Practice Drafts!

Now being offered by CBS. That's a freebie that got me to register, and almost any other giveaway would have left me cold.

They're here:

http://mockdraft.1.hockey.sportsline.com/

Do this a few times and you'll see that picking first is a huge advantage, even over picking second.

Also, a normal strategy is to go HERO, G G D D whereas I think this year it might be better to go HERO D D G G

Heroes: Ovechkin, Malkin, Crosby, Iginla, Datsuyk, Zetterberg, Thornton, Lecavalier

I would say top seven in points

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/statistics?stat=nhlscoring&sort=pts&season=2008&seasontype=2

unless your league puts a serious premium on goals, in which case

the top three or four are extremely important:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/statistics?stat=nhlscoring&league=nhl&sort=goals&order=true&qual=true&season=2008&seasontype=2&pos=all

The top 11 defencemen are special and Phaneuf pays a special PIM dividend and DET defencement provide wonderful +/-

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/statistics?stat=nhlscoring&season=2008&seasontype=2&pos=d

The New Schedule

This is a step in the right direction. They felt they needed 82 games, so there are three "wild card games". That's wrong. They should have gone with 79 games. The players are injured as it is.

But if you're going to have "wild card games" why not play them all during week 1? Then they would matter less.

Better still would be 4 games vs conference teams (16) and two games vs other conference (30) and two games vs other teams in conference (20) = 66 games.

OR

1 game against each team in the other conference to start the season (15)

6 games against division opponents (24)

4 games against conference oppoenennts (40)

= 79 games

No need for the extra three! Give the boys a rest. And use the shoter schedule in Olympic years.

Changes in Phoenix and Tampa

Tampa has the most new players of any team -- 14! -- but that is overstating it, because some of those players are on a PHI - TAM rotation. CBS Sportsline has a great summary of moves, sorted by team, split between Eastern and Western Conference.

In the East

http://www.sportsline.com/nhl/transactions/playermove/EAST

Tampa stands out, but Prospal's been here before and Recchi and Roberts should fit right in. Little noticed: the team's collecting tough guys. First O'Brien, now Koci.

Strangest addition: Kolzig, unless they want him in the future as a goalie coach, giving Tampa their Godzillas of the future.


In the West, Phoenix is building, and will benefit from the pain in Anaheim of the loss of Selanne and in San Jose of the loss of some key Defense. But most of all, Phoenix will benefit from LA's decision to play for the top draft pick this year.

Biggest beneficiary -- Shane Doan, who gets to play with Jokinen and if that doesn't work out, will get to work with rookie Mueller who had 54 points in a surprise season on a bad team.

The big question mark for PHO is how will Dallas be this year.

Violence Wins Again

Whether it's Avery hitting Brodeur's head and slashing him in the face, or the takeout hit on Marleu, the NHL seems determined to allow blood on the ice and injuries to marquee players.

The blood has to stop and Campbell has to go.

Playoffs -- and injuries -- start tomorrow

Will Campbell allow players to harm each other? Alfredsson is out due to a head shot. End head shots now! And I don't even like Ottawa!

End Touch Up Icing Now

Europe doesn't use it. We don't need it. It slows games down and it's dangerous.

Fix Disciplinary Process!

Burnside is right. The process needs to be more open.

3 games for Laraque and 8 for Pronger mean they will do it again.

No more head shots!

And absolutely no skate blade stomping.

Glad I Didn't See This

For once, I'm glad the Sabres weren't televised. This is wrong. Laraque should be suspended.

Turned Off the Rangers Sabres Game

Avery should have gotten five for intent to injure. That was just sick. The NHL should be sued for promoting injuries and concussions.

Hooray for Rob Blake, Fight Stopper

From the AP:

Jack Johnson had injured Avalanche leader Ryan Smyth on a clean hit. Avalanche's fistfigher came over to him in response. Then the typical hockey narrative changed, thanks to the respect both teams have for Rob Blake, currently a leader of LA, former stanley cup winner in Colorado.

“The kid knew exactly where I was coming from,” Laperriere said. “He wanted to fight and Blake came right in there. I have so much respect for Blake. I knew he wasn’t going to punch me.”

So there it is: some of that respect that people are complaining doesn't exist in the game anymore.

Corruption in the NHL

Refs are biased in PHI's favor in tonight's Sabres game. There have been allegations of corruption for years. They must be investigated and the referees who rig the games need to be held accountable.

Boxscore notes, Feb 24, 2008

1) I'm glad to have Selanne! Five point night!

2) Panthers were slain by the Rangers. Is Jokinen really going to go?

3) J. Williams in action for Chicago, did well. Will he return to his point per game form?

4) How will Detroit survive the injuries to its top three defensemen?

5) Paul Martin is underrated. Oduya is improving fast.

