HBSL:
First and foremost congratulations to all of the HockeyBuzz SuperLeague players who have managed to battle through the first two rounds of playoffs and are in the final 32!
There is always a surprise player or two each week that catches fire and lights the lamp every shot or two. And of course, the joys of picking a player that ends up getting hurt mid-week and ruining your shot at taking the title. Unfortunately sometimes lady-luck is not on your side and a goal gets called back on the last game of a Sunday, taking away an assist and having you lose the week by one point. Yes, that was me in round one! You win some, you lose some! Always a great time in the HBSL, so make sure if you didn’t sign up this year that you remember to setup a team next season.
It’s only Tuesday and there are some very high scores after one night of action.
Leading in the free bracket: Too much curve (222 points) JimmyBTB (198) Witty team name (196)
Looking forward to seeing who makes the sweet 16 next week, best of luck to everyone!
Head to Head:
In most if not all fantasy formats, the head to head regular season is coming to an end. Hopefully most of my readers have done a good job at keeping up with the times and adding/removing players as rosters are improved as the season goes on. Whether it be picking up free agents or making bold trades to patch up weak spots on your rosters. If you are going to be finishing in one of the top two seeds, you will likely have a buy first round and can prepare your roster for the following week. What I suggest is you take a look at who plays how many games on your roster that week. If you have a bubble player that you are no so keen on and they only play 2 games that week, it may be a great idea to find another player who has 4 games that week and double up on your games played with that slot. Of course you are not going to drop an all-star player for some plug, just to get an extra two games in.
Another thing I like to look at for the playoff weeks is what teams will have back-to-back games; meaning they will likely be playing their back-up goalie one of those nights unless they are really pushing for one of the last wild card spots for a playoff run. Sometimes a free agent goalies add can make or break your week, but be careful and only add a back-up goalie if you like the matchup.
Searching for a player to add? Quite often people will look at total points on the season and add a free agent that way. Well, that’s quite often a mistake in my books; I like to look at who’s been hot over the last month. Someone could have put up 35 points in their first 50 games and only put up 3 points in their last 18 games. Odds are that player has cooled down, maybe even has a reduced role on the team. Go with the hot hand now, instead of the player who was producing back in October/November.
In the head to head pools I’m in there is an IR slot and an IR+ slot. As of now I have 3 players who are IR/O/DTD. Make sure that you have all of your slots full; you want to give yourself the best chance you can at winning the pool and cashing in. Your odds only increase if you don’t have DTD players on your roster; sometimes dumping a good player has to be done, even if they might be back for the final week. Remember, you have to win a week or two before you get to the championship round.
Over the next few weeks I will be doing my best to help out with free agent ads and possible back-up goalie starts that I think will help bring you home the trophy.
Best of luck to everyone, any questions or thoughts feel free to ask in the comments section or send me a private message.
Thanks for reading!