Week Twenty-One Newsletter

Call it my complacency about not being in the money or just some of my over-partying ways (okay, not really), but you combine one of those excuses with a busy few days at the office, you're going to get Newsletters that run a little bit later than normal.  Just the way it is going to be, I guess.  Nevertheless, the Newsletter has dropped and hopefully, it is as good as they normally are... assuming that they are.

Lead Opens Up Again

Allan scored his fourth straight week at the top of the table again, opening up a 12-point lead on the rest of the pack.  This is only the third Monday this season, where the week will open up with a double-digit lead, the last two not lasting very long, dropping back into small single-digit leads, as the pool evened itself out, in a manner of speaking.

Chris moved back into 2nd place, after one week in 3rd place, while Scott moved into the money.  Scott spent three weeks finishing the week in 4th place and has now seen his first week in the money, 3rd place.  Taking the jersey prize position for the week is Derek Wilton, who moved up one spot to move in.  Falling out of the prizes in Week Twenty-One, Stacey C. and you'll see why in a little bit.

Allan Still In Line for a Second Jersey

I guess it's pretty bad already when Allan won the first segment prize, now sits in the lead in the pool for the last four weeks and also holds the lead for the third jersey prize... AND HE DIDN'T EVEN PICK HIS TEAM.  This will illicit a rule change for next year, but for the time being, rules are rules and he's going to cash in with them, by the look of things.  Dale C. now sits 7 points out in 2nd place in the segment, still reachable, for sure.  Scott and Chris, two money teams, are also in the race, while Mike is 17 points out in 5th place.

A team that isn't too far out only needs a couple good weeks and they should be in the conversation.

Goal Scoring Race

It isn't a money-winning statistic, but it is kind of a fun statistic to watch during the year, as teams need goals, like they need any other stat.  Derek Wilton leads the pool through Week Twenty-One with 190 goals scored by his players, while Brenda is not too far back with 186.  Brenda has had the lead for 14 weeks throughout the year, while Allan, who sits in 3rd with 181, has also had a couple of weeks at the top.

On the opposite end, Doug's team has only managed 111 goals this season, while Dale B. has only seen 114 and Leo has only registered 118.

In terms of streaky players, I think a name that should really stand out is Tyler Seguin, who used a bit of a hot streak to top the Player of the Week scoring for Week Twenty-One, as the 22-year old centre made good use of a couple of his four games in the week to take top spot.

Seguin, acquired by the Stars from the Bruins in the off-season, has seen a number of really good games this season and is now on pace to smash his career-best numbers, which he set a couple years ago with Boston.

The week started off like a regular week for the Dallas pivot, picking up an assist on Monday against the Sabres, followed up by getting shutout by the Blue Jackets on Tuesday.  On Thursday, however, he took full advantage of a lacklustre Canucks team, taking them for a hat-trick and a pair of assists, bringing his points total to 6 for the week.  On Saturday, he finished off his week with another good game, scoring a goal and adding a pair of helpers against the Minnesota Wild.  4 goals and 5 assists in four games, 4 goals and 4 assists in two games helps too.

The new streak of hotness for Seguin has lifted his season totals up to 29 goals and 37 assists in 62 games played, scoring at 1.06 points per game, which now has him ranked 9th overall in pool scoring.  Seguin accounts for 13.3% of Stacey M.'s total points this season, her team's top player to this point.

The 2014 season appears to be his coming out party and he may just find his way into the 1st round conversation for the draft next year.

After spending the best part of five weeks in 15th place in the standings, it took a Mover & Shaker week for Wes to move up and out... to 14th place.  Yes, despite having a 35-point week in the pool, in the bottom half of the standings, his team was only able to move up one spot, but I guess one is better than none and a Mover & Shaker week is better than not having anything at all.

On the plus side, Wes is only 6 points behind 13th place and 14 points out of the top half of the standings, which is far more reachable now that he has had his Mover & Shaker week.

Wes had a monster week from his goaltending, which had a 12-point week, thanks to a pair of 6-spots from both Tuukka Rask of the Bruins and Mike Smith of the Coyotes.  Marc Giordano of the Flames kicked in 5 points, while Matt Moulson of the Wild and Travis Zajac of the Devils each had 4 points.  Three players on his team failed to register points, but two of those are injured for the long-term and gave good reason not to have points.  Still, his team did well for having two long-term injuries on it and still able to get a Mover & Shaker.

The big goaltending week has lifted Wes' team into a tie for top spot in goaltender scoring, picking up 122 points through 21 weeks, tied with Chris for top honours.  Wes' forwards and defense are both below-average this year, which is the biggest reason why his team struggles to get to the midway point in the standings.

As it was pointed out earlier in the Newsletter, Stacey C. fell out of the prize positions and being the Basement Dweller will do that to a team.

Now, to be fair, Stacey's team is tied for 4th in points, but loses the goals scored tie-breaker to the pool leader in the column, which I suppose had its fair share of foreshadowing earlier.

Stacey's team finished the week with 12 points, as four players on his side finished with 2 points in the week, while four other players had a single point.  Stacey has one player in the minors now, as Devan Dubnyk, who was traded to the Montreal Canadiens, was assigned to Hamilton of the AHL, shortly after the deal went down.

24 points is now the gap between Stacey's team and 1st place and we still have lots of time for his team to make up that space, but this is not what a prize team wants to have happen in the season.

NEWS AND NOTES

With the acquisition of Andrej Meszaros by the Boston Bruins, it gave the team more than enough depth on the blueline, which makes the room for error that much smaller. On Sunday, Dougie Hamilton was a victim of this depth, as Meszaros joined the line-up at the expense of Hamilton's healthy scratch.  It will be an interesting situation going forward for the Bruins and their blueline, since the depth should mean that there is no letdowns and if there are, someone will move out of the line-up for a game, maybe more.

Scary moment for the Dallas Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen, who took the brunt of a diving Minnesota Wild forward Erik Haula, as Haula drove himself into the keeper's head, sending his mask flying and his body into the net.  Lehtonen suffered a concussion and is currently listed as day-to-day, but will go through the correct protocols, which means he will miss at least a week with the injury.  In his stead, the Stars will turn to Tim Thomas, who they acquired at the Trade Deadline.

Reports are surfacing from the Detroit Red Wings organization that goaltender Jonas Gustavsson is experiencing some more groin problems an these will likely keep him out of the line-up for the next little while.  Gustavsson did not dress on Sunday and he may not dress for at least another game this week.  He is currently listed as out day-to-day and Petr Mrazek has been called up to take his spot on the bench behind Jimmy Howard.

A hand injury for Ottawa Senators forward Clarke MacArthur has sidelined him for the next little while.  Reports out of the organization say that MacArthur will not require surgery for his injured hand and that it will be a matter of his pain threshold before he can draw back into the line-up.

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