Fantasy Hockey - Fantasy Harder with a Vengance

[Flubber]

My other big question


Are the Toronto Leafs fans once again planning their parade route ??


Seriously though-- good on the Leafs to shake off an early deficet and win one. But they had to win one sooner or later. As for Tampa-- wow they underachieve -- thats 6 of 7 they have lost now.


Meanwhile Ottawa kept pace with Toronto and MOntreal won yet again. A very good night for the eastern Canadian teams.

[Flubber]

Out west


Edmonton-- that was a tough loss against a good team-- I am sure Asher enjoyed Nashville's first goal in particular

Vancouver--I know it was phoenix but you have to did what they did and just crush them. I believe Luongo faced 15 shots and it was nice to see Vancouver score for a change

calgary-- The two rookies were paired together and acquitted themselves well on a night where calgary and in particular the Iginla line dominated. Minnesota was never really in this one.

The Flames have been scary good at home as they just set a franchise record with their 10th straight home win-- a stretch when they outscored the opposition 37-11. They now sit 1 point out of first place in the division with two games in hand. The question now is whether the Flames can win consistently on the road as they head out on a six game road swing

[Flubber]

Lastly to those who might refer to Mikka as "Kippersoft"


Tied fourth in GAA 2.04
Tied 2nd in SV% .929
Tied 4th in wins with 15
Tied 1st in shutouts with four

How do you like them apples?

[Flubber]

And this quote from Nov16

Originally posted by Tingkai


against bottom feeders like St. Louis, Columbus, Chicago and Calgary.

I jjust wondered if you wanted to amend your assessment of ANY of those teams??? Perhaps even 3 of them??


Note Columbus is 6-3-1 in their last 10 and I predict that they will be above .500 the rest of the way but that their lousy start will see them fall short of the playoffs

[Flubber]

Here's the rest of my prediction

The 8 teams currently in the playoff spots in the west will all make the playoffs. If anyone falls from that group it will be Minnesota and they could be replaced by Vancouver, Colorado or Chicago but I would take a flyer on Chicago.

Division winners to be Anaheim,Calgary and Detroit

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Flubber
I jjust wondered if you wanted to amend your assessment of ANY of those teams??? Perhaps even 3 of them??

Ya know it must be the high altitude in Calgary that makes people forget their hockey sense.

Calgary ranked 18th
Chicago ranked 24th
Columbus ranked 27th

What do the three Cs have in common? They're all crap.

[Ninot]

Originally posted by Tingkai


Ya know it must be the high altitude in Calgary that makes people forget their hockey sense.

Calgary ranked 18th
Chicago ranked 24th
Columbus ranked 27th

What do the three Cs have in common? They're all crap.

And why are they winning?

[Tingkai]

Sometimes **** teams get lucky.

[Ninot]

I think Chicago and Columbus might be for real.

Chicago was winning with Havlat. With a new coach, and Havlat back, why should they not win again?

And Columbus has been expected to do this well for years. Maybe it was simply a coaching change that was needed.

[Tingkai]

And the crappy teams in the West wouldn't last long in the east where there are players who can score goals. Kippersoft looks good in the West where hardly anyone can score.

In the top ten scorers, eight are from the east and 16 out of 20 are from the east.

And no wonder. All the snipers are in the east.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Ninot
I think Chicago and Columbus might be for real.

Chicago was winning with Havlat. With a new coach, and Havlat back, why should they not win again?

And Columbus has been expected to do this weel for years. Maybe it was simply a coaching change that was needed.

Dude, I would love to se3e the Hawks be great, but you know what's going to happen. They'll start to play well and then the good players will be traded away. That's what always happen.

Lord thunderin jesus, this is still a team that won't televise local games cause they think it will hurt ticket sales.

As for Columbus, a couple of winning games does not a season make.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Tingkai


Dude, I would love to se3e the Hawks be great, but you know what's going to happen. They'll start to play well and then the good players will be traded away. That's what always happen.

Lord thunderin jesus, this is still a team that won't televise local games cause they think it will hurt ticket sales.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Tingkai


Ya know it must be the high altitude in Calgary that makes people forget their hockey sense.

Calgary ranked 18th
Chicago ranked 24th
Columbus ranked 27th

What do the three Cs have in common? They're all crap.

Interesting take since

calgary is 5 games over .500 (6-3-1 in last 10)
Toronto is ONE game over .500 (2-7-1)
Chicago is at .500 exactly (5-2-3)

Columbus is still way back but 6-3-1 in their last 10

You know I admire your dogmatic consistency. You never seem to want to consider how a team has