Good evening everyone and welcome to another edition of Fantasy Hockey 101. We’re going to take another look at The Stevens League and The LSHL. First up we’ll take a look at the LSHL.
On the surface, it doesn’t seem much has changed since the last time we looked at the LSHL. However, even this early in the season some trends are emerging. The "Red Hot" team of the month award goes to the Boston Dunshees who gobbled up a whopping 186 points. The Toronto Hitmen and the Edmonton Damned were second and third with 182 and 181 points respectively. All three teams have balanced scoring…Dunshees have Nash, Justin Williams, and Kovalchuk…a very nice trio along with Sharp and Horcoff for nice depth. The Hitmen have the truest sense of balance with 12 guys scoring ten points or more on his team. The Damned have Malkin and Staal plus 7 other guys with ten or more points. So there is a reason why these three are indeed in the top six. It is nice to have some studs but if you don’t have balance….you won’t go anywhere in a league like this.
Now there are some notable surprises…our very own fantasy rookies (and they’ll admit that) Patty and Erin are both in the top five. As a matter of fact, they’ve been there almost all season. Patty is in a first led by a team full of solid players with notables such as Rick Dipietro, Daniel Alfredsson, and Thomas Kaberle. She has 3 d-men with 10 or more points which seems unheard of in this league. Injuries to Kubina, Alfredsson, and a lack of prospects may hurt a little…but it hasn’t slowed her down much. Erin has done it a bit of a different way….riding strong in 4th place. She has four players with 20 or more points…but made a smart move trading Backstrom when she did and now has a surging Roberto Luongo along with rookie Carey Price in the nets. I will not say who helped her drafting but whoever did…did one hell of a job. Strategically, this could be a dark horse team for the title.
Pretty much in a nutshell there is the top five. Here are the rest of the standings.
So what’s going to happen in December? The beauty is no one really knows but I do think Bensalem Popes are going to surge into the top 10. Mike has the right amount of prospects and solid players to make it very interesting for the contenders…how much of a move will he make in December is anyone’s guess…I do think the top five will pretty much remain the same for the most part as all these teams have the depth that the others don’t. If one team could do it is the London Salmon…but his heavy reliance on Ottawa Senators players could keep him for truly contending for the LSHL crown.
Onward to The Stevens League….where Project Mayhem, Ogre and Pogo are the class of the league with 109, 100 and 99 points respectively. Mayhem has the best balance in the league as far as goaltending, defense and forwards but that could take a huge hit as Pascal Leclaire went down with an injury tonight (no one knows how serious it is), Hasek is injury prone and Toskala has been below standard so far. Ogre has Biron, Luongo, and Mason but Biron lately has been very ordinary. His offense has buoyed him to his current record. However with Alfredsson and Demitra currently injured, the Ogre will have to do some fast thinking. Pogo has Bryzgalov and Turco with great offensive depth in Stastny, Richards, Malkin, and Justin Williams just to name a few. These three teams can go very far in this league and have seemingly established themselves as heads of the class.
Fourth thru seventh is a little bit of a different story. Each of these teams has their flaws but you know what and this may sound like a bit of a long shot but I do think the champion is going to be one of these teams. The ingredients are there for one of them to make a surge in the playoffs especially since the fantasy playoffs is in that stretch of season from the second week of March till the first week of April where certain players come to shine. As for December, I expect a few shakeups. However Brindamour and Stevens have pretty favorable schedules and that could lift them up into contention. Now here are the rest of the standings.
Next week we are going to take a look at some waiver wire acquisitions that could help you in your league but this Thursday…we will nominate three turkeys and pick one as our turkey fantasy player of the week. Also, a bit of a twist, we will have our fantasy stud of the week…a guy you can hang your hat on. Till then, good night from 3500 feet up!
