This off-season the Montreal Canadiens had a hard choice to make in whom to keep as their #1 goaltender, Carey Price or Jaroslav Halak? They decided to keep Price and ship Halak off to St. Louis. Now six weeks into the season did they make the right choice? Halak has started 12 games and is posting an 8-2-2 record with 3 shutouts, a 1.79 GAA and a SV% of 0.932. Price has started 15 games and is posting a 9-5-1 record with 2 shutouts, a 2.19 GAA and a SV% of 0.923. Heading into Saturday’s games both Montreal and St. Louis had 21 points overall. Price has bounced back nicely after two disappointing seasons and is proving Bob Gainey right for keeping him.
Games to be played in week seven:
- Four Games: Anaheim, Boston, Buffalo, Colorado, Los Angeles, Rangers, Philadelphia, San Jose, St. Louis and Vancouver
- Three Games: Atlanta, Calgary, Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Edmonton, Florida, Minnesota, Montreal, Nashville, New Jersey, Islanders, Ottawa, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Washington
When it comes to dressing your players for the upcoming week, especially your goalies, it is important to know which team is on a long road trip and which team is enjoying an extended period at home. Listed below are the teams that play all their games at home or on the road (minimum two games) and their home/road records up to November 13, 2010:
- HOME: Atlanta (3-3-1), Dallas (5-3-0), Detroit (6-1-1), Montreal (4-3-1) and Pittsburgh (3-5-0)
- AWAY: Chicago (4-2-1), Columbus (4-1-0), Florida (2-5-0), Nashville (4-4-0), New Jersey (4-5-0), Ottawa (3-3-1), Phoenix (3-3-2) and Tampa Bay (4-5-1)
If you participate in any type of head-to-head hockey pool then you are likely dressing a lineup for each scoring period, which usually ends on Sunday. As the week comes to an end and you find yourself in a close battle for those wins you want as many players as possible playing for you. Here are the teams that play on Sunday (record for Sunday games):
- Anaheim (2-0), Atlanta (0-0), Calgary (2-0), Detroit (0-0), Edmonton (2-0), Islanders (0-0), Phoenix (0-2) and Vancouver (1-0)
When you are deciding which goalie to dress you need to look at the NHL schedule to see if your goalie's team will play in a back-to-back game that week. Most coaches will not dress the same goalie in back-to-back games so that is something to consider when you are thinking about which goalie to dress for the week. Here are the teams that play in back-to-back games this week (record of second game of back-to-back):
- Anaheim (1-2), Boston (1-1), Buffalo (2-3), Carolina (2-2), Chicago (2-2), Colorado (1-1), Columbus (3-0), Florida (0-2), Los Angeles (1-2), Minnesota (1-2), Islanders (1-2), Rangers (3-0), Philadelphia (2-1), San Jose (0-2), St. Louis (2-0), Tampa Bay (2-1), Vancouver (1-1) and Washington (1-1)
Knowing which team is on a hot streak or cold streak will help in making your lineup decisions, for example you definitely want to dress a goalie from teams that are on a hot streak. Here are the top five and bottom five teams up to November 13, 2010:
- TOP FIVE: Philadelphia (8-1-1), Washington (8-2-0), Los Angeles (8-2-0), St. Louis (7-1-2) and Vancouver (7-2-1)
- BOTTOM FIVE: Islanders (1-8-1), Toronto (1-7-2), Edmonton (2-5-3), Chicago (3-7-0) and New Jersey (3-6-1)
Most elite stars are consistent scorers, but there are several players who are very streaky so keep an eye on their stats so that you can dress them while they are on a hot streak. Here are the top five scorers up to November 13, 2010 for the past 7 and 14 days:
- SKATER PAST 7: Steven Stamkos-TAM (4GP 5G 2A), Alexander Semin-WAS (3GP 4G 3A), Sidney Crosby-PIT (3GP 3G 4A), Saku Koivu-ANA (4GP 4G 2A) and Eric Staal-CAR (3GP 2G 4A)
- SKATER PAST 14: Alexander Semin-WAS (6GP 7G 6A), Alexander Ovechkin-WAS (6GP 4G 9A), Nicklas Backstrom-WAS (6GP 1G 11A), Sidney Crosby-PIT (6GP 5G 6A), Steven Stamkos-TAM (7GP 7G 2A)
- GOALTENDERS PAST 14: Jonas Hiller-ANA (5GS 5W), Roberto Luongo-VAN (5GS 4W 1SO), Sergei Bobrovsky-PHI (6GS 5W), Mathieu Garon-CLB (3GS 2W 2SO) and Dan Ellis-TAM (4GS 2W 2SO)
Fantasy Hockey Coach Brouwer
"Because 2nd place is the 1st loser!"
http://fantasyhockeycoach.com
