Wake up! Wake up! It's time for the Newsletter!
Week Two is now in the books and I'm sure, like most other years, this season will fly right by, so let's stay on top of it all and recap the week that was.
The Bruins' schedule has been nicely spread out in these first couple of weeks, that this line has been able to put up some pretty good numbers and not get over-worked. Monday, Bergeron kicked it all off with a hat-trick and an assist against the Senators, Thursday saw a goal and an assist against the Oilers and finally, it was a trio of assists against the Red Wings on Saturday, finishing with 4 goals and 5 assists.
In total, that gives the 33-year old 5 goals and 11 points in five games this season, good enough for 3rd overall in hockey pool scoring, making him into quite the bargain pick for Eric's team, which picked him with the 91st overall selection in the 4th round of this year's draft. Now, Eric needs the rest of his picks to start playing well, as his team only sits 16th after two weeks, 21 points out of 1st place.
It was quite the lift in the standings that Neil saw as well, after an average Week One, his team blew the competition away in Week Two and now has a seat amongst the money teams to start Week Three. His team certainly has some potential to stay up in this race, since some of the names up in his top scorers are probably going to stay in the scoring race all year long.
This is Neil's 4th season in the hockey pool draft and this is only his 2nd time hitting the Mover & Shaker nod in the Newsletter, his last time being back in Week Five of the 2016 hockey pool season. His team moved into 1st place that week after a 30-point season, but couldn't quite keep up the pace that year, finishing 8th. His team doesn't have any rookies, they have only one fruitless shootout attempt this year and a few game-winners, so the big money will be the race that he'll be most interested in.
Okay, maybe he could get away with having one Basement Dweller nod this season. Then, his team will pick up their socks and race up the standings and get him some of that sweet, sweet cash at the end of the year. Just one... no more after that.
Well, his team did let him down pretty badly this week, finishing with only 15 points and it had dropped him from 21st to 24th in Week Two and his team is now 21 points back of 3rd place. There's still lots of time and lots of hockey to be played, but he'll really need to see some positives in the next couple weeks to really start thinking he's got a chance.
Mikko Rantanen of the Avalanche was his top player, finishing with 5 points, but seven players on his team failed to register a point in the week, which is half his team and that is what will kill a team pretty quickly, if that continues.
Ryan has been out to every draft since the 2008 season, year #12 for him, but unfortunately, this is Basement Dweller nod #15 in his career, one of the all-time greats in the category.
Clayton's team still leads the mini-game with 11 points through a couple of weeks, but his top rookie, Elias Pettersson in Vancouver may be on the shelf for some time, opening the door for some others to creep up and catch him.
Nevertheless, the lead that Troy had after Week One has held up after Week Two, but Jesse and Benson joined the race in the last week, joining Grant with a goal each in the skills competition.
Benson and John P. lead the way after two weeks on the schedule, both teams with 5 game-winners each, Tony not too far behind at 4 game-winners. Three teams in the pool still haven't registered a clutch winning goal yet and they are Dale C., Ryan and Wes.
Tony's team has still yet to find a win in the pool this season, but one of his starters was on the shelf to start the season and the other plays in Detroit, so it is all adding up.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
It's a normal occurrence to see a sharp drop-off in scoring from Week One to Week Two, since the injuries may start to stack up, backup goalies get their first starts in the week and some players are already over the excitement of starting to play again. Let's have a quick peek at how the last few seasons compare, since it has been 25 teams for the last three drafts.
Points Per NHL Game | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Week One | 14.39 | 14.87 | 13.44 |
Week Two | 13.69 | 13.06 | 12.33 |
GP Per NHL Game | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Week One | 18.5 | 18.0 | 18.2 |
Week Two | 18.0 | 17.7 | 18.2 |
MIN Per NHL Game | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Week One | 114.1 | 110.6 | 102.4 |
Week Two | 97.1 | 110.1 | 97.7 |
If there is one thing that the pool has done well at this year, was keep the drop-off in scoring down to a minimum, not hitting that full point between the two weeks, like the previous two seasons. Scoring does certainly feel like it has gone up this year and that could be the biggest factor, since we've seen the biggest drop offs in participation this year, it's just whoever is playing is also scoring and doing it well. Good news for us!
NEWS AND NOTES
The latest injury is a concern for our pool leader, Benson, who has had very good production from the Swede, 7 points in six games. The lead he has is still pretty safe with some of the other players on his team running hot, but it is still a bit of a concern.
Getzlaf is eligible to return at any time now, as his retroactive addition was in the 7-day minimum placement, so he can still be day-to-day for Stuart, but now he isn't taking up a roster spot.
This wasn't the news that Dale C. wanted to see at the end of the week, as his team was barely sitting above the Basement Dweller nod all day on Sunday. His team finished the week in 23rd, 5 points clear of last place he could really use the schedule to start turning in his favour here soon.
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