Week Eight Newsletter

Well, that was a long week... and now combined with just coming back to work, after having that week off, we're a bit delayed with all of the updates, but we're a go here.  All of our Waiver Draft picks will go active this week, it's just hard to say whether or not they will go live today, due to timing.



There were a couple of goalies that led the charge in the final week of the first segment of the season, but with an undefeated record of 4-0-0 in the week, Steve Mason of the Philadelphia Flyers gets the honour of being Player of the Week in Week Eight, just edging out Chad Johnson of the Calgary Flames.

With Michal Neuvirth out injured, the Flyers are leaning heavily on Mason and rightfully so, by the look of things.  Wins against Boston, Ottawa, Chicago and Nashville made up his week and it now lifted him up to 19 points on the year, now ranked 68th overall in pool scoring.

His most impressive win of the week was certainly the 45-save overtime effort against the Bruins.

And guess what...

On the shoulders of the Player of the Week, Brenda & Seward also captured the Mover & Shaker nod of the week.  I would have preferred to split the winner of each up, but Mason won the tie-breaker fair and square, so the duo gets both nods.  I'm pretty sure John S. doesn't even read the blog, so he wouldn't know if he won it or not.

The race in Week Eight wasn't even a close one, as the duo set a new season-high in points with 37 and they were 9 points better than the next two teams right below him.

There's still a lot of moving to be had, even though there has been a bit of separation in the standings, as Brenda & Seward went from 21st to 11th in a matter of a week, but again... it was the strongest week we've seen, compared to other teams in the pool this season.

Besides having the Player of the Week, they were also blessed with Sidney Crosby of the Penguins, who had 6 points, while Logan Couture of the Sharks and Ryan Miller of the Canucks each pulled 4 points out of the week.  Only one of their players finished with no points in the week and it should come as no surprise that he was one of their Waiver Draft drops.

Now, with their big week under their belt and their new players going active on Monday night, they can look at that 18-point gap that they have between their team and 3rd place and it looks a lot less daunting.

It's also the first instance where we've seen a team go from the Mover & Shaker to the Basement Dweller, in a matter of a week.  Wilton fell out of the top 10 in Week Eight, dropping from 7th place to 15th place, thanks to only 13 points.  On the plus side, not many teams had all that great of weeks, so he is only 9 points out of 7th place, where he finished the week before, which is a total his team can definitely make up.

Five players on his team finished with 2 points each, but his goalies were not one of those players, which really let his team down.  His best player, Craig Anderson, only played in one game in the week, before heading back home and that really set his week back.

Derek upgraded his forwards in the week, taking a couple of underachievers and replaced them with a couple of more consistent players, now he just needs that extra stroke of luck to get those extra points to lift his team back into contention.

Just as a side note, his team was also worst in the pool in the plus/minus department in the week, dropping 16 points in the week and his team is now a pool-low, -26 rating.  By comparison, Marcin's team, which still sits in 3rd place, leads the pool with a +53 rating.

Benson's team opened up a bit bigger of a lead in the week, finishing the week with a 5-point lead over Brian.  His team also put 4 more points between his and Marcin's 3rd place team, now sitting at 14 points between the two sides.

John S. now leads all the contenders for a money spot, sitting in 4th place, 7 points back of Marcin, while Stacey C., Scott, Dale B. and Cam are not too far behind either.

Now that we've passed through the Waiver Draft, this is where the PIM Pool really gets exciting.  Kristy & Don still have a lead, sitting atop with 207 minutes in penalties, but Marcie made a move for a stronger presence with Patrick Maroon, while Troy, who sits 107 minutes back, did a huge swap and is now really going to try and push for the title himself.  He added guys like Antoine Roussel, Josh Manson, Matt Martin and Chris Thorburn, those 107 minutes could disappear quickly.  Stay tuned!

It was a devastating week in the goalie survivor pool, as the audit revealed that three teams were eliminated from the pool in Week Eight, leaving us with only five teams vying for the title.

Stuart, Wilton and Jeremy were all knocked out in the week, as their goalies were unable to post a W in Week Eight.  Stuart was relying upon Cory Schneider of the Devils, while Wilton had Craig Anderson of the Senators and Jeremy had Braden Holtby of the Capitals as his number one, none of which were able to post a win.

This leaves Mike, John S., Grant, Troy and Stacey M. to vie for the title and win their money back.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

In the week of looking to replace some of our pool's duds, scoring was able to go up a bit, from 11.1 points to 11.4 points, even with our pool participation down in both skater games and goalie minutes.  Our guys were on point this week and now we're hoping for a little bit more this coming week.

Thankfully, we're getting some more goalies activated in the pool, as our participation in the crease was at a season-low, as our pool averaged 95.5 minutes worth of action out of the 50 NHL games in the week.

NEWS AND NOTES

An upper-body injury was the cause of Rickard Rakell's absence on Sunday night, when the Ducks were in Calgary to take on the Flames. There's a good chance that they missed the offense out of their leading goal scorer, as they dropped the game, 8-3.  It could have also have been, they missed some defensive structure as well, but that might not have been Rakell's forte.

For Dale C., this shouldn't be a reason to panic, as this is just a day-to-day issue by all initial reports.  We'll keep the blog posted, if anything more comes out of this situation.

It was another game where the regular back-up got the night off for the New York Islanders, as Thomas Greiss was sent up to the press box for a complete night off, when the Islanders took on the Red Wings.  Jaroslav Halak got the start and J-F Berube was the back-up.  Berube has yet to appear in a game, other than being a benchwarmer, but this 3-goalie system is a bit absurd, if you ask me.

It's not a missed start for Dale B., but it just gets reported, as he was technically a scratch.

The Tampa Bay Lightning also made Jonathan Drouin into a late scratch on Sunday, due to an undisclosed injury, and there have been no updates after the fact on Monday.  He's currently listed as out day-to-day and we'll be keeping an eye on this, as it develops.

This might have been one of those injuries that Wes could have taken care of on Sunday, but if it is just a day-to-day injury, it probably isn't worth finding someone else to fill the spot, no matter how poor his numbers are to start the season.