10/28/2008

Waiver wire updates

Unbelievably, there were Two bids on D-man rfa Staios' services, by the Shadowmen and the Bladerunnners... Well, the bladerunners crushed the Shadowmen [again] on the week and continue to trash them in the standings.

ERGO...Staios is awarded to the Shadowmen [for now] They drop Morris-PHX D RFA INJ to the Waiver wire for Week 5 bids.

Meanwhile, P3 RW Kessel-BST was brought up by the Great Whites and RW from NJ Langenbrunner RFA was deep sixed to the Waiver wire for Week 5 bids.

Therefore 2 rfas for the bidding on the Waiver wire for Week 5 bids with line-ups:

RW Langenbrunner-NJ
D Morris-PHX inj

Chose wisely...

10/27/2008

Gainey's got it right


Once upon a time Craig Ludwig was an anomaly. He wore extra padding under his shin guards, and his legs looked like the lower body equivalent of Popeye's forearms.

Why? Because as a defensive specialist he had made himself into the teams designated shot blocker.

Sure enough late in games you could count on Ludwig to throw himself in front of some MacInnis cannon drive that no other sentient being would even consider trying to stop. And an otherwise medium grade defenseman made himself invaluable.

Nowadays of course even the rawest rookie is expected to hurl his armor coated body in front of every shot. When Edmonton marched unexpectedly to the Cup finals a couple years back one thing everyone remarked on was how few shots were getting through to Roloson. The reason was simple, every member of the Oilers blocked every shot every time they could. They flooped worse then the GM of the Ramapithicines playing soccer.

Does anyone else recall how mechanically timed the Oilers were? How they lay down like bowling pins every time a shot was lined up?

Bob Gainey has the answer - just stop it.

10/26/2008

Week Four Line-ups

Hi guys,

With no games on Sunday some of you have already posted line-ups by e-mail. Bob (or others) if you can re-post them collectively here - please do so.

I believe only D S.Staios EDM rfa is available on the waiver wire but if there are others - please correct me.

Week 3 Ends With Scourge On Top, Severed Heads Have Best Week





No games on Sunday so this is it for Week 3.

10/25/2008

Scourge 1st to cross 100pts




Big nights by a couple of teams but the lead belongs to the Scourge.

10/24/2008

Week Three Stats - Calgary Edition





Sorry there were no stats yesterday. I'm in Calgary for a couple of days on work-related matters but these are updated as of last night's games. It was really good to hook up with Brian last night but, alas, we couldn't come up with a trade :-)

I made a mistake with the last stats I had posted (missing one of Bob's players previous week's points) but it is now corrected. If anyone spots any other problems with the stats - let me know.

Tradelines are open.

10/22/2008

Waiver Wire for Week 4 Line-ups

ONLY 1 name due to a Lost Boy Prospect promotion...

D Staios-EDM RFA has been cut adrift with the vain hope he'll be bid on......

Lost Boys Make A Move Up The Standings




The season is early but the Lost Boys had a relatively good night and move up the standings into 5th. Not earth-shattering news but its always better to be in the top-half of the pool as opposed to the bottom half.

In completely self-interested news - M.Kiprusoff had a good night last night allowing only one goal for his best game of the season. If holding the high-octane Caps (of Ovechkin, Semin and Green fame) to a single tally is a sign that Kipper's annual October funk is coming to a close Flame fans, and Highlander fans, couldn't be happier.

As always, let me know if you spot any discrepancies and please, if you can, detail what you think I should be showing you as having as that may go a long way to getting the problem identified.

10/21/2008

I am back online

Week Three Underway




I received, by e-mail or on the blog, line-ups from everyone save Dan - who, if I've missed his line-up, needs to let me know.

If anyone notices any discrepencies with their points, again - let me know.

The Scourge are looking to lead for two weeks in a row - and indeed to expand their lead on the pack but remember: "Mr. October is only a compliment in baseball, not hockey."

