Week 3 in my Yahoo fantasy hockey league is in the books, and I am starting to get a feel for the game. After starting of dead last after the first week, I have moved up to the 6th spot, which is the last playoff spot if the season ended today. Obviously it doesn’t with lots of season left, so let’s look at what went well and what to work on in week 4.
Start with goal tending
My group of goalies did well this week, allowing me to win go 2-1-1 in the 4 categories for goal tending. I unfortunately fell short on the wins column, only getting 2 wins while my opponent had 4, but barely snuck by with a 2.80 goals against average with them having a 2.82, and a .901 save percentage against a .897.
Both Ben Bishop and Carter Hutton led the way, with my pair of Edmonton goalies, Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen, struggling a little this week without a win for either of them. Bishop and Hutton each had a win and a sub 3.00 goals against average, with Bishops being a very nice 1.52!
Stars starting to show up
Not necessarily talking about the Dallas Stars, although Ben Bishop did his job this week. Talking about my top draft picks, Brad Marchand and Claude Giroux. Marchand finished the week with 3 goals, 4 assists with 9 shots on goal and a nice 6 +/-, while Giroux had 2 goals and an assist on 13 shots on goal, with a 7 +/- and 7 hits as well.
Viktor Arvidsson also had a nice week, with 2 goals and an assist on 6 shots on goal, and threw in 2 hits for good measure. His 3 plus/minus definitely helped with my nice advantage of that category this week.
Still looking for the others to step up, including those Dallas Stars I just mentioned like Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov. They combined for 1 assist on 18 shots on goal, with a -3 combined on their +/-.
Offensively Looking Good
Just having solid goal tending will not win you many match ups in fantasy hockey, and this is no exception. I was able to win 4 of the 6 categories here, with 11 goals against 7, 90 shots on goals against 86, and 38 hits over 28. I also had a very solid plus/minus of 11 versus my opponents -7.
I fell short in assists, only getting 14 while my opponent had 18, and had only 6 power play points against their 11. Overall a very good week though, going a total of 6-3-1 this week.
Standings
So after the dust settled for week 3, I stood with a total record of 16-13-1. Placing me in the 6th spot. That gives me 33 points total (2 points for each “win”, and 1 point for each tie). There are 2 teams ahead of me tied with 37 points, then a couple more at 38 and 39 points respectfully. The top team has a nice advantage sitting at 44 points.
The next closest team is sitting at 28 points with the rest following suit behind them.
Roster Changes
The only addition I made to my team this week was adding Jacob Silfverberg from the Anaheim Ducks while dropping Sammy Blais of the St. Louis Blues. Blais did not add much in the 2 games of his teams 4 that they played, with no points and a -2 plus/minus, unfortunately neither did Silfverberg, although he did get 1 goal. Hopefully he returns to the form that he had before, scoring in 3 straight games before I added him.
I do not see any changes that I want to make this week, although there are some players that are not playing up to their standards. I will continue to look over the waiver wire but for now this team is looking good.
Looking ahead to week 4
Should be a relatively easy week in week 4, my opponent, Time for the Foil, is currently 11th in the standings. They have a record of 8-21-1, for 17 total points, which is obviously not very good. This will be a good week to pad my stats and possibly move closer to the fifth spot and safer in the playoff hunt.
Obviously still have to stay vigilant and make sure all the players are in, especially on the goaltenders. There are multiple nights where a goalie will sit one out, especially on the back-to-back games. With having both goalies from Edmonton, I do not want to have the goalie not starting in my lineup of course. There are 2 nights when almost every player I have is playing, so I need to make sure the right players are in.
If you have been following along since the draft, thank you so much! Please leave a comment below and let me know how you think the season is going! Or if you have any questions please leave them here as well! And as always, if you are interested in playing yourself, head over to my Fanduel review to draft you own team. Thanks again and have a great week!
Leave a Reply