Thursday Night's Key Match-Ups

There was ample opportunity to clinch a playoff spot last night in the West, but neither Nashville won or Colorado lost, so both the Predators and Red Wings will have to wait.

There were quite a few players mentioned last night that did end up getting points... Don is now six up on Dieter for the week and now only 13 points behind. Dale has also made some splashes and could be making Jeff a little warmer under the collar. He's only 23 points behind and has gained 16 points on him, just this week.

Tonight (Thursday), there are ten games on the schedule. Hopefully this will drum up some much needed offense in the pool. There has been a severe lack in production, if you ask me. I would like to make it in the Top 20, but guys are gonna have to score to do that!


The Devils cannot seal a playoff spot tonight, but they could leave their immediate fate to the Maple Leafs for the weekend if they were to win. New Jersey would have to beat Tampa Bay to bring them to 96 points and Toronto, if they were to lose could only max out at 96 points, but by way of tie-breaker, the Leafs wouldn't be able to pass the Devils in wins, so New Jersey would clinch. Toronto is in Buffalo tomorrow night.

Pool-wise, this isn't a game where you'd bet that Martin Brodeur (Box 18) would get a shutout. Especially not with the dynamic duo of Vincent Lecavalier (Box 20) and Martin St. Louis (Box 15) present.


The Senators are in the same boat as the Devils tonight, with the same amount of points and wins. Tonight, they'll face Florida to try and help themselves out with a couple more points. The magic number for both the Senators and the Devils is 2.

Dieter will need Dany Heatley (Box 15) to help him pad his lead tonight... Don & Jeff are hoping that Tom Preissing (Box 22) will hand out assists to all his friends tonight... and Jeff hopes that it's all in a losing cause, 'cuz he doesn't have Ray Emery (Box 24).


Detroit needs a win tonight to clinch their playoff spot and give them a chance to reclaim first spot in the West. And lookie here, the Blue Jackets are in town tonight. Well I'll be darned. How convenient. This should be a Central Division drubbing, but the Blue Jackets have been playing somewhat decent hockey, going .500 in their last 10 games. The Blue Jackets have taken 2 out of 5 games from Detroit this season, sadly, none of them were in Joe Louis Arena.

Dieter is hoping for big things for Columbus... namely, Rick Nash (Box 1). With Henrik Zetterberg (Box 1) being out still, both Jeff and Dale are without a key player to help gain them some points. Jeff also has the benefit of holding Mathieu Schneider (Box 5) in his hand tonight... he's usually good for a point or maybe two. Those are the key guys for that game tonight.

And let's not forget... Todd Bertuzzi's (Box 15) return to the ice tonight!!


After losing to the Canucks last night, the Predators get another helping of Northwest Division hospitality against the Flames tonight at the Dome. Tonight, the Predators could claim their playoff spot by an overtime or shootout loss and the Flames need to cushion their spot in 8th place back up to six points. The Flames, this season, are 0-3-0 against the Predators, including a 3-2 loss in Calgary back in October. Their last meeting was two weeks ago in Nashville and the Preds gave them a 6-3 drubbing. The Predators are somewhat depleted in manpower, as the Flames are getting their's back... so things do look good for Calgary to take two points here. I have a feeling that Nashville will be playing for overtime tonight.

Tonight's game will be on Sportsnet tonight... for all you watching at home.

Key players in the pool (for the top 4)... Dieter's big weapon tonight is Kristian Huselius (Box 7). If he starts scoring then there's a good chance that Dieter and Don will pull a little further away with a Miikka Kiprusoff (Box 6) win. Don & Dale are both sitting without Jarome Iginla (Box 3) tonight as well... so, there's a good chance, if it's high scoring, that Dale may lose out a bit on Jeff due to this game. But... he does have Kimmo Timonen (Box 6), so a big Nashville power play night could develop some results the other way.



