with injury.

The depth at the defensive position for the Lightning is creating a lot of competition, which should mean good things for Tampa, but some players may figure out of the line-up more than they would have hoped. Box 27 defender, Lukas Krajicek, has been the latest casualty of the scratches, being sat for the return of Kurtis Foster to the line-up.

The Leafs have been making statement scratches of late, trying to spur on the players to finally get that first win of the season. Nikolai Kulemin was the next player (of pool relevance) to be scratched, as he sat while Matt Stajan and Niklas Hagman both figured back in. The Leafs have almost a full week off before their next game on Saturday, so they will have plenty of time to figure out how they'll approach the Canucks to try for their first win.

On Friday night, the Capitals were doing alright with Jose Theodore in the nets, being tied 1-1 with the Sharks after the first period. To everyone's surprise, it was Semyon Varlamov that came out to finish the game, ending up getting the win. Theodore has been diagnosed with back spasms and was not able to even dress on Saturday night. There is a chance that he could be practicing on Monday, but there is no rush to get him back, as Varlamov is more than capable.

Click here to see an updated injury page.

Hockey Night in Canada

A busy Saturday will be highlighted by another Hockey Night In Canada doubleheader. It's another split network in the early game, where there are three games going on at the same time. The Rangers will be in Montreal, likely for the East Coast, the Ottawa region is likely to be the only ones watching the Sens host the Bruins, while the HD channel and the rest of the nation will get the Maple Leafs in Vancouver to take on the Canucks. All three games have plenty of scoring potential and should be fun to watch.

In the late game, across the full network, the Flames will play host to the Oilers for another round of the Battle of Alberta. It's the kind of rivalry that makes for a perfect finish to the evening.