This morning I woke up with an extra jump to my step, its game day. After a glorious summer of fishing, summer hockey, golfing, partying with my friends and hanging out with my wife and baby boy; I’m ready. The time has arrived and the NHL has four games tonight to kick start the season!
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens Philadelphia Flyers vs Boston Bruins Vancouver Canucks vs Calgary Flames San Jose Sharks vs Los Angeles Kings
A few quick things to mention here: 1. Be sure you have all your players set in your roster, don’t blow it on opening night, set those rosters for the whole week so you can sit back and enjoy!
2. If you haven’t already set up your team for the Hockeybuzz SuperLeague…get on it. You have until game one starts. Don’t be shy, make a team and have fun!
3. Make sure nobody on your roster is injured, if they are, move them to the Injured Reserved (IR) spot if available and pick up another player for the week.
***Possible huge free agent pickup: Cory Conacher – He will be starting with Tavares and Okposo on the top line for the New York Islanders.***
Yesterday I showed you my first draft (which was in person with 9 people); selecting 22 players. Today I am going to post my last and final fantasy team. This is the pool I am the most successful in and hope to place in the top 3 yet again.
Here is how this pool is setup:
You have 10 people, online draft; 1 minute to make your player selections. It’s a random placement for draft order…I got smack in the middle with 5; which I am quite fond of. There are 2 center slots, 4 winger slots, 4 defensemen slots, 3 utility slots, 2 goalie slots and 5 bench slots. The pool is head to head, so every week you will play vs someone different and it cycles through the same order until the season is over.
Playoffs for this pool are the last 3 weeks of the regular season (this way all players are included). First and second place get a buy through the quarter finals, 3rd place vs 6th place and 4th place vs 5th place. The highest seed winner goes vs rank 2 regular season finisher, and the lower rank person goes against whoever won the regular season.
How the columns are set up: Goals | Assists | Points | +- | PIM | PPP | SHP | GWG Wins | Save % | GAA | Shutouts
You want to beat your opponent in as many categories as possible, and you must play a minimum of three goalie games per week.
With the 5th pick overall in a snake draft, here is how my team panned out in order:
1. Perry 2. J. Benn 3. Kessel 4. Rinne 5. Landeskog 6. D. Keith 7. Nash 8. D. Sedin 9. E. Kane 10. Yandle 11. Semin 12. Mason 13. Hornqvist 14. Perron 15. Ehrhoff 16. Bozak 17. Granlund 18. Ribeiro 19. Tanguay
I felt with Rinne and Mason my goaltending was the only part of my roster that was a bit iffy. I also only drafted 3 defensemen because the ones I got are excellent, and on top of that I always like an extra forward because I have superb knowledge of some sleeper defensemen I can scoop up later if need be.
So here is the big move I decided last night…Gibson and Andersen…both available? Don’t mind if I do. I dropped Tanguay and Ribeiro for goaltending security. One of these guys is bound to take over as the legit number one in Anaheim; I just may have to wait a bit and see how it all pans out…thankfully I have a plethora of firepower up front so I should be able to hang in there until one of them wins the starting role. My plan is to be patient and drop the goalie who becomes the backup; then I can grab a hot free agent, whether it is a defensemen or a forward.
What do you think; did I make the right move? Or should I have been patient and kept Ribeiro and Tanguay?
Time will tell; but I feel someone else would have jumped on these goalies at some point.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the first night of hockey!!!