The final week is here! Hopefully you have won some fantasy hockey titles along the way. While two of our own, Bruce Hollingdrake and Fred Poulin fight it out for The Hockey Writers rotisserie league title, there are still some leagues I will be battling for glory. Then again, Mr. Hollingdrake has a double digit lead that seems to be expanding. I guess an early congratulations would be in order based on projections. Again, that is not the focus here but in our head to head keeper league this week.
Season long and dynasty fantasy hockey leagues do have some similarities to daily leagues in this one sense. There is always that one turning moment. It may not even happen that week necessarily but it most definitely decides the issue so to speak. If you think I am kidding, try the two match-ups in the THW Live Keeper League last week on for size.
#2 Quebec City Slashers Vs. #6 The Phunky Buddaz — 5-4-1 QC
Wow! This one was honestly closer than anybody expected. Fred Poulin probably has one of the more stacked offenses I have seen in fantasy circles in sometime. Yet Curtis Lanton would be undeterred as he went nose to nose with one of the fantasy beasts and nearly toppled him. There were some talked about controversy in this one and for that we bring you the following illustration.
| GOALIES | APR 21 | TOTAL GOALTENDING | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLAYER, TEAM POS | GAMES: OPPONENTS | GS | W | GA | SV | SO | MIN | GAA | SV% | |
Jonas Hiller, Ana G |
3: Cls, @Cgy, @Edm | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
Anton Khudobin, Bos G |
5: Ott, Buf, Pit (2), Fla | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Marc-Andre Fleury, Pit G |
3: Mon, @Bos (2) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| TOTALS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | .000 | ||
This really happened. It is not a misprint. Fred actually had some extremely bad luck in goaltending decisions last week. It seemed one guy would start when another one was expected to every single time. Actually it has continued into this week with Marc-Andre Fleury out on Monday night due to his wife giving birth. Injuries, last minute shuffling, and yes childbirth are all reasons that fantasy hockey owners get driven crazy this time of year and it can cost. In a stunning turn of events, this did not cost Mr. Poulin as even if you penalized him for having no goalie stats, a 5-5 tie would have advanced him anyway. That is because the higher seed advances according to the ESPN tiebreaker rules. Oh and his team beat the Buddaz in an earlier clash.
You are going to ask how did Fred win, despite the goaltending? Honestly, his offense was lights out. If you even think I am remotely kidding then you need to take a look at this.
| TEAM | SKATERS | GOALIES | TOTAL | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAME | G | A | ATOI | SOG | BLK | STP | W | SO | GAA | SV% | SCORE | |||
| #6 The Phunky Buddaz | 12 | 26 | 18:28 | 125 | 63 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 2.482 | .9148 | 4-5-1 | |||
| #2 Quebec City Slashers | 18 | 36 | 19:04 | 168 | 58 | 18 | 0 | 0 | INF | .0000 | 5-4-1 | |||
That will leave a mark! The simplest way we could break this down was while Curtis only had one fantasy player with five or more points, Fred had four. Fred also had five guys with ten or more shots on goal (Zach Parise had 19) while Curtis only had two. The disparity just became too obvious on the offensive side of things. Throw out the blocks and it looked like the QC Slashers were a hockey offensive juggernaut. That is the way Fred’s team has been most of the season.
The unfortunate part for Curtis is that most weeks his offense and goaltending combined was probably enough to win. Sometimes you just run into a chainsaw and other times you are the chainsaw (Quote Ash from the “Evil Dead” franchise). People often wonder where is the justice in fantasy sports? Honestly the Head To Head format just sometimes does not deliver there.
Now if you think that was bad, then there is the second semifinal that saw the undefeated Polish Express go up against those pesky Jersey Devils.
#5 Jersey Devils Vs. #1 Polish Express — Jersey wins 7-2-1
This one was not as big of an upset as it looked. Let’s be honest. The four semifinalists were very good all year except for the five seed in the first couple months. Hey, that is a minor detail in the grand scheme of things. Basically the Polish Express had not been handed a single defeat since she joined the league last year. If you add up the weeks, that would be a 37 week winning streak. Rachel’s knowledge of hockey is truly something special and refreshing. However, all it takes is that one pivotal moment and that was Monday in this clash.
When looking at the rosters and then one combines the postponements from the Boston Marathon Bombings, the perfect storm did set up. There was an opportunity and a chance to take advantage of the situation in schedule stacking. It also did not hurt to have Brian Elliott on the squad as seen here.
| GOALIES | APR 21 | TOTAL GOALTENDING | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLAYER, TEAM POS | GAMES: OPPONENTS | GS | W | GA | SV | SO | MIN | GAA | SV% | |
| Brian Elliott, StL G |
4: Van, Pho, Dal, @Col | 3 | 3 | 3 | 75 | 0 | 189 | 0.95 | .962 | |
| TOTALS | 3 | 3 | 3 | 75 | 0 | 189 | 0.95 | .962 | ||
Three wins strategically placed can pretty much put the hammer down with a low GAA and high save percentage. From there it was a question of just poaching two more categories and the berth in the finals would be sealed. The fact that goals and assists were two of those plus the usual SOG (shots on goal) and blocks were a bonus.
| TEAM | SKATERS | GOALIES | TOTAL | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAME | G | A | ATOI | SOG | BLK | STP | W | SO | GAA | SV% | SCORE | |||
| #5 Jersey Devils | 18 | 23 | 19:19 | 164 | 72 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0.950 | .9615 | 7-2-1 | |||
| #1 Polish Express | 15 | 19 | 19:25 | 153 | 73 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3.204 | .8870 | 2-7-1 | |||
In the end, it was mostly luck that propelled the two finalists with just enough skill to get there. Fantasy hockey often is more than 50% luck to be quite frank. However, when your team is able to be 50+ games over .500 two years in a row with a completely different roster, that is one very impressive accomplishment.
I wanted to personally thank Rachel Cena for showing women everywhere that they can not only compete against the guys but they can wipe the walls with them whether it is fantasy hockey or whatever arena of sport or life is out there. Also, a little humble pie served to yours truly is sometimes very much deserved.
Next week, we will crown a champion. Will it be Quebec City or Jersey? Stay tuned!