Have you ever had the undeniable feeling that no matter what you do with your fantasy team on a given week that you are going to lose or take a drop in the standings? When you have this feeling….is it a part of paranoia or is it really something that is well found like a hunch perhaps?
It really is a good question. People that have played fantasy hockey for years have said that they can pretty much gauge their team’s performance after about 8 weeks or two months. Well since we are at this juncture, I guess it may be time to take a look at one of my teams and see where this thing maps out….hopefully.
One of the big ouches that came from the weekend was the news about first Ales Hemsky and then David Jones. Hemsky is out for the year after basically tearing up his entire shoulder or it seemed that way while Jones is out for the year with a torn ACL. Yes I know these things happen but for fantasy teams right now…who can really say that they have a healthy lineup at this point?
The precise thing above illustrates that you can expect another few major injuries to happen to your fantasy team at some point during the season. Though you cannot anticipate the actual moment because no one can…you can slowly prepare for these stretches especially if you have an open slot maybe even two. Sure that means a shorter bench but what if the unthinkable happens….then at least if your IR slots are full…you can still pick up a player for however long you need.
Another thing that needs to be watched on some fantasy teams is get this….suspensions! There have been 14 overall this regular season to the tune of 30 games total. Now usually your superstars do not get suspended (see double standard HERE) but it can still effect teams enough. Keep on the guard otherwise that bad stretch could come faster than you think.
So the reality is things are going to go bump in the night and you do get that feeling that your team is going to suffer at some point but you can at least ease the pain just a little bit. Now to show the illustration of what kind of a bad week you can see coming if you play Darryl Houston Smith. It makes you wonder if his name alone wins him a few categories. Okay Black Moses…you really won big this week. Here is that breakdown…..
| NAME | G | A | PIM | ATOI | SOG | W | SO | SCORE | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team patota (50-41-8) | 9 | 24 | 25 | 19:29 | 110 | 1 | 0 | 0-11-0 | |||||||
| Rotowire Rangers (51-36-12) | 12 | 27 | 28 | 19:49 | 111 | 2 | 1 | 11-0-0 |
I saw this and almost screamed holy crap! Talk about vaulting yourself up the standings and quick then vice versa. Mike did not have that bad of a week aside from his goaltending and yet 7 of the 11 categories were razor thin close. Upon a deeper inspection some of Mike’s players just did not produce when counted on. We took out the categories that were close for the safety of the innocent children. The bottom line is any move could have saved Mike a whitewashing but sometimes maybe it cannot. This was one of those cases of the latter versus the former.
Mike kept telling me he had a bad feeling about this week and he was right. So is that bad feeling apart of paranoia? Maybe not. Some fantasy owners really do have that ability to gauge their team. Just like this week I see a very hard matchup between me and the Moose Jaw Marauders (Curtis Lanton)….Curtis is a tough guy to go up against. This will not be easy.
Next week we will take a peak at what is going on with those players that had hot starts then cooled off faster than Haley’s Comet. See you then.
Sincerely,
Chris Wassel
Director Of The Program