Anaheim could move within one point of clinching tonight in the desert. The Ducks can reach 100 points tonight with a win in Phoenix and leave their fate to the next Colorado/Edmonton game. Somehow, this really doesn't seem to be much of a match-up at all... the Ducks, 2nd in the West... the Coyotes, last in the West... c'mon... not rocket science here. Phoenix is 1-8-1 in their last 10... and they're 1-5-1 against the Ducks this season. The Coyotes only win came in the desert on my birthday (Dec. 23). Let me tell you... it's not my birthday today.

Key players in this game... with Chris Pronger (Box 5) still out for another week, he won't play into anyone's hands. Both Dieter and Jeff will look to J-S Giguere (Box 12) tonight... he should get the start for Anaheim tonight and may equal Evgeni Nabokov's (Box 12) performance last night. Dieter will bank on Francois Beauchemin (Box 10) tonight, while Don has Teemu Selanne (Box 3) to keep him company.


Just in case you were wondering, there is one game on TSN tonight... Montreal is in Boston to take on the Bruins and they'll try to help themselves out in the battle for the last playoff spot. If Carolina loses in regulation to Washington tonight and the Habs beat the B's... then Montreal will have 8th position for the time being. A win would get them past Toronto, but the Leafs will have two games in hand on the Canadiens, which doesn't bode well for Montreal. All they can do is keep winning to keep their hopes alive.

Both Jeff and Dieter have Marc Savard (Box 20) in tonight's game... and if the Bruins play spoiler tonight, you'll know Savard had a hand in it.


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19 Nights Left...

The countdown to the end of the regular season is now on... it's another big night in the pool and for the playoff races. Since I have a little bit of time this morning, I thought I would chime in again and go over what will be going on tonight. (All times Mountain)


The 5pm game tonight will have the Sabres hosting the Capitals with their playoff spot already clinched. The quest for the Division Title will have to pass through Alexander Ovechkin (Box 15), which hasn't been the hardest of tasks in recent weeks. Ovechkin has only registered 4 points in the last couple weeks... including 0 points in the 7-1 romp over Tampa Bay. Don could use a big night from Ovechkin to help catch Dieter tonight.


At 5:30pm on TSN, the Rangers will host the Flyers. The Rangers looking to solidify their hold on a playoff spot tonight, whilst the Flyers are still only just playing for the future. The Rangers lead the series this season 4-2-0 and they have been hot of late going 3-1-1 in their last 5 games. If the Rangers are to win tonight, they would find themselves only 1 point back of 6th place Tampa and 3 points up on the lump of teams tied for 8th. For the top 3 teams in the pool, only Martin Straka (Box 19) was chosen between them and he may not figure into the line-up with a knee injury.


At 6:30pm, the Sharks travel to the Windy City to take on the Blackhawks. The Sharks go into tonight in 6th place, 1 point back of Minnesota (with this game in hand) and will face a Chicago team who has been playing a bit better of late, but are still nowhere near the playoff hunt. The only top 3 wild card in this game is Don having Evgeni Nabokov (Box 12)... if Nabokov starts tonight against Chicago, then he will have the opportunity to make up some more points. As I recall, Vesa Toskala (Box 6) started the last game, so there is a good chance that Nabokov will start tonight.


The Avalanche are in the middle of an Alberta project. They are trying to catch the Flames for 8th in the West, while taking on the lowly Oilers who are winless in their last 11 (their overtime loss does not count in a losing streak, as they received a point) . The Avs are 6 points back of the Flames with a game in hand and will face the Oilers one more time in Edmonton on Friday night. If Colorado loses tonight (somehow!), then Detroit and Nashville will automatically clinch their playoff spot in the West. As for major players in the pool, Jeff could climb back with a couple points from Andrew Brunette (Box 7).


Also on TSN tonight at 8pm, the Predators will go into Vancouver to take on the Canucks. The Predators, with a point from overtime, could clinch their playoff spot by themselves, despite the result from the game an hour earlier. The Canucks will look to keep their Northwest Division lead on Minnesota to 3 points with a deuce over Nashville. The Predators have owned the season series against the Canucks going 3-1-1 against the home team, which doesn't bode well for the Canucks. Granted the Canucks have TSN on their side, going 3-0-0 in games broadcast nationally on the network... and a current 3-game winning streak. This is another big game for Don as he has both Markus Naslund (Box 1) and Daniel Sedin (Box 7) and neither Dieter or Jeff hold any players in this game.


