
Well, that Waiver Draft wasn't nearly so bad. The players will be going live today and I should be able to have it all sorted out by this evening. So, don't worry, any points you collect from your fresh faces today will be going into your totals.
We had a few injury round picks, as four teams took advantage of a third pick, due to injury. Troy & Wilton each picked up an extra goon to try and secure the PIM pool, while Wes added some scoring and Kristy & Don just wanted some help from their goaltending. Oh, then there was Stuart with a late move, replacing a guy who is out for the rest of the year. That pretty much wrapped it all up. Now it's time for the stretch run.
But first, let's look at last week.


Budaj went 3-1-0 in the week, picking up back-to-back shutouts for his big week. A win against Arizona kicked off the week, sandwiching shutouts of Colorado and Philadelphia, but then dropping a decision against the Capitals on back-to-back days.
The 10-point week has brought Budaj's numbers up to 65 points on the season, which ranks 2nd in pool scoring, but since Wes picked him up in the first Waiver Draft, he was unable to collect all of those points. Since his activation, however, Wes has picked up 37 of those points (13 wins, 5 shutouts & 1 assist).

And there is.

With this segment now coming to an end, this huge week was a big plus for Wes' team, as he finished tied for 3rd in points between the start of Week Nine until the end of Week Seventeen, finishing with 234 points, 8 points back of the segment-best, Dale B.. Wes' goaltending was a huge part of that comeback, Budaj being his best player, but he was 2nd in the pool in minutes played by his goalies in that segment, meaning he pretty well always had a goalie going most nights. That's pretty important in this pool, especially if you're deficient in other positions.
Now the race is drawing to a close, as the final third of the season will kick-off tonight and will there be a dramatic comeback by Wes' team, as he will be coming back from last place, where he was at the end of Week Nine.

Mike's strength has been his goaltending this season, but even in the last few weeks, that has gone really cold and that has been the main reason why his team has slid down so far. His best players in the week were Josh Bailey of the Islanders, Matt Duchene of the Avalanche and Kris Letang of the Penguins, all finishing with 3 points, but then scoring was pretty sparse below them, some of which due to injury and one player in the minors as well.
The Waiver Draft was somewhat fruitful, as he picked up a couple of new forwards, but he has to hope that his goaltending returns to form, if he's going to recover any pride in this season's standings.

Brian continues to lead and his team increased their lead over Dale B.'s team to 9 points, which isn't much in the grand scheme of things. As mentioned before, Dale's team was the hottest in the middle segment and it has its sights on top spot.
Jeremy, Ryan, Marcie, Stacey C. and Scott are also within 10 points of the money to start the third segment of the season, so this race is far from over.

Marcie's team continues to lead, but now that the second Waiver Draft has come and gone, the teams gunning for hers have a lot more ammo to work with. Kristy & Don improved their goon situation a little bit, Wilton did a lot, while Derek B. and Troy both added some muscle, but have a little bit further to travel up.
Some weeks, the minutes have been hard to come by, so there is a chance that Marcie could hang on to this lead.

Both teams have two healthy goalies and the schedule is very forgiving for the next couple weeks upcoming, so we might stretch this one out for a while yet.

Two Flyers and one Penguins player were dropped this past week, while one Flyers player and one Penguins player was picked up, so we, in essence, lost some possible participation. Clayton and Dale C. were the two teams adding to their chances, one adding a goalie and the other a forward. It's too bad this one didn't get more exciting.
NEWS AND NOTES

Grant will open the third segment without Spezza and in 16th place in the standings. His team is 36 points back of the money and he made one change to his team last week, so he's hoping there is a surge in scoring from his team, but he needs all hands on deck for that.

Vatanen's absence added to Mike's misery this season, while Troy didn't need to see one of his new goons take a seat before he was activated, it doesn't exactly exude confidence in his playing time moving forward. Troy's team in 102 minutes back, but added three players, including Boll, so there's still a shot.

John S. had a chance to drop his under-performing ass, but opted not to. With only 5 points in 30 games and possibly missing some more time, he likely won't be much more help. John's team is 30 points out of the money and needs help, desperately!

This illness isn't the biggest setback on Mike's team, but Anderson hasn't quite been the saviour that his team needed from the first Waiver Draft, picking up 9 points in 27 games, since being activated. He has since been his biggest goon this season, picking up 33 minutes in the last nine weeks.

I wonder if that put a scare into Kristy & Don, who opted for Saros for one of their injured goalies, as they look for "some" goalie minutes this week. I don't think he is much of a goon though, so there really is no help here at all.

The mandated break will probably have a bigger effect on Grant's team this week, than Russell's actual injury. He wouldn't get any games for the better part of this week anyways, so there's not a lot of concern here.

Bad news for Dale B. and his 2nd place team, as this is quality skater games being missed, since Nielsen has 26 points in 51 games this year, working at a little better than half a point per game.
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