Heading Into Weekend Eight

It's the last few days before the end of the week, which doesn't mean too much to other weeks, but for Week Eight, that means we'll be awarding the first jersey, so of course someone should be excited. It does look like Leon has wrapped this one up, as he heads into Friday night's action with an 18-point lead over Wes, 21 points over Dale and 25 over Clayton. That's very sizable, no matter which way you slice it.

If Leon pulls off the likely win, he'll now have finished four straight weeks at the top of the heap, which is a pretty good run. His lead does get bigger as the weeks go on, so it will be harder to catch him later on, not to say that it can't be done. As I noted in the third part of the Waiver Draft recap, no one who was in first place at the first Waiver Draft has won yet, so there is precedence set.

In other news, Chris is finally making a push to get out of the basement. He's trimmed his gap down to two points for the bottom, just as the new Waiver Draft pick-ups are to take effect on Monday. The gap was down to one point on Monday morning, but Peter took off this week and jumped a couple spots, which indicates that the basement could have one of four names in it come Monday morning.

Well, the Player of the Week race is on like Donkey Kong... there is no one player that stands out above the rest this week, as ten players have 4 points heading into the weekend. So, with some minor decisions as to who to post as the weekend preview picture, I took Vincent Lecavalier, because he's helping Peter climb out of basement contention and is among four players with 4 points on his team this week.

Yes, Peter is in the lead for the Mover & Shaker, thanks to his big producing players. He is the only team that has gone over the 20-point barrier before Friday night this week, sitting with 25 points. Peter has already moved up a couple spots in the standings thanks to this good week, so maybe he's now on his way to the top, especially thanks to his good pick position in the first Waiver Draft. I'm going to keep my eye on his team now.

A couple of teams are vying for the Basement this week, as both Dale C. and Stuart are not even clear of the 10-point mark, both teams sitting at 7 points for the week. They'll need a big weekend to stay afloat.

Just as it was noted last week, scoring is back on the rise, likely due to the return of key players in the Draft. Through 24 NHL games, scoring for the Draft has gone up to 9.8 points per game, so we might be in for a big weekend of scoring (fingers crossed).