10/20/2008

Week Two Stats - Chris' Cutout Edition




Sorry for the lack of updates on the weekend but time was not my friend.

I noticed a few errors in the goaltending stats, as well as a couple of differences that Brian noticed, but think I have things ironed out for now. Still, if you notice any discrepencies - let me know.

Congrats to Chris and Darrell for monster weeks this past week and congrat so Chris for ending a week atop the standings, for the first time if I'm not mistaken.

10/17/2008

Week 3 line-up

Due to our move this weekend, and the fact we will not have internet service until tuesday, here is the Knights week 3 line-up.

LW
Tanguay Mtl FP
Cole Edm
Lucic Bos RFA TG
Bench Kunitz Ana

C
Ribiero Dal
Kopitar LA P4
Lang Mtl RFA
Bench Arnott Nsh

RW
Hejduk Col FP
Kane Chi P2
Zherdev NYR
Bench Stortini Edm RFA

D
Burns Min
Rafalski Det
Weber Nsh P4
A. Markov Mtl
Klesla Cbs RFA
Salei Col RFA TG
Bench Koistonen Nsh RFA
Bench Krajicek Van RFA

G
Biron Phi P4
Bench Bryzgalov Pho

Predator Cup and Challenge Cup Stats




Brian has already noted a couple of possible discrepencies - which we are trying to track down - so please double check your own stats if nothing else. Still, a week and a half in and we are now up and running so I'm pretty pleased. As for the standing of my Highlanders, well that might be a different story.

10/16/2008

Challenge Cup Week 1 Results - Neutral Site Game



Will try and get the current week's game up tomorrow - if time permits.

Obviously, I haven't resorted the standings (its a consequence of my efforts to get the rest of the spreadsheet ready).

WW TO CLARIFY; 1ST COACH FIRED

WAIVER WIRE ADDITION: LW RYAN CLOWE SJ RFA

Other notes...Dennis Savard fired after 4 games? WTF?

Scourge Continue To Lead



In Court most of today so it's unlikely I'll be able to get much more done on Challenge Cup, Omnivore or moving to Yahoo as a stats source but I'll keep plugging away. Good omen for the Highlanders - Kipper's trending in the right direction 6 GA, 5 GA, 4 GA and now two straight games against Edmonton!

10/15/2008

Waiver Wire Winners!

So Winners:

Bladerunners get Antropov-C TOR RFA

Personal Vendetta get Knuble-R PHI RFA

Shadowmen get Lehtonen-G ATL RFA

All the other waiver wire
guys are flushed to no status in the abyss.

But ready for bidding on with week 3 line-ups:

Fisher-C OTT RFA

Walker-R CAR RFA INJURED
Fe
rnandez-G BST RFA

Have Fun...

Updated Predator Cup Stats - As of October 14th Games



Ok, now I have stats as of last night. As always, please let me know of any errors.

I'll see about getting the Challenge Cup and Omnivore standings up soon.

Week One Stats



Hi Guys,

Sorry for the delay (but remember, last year I didn't get these up until Week 4).

I hope to have up to the minute stats by later in the week - possibly by later today - but here are the stats as of last Sunday.

The NHL has thrown us another stats curve, they are now posting PIM on a different page than they give out pts and +/- (something I noted earlier) and now they are NOT including goalie MinutesPlayed in any of their goalie stats! This has required me to calculate the MinutesPlayed backwards by pulling them out of the GAA using GA. Not ideal.

Bob has pointed out that Yahoo Sports has their stats set out as has traditionally been the case - not sure if they are getting a different stats pack from the NHL or if they are just converting it all in-house, but I have not set up my spreadsheet to use this source just yet - though I am seriously considering it.

Anyhow, thought you would want to know where we are right now.

As always, if you note any diffences with your own calculations - let me know.

I'll leave it to someone else (Bob, if you like) to figure out the Waiver Wire winners.

I hope to have the Challenge Cup and Omnivore standings up soon as well but for now this will have to suffice.