6) What happened to Paul Stastny tonight? Was he a healthy scratch?

Boxscore notes, Feb 22, 2008

Sens top line fails to score -- second line, with Stillman on it, comes through. Why was Foote tossed at the end of the game? Vyborny might be available in CLB, but Federov and Zherdev should not be traded.

Tampa Bay shut out, third time this year -- second time by the Islanders.

Atlanta's still Kovalchuk, Hossa, and Kozlov -- and Recchi. Where's Enstrom?

Cullen's getting the ice time -- has he really recovered? He's not scoring. Staal stepping up nicely in place of Brind'Amour.

Cheechoo scores again, and so does Knuble -- and I bench Nabokov in his first win in a while.

Pittsburgh and Montreal -- would be a great postseason series.

STL 1 LA 5, full of surprises, such as the emergence of O'Sullivan, long touted. But the biggest surprise is one win for Cloutier. Don't add him to your fantasy team just yet.

Who is Willie Mitchell?

While preditable goal scorers like Dumont and Jagr and Kovalev made their mark tonight, some surprises hit the net as well.

In ice time, Willie Mitchell notched 27 minutes, ahead of Sami Salo and M. Ohlund.

For the Senators, Vermette had a goal, and assist, and another goal in the shootout.

Ryan Malone, a rising star, got two of PIT's three third period goals.

Speaking of comebacks -- MON came from 5-0 down to win it in overtime. Of course, it was against the flameout team, the Rangers, for whom a big lead is bad news.

In Toronto, a bunch of promising kids got the points, tho Sundin had one. Maybe the team could survive trading him and Blake? Coliacovo (second goal of the season) had more ice time than Blake.

More violence

The NHL claims to be selling players like Crosby, Ovechkin, and Thornton -- but they really seem to be selling Downie, Hollweg, and Laperriere.

The Laperriere hit on Lidstrom was clean . . . but I still did not enjoy seeing it.

The hit to the face of Filpula, on the other hand, was not.

Both plays were Intent To Injure and deserved five minutes.

Pacific Divison

While everyone's complaining about the weakness of the Southeast Division, I'd like to point out that the Pacific Division has astonishing strength.

Want to fix the problems? Realign the divisions and change the postseason:

NE: BOS, MON, BUF, OTT, WASH

Atlantic: PHI, PITT, NYI, NJD, NYR

South: CAR, FLA, TB, ATL, DAL

Central: NSH, CHI, CLB, DET, TOR

NW: MIN, STL, COL, CAL, EDM,

Pacific: VAN, LA, ANH, SJ, PHO

A key element here: every conference (except South) has at least one Canadian team. Also, DET and TOR get to play each other.


Everyone plays 4 games against own division (20 games) and 2 against everyone else (50 games) for 70 games.

End of season: league rankings. No Conferences, just Divisions.


Or: 3 Divisions, with league rankings making the postseason.

4 games against division (36 games) plus 2 aginst everyone else (40 games) for 76 games.


In either case, first month of the season is cross-divisional play. Last few weeks, as this year, are within the division.

Boxscore notes, Feb 14, 2008

Brodeur STOOD ON HIS HEAD. He's back to playoff peak performance. Great for him! Dropped Commodore for Robidas before the game and could have used Commodore's 5 PIMs. But otherwise, fantasy hockey misses value of players like Commodore. It's all about hits and blocked shots.

Don't know what happened to the Sabres today but I watched the game and I can tell you they played weak today. They were outmuscled by the Rangers. The opening play reminded me of the outdoor game when Crosby scored early. Today it was Jagr with the muscle and Avery with the finish.

Dustin Brown scored again for LA. They really should give up on Cloutier. He'll make a popular minor leaguer somewhere. La Barbera, OTOH, is quite good.

What's wrong with Atlanta? The Islanders do play well occasionally but 10 shots in one game is unforgivable. Hossa needs to be traded. Perhaps a pending trade situation with Campbell led to the blowout against the Rangers today? It would serve Sabres management right if they lost Campbell on the free agent market after failing to make the playoffs. And I'm a fan of the team (just not the management).

I'm a Devils fan first, however, and am thrilled by the recent performance of the whole defence corps. Martin is playing like an all-star, Oduya is playing well, and everyone else is doing what they're supposed to. Asham did extremely well today.

Please Defend the Goalies

There's too much interference. Someone's going to get hurt.

Robidas Replaces Zubov?

When I lost Zubov, I assumed that I needed to look to another team. I've currently got Commodore, recently traded from Carolina to Ottawa. But Robidas is tempting.

Players Who Performed Well When Their Teams Did Not

Last night:

Nasville: 1 Goal. Jason Arnott: 1 Goal

Pittsburgh: 3 Goals (in loss). Lupul 1 G 1 A.