Last weekend the Stanley Cup Champions Chicago Blackhawks visited the West Coast. They lost to the Calgary Flames 7-2 but the next night they beat the Vancouver Canucks 7-1. This week both the Canucks and Flames have rematches with Blackhawks. Chicago was embarrassed by one of the worst teams in the NHL so look for them to have a big bounce-back game. Canuck fans are tired of seeing the Blackhawks score on Roberto Luongo so you might see Cory Schneider start that game just to change things up. Either way should be a couple of exciting games to end the week.
Games to be played in week nine:
- Four Games: Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Minnesota, Nashville, NY Rangers, Ottawa, Phoenix and St. Louis
- Three Games: Atlanta, Boston, Carolina, Chicago, Colorado, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Los Angeles, Montreal, NY Islanders, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington
- Two Games: Buffalo and New Jersey
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 26, 2010:
- HOME: Anaheim (7-3-1), Chicago (5-7-0) and Toronto (6-4-2)
- AWAY: Atlanta (4-4-2), Detroit (4-3-0) and Florida (4-7-0)
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 up Week 8):
- Anaheim (2-2), Calgary (2-1), Chicago (1-1), NY Islanders (0-1), NY Rangers (2-1), Ottawa (0-0), Philadelphia (0-1), Phoenix (1-2), St. Louis (1-0) and Vancouver (1-1)
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 up to Week 8):
- Boston (2-2), Buffalo (2-5), Carolina (2-3), Colorado (2-2), Columbus (4-0), Detroit (1-1), Edmonton (1-1), Florida (0-4), Minnesota (1-4), Montreal (1-2), Nashville (2-1), NY Islanders (1-4), NY Rangers (5-0), Ottawa (0-2), Philadelphia (2-2) and Washington (2-2)
- Phoenix (1-4) and St. Louis (3-1) both play two sets of back-to-back games this week.
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 19, 2010:
- TOP FIVE: Columbus (8-2-0), Phoenix (7-1-2), Detroit (7-2-1), Philadelphia (7-2-1) and Pittsburgh (7-2-1)
- BOTTOM FIVE: NY Islanders (0-7-3), Calgary (2-6-2), Edmonton (3-5-2), Toronto (3-5-2) and New Jersey (4-5-1)
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 19, 2010 for the past 7 and 14 days:
- SKATER PAST 7: Jarome Iginla-CAL (4GP 6G 1A), Sidney Crosby-PIT (3GP 2G 5A), Matt Duchene-COL (4GP 3G 3A), Rick Nash-CLB (4GP 5G) and Kevin Shattenkirk-COL (4GP 2G 3A)
- SKATER PAST 14: Sidney Crosby-PIT (7GP 5G 9A), Steven Stamkos-TAM (7GP 7G 5A), Martin St. Louis-TAM (7GP 2G 10A), John-Michael Liles-COL (8GP 4G 7A) and Mike Richards-PHI (7GP 5G 5A)
- GOALTENDERS PAST 14: Ilya Bryzgalov-PHO (6GS 6W 1SO), Marc-Andre Fleury-PIT (7GS 6W 1SO), Carey Price-MON (6GS 4W 2SO), Mike Smith-TAM (4GS 4W) and Steve Mason-CLB (4GS 3W 1SO)
Fantasy Hockey Coach Brouwer
"Because 2nd place is the 1st loser!"
www.fantasyhockeycoach.com
