Race to the Sin Bin (Feb 10)

There really haven't been many PIM pool posts of late, because, frankly... it was getting a little bit boring.  Nothing was really happening.  All the teams were cruising along, picking up the odd minutes here and there, the goons were less than impressive of late, but with the influx of some new knuckle-chuckers and some new developments... we might have ourselves a race.

Derek & Dan shot up the standings and really closed the gap on Wes on Tuesday night, thanks in large part to Evander Kane's 29-minute night against the Florida Panthers.  He and Panthers defenseman Alex Petrovic fought three times in the game, making these PIM pool teams with they had him.

As we open up Wednesday night, Derek & Dan only sit 19 minutes behind Wes and they will be the focus of the finish of the season.

All of a sudden, the Ottawa Senators become a top focus in this pool as well, since Derek & Dan have had Chris Neil since Week Nine and then Wes picked up Mark Borowiecki in Week Eighteen and will await his debut for his pool team tonight.  The Senators are in Detroit to take on the Red Wings, who also have one of Derek & Dan's other goon prospects, forward Justin Abdelkader.  The Senators are chasing the Red Wings for a playoff spot, so it could be a good match-up.

And let's also not forget about the debut of Dion Phaneuf for the Ottawa Senators, who belongs to Brian, the 4th place team in the race.  His team sits 64 minutes behind Wes for 1st place and could use a huge goon night as well.

Two other players that can aid in the race tonight, in the limited amount of games on the schedule, include Evgeni Malkin (Wes), playing for the Penguins against the Rangers, and Shane Doan (Derek & Dan), in for the Coyotes against the Canucks.

It's starting to look like a playoff push now, which could get fairly heated down the stretch.