It's a big week upcoming and I am hoping to make sure that the blog reflects that, as much as possible. Week Sixteen is the All-Star shortened week, where we will be limited in games, but on the plus side, the Week Seventeen Waiver Draft could get a bit of a head start. We'll go over the Week Fifteen numbers and news first, but there will be an e-mail going out this week to alert everyone of the upcoming Waiver Draft, hoping that we don't have the same stalls that we did the first time around.
That was quite the race in Week Fifteen for the top individual honours, as it came right down to the wire on Sunday for the decision. In the end, there were two players with 9 points each and even another three players with 8 points, some coming in with 8 points and a game to play on Sunday. That's just how close it was. In the end, it was Pittsburgh's
Conor Sheary edging out Long Island's
Thomas Greiss for the honour, thanks to the goal scoring tie-breaker.
And who is this Sheary fella? You don't remember him in the Penguins' run in the playoffs last year? He was there, contributing 10 points in 23 games for their Cup run. This season, the 24-year old has found a regular spot in the Penguins roster, because he has been able to put pucks in the net and dish it out from time to time as well. On such a high-powered Penguins roster, this shouldn't come as that big of a surprise.
In the week, Sheary finished with 6 goals and 3 assists in four games, picking up at least a point in each game. 2 goals and an assist against Washington on Monday, an assist against the Canadiens on Wednesday, 2 goals against the Hurricanes on Friday and then another 2 goals and an assist against the Bruins on Sunday. An evenly played week, if you ask me.
Sheary was taken with the 19th pick in the Week Eight Waiver Draft by Wilton, as his team was right in the thick of the money race... before his team's collapse. Since being picked up in the Waiver Draft, Sheary has 22 points in 21 games and is Derek's 5th best forward this season, which says a lot about how bad his team has tanked since.
It was a great Mover & Shaker race this week, as the number of games ramped up to 52 on the NHL schedule in Week Fifteen, leaving lots of action to decide this one. Stacey C. and Dale B. were tied at a record week of 40 points, heading into Sunday's action, where Stacey had the edge in games to be played and that was what separated the two teams in the end, as his team finished with a new record in the 2017 season, with 45 points.
Remarkably, this is the first time since the 2015 season where we had a Mover & Shaker over 40 points and there were two teams this week that did the feat. The last team to do it belonged to Brian in Week Twenty of the 2015 season.
It was another Waiver Draft pick-up that was key to a pool team's success in the week, as
Mike Condon, the fill-in starter for the Ottawa Senators had found a bit of a hot streak, picking up 8 points in the week, leading the way on Stacey's team.
Connor McDavid of the Oilers also had himself a pretty good week for the proxy team, finishing with 6 points, while
Andre Burakovsky of the Capitals,
Marian Hossa of the Blackhawks and
Nino Niederreiter of the Wild each finished with 5 points a piece. Also worthy of a mention was
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Oilers, the only player on his team to finish with 4 points. Stacey's team had a couple of naughts on the blueline, but for the most part, his team saw production from the better part of his team.
The big week in the points department did translate in the standings, as Stacey's team moved up from 13th place up to 7th and is only 18 points back of 3rd place, after gaining 20 points on that position already. With another Waiver Draft upcoming, there is lots to play for on Stacey's team and there could be a couple of places in need of improvement when Week Seventeen rolls around.
Injuries got the better of Stacey M. in Week Fifteen, as her team may have to look to a mini-game to keep her money hopes alive and there is one in particular that she is likely keeping her eye on.
14 points was all that her team could muster in the week, but with three key players on the Injured Reserve, it should come as no surprise that the points were not going to be there. Thankfully, her team has a guys like
Pekka Rinne, who has been very solid this season and he led her team with 4 points in the week, also keeping her team in the goalie survivor pool, which there will be more on that a bit later on in the post.
Injuries to
Aleksander Barkov of the Panthers,
Max Domi of the Coyotes and
Antti Raanta of the Rangers were certainly playing a role, but that wasn't an excuse for the three other players who were healthy in the week and failed to register a point.
Stacey's team was never really in the overall money mix this season, posting a peak position of 9th place at the end of Week One, 11th in Week Two and had only seen as high as 13th in Week Eleven after that. She has climbed on Rinne and is going to ride this pony as far as he will take her in the survivor pool, it would seem.
We have a new leader! Dale B., one of the two 40+ point teams in the week, made the jump from 4th place, all the way to 1st, jumping Brenda & Seward, Cam and Brian, in that order, to take the lead and made this race even more interesting!
Everyone from last week was just bumped down one spot with the big move and the difference from 1st to 4th is only 8 points, which as we just saw, means a good week can put a team in the pole position.
