Power Rankings
1. Stammer Time
In the battle for first against MM, a solid Sunday resulted in a close 5-4 win for ST. After one cycle through the schedule, ST is perfect with a 5-0-0 record. While some of ST’s biggest offensive stars are underacheiving, their team depth and league leading goalies are leading the way. ST’s goalies lead the league in both SV% and GAA by a fair margin. It’s safe to say if many of ST’s forward keepers right the ship this team may be unstoppable.
2. Mr. Momentum
With a tight loss and a difference of one point in the standings the gap between MM and ST is razor thin at the moment. MM’s offence is well balanced however their goalies look like a grain elevator waiting to burst into flames. Somehow a goaltending corp that relied on at various times Reimer, Dubnyk, Miller and Ward is second in the league in both SV% and GAA. The return of Halak and the Vezina worthy play of Rinne should help however MM’s hold near the top of this list looks more tenuous than ST’s
3. Optimus Reim
This overachieving team remains within whisper distance of the leaders with a closer-than-it-could-have-been 5-2 win over basement dwellers GIWI. Picked by many to struggle this year with a seemingly weak group of keepers OR has again found success in the regular draft resulting in an extremely balanced yeoman group. Despite having no player in the top 15 scoring and middling goalie stats OR somehow finds ways to pull out points
4. Girouxsome Twosome
Defending champ GT easily dispatched COF this week with a 6-3 win. Despite being only 6 points from the leaders GT’s season thus far can be categorized as a mild disappointment. Coming into this season with an explosive and fearsome group of offensive keepers in addition to acquiring the first three picks of the regular draft prognosticators predicted historical totals for this juggernaught and a runaway title. While the team still looks dangerous at times, injuries and poor performance leaves this team amongst the pack rather than the alpha dog it aspired to be.
5. Chance of Fleury’s
Well behind the Big 4 teams, COF comes in 5th and is perhaps the most perplexing team in the league. One COF’s biggest problems is their complete lack of offensive balance. COF leads the league in assists by 20 yet is dead last in goals for. Another long term problem COF may face is the aging of his core group of players. Overall this team has more questions than answers and GM Shamim Fani is going to have some difficult decisions as to the direction of this team in the near future
6. Getting Iggy With It
Bringing up the rear is last years Naveed Trophy “winner” GIWI. To say this season has been an utter disaster is a gross understatement. I’m not sure if there are enough negative adjectives in the English language to adequately describe GIWI’s putrid start to the season. GIWI is winless on the season (0-5-0) and has still yet to reach double digits in total wins through 5 weeks. A less than 2 win per week average along with two 8-1 beatdowns at the hands of GT and MM in the first three weeks have the remaining GIWI faithful up in arms. The continued dismantling of this teams core including the trading of Patrick Kane to MM and the rumours of a disgruntled Sidney Crosby on the trade block will not abate the fan backlash against GM Shawyun Refahi.
Thomas Vanek Fantasy Stars
1. Jakub Voracek (GT) – 4G, 7A, 5PPP, 1GWG, 16 Shots; Offensive explosion this week vaults him into league top 10 scoring and quiets doubters as to his high draft selection
2. Claude Giroux (GT) – 3G, 5A, 2PPP, 1GWG, 15 Shots; Suffered through a rough start but having him get back on track will help soothe the losses of Karlsson and Malkin for GT
3. Steven Stamkos (ST) – 4G, 4A, 1PPP, 0GWG, 11 Shots; 8 points this week puts Stamkos atop both the points and goals race, Carrying ST offensively
4. Jonathan Quick (GIWI) – 2W, 1.00GAA, .958SV%, 0 SO; Last years Conn Smythe winner may be finally rounding back into form after an awful start to the season
5. Corey Crawford (ST) – 1W, 0.00GAA, 1.000SV%, 1 SO; After missing a couple weeks with injury Crawford stepped in on Sunday with a shutout to give ST a come from behind 5-4 win
Tyler Myers Fantasy Duds
1. Mikael Granlund (GIWI) – Donuts – The only fantasy player in the league with zeros across the board
2. Brad Richards (ST)/ Marian Gaborik (ST) – 8 Shots/6 Shots – With numerous injuries the Rangers needed these two to step up… They did not
3. Mikko Koivu (MM)/ Zach Parise (ST) – 4 Shots/5 Shots – Parise wants people to pronounce his name the American way instead of the Canadian way… Doesn’t he not remember 2010?? Canada>USA, 2012 Paris-eh>2013 Paris-eeeeee
4. Logan Couture (GIWI) – 5 Shots – The sharks have apparently never heard of depth scoring
5. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (COF) – 11 Shots – Promising rookie season a distant memory, has less goals than Tom Sestito, Craig Adams, and Aaron Palushaj
True Weekly Records (7 day weeks only)
G – 27 – GT (week 16)
A – 45 – MM (week 15)
PPP – 28 – OR (week 15)
GWG – 6 – MM (week 14)
Shots – 209 – MM (week 16)
W – 8 – COF (week 15), GT (week 13)
GAA – 1.57 – COF (week 13)
SV% – .951 – ST (week 15)
SO – 2 – MM (week 14 and 15), GT (week 16), OR (week 13)
-Just a reminder with the deadline approaching, with 2 extra FW keepers there are only 14 rounds in the regular draft now
Fantasy Hockey 365 