This Month in Fantasy Sports - November

As we may recall, the past two months, I have done a spotlight on one of my Fantasy Hockey Teams.  As you may not recall, I made a few changes last month, and at the end of it all my roster was as follows:

C - LeCavalier, Jokinen, Staal, Prospal,
RW - Jagr, Guerin, Radulov, Knuble, Goddard
LW - Holmstrom, Brown, Brashear, Clowe
D - Rafalski,  Campbell, Redden, O'Brean, Aucoin
G - Nabokov, Budaj, Price

IR - Schneider

Further reminder that every day you can dress 3 each of C, RW, LW, G, plus 4 D, and 2 other Forwards.  Also, that skaters get points as follows:  1 G, 1 A, 0.75 +/-, .5 PPG, .5 PPP, .5, SHG, .5 GWG. .5 PIM, and that goalies get 2 points for a win and 3 for a shutout.

Over the course of the past month I made the following changes:

Drop - Add

LW  Clowe - C Gratton
Activate D Schneider - LW Brashear
D O'Brien - RW Clarkson
RW Clarkson - LW Chimera
RW Guerin - RW Lupul
C Gratton - C Carter

So once again, a fair amount of moves, however this time it seemed to centre around a handful of players.  After Clowe went down with an injury, Chris Gratton was added, and he gave some dividends, racking up a bunch of penalty minutes, with the odd goal here or there, however the temptation for Jeff Carter was too much to handle.  Carter has played well at both ends of the ice, and his name keeps floating in trade rumours, so I expect him to explode if he moves teams.   After I raved about Shane O'Brien last time, I realized that I had one to many D-Men after  Schneider came back so I let him go for another goon upfront.  However, after a few days I noticed that I had cut two left wingers, and even with Prospal being awarded dual position eligibility, I was short on my west side.  So I went back to a solid two way player that I had originally drafted (and subsequently cut) in Jason Chimera.  He has been doing really well at both ends of the ice playing for one of the league's most surprising teams so far.  Lastly, Bill Guerin was slumping of late and really starting to add up on the minus side of things, so I went with the rising Joffrey Lupul.

I was offered a trade for Carey Price, but I plan on sticking to this guy for a little bit longer.  Well for now at least, I'm sure I could have him lured away for the right amount of help up front, but I have a soft spot for Price, and my arm may take some twisting to want to give him up.

The biggest boost to my team came from Yahoo themselves, when they changed the positional eligibility of the players.  They recently updated it so that many forwards can be used to play at multiple positions.  This has helped me immensely as both Brown and Holmstrom are able to play Left or Right Wing, while Prospal is able to play Centre or Left Winger.  This gives me something that I never had before, options.  It is incredibly helpful as it lets you get more of your forwards playing on any given night, and since forwards are the ones who score most of the goals, it is immeasurably helpful.  So my advice to you this month, is pay attention to positional eligibility!!!!  A centre/left winger is far more valuable than just a straight centre, since they can increase your chances of getting more players (and therefore more points) on any given night.

Just so you know, I am currently 80 points ahead of 2nd place in the league, I topped out at 90 a week ago.  My Christmas wish is to be 100 points ahead of 2nd place...But who know, maybe I'm dreaming, but sometimes miracles do happen.  Take care and happy pooling!!!

Until next time,

G