Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Week Six Newsletter

Welcome to the Tuesday Edition of the Newsletter... a little late due to working capacity.

Well, it was a record-breaking week for one team in the pool... and it's given him a fair-sized lead in the pool. Okay, after Monday night, it is only at four points, but it sure looked good when the move was made to take the lead. It was almost out of nowhere.

Let's see what happened in Week Six...

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How do you like big weeks? Slava Kozlov likes 'em just fine. In four games this week, Kozlov recorded five goals and six assists for 11 points. It made the three teams who picked him up so far this season look pretty darn good... not to mention the other eight teams that had him to start the season. He was, by far, the best player on the ice this past week.

Just when you thought teams were maxing out at over 70 points a week... BAM! Dieter gets 92 points last week to crush all of his oncomers below him. He had just about everyone firing... and boy, oh boy... did he ever make a lead for himself.

I think it would be easier to name all the players who didn't have a good week in the pool for him, as there would be a lot less players to name. Even a guy like Joe Thornton, who's supposed to be a wrecking ball in the points department... he only had one point for Dieter, yet he still powered forward. An incredible run... which could be done by any number of teams in the pool. All you need is the right combination of players on any given week.

The runner-up to the M&S Award this week was Marcus. He moved up a whopping 8 positions in the pool to move into the Top 20.

Having not a terrible total in the points department, Tim Locke couldn't quite keep up with his fellow Standings-mates, as he dropped nine positions in the pool, despite his 54 points. Even with Patrick Marleau's seven points and Martin Brodeur's six points, Tim just couldn't quite keep himself in the Top 20, but it isn't like he's too far away. He is sort of being held back by players like Sandis Ozolinsh and Phil Kessel, but they could also be in that combination of players that will give you a M&S Award, much like Dieter had this week. You just never know.

The runner-up for the Booby Prize this week was Mike Windsor. The poor guy got punished with a pool-low, 34 points, but only moved down three spots, as the competition is a little (okay, a lot) less fierce down around the 40's.

Long-term Injuries and Pool Trades
Only five trades were made heading into Week Seven. Caterina made a couple moves to try and elevate her position, back from the 20's, into the Top 10 where she was residing in the first couple weeks of the season. She led the pool in moves with the two.

Taken once, forward Shane Doan will be missing out of the Phoenix line-up for about 3 weeks. Doan, a key part of the Coyotes team, despite the team's struggles will sorely be missed by his club and by the pool team that took him. It's a back injury that is keeping him out and hopefully it isn't one of those lingering injuries that reocurr through the season and/or his career.

Picked twice, Mats Sundin will be missed twice as much as Shane Doan will be... not to mention all the points the teams will miss out on in comparison between the Leaf and the Coyote. At the time of his injury, Sundin and his Leafs were really rolling... the team has continued without their captain, but will continue to do so for up to a month after a small tear in an elbow ligament was found after their game against Philadelphia. A major injury, indeed...

If things couldn't go much worse for Philly these days, just think how they felt when they lost forward Jeff Carter to an ankle injury, that will keep him out of the line-up for up to six weeks. He notably drop worthy.

Finally, Maxim Afinogenov went down this past week. He'll be missed, only by the Sabres (as no one took him in the pool... yet) for about three weeks with a shoulder injury. Since no one took him, there isn't really a point in writing a sob story for him.




This weekend, we'll get our first view of Martin Brodeur and his Devils on HNIC against the Leafs, while Nicklas Lidstrom and the Red Wings go into Edmonton to face the streaking Petr Sykora and his Oilers.

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