Calgary Flames (afire) at Anaheim Ducks (afowl), 7 pm
Matchsticks & Gasoline and Anaheim Calling -- in case you follow Reality Hockey.
Good news -- I finished up The Wire, so I can stop being consumed by that series. Bad news -- because of that, I didn't have anything planned for today's post. But hey -- nobody's done one of these updates in a while!
Battle of California Fantasy League Update: Week 17
| Rank | Team | W-L-T | Pts | Pct | Div | Last Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sacco Division | ||||||
| 8 | Anzeholics Anonymous | 107-99-34 | 248 | 0.517 | 31-22-7 | 2-10-3 |
| 9 | Team Quake | 103-95-42 | 248 | 0.517 | 23-24-13 | 8-7-0 |
| 11 | BROWS | 103-98-39 | 245 | 0.510 | 30-23-7 | 4-9-2 |
| 15 | Some Witty Pun | 95-109-36 | 226 | 0.471 | 20-28-12 | 7-8-0 |
| 17 | Teal Blades | 93-117-30 | 216 | 0.450 | 20-27-13 | 6-9-0 |
| Sandström Division | ||||||
| 7 | Brain and Braun | 104-92-44 | 252 | 0.525 | 31-19-10 | 6-7-2 |
| 10 | Certified Ninjas | 104-97-39 | 247 | 0.515 | 31-22-7 | 10-2-3 |
| 16 | UNSC Guiding Light | 94-118-28 | 216 | 0.450 | 31-23-6 | 8-7-0 |
| 18 | Keepem on the Island | 89-118-33 | 211 | 0.440 | 16-41-3 | 6-8-1 |
| 19 | Kitten Mittons | 82-118-40 | 204 | 0.425 | 24-28-8 | 5-8-2 |
| Friesen Division | ||||||
| 1 | Rule 64 | 119-82-39 | 277 | 0.577 | 30-22-8 | 7-6-2 |
| 2 | Sleek and Destroy | 117-86-37 | 271 | 0.565 | 26-25-9 | 10-2-3 |
| 3 | Bearodactyls | 119-89-32 | 270 | 0.563 | 27-26-7 | 7-8-0 |
| 5 | Team Tugboat | 105-87-48 | 258 | 0.538 | 21-23-16 | 8-6-1 |
| 13 | Fournick Gators | 99-99-42 | 240 | 0.500 | 21-29-10 | 2-10-3 |
| Granato Division | ||||||
| 4 | The Snuffle Bunnies | 109-88-43 | 261 | 0.544 | 36-16-8 | 8-7-0 |
| 6 | Sir Mitchellot | 111-94-35 | 257 | 0.535 | 27-24-9 | 9-4-2 |
| 12 | Windy City Frostbite | 105-102-33 | 243 | 0.506 | 23-29-8 | 7-8-0 |
| 14 | PICKLESNAKE!!! | 98-105-37 | 233 | 0.485 | 26-30-4 | 8-5-2 |
| 20 | spades lil bandito's | 73-136-31 | 177 | 0.369 | 20-33-7 | 9-6-0 |
(Note: because of the All-Star Break, this past fantasy week actually lasted two weeks, but I'm still going to refer to everything as "last week".)
Featured Matchup: Teal Blades at spades lil bandito's -- Spade wins 9-6!
MVP: Tomas Vokoun and Niklas Backstrom -- without either Bandito co-manager touching the roster, these two goalies kicked some ass last week. A combined 4-1 record with a 1.83 GAA and a .938 sv%, plus each guy added a shutout. Honorable mention to Nashville's Mike Fisher -- he had a surprising 6 goals, a category Spade lost, but an amazing 4 game-winning goals, a category Spade won.
LVP: No glaring weakness in the Teal Blade results, but Evgeni Nabokov and Michael Neuvirth weren't enough to keep up with the Bandito tandem.
Not sure this really should have been the featured matchup, but Spade's in last place. Let's throw him a bone.
The Snuffle Bunnies at Some Witty Pun -- Snuffle Bunnies win 8-7!
MVP: Vincent Lecavalier had 2 goals and 4 assists. The 4 assists are particularly notable as it was double the amount the entire Some Witty Pun team had combined.
LVP: Mr. Plank -- not only is he not changing his lineup, but 4 of his 9 skater positions are filled with currently-injured players. Get well soon, Ryan Malone, Curtis Glencross, James Wisniewski, and Marc-Andre Bergeron!
This matchup ended up closer than it should have been, and now Jimmy Howard is going to be also hurt in Plank's lineup. Let's go lottery!
* * *
Team Quake at Windy City Frostbite -- Quisp win 8-7!
MVP: Jiri Hudler had 4 goals, which matched the Windy City Frostbite team total, and one of them was a game-winner, which won that category, too.
LVP: Cam Fowler was pointless and a -5. But at least he's not the worst bicyclist on the Anaheim Ducks' blueline. Ottawa's Craig Anderson was also 0-4 on the week with pretty rotten goalie stats.
Another nail-biter! Craig Anderson was so bad that he offset Antti Niemi's 2 shutouts, allowing Quisp to take Goals Against Average and Save Percentage categories without so much as one goalie win.
