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Fantasy – Back at the Grind |
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Hopefully you have survived the All-Star break and are ready to get back on track in your hockey fantasy pools. The All-Star weekend was a success as much as it can be, but as usual I’m happy it’s over with now and we can continue on with the regular season. One thing I really enjoyed was seeing Darryl Sutter’s son Chris behind the bench. Chris has a type of Down syndrome but was nothing shy of awesome behind the bench for team Foligno. Honestly, it was great to see; he was giving fist pumps to the players and chirping away at the refs like he was a natural. It was good to see the player’s reactions and you could tell they truthfully enjoyed having him on the bench.
Getting back on track for the players shouldn’t be too difficult as they have had a few days of rest to heal up any minor injuries or bumps and bruises they have acquired over the first 45 games or so. Don’t think for a second that players won’t up their game tremendously in the second half of the season, because it’s going to happen, I promise you that. The NHL schedule is a tough one, and you may see some teams that are sitting in a spot of desperation right now either sell off their assets and prepare for a rebuild, or stock up and hope for a run at the Stanley Cup. Whatever the case may be, cruise control is now off and some mid-season shake ups are going to happen. Do your best to keep active and scoop up any players you feel will burst out, whether that be through trade or someone dropping a player they shouldn’t have.
If you feel you have a weakness on your roster in any of the positions, now is the time to act. Do you feel you need to improve your overall goaltending in fantasy to make a push to the finals? Well, start working some trades; try to move what you feel you have the most of in order to get what you need most. What I mean by that is this: If your team seems to wins penalty minutes every single week (head to head) and you feel you could trade a player who has been racking up a lot of minutes in order to get that goalie, try dangling a player or two in order to make the trade worthy for your partner. Remember to key in on the persons roster you are making the trade with, either figure out what they need most, or simply ask them what they feel they need most to make the trade work. More often than not people rate or grade their players differently. So don’t be shy to ask the person you are trading with: “Who on my roster do you want for this player”. You may think a player is worth a lot, and to them, not so much…in which case you score a lot bigger than you may have thought. Communication is key and not just tossing out a bunch of random trade offers and having them denied one after another.
This is a much more ‘normal’ week in the National Hockey League. Looking ahead at the games lining up here is how it breaks down…
(2) Games:
Boston – Colorado – Los Angeles – Ottawa – San Jose
(3) Games:
Anaheim – Buffalo – Calgary – Carolina – Chicago – Columbus – Dallas – Detroit – Edmonton – Florida – Minnesota – New Jersey – New York Islanders – New York Rangers – Philadelphia – St. Louis – Tampa Bay – Toronto – Vancouver - Winnipeg
(4) Games:
Arizona – Montreal – Nashville – Pittsburgh – Washington
A few key injuries to go over include the most recent one of Kyle Okposo for the Islanders…6-8 weeks at this time of the year is a brutal hit for New York to take. Hopefully the legendary Mikhail Grabovski will be able to step up and fill the void on the top line with Tavares.
The Penguins are pretty beat up, but a few of the injuries seem to be minor so we shall see if both Crosby and Malkin are back in the lineup this week as the Pens have 4 games. Hornqvist is still hurt and Letang is also day to day.
Columbus will be without goaltender Bobrovsky for 4-6 weeks with an injury. That hurts, badly…they have had injuries all season and this just may be the final straw for their playoff hopes.
If you have any of these players on your roster you will want to put them on the IR or IR+ spot in your fantasy pool. There are no games tonight so take a look and see if anyone in particular stands out. Tomorrow I will be posting a few possible free agents to choose from to fill voids on forward, defense and goaltending.
HBSL:
The clock is ticking as the weekly matchups are coming to a grinding halt. As I mentioned there are not games tonight so make sure you have your roster set before tomorrow’s first game begins. Make sure you pick wisely, as there are a bunch of injuries lingering throughout the NHL and that’s the last thing you want is an 8 million dollar player in your lineup all week not playing any games. Keep an eye out for injury statuses and I will also do my best to inform you tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
Blogger •Fantasy Hockey Expert • 
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