Monday, October 08, 2007

Week Two Newsletter

Well, now that I have full registration for the Selection Sheet and the Draft, I can finally really roll with this Newsletter. Week Three will be the first full week of the season, so you'll get the full benefit of the NHL season and barring injury, your players should be playing three or four games a week.

Well, the Week Two Mover & Shaker in the Draft was Dale B.. He vaulted himself up to the top of the table with a huge 36 point week. Helping his cause during the week was Bill Guerin (5 points), Daymond Langkow (4), Brian Rolston (4) and Peter Budaj (4). Those were some big points from possibly some unlikely names, but I'm sure Dale will take 'em. I know I would. These players lifted him into first place in the draft and he opened up a 9 point lead on Jeff and Clayton, who sit second and third.

On the sheet side, Jeff managed to sneak in a team before the cut-off which vaulted him into the lead. That probably isn't quite what you might want to do at the start of the season, as you might hex some of the guys he picks. On his team that gave him 56 points and first place in the week; Paul Statsny (8 points), Dany Heatley (5), Daniel Alfredsson (5), Ruslan Fedotenko (5), Daymond Langkow (4) and Martin St. Louis (4).

In the basement in the draft over Week Two was Dale C.. The other Dale of the draft has had a tough time with a bunch of early injuries and some high expectations of players that just didn't click. Igor Grigorenko was sent to the minors by the Red Wings at the end of camp, which was somewhat of a shock to the system. Grigorenko was supposed to be the next Datsyuk or Zetterberg for those Red Wings. Unfortunately, he'll be a big zero for the next few weeks at least. Also not recording a point; Jordan Staal (active), Cory Stillman (torso injury), Dan Boyle (wrist injury), Mike Van Ryn (scratch), J-S Giguere (hernia) and Marc Denis (backup). This hasn't been the best of starts for anyone in any pool.

On the selection sheet, Greg took his rightful spot in the pool... down at the bottom. A sheet pool-low, 26 points were not very helpful to his cause. Unless you are actually Greg and you enjoy being the Basement Dweller through the week. Then it's really helpful to his cause.

Well, the goaltending situation was quite an unknown factor in Ottawa heading into the weekend, but with an injury-forced situation brought three straight wins, including a shutout to the Senators.

Martin Gerber (Chris, Box 24) beat the Maple Leafs twice and then shutout the Rangers on Saturday to record 8 points, the week high in both the Draft and the Sheet pools.


With Ray Emery (Aaron, Box 18) out with his wrist injury, Gerber has given the coaching staff something to think about for when their offseason number one goalie gets back from injury. This situation will do one of two things... possibly give Gerber the number one job as the hot hand (when Emery comes back) or open up the trade routes with other teams to move Gerber and open up some cap space. Moving Gerber to another team could devastate another pool team's goaltending situation, especially if he moves in to be the number one.

Also having 8 points, Paul Statsny (Wes, Box 3) of the Colorado Avalanche. Statsny had a goal and 4 assists against San Jose on Sunday to vault him into the second place vote.

Sean Avery (Chris) begins our injury report. He suffered a shoulder injury in the game against Ottawa on Saturday and will now miss 3 to 4 weeks. Avery was going to be playing on the Rangers second line and was in line for some big points playing with Gomez and Shanahan, but he'll have to wait to pick up those big points at the moment.

Eric Brewer (Peter) also suffered a shoulder injury during the week, which will sideline him indefinitely. The Blues rearguard is to be re-evaluated today, which will give a better understanding of how bad the injury actually is. It's a bad break for Peter, who had a pretty good jump to the season already.

Well, as if Dale C. needed any more injuries, Alexander Semin missed Monday afternoon's game with an ankle injury and is listed as out day-to-day. Just another black mark on a pretty tough season already.

A selection sheet injury only here as Johan Franzen (Box 8) will be sidelined for 4 weeks with a knee injury. The Red Wings staff have said that they have capable players to take his place already with the big club, so there'll be no call-ups just yet.


Well, despite Sidney Crosby (Benson) visiting Toronto for the first half of the HNIC doubleheader, the marquee match-up for me is the Canucks hosting the Oilers. It should be a pretty free-wheeling game, which should be very exciting. This will be the first time we'll all get to see Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano on HNIC, which is a bit more new & exciting than the Crosby Show, that we'll get to see for years to come. The big match-up in goal will be between Roberto Luongo (John B.) and Dwayne Roloson (Benson). That should be a good shouting match between the goalies and the pool participants. Ha ha.


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