In Los Angeles at 8:30pm, the Kings will play host to the Stars at the Staples Center. The Stars currently sit in 7th, 2 points behind 5th place Minnesota (with 2 games in hand). The Kings, on the other hand, have been out of the playoff picture for some time now. Nothing can really be decided by the outcome of this match-up, but the Stars want to have a bit better of a grip on their playoff future and maybe want the likes of Vancouver or San Jose in the first round. Currently, they'll play Anaheim in the first round... a match-up which would probably be an epic bout. Both Jeff and Don have Jaroslav Modry (Box 10) and will hope to high hell that the Kings can open up a can on Dallas... but Jeff would prefer a Stars shutout, as he has Marty Turco (Box 6).

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First to Clinch?

The first team that can clinch their playoff spot for the Spring will be the Buffalo Sabres, but they aren't playing tonight. However, if the Lightning are to beat the Islanders at the St. Pete Times Forum, the Islanders would not have enough points to catch the Sabres for first overall, not like that would ever happen anyways, and the Sabres could not lose their playoff spot.

However, if the Islanders get two points tonight, the Sabres will have to wait until tomorrow night when they take on the Capitals at home. Tonight's game does fare well for the Sabres, as the Islanders have not beat the Lightning in their three previous encounters. The Islanders are still awaiting the return of their number one goalie, Rick DiPietro (Box 18). There is a small chance he could be back tonight, but he was in net for 2 of the 3 losses against Tampa this year anyways.


There is one team with the destiny in their own hands tonight... the Detroit Red Wings could clinch their playoff spot in the West with a win over the Flames in Calgary. The Red Wings could overtake the Predators for first in the West with a win tonight, thus moving out of reach from the 9th place Colorado Avalanche.

The season series is 2-1-0, in favour of the Red Wings, with all wins coming at home for either team. This does bode well for the Flames, as they only now sit 4 points up on the Avalanche, who will start a two game away series with the Oilers tomorrow.

Flames should expect Craig Conroy (Box 1) back in the line-up, as he's given himself a clean bill of health. Conroy is greatly needed in the line-up, as the Flames are 1-3-0 in his absence.

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Week Twenty-Four Newsletter

21 days of play remain in the regular season... teams have anywhere between 8 and 11 games remaining in their schedule. Dieter holds a 19-point lead at the top for the last three weeks of play... so he can be caught by Don and possibly Jeff (22 points back), if Jeff can get out of his slide at the moment. In fourth, Dale C. is 39 points back of 3rd and is 30 points clear over 5th place. It would probably have to be a substantial week or a disasterous fall to move out of 3rd place right now. Larry, our 5th place runner, is only 11 points up on 6th place, Caterina. Caterina climbed into the money this past week and only holds a 1-point lead over 7th place Paul... so the race for the last money position will be tight. 8th place, Trevor, isn't quite out of money contention quite yet... he's only 19 points back of Caterina. Man, this is gonna be a great race to the finish.

Is it true? Is the playoff pool ready to get started?!? You bet it is... it's been slowly coming to the day when you could start looking at it and now it's finally here... kinda got that Christmas feel to it. The deadline for submission is April 10th, as the playoffs will begin on April 11th. If you want to submit a team right away, you have until the 10th to maybe make a change or two... but once the 11th rolls around, I will not accept any more teams or changes. Be sure to read the rules, the pool is much trickier than the regular season... but it should be just as much (or more) fun.

Hot Teams Over the Last Four Weeks:
Dale B.... 260
Derek W... 249
Scott G... 249
Dieter.... 248
Larry..... 248

Cold Teams Over the Last Four Weeks
Fred...... 153
Mike W.... 170
Brian..... 172
Gerald ... 178
Ryan M.... 179

Let's see what happened in Week Twenty-Four...