Our reigning champ and trophy holder, Jeremy, has also seen his team make some moves this week, jumping from 11th to 5th and is now 11 points back of the money pack. Ryan is only 2 points back of Jeremy to start the week, followed by Stacey C. and Scott, behind Ryan by 1 point. Oh boy, the Waiver Draft is really going to mean something.
Troy, who put a lot of eggs into the PIM pool, takes another goon team of the week honour, but only with 30 minutes, narrowly edging our current mini-game leader, Marcie, by a single minute.
It wasn't a very good week for penalty minutes, as the pool, combined, failed to hit the 400-minute mark between 25 teams, which isn't uncommon, but the teams could do so much better.
Marcie's team picked up 8 minutes on her overall lead, which now stands at 14 minutes over Kristy & Don, while Wilton's team is 50 minutes back and holds a much better spot for the Waiver Draft than Marcie or the duo.
Troy's team was too focused on their goonage and
Tuukka Rask was not able to get the job done in Week Fifteen, which means his team was eliminated from the goalie survivor pool, leaving John S. and Stacey M. to play for their money back this season.
That's right! We're down to two teams and the All-Star shortened week is now upon us! How exciting! The week will play Monday through Thursday, leaving very few chances to earn that win. John S. has five projected games from his goalies,
Chad Johnson with three and
Devan Dubnyk with two, while Stacey M. only has one healthy goalie at the moment and
Pekka Rinne has two projected games this week.
This may be worth while of getting some smaller goalie announcement posts this week, trying to watch the finish of this mini-game... or its potential, at least.
We're still weeks away from any more updates on the outdoor games pool, but have you had a look at the available players? The Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers will be playing in the last outdoor game of the season... are there any left to help you lift your team over Marcie's for the $60 win?
NEWS AND NOTES
Just when Troy needed him most, but down 2-0,
Tuukka Rask had to leave Sunday's game against the Penguins, as he was feeling under the weather. This solidified Troy's elimination, not like the Penguins were going to relent on their scoring, as they finished up on the Bruins with a 5-1 win, getting the best of
Zane McIntyre for another three goals. The Bruins have yet to do anything about their goaltending situation on Monday morning, so there is some indication that Rask might be okay to either play or back-up on Tuesday night, with the Red Wings in town.
The Detroit Red Wings lost the services of
Thomas Vanek on Sunday afternoon, as the scoring Austrian suffered a lower-body injury, believed to be in the groin area, in the 1st period against the Rangers. The word on Monday morning is that Vanek is not traveling with the team to Boston and will sit out at least that game, for sure. More news came from the Red Wings camp as well, as
Dylan Larkin was also hurt on the weekend, suffering an upper-body injury and he is now expected to miss the team's next two games as well. That's two solid losses for the Red Wings forward group, as they struggle to find offense as it is.
The loss of Larkin has more potential for money lost, as he belongs to John S.'s 10th place team, while Vanek belongs to the goon squad of Kristy & Don. Vanek hasn't exactly spent much time in the box, so there's that as well.
The dreaded illness that is sweeping the illness got the best of Minnesota captain
Mikko Koivu on Sunday night, keeping him out of Sunday's late game against the Predators. He's considered to be day-to-day, but as we've seen already this year, this illness can knock out a player for 2-to-3 games without blinking.
Ryan's team wasn't able to keep up as much as he would have liked in the points department, but his proxy team is still in the mix. His team will open the week 17 points back of 3rd place.
We're still waiting to hear more on the injury that
Kevin Hayes had suffered in Sunday afternoon's game against the Red Wings. Hayes suffered the injury in the 2nd period and was not able to return to the game and the Rangers are turning around for a quick one on Monday night, with the Kings on Broadway. As of the time of this post, there was no updates, but it would seem doubtful that he is going to play.
Rough news for Mike's team, which doesn't have a great deal to play for in the remainder of the season. Mike's team is now 47 points back of the money, which would take a miracle pick or two in the Waiver Draft to get back, but I suppose it isn't impossible.
The Philadelphia Flyers currently occupy the last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race and they are still trying to prod their blueline for more consistency. On Sunday,
Michael Del Zotto was a healthy scratch, like some of his other qualified blueline mates, they have all found their way upstairs in a game or two this season. I would imagine that Del Zotto would be back in the lineup on Wednesday night in New York.
Wes' team has started to find a scoring touch, but likely a little too late. His team's 33 points in the week has now lifted him up to 19th place in the standings and it would seem very likely that his team will look for more scoring at the Waiver Draft next week.
So, the goalie survivor pool will continue with our two teams remaining and we'll highlight the starts where either John S. or Stacey M. has a start. With the week starting a day later than normal, the 46-game schedule is slightly compressed, so it will be a busy one and that could mean back-ups could start a lot on back-to-back nights.
