If you're in the Top 21 (teams tied for 20th), you're only, at worst, 42 points behind. That isn't too far away from the money. We've got still 17 or 18 weeks left in the year. If you can fall behind that far in 10 weeks, then you can make it up and pass them in twice that. How's that for wishful thinking?
Let's see what happened in Week Ten...
Player of the Week
When people were dropping Kipper for this week's Player of the Week, there was a thought that the Flames would not climb back to where they were before. Then all of a sudden, the Flames came out of nowhere and the few that made the decision to jump ship were left falling behind. That is, until Week Ten... for those who took Marty Turco, of course. Since Week Five, Turco has only gained two points less than Kipper, which has made the difference somewhat immeasurable. Not that bad despite the hot streak Calgary has been on.
In Week Ten, Turco went 3-1 with two shutouts (San Jose & Phoenix) to record the most points in the pool. It almost makes you want to drop Kipper now, eh?
In Week Six, we had ourselves a record performance of 92 points. In Week Ten, the record was eclipsed by a tremendous 96-point effort by Jeff. He managed to capitalize on just about every top scoring player in the boxes this past week, including our Player of the Week, Marty Turco. This is, by far, one of the most impressive collections of points to secure his 2nd M&S award of the year. The big move puts him only one point behind second place and still 22 points behind first place. It's not to say he isn't trying anyways... or his players, for that matter.
This week's Basement Dweller fell out of the Top 10 with the biggest fall in the pool of five spots. Randy managed to collect 58 points this week, but it wasn't nearly enough to keep up with his peers in the same Standings bracket. The teams around him were tallying over 60 points each and it was a week where Randy just couldn't keep up. He now finds himself 14 points behind 10th spot, the place he held only one week ago. It's a total that is more than manageable to reclaim, it's just a matter of having his players get hot once again.Who's the player you wish you had? Who is the highest scoring player in the pool today? Would this paragraph convince you to trade for him if you didn't have him already? Do you know who it is? Or do you know the team he plays for?Well, I know the anticipation is killing you... so I'll just tell ya. Box 12's Jean-Sebastian Giguere is the top point-getter in the pool as of Week Ten. With the uncertainty of the goaltending situation in Anaheim over the summer, it was quite respectable to think that Giguere was going to be the number two guy for the Ducks. But when Bryzgalov shot his mouth off and couldn't back it up in the crease, Giguere took his position, laughing all the way to the bank.
Giguere has 19 wins (leads the NHL) and 4 shutouts (tied for 1st) to lead the pool with 46 points. Two points ahead of Jaromir Jagr for the overall lead and 24 points of Evgeni Nabokov for the Box 12 lead. Gonna trade for him now??
As of Sunday morning, there were rumbles of trades amongst the people close to the Newsletter writer, but there hasn't been any action as of yet. There have been injuries, there have been returns, but there have been no trades.
14 teams still have five trades remaining this season, including a few teams in the Top 6. Seven teams have sold the farm on their trades, using them up already this year. There are teams with one trade remaining, mostly using them for a long-term injury or unforseen circumstances.
The St. Louis Blues were hit very hard in the crease this week, losing both Curtis Sanford and Manny Legace for what could be long-term. Now, since the Blues were not very popular amongst the Poolies this year, I won't go into too much detail. Since St. Louis hasn't been winning (you know they're last place in the league, right?), having a goalie in St. Louis is awfully silly.
The Red Wings and one team in the pool will be without defenseman, Danny Markov, for three to four weeks. Markov suffered a broken hand while blocking a shot this week. Markov, who has been having somewhat of a slow season thus far, will still be missed in that month.
Defenseman, Teppo Numminen, will be out indefintely with a broken toe. Numminen, taken eight times, will be missing for what is more likely to be a few weeks.
Mike Richards will be lost for an indefinite period with an abdominal injury. It's unclear at the moment what the injury is and there is certainly no idea of how long he'll be out. It really doesn't matter though... no one has him either.Hockey Night In Canada this week...
Saturday's match-ups for normal cable's Hockey Night In Canada will feature the high-scoring Rangers take on the now lowly Maple Leafs. Jagr, Straka, Nylander and Shanahan will all try and have their way against Andrew Raycroft and lacklustre Leafs defense. In the second game, it's another Northwest Division battle between the Minnesota Wild and the Canucks. The Wild are beginning to get healthy again, while the Canucks can't decide which side of .500 they want to be on. The division remains very close and this will prove to be an important game.
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