Player of the Week



Last year's Art Ross Trophy winner, Joe Thornton, comes up with a 10-point Week Twenty-Four to take the honour of Player of the Week. The Box 2 favourite showed why he was one of the more popular picks in the pool, taken 28 times.

On Tuesday, Thornton tallied a goal & 2 assists in the 7-1 win over Chicago. Thursday, it was a goal and 3 assists in the 5-1 win over Phoenix. He had one of the goals in a 3-0 win over Columbus on Friday and finished the week off with a goal and an assist in the 4-3 loss to Colorado on Sunday night. Four goals and six assists makes for a pretty stellar week. He actually beat out another Box 2 centre, Joe Sakic, who had 9 points in the week.

It's a green week for Brydon, who is Week Twenty-Four's Mover & Shaker... a pool-high 77 points and took a moving van into the Top 10, moving up two from 11th to 9th. This is Brydon's second M&S during the year, his first in Week Eleven. It was a points explosion for Brydon, who over the previous five weeks, wouldn't get less than 52 points or more than 58... but with the help of some big scoring performances, broke the mould with his 77 points.

He collected on the PotW, Thornton's 10 points and had big performances from Sidney Crosby (8), Ryan Whitney (6), Scott Niedermayer (6) and Rich Nash (5).

He now sits 22 points behind Trevor for 8th place and only 4 points up on Marcus in 10th place. It's a Filing Services Canada logjam in the Top 10.

Rather than the biggest drop in the Standings this week, which was a drop of three in the middle of a pretty good sized pack of teams, I would rather go with the low-scoring team, which was a 35-point difference from the M&S this week. John B. was our Basement Dweller scoring a minimal 42 points in the last seven days. Six of his players were good enough to pot 4 points each, but that was really the bulk of his scoring as there were quite a few active zeros on his team page.

Martin Brodeur & Sidney Crosby – 108 points
Well, Sid the Kid did his part for the Penguins this past wee and collected 8 points through the week, while Brodeur was yanked on Saturday after giving up four goals against the Carolina Hurricanes. Both players are still 12 points up on number three, Joe Thornton... and there doesn't seem to be any chance they will relinquish the lead to anyone but themselves this year. This, in essence, is the race for MVP, both in the league and the pool.

Pool Trades
Well, with the Playoff Pool being released today, I don't think anyone will be seeing any more trades as everyone seems to be quite content with their Standing or future movement in the pool for the rest of the year. There really isn't much left for days in the pool... and once the regular season is done... that'll be it for trades as the Playoffs won't have any.

Trades Remaining in the Top 10:
Dieter... 0 Paul..... 1
Don...... 0 Marcus... 0
Jeff..... 0 Trevor... 4
Dale C... 0 Caterina. 0
Larry.... 0 Brydon... 0

Injuries
The defending champs are struggling with a couple more injuries of late, including their starting goalie, Cam Ward (Box 18), who had a deep gash on his leg, right above his knee. He could be back early this week, but he did miss all of last week with his injury. The 'Canes are also without defenseman, Bret Hedican (Box 16). He's out with a major groin pull. Ward was taken twice in the pool, while Hedican wasn't taken at all.

Hockey Night In Canada this week...




The Maple Leafs will try and keep their playoff hopes alive against the Sabres on Saturday evening. A tough task indeed, despite Buffalo's recent struggles for wins. In the second half, the doormat of the Western Conference will welcome the steamroller of said conference. The Oilers will play host to the Predators and since the Oilers have been somewhat of an easy two points for opponents... it may not make for much of a second-half. Off to the pub!


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Week Twenty-Three Newsletter

Well, it's a bit of a late edition of the newsletter this week. There was very little motivation this morning to do the writing, so I've waited until the day's end to get this all together.

Well, there was a little bit of jockeying done in the money this past week. Paul picked up 6 more points than Larry to move into 5th place. It looks as though they will battle down the stretch and it should be quite good.