Stacey does get a start in Pittsburgh, however, as it is expected that Pekka Rinne will be back in the Predators net, when they visit Matt Murray and the Penguins at the Igloo. Scott's goalie will get the chance to play spoiler tonight, making the competition a little more interesting, as the anxiety would build with a Penguins win.
Finally, in Edmonton, the Minnesota Wild are opting to go with Darcy Kuemper tonight against Cam Talbot and the Oilers, since the Wild are playing the first of back-to-back nights and Devan Dubnyk is coming back from playing for the Central Division at the All-Star festivities. John S. doesn't get a start tonight, but there is a chance that both of his goalies face each other in Calgary tomorrow night. Marcie has the only pool goalie starting in this one in Talbot, the highest ranked player not to go to the All-Star Game.
The Colorado Avalanche will welcome Tyson Barrie back to their lineup tonight, as he missed the last week before the All-Star break with a lower-body injury. He was back at practice on Monday and deemed ready to play, when the Avs open their schedule against the Ducks.
The Ottawa Senators have three goalies back in the fold again, as Craig Anderson has now returned to the team and was practicing on Monday. I don't imagine that he will be ready to start for a few days, possibly a week, but he is back and should be activated from his non-roster status. Expect Mike Condon to get the start again tonight, when the Senators open up in Florida.
Can you already believe that it's the end of January already? Well, we've made a little more progress in the Waiver Draft yesterday, so let's have a peek at what we've seen so far.
We're now coming out of the All-Star break and teams are getting their rosters settled down for the stretch run, while our pool teams are making their necessary adjustments for a number of races for the last nine weeks of the season. The Colorado Avalanche are now planning on life without Semyon Varlamov, as the number one netminder has now been shut down for the rest of this dismal 2017 season with his groin problems, looking ahead to the 2018 season.
Okay, I may have wanted to get off to a flying start to the Waiver Draft, but that may not have quite happened, as my weekend was a bit derailed from some social outings and scenarios that didn't allow me back to my computer until Sunday afternoon. So sue me.
The 3-on-3 tournament format for the NHL All-Star Game is a complete hit. I think we can all agree, more or less, that this edition of the tourney was even better than the last one, as the scoring was through the roof, including a couple of games where the winning team reached 10 goals.
The Metropolitan Division were our outright winners in the tournament, as they defeated the Pacific Division in the final game, 4-3, in a much tighter game than the first two games to decide our teams in the final.
Marcie's goaltending has been pretty decent this season and especially so in Week Sixteen, as both Mike Smith of the Coyotes and Cam Talbot of the Oilers both walked away with 6 points. Her goaltending combo has been good for 84 points, so far this season, which is good enough for 6th in the pool and that is with a fairly significant injury to Smith this season. 
The Washington Capitals granted forward T.J. Oshie an early start to the All-Star break, as he had to deal with some family matters at home. Oshie was a scratch for the team's finale before the break against the Devils, but didn't really miss him too much, beating New Jersey, 5-2. I would expect him back when the team opens up their schedule again, Tuesday night in Brooklyn.
The San Jose Sharks also had scratched forward Joonas Donskoi again, Tuesday night against the Jets in Winnipeg, since his production has not seen any immediate increases since the last time he was sent up to the press box for an aerial view. The Sharks were able to pull off a win on the road, which suggests that Donskoi may not make an appearance before the team gets their break this weekend. The Sharks host the Oilers to conclude the schedule this week tonight and I would expect Donskoi to be a scratch again.
The Ducks are not resting on their laurels atop of the Pacific Division standings. On Monday night, defenseman Sami Vatanen was a healthy scratch against the Jets and that sort of move might have lit a fire under the division champs, as they were able to pull a 3-2 win out on the road. Vatanen hasn't had a terrible season, to date, by any imagination, but battling complacency was likely on the docket with this move.
The Flames were in Toronto on Monday night, starting back-to-back nights on the road, and they did so with the scratching of both forward Micheal Ferland and defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka, trying to find a little jump in their lineup, but it seemed to do quite the opposite, as the flat Flames dropped the game 4-0 at the ACC. One would have to think that one or both players would be back in the lineup for tonight's game in Montreal.
Bad news for the Montreal Canadiens, as Alex Galchenyuk re-aggravated his knee injury and he has been ruled out of tonight's game with the Calgary Flames in town. Galchenyuk's season has been limited to 30 games, so far, which stings, because he has 27 points in those games, scoring at a very good clip. Currently, he ranks 149th in pool scoring and he has already missed some significant time to injury. He's day-to-day right now, but I'm sure there will be more tests to be had and he'll get his rest over the All-Star break.
John S. has stock in a game as well tonight, but it was confirmed early on in the day that his goalie, Chad Johnson, will not get the start for the Flames on Monday night in Toronto, instead it will be Derek B.'s starter, Brian Elliott, taking on Brian's starter, Frederik Andersen, at the ACC.