Yes the Turkeys are back but they brought their lunch pail with them for this quick edition on the worst of Round 1. If you had these guys in your pools, you are probably dead in the water! Now we really do bring the masses something new. The Program now presents yes “The Fantasy Toolbox”. See below…..
(Wow this thing does look dingy enough…..)
The point is that an award for something this bad should be something that looks and smells just as awful. The turkeys are still around so do not fret but we needed a little spice to this mix and this seems to work well. Did you want to see the nominees? In this awards nomination time of year, we wanted to see the worst of the worst also so we could throw tomatoes at them. Here we go…..
OUR ROUND 1 Fantasy Toolbox Nominations…..
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Patrick Marleau — San Jose Sharks
The Forward managed to lay an egg at the worst possible time with zero goals and zero points for the Sharks in their five game defeat at the hands of the St. Louis Blues. A team like the Sharks was held to eight goals in the entire series and Marleau was held down to a measley nine shots. Joe Thornton had 15 by the way (two goals). It was as if Marleau could not get any more lifeless then he would. He was on the ice for 20:21 a night and yet it felt like he played maybe a few minutes. That has kind of how it has gone for Marleau in the last couple postseasons. He has been a backseat passenger yet supposed to be a leader. Not surprisingly, he may just go in the offseason but the reality is, he already went.
Joe Pavelski — San Jose Sharks
Big things were expected from Pavelski in the postseason mainly because the Blues were kind of untested to be honest and then the playoffs started. “The Big Pavelski” was anything but totaling 13 shots but never saw the scoresheet as his zero points was the other shocker of the first round amongst playoff poolies. Everyone you talked to seemed more stunned at this one, compared to Marleau, because Pavelski was good in the playoffs up until this year. Pavelski also took a couple of really dumb penalties to exacerbate problems. When Joe Thornton is your best playoff performer, you are in trouble. Its knock a knock against “Jumbo Joe” but he needed a little help from his friends and he did not get any.
Marc-Andre Fleury — Pittsburgh Penguins
Yes these choices were so easy that they could have been made a week ago and honestly they were. Fleury was not just awful but he was disgustingly bad. At one point Fleury had a save percentage in the playoffs of .798 thru just three games! He ultimately played better in Games 4 and 5 but cannonballed in Game 6 finishing with a 4.63 GAA and .834 save percentage. Yes Ilya Bryzgalov‘s numbers were not much better but they were good enough. All Fleury had to do was be a little better on penalty kills and SH situations against and this series likely would have gone Pittsburgh’s way. After that, it may have been a considerably easier road. The EV save % and PK save % were just awful across the board. There is bad goaltending and then there is “pulling a Fleury”.
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The process was tough to nail down a winner but we think we (The Turkeys) too, came up with a fair and just winner here.
AND THE WINNER IS…………
Marc-Andre Fleury
Who were you expecting? Pavelski or Marleau? There wsa no way. Come back in a couple weeks to see who we pick for Round 2. Fantasy poolies as always, keep sending your nominations as we appreciate them.