It didn't look like the loss of Henrik Zetterberg (Box 1) made too much of a difference at the top of the standings though. Dieter did pull a few more points to pad his lead to 17 points with only four weeks to go. Jeff and Don are only separated by a point and that will be a great race in the last month.

Hot Teams Over the Last Four Weeks:
Dale B.... 250
Derek W... 248
Dieter.... 245
Caterina.. 237
Ernest ... 233

Cold Teams Over the Last Four Weeks
Fred...... 145
Mike W.... 165
Greg ..... 180
Gerald ... 184
Ryan M.... 185

Let's see what happened in Week Twenty-Three...

Player of the Week



Sharks goalie, Evgeni Nabokov (Box 12) was this week's winner of the Player of the Week, garnering 8 points for his 11 teams in the pool.

Nabokov has welcomed the extra minutes since Vesa Toskala (Box 6) went down with a groin injury. There is a good chance that Nabokov will go back to platooning with Toskala, but his performance has raised some questions as to whether or not he'll be the starter going into the playoffs.

In the last 3 weeks, Nabokov has registered 18 points in the last 3 weeks... a country mile beyond Box 12 favourite, J-S Giguere. Giguere has only registered 10 points.

This week's Mover & Shaker is the leading point-getter in Week Twenty-Three. Dan W. notched 65 points in this low-scoring week and it lifted him three spots in the Standings... up to 12th. Dan actually moved into a tie for 11th, but is in 12th due to the tie-breaker of goals scored. Dan benefitted from the PotW, Nabokov (8 points), Sergei Zubov (6), Marty Turco (6), Andy McDonald (5) and Vinny Lecavalier (5).

Dan, an ex-Top 10 team, may have found some legs to carry him up to the Top 10 again. He only sits 2 points out of 10th place at the moment, but still 54 points behind 6th place. With only four weeks to go, it looks like an impossible climb for the money now.

There were three nominees for the Basement Dweller this week, each losing three places in the Standings through the week... but like most awards, we can only have one winner. Can I have the envelope, please?

(Drum roll)

And the Basement Dweller for Week Twenty-Three is... Suzanne! With only 44 points during the week, it certainly wasn't enough to hang with the Top 10, especially when you're on the bubble. Suzanne was passed by our M&S of the week and only sits 6 points behind Dan and only 8 points out of 10th, where she was a week ago today.

Martin Brodeur – 106 points
41 wins, 12 shutouts... Brodeur continues to dazzle as the pool's high scorer, now 6 points on top of Sidney Crosby. A model of consistency is how the league sees Marty and the Devils are riding all these wins and points to a high playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.


Pool Trades
The trading deadline has passed in the NHL, but there was no deadline in the pool. There are still trades that could be made, but no one seems to want to use them. That doesn't mean you can have those trades, if you already used your's up.

Trades Remaining in the Top 10:
Dieter... 0 Paul..... 1
Don...... 0 Marcus... 0
Jeff..... 0 Trevor... 4
Dale C... 0 Caterina. 0
Larry.... 0 Josh..... 2

Injuries
Well, just in case you were thinking, "I'm falling in the standings and it couldn't possibly get worse for me," it probably did on Wednesday. Chris Pronger (Box 5) was diagnosed with a broken toe and would miss two weeks or roughly six games. Pronger, one of the best defensemen in the league, will be missed by 25 of 41 teams in the pool. This would be the time for Schneider or Hamrlik to step up and bite some teams in the ass.

Simon Gagne (Box 15) will miss most of Week Twenty-Four with groin problems. Gagne, taken twice, probably won't be rushed back into the line-up, since the Flyers are nowhere near the playoff hunt.


Hockey Night In Canada this week...




Are ya all ready for St. Patrick's Day this Saturday?? Well Hockey Night In Canada should be... I'd imagine Donald S. will be wearing something extravagantly green in celebration. Week Twenty-Four's edition of HNIC will feature the classic match-up between the Maple Leafs and the Canadiens in the Bell Centre in the first half and the second game will be the Canucks hosting the Red Wings at GM Place. Grab your Guinness and pop yourselves down for a good night of hockey.

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