10/13/2008

The New Anthem

More bad luck for Templar Prospects

New York Ranger prospect Alexei Cherepanov collapsed on the bench at or near the end of Omsk's Kontinental Hockey League game today.

Medical personnel were attempting to revive him.

No further details are available at this point.

Cherepanov's agent, Jay Grossman told TSN that because of fragmented information he is uncertain of the 19-year-old's condition.

Grossman said that according to an eye witness report, Cherepanov was body checked, got up and skated to the bench where he collapsed and his heart stopped, prompting CPR.

Cherepanov was drafted by the Rangers in the 1st round, 17th overall, in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.


http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=252547&lid=headline&lpos=secStory_main

Week 2 Line-ups Due Today by 6:00

Hi Guys,

Hope to have the stats out in the next day or two - again, sorry for the delay - but they should be out in time to determine all the waiver wire bids.

We still need line-ups in for week 2, though.

10/12/2008

Me Heart Jarome



"Mama said Knock You Out"-LL Cool J

IMPORTANT DATES: 2008-09 SEASON

WAIVER DRAFT 1

* Saturday, November 29 (location and start time tbd)
* a rare special appearance being made by the Wolves GM so hopefully we can get a good 'in person' turnout)
* occurring during week 8 of the season

WAIVER DRAFT 2

* date, location, start time tbd
* suggest three possible weekends: Jan 24/25 (all -star weekend and during week 16) OR Jan 31/Feb 1 (during week 17) OR Feb 7/8 (during week 18)

TRADE DEADLINE

* Monday, March 9 at 6 PM MST (NHL trade deadline is Tue, March 2); this is start of week 23 so 5 solid weeks left after our deadline

10/11/2008

Waiver Wire -> Bids with Week 2 Line-Ups

The Waiver Wire after DROPS in week 1 are the following:

At Centre the following players are available to bid on:

Krecji-BST RFA
M
odano-DAL RFA
Comrie-NYI RFA
Antropov-TOR RFA

At Right Wing the following player is available to bid on:

Knuble-PHI RFA

At Defence the following player is available to bid on:

A.Picard-OTT RFA

At Goal the following player is available to bid on:

Kari Lehtinen-ATL RFA

So If there aWeere no bids on these players they will vanish into the abyss and lose their rfa status! Bid if you wish with your Week 2 Line-up.

10/08/2008

NHL Creates Delay In Stats

Hi Guys,

Slaving away on getting the spreadsheet up and running. Things are going well but expect some delays for run of the mill stuff - like entering everyone's line-up (thanks again to Bob for not trading his entire team prior to the start of the season - much appreciated).

One hic-up I was not expecting was that the NHL has, apparently, re-designed their stats package that is sent out to TSN, ESPN, and CBS-Sportsline. They have removed the PIM (and other stats) from the main stats page. This will require me to create a whole new series of stats pages for the spreadsheet devoted to PIM (as I already do for goalie stats). Not difficult in theory, just cumbesome.

I'm hoping that this is just a temporary thing until the North American leg opens up but it looks pretty well established on the NHL.com site so we may be stuck with it.

Anyhow, it may delay me a little longer than I thought but I'll keep you posted.

Doug

10/01/2008

Line-ups for Week One Due Friday at 6:00 p.m. Mountain

Hi Guys,

Week One starts this weekend with the European games on Saturday October 4th and Sunday October 5th. Week One "resumes" with the North American games on Thursday October 9th and continues until Sunday October 12th.

I would love to say that I'm all ready to go with my stats sheet for this weekend's games but, well, I'm not. I'm hoping that I will be ready to go once the North American puck hits the ice but no guarantees.

That said, the Challenge Cup games are also set to get going with the following Week One Neutral Site Games on tap:

Wk1
Bladerunners vs Shadowmen
Great Whites vs Wolves
Ramapithicines vs Lost Boys
Highlanders vs Edge
Personal Vendetta vs Scourge
Knights Templar vs Severed Heads

Drop the puck!