* * *
Sleek and Destroy at Anzeholics Anonymous -- I win 10-2!
MVP: I added the New York Rangers' Artem Anisimov on the last day and he picked up 1 goal and 2 assists. I ended up winning the goals and assists categories by 1 each -- way to go, trade-deadline rental!
LVP: I guess it would be Patrick Sharp? Anzeholic Anonymous' offensive stats were all fine, but Sharp spent the entire two weeks in the IR slot -- had he been activated towards the end of last week, he could have added 2 goals and 1 assist.
The week was closer than 10-2 would indicate, but I edged some offensive categories, and the trio of Kari Lehtonen, Jonathan Quick, and Sergei Bobrovsky put together a 6-1 record. Fortunately, I did bench Bobrovsky the game he got lit up.
* * *
Kitten Mittons at PICKLESNAKE!!! -- Meg wins 8-5!
MVP: Sam Gagner had himself quite a game last Thursday, and Meg reaped the benefits. But because Meg is such a strange motivator, he benched Gagner for his next game, and missed out on an additional 2 goals and an assist. Also, Pekka Rinne and Marty Brodeur combined for a 7-0 record.
LVP: Nut gets burned by his backups once again -- Bernier, Rask, and Garon did muster 2 wins, but they couldn't keep up with Meg's powerhouses. And Alexander Ovechkin was pointless and a -2. He must miss his old coach.
A lot of the offensive categories were pretty close, but nobody was going to keep up with Meg's goalies last week -- that secured him the edge in this matchup.
* * *
BROWS at Sir Mitchellot -- Niesy wins 9-4!
MVP: Montreal's Max Pacioretty, I guess -- 3 goals, 2 assists, 1 game-winner, and 20 shots-on-goal. Niesy ended up taking all those categories.
LVP: Aside from Chen not touching his lineup, it is sort of surprising to see both Jason Spezza and Duncan Keith as pointless, minus players, but that's what they were last week. They did at least combine for 8 penalty minutes, which matched Sir Mitchellot's total.
BROWS should be thankful for Marc-Andre Fleury, who had a 3-1 record last week -- that record won half of the categories that BROWS took last week.
* * *
Keepem on the Island at Team Tugboat -- Rudy wins 8-6!
MVP: Henrik Lundqvist had a 3-0 record with two of those wins coming via shutout. That gave Rudy nearly all the goaltending categories for the week. But he should adjust his lineup some.
LVP: Jhonas Enroth didn't play a game, I guess -- but no skater was really stellar. For either team, really.
Nobody in this matchup scored more than one goal or three assists on the week -- Darryl Sutter must be very proud.
* * *
Brain and Braun at Rule 64 -- Rule 64 wins 7-6!
MVP: Tim Thomas had 2 wins in 3 starts, which was one more win and two more starts than Brain and Braun had.
LVP: Johan Hedberg won his only start of the week, but gave up 4 goals doing so, and Jose Theodore spent the week injured. Should have picked up a third goalie!
Tampa's Marty St. Louis was a star for the losing team this week. He only took 9 shots-on-goal, but 5 of them went in, and he added 3 assists, too.
* * *
Bearodactyls at UNSC Guiding Light -- UNSCGL wins 8-7!
MVP: Buffalo's Ryan Miller and Edmonton's Devan Dubnyk combined for a 6-0 goalie record for the week. Though it wasn't a total goaltending sweep -- Bearodactyls did nab the GAA and shutout categories.
LVP: Just sort of a weak week overall -- the roster combined for 5 goals, which was matched by UNSCGL's Zach Parise by himself (also: UNSCGL had 5 game-winning goals). Jaromir Jagr, Jonathan Toews, Mike Richards, and Petr Sykora all had one point or less.
Bearodactyls did have five players with double-digit shots, taking that category, but only one of those five players scored a goal on the week -- Tomas Fleichmann scored twice. As a result, Bearodactyls sadly had a 4.7% team shooting percentage last week.
* * *
Fournick Gators at Certified Ninjas -- Ninjas wins 10-2!
MVP: Steven Stamkos had himself a 2 goal, 3 assist week, but most important was that both of his goals were game-winners, giving Certified Ninjas the edge there. Mikhael Grabovski and Martin Erat each had 6-point weeks also.
LVP: Ilya Bryzgalov put up good goalie stats last week, but was severely undone by Ray Emery (4.86 GAA, .867 sv%) and Ty Conklin (6.00 GAA, .727 sv%). But when you consider the incredible size of the universe, this really isn't a big deal.
Lots of decently-close category races in this matchup, but most of them were edged by the Certified Ninjas, who showed adaptability by converting Ales Hemsky into a thug -- zero points, only one shot-on-goal, but a very-useful 15 penalty minutes.
* * *
Anyways, you guys remember the drill -- gloat in the comments, or make your excuses. Still about a month until the trade deadline, if you want to make any announcements there. And five more weeks until the fantasy playoffs start.
Which in my mind, is the only playoffs that matter. :)
Prediction: I won't be around for game comments until the end of tonight's game, but I'll be following on my phone. Ducks help my fantasy team out somehow, which I guess means a big night for Saku Koivu.
Go Fantasy.
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