
Well, this just won't do. Sure, we are only two weeks into the season, but we can't have two Greenleys at the top of the standings, so we'll have to kick them out. They were only supposed to be donations into the prize pool... they can't winning the damn thing!


Edmonton goaltender Cam Talbot was the Week Two Player of the Week, thanks in large part to his shutout at the Heritage Classic on Sunday afternoon, it capped off a week, where he went 3-0-0, including that goose egg and he was the only player in the pool to finish with 8 points. This one didn't even need a tie-breaker.
Wins against Carolina, St. Louis and Winnipeg chalked up his points and it gave him the overall lead in pool scoring, now 5-1-0 with a shutout for 12 points. This is big news for one of our newcomer's this season, Marcie, who has drafted quite well to start the season, owning two of the top three pool scorers this year.


Also having a good week for our Mover & Shaker were Zach Parise, John Tavares, Radim Vrbata, Brian Campbell and Cory Schneider, all picking up 4 points in the week. All of a sudden, that list of players doesn't look so bad, especially when they are actually scoring.
In preparation for some possible new mini-games this season, some new statistics were prepped for the weekly audit and in there was a team's plus/minus stat, just for shits and giggles. In this case, Stuart's team currently ranks 5th in the pool, with a combined plus/minus of a +6 rating, while the entire pool is a combined -58.
Stuart's team remains fairly healthy, which is a huge plus, especially early on, and his team is among the pool leaders in games this coming week, projected for 46 games. That gives him a pretty good chance to repeat... which is even scarier, if you ask me!

On the plus side, it is still far too early to panic, since it is only 18 points to climb back into 3rd place in the pool and that's an excellent week away. Sure, he would need to get healthy again, but his team could tread enough water for a few weeks and then slam back into action and get back into the race. It's possible.
Tony's best players in the week all finished with 2 points each and there were five of them, spreading out the scoring through his lineup, but sadly, none of those guys were in his goaltending tandem, something we'l'l tackle here shortly as well. Jordan Eberle, Johnny Gaudreau, Evgeni Malkin, Mika Zibanejad and Ryan Ellis were the players who potted deuces in the week, all of which could be much better for Tony on a weekly basis, I'm sure.
This week's non-mini-game statistic of the week, plus/minus, didn't favour Tony either in Week Two, as his team is a combined -15 through two weeks, ranking 23rd in the pool, although he was only tied for 17th in the week, at -5.

It's still a pretty tight race, where 10 points can drop anyone from 3rd place down to 13th, but those teams below 13th, should hope that their teams get into gear.

Dale B. currently holds the title for the Lady Byng, which doesn't actually hold any significance towards the money, which might be a mini-game in itself next year, or at least it'll be on the wheel. His team has only picked up 14 minutes, so far, and is falling behind quickly, if this was the route he wanted to take at the Waiver Draft.

Now these three teams will be charged with having their goalies play spoilers in the weeks ahead and they could opt for a different mini-game at the Waiver Draft, if they so chose.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
The excitement of the new season has already subsided a little bit, as the number of active days in the week went up, the NHL games during the week went up, but the scoring numbers went down a touch. Int the 48-game week, the pool registered 592 points in total, which averaged out at only 12.3 points per game, down from 13.4 in Week One. The participation levels were about the same and the PIM per NHL game were also relatively even, which is good. We're keeping bodies in the lineup and in the penalty box, keeping the pool exciting to watch to start the year.
NEWS AND NOTES

This injury will make the goalie survivor pool a little more difficult for Marcie, as her team is now down to one keeper, but her team has roots in the big money and the penalty minutes, so she won't be short of interest this season.

Crosby's return will be good for Brenda & Seward, who will start the week in 18th place, 18 points back of 1st. It might be a few good weeks for Crosby to make up that total, but it might not be long for him to close that gap by himself.
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