Heading Into the Weekend of Week Six

In Week Six, the teams are really separating themselves into smaller packs, including the leaders. It's not to say they can't be caught... but the unique players are the players that are pulling some teams away and keeping other teams back.

Up until Thursday night this week, there was a sense of poetic justice in the pool. On Tuesday night, Miikka Kiprusoff beat Marty Turco at the Saddledome and I'm sure if there were any people paying attention to the player trades in the last couple weeks... there would have been some small chuckles. Turco was picked four times after teams dumped Kipper.

Thursday, however, Marty Turco made 13 saves and shut out Phoenix for a big four point night. Thus negating the poetic justice... until Calgary faces off against a road-weary Anaheim tonight.

Tonight, the big game in the league for the pool is...

Yup, you guessed it. Between the two teams, there are 97 selections. Easily, two of the most popular teams in the pool. The Senators have 61 picks and the Penguins 36 picks. Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin headline the game and for good reason. Spezza and Heatley has struggled in the Senators five-game losing streak, while Crosby and Malkin are really doing well in Pittsburgh. If you don't have players from these two teams, which is unlikely, then don't wonder why you've dropped a little farther in the standings.

Saturday night's marquee game is...

How's this for obvious? The Flames have 104 picks... 104... c'mon. That's more than tonight's game alone. We don't even need the Canucks' 36 picks to make this a marquee game. The game will pit the Northwest Division rivals against each other until the bitter end. The Canucks a little bit better than the Flames in the standings, but you wouldn't think so after the Canucks got slammed by Anaheim last night.

And well... Sunday only has three games. Nothing major... Anaheim plays... again, but no one really cares.

Player of the Week Candidates
With seven points, Slava Kozlov leads the pack in Week Six. His big games this week made him a great pick up in the last few weeks. His teammate, Marian Hossa, has six points and is also in the running for the prestigous award. Let's not forget Ilya Kovalchuk... he's got five points this week. Not too far off.
Jean-Sebastian Giguere is also in the running... the shutout against the Canucks and a win earlier in the week has given J-S six points also this week. He'll get at least one more start before the week is out, a chance to up his point total to 10... maybe.
Lastly, we're swimming with one of the deadliest Sharks in the water. Patrick Marleau had a hat-trick against Los Angeles last night to push his point total. It's music to the ears of the 19 teams that picked him.

Mover & Shaker candidates
Going into Friday night, Dieter has the most points in the week. It has moved him up to 2nd place, but is that enough places or enough incentive to win the award? Marcus has moved up 7 places and into the Top 20... that could be reason enough to move into the award. The next closest in the move department is Stuart... he's moved up four spots from 13th to 9th.

Basement Dweller candidates
Do you wanna know how bad it can get? There are three teams under 20 points thus far in the week... Greg (15), Kate (18) and Mike Rioux (19). Greg has dropped 4 places in the pool, down to 38th... which is very basement worthy. In the mix though, Caterina has dropped 5 places, which is the biggest drop in the Standings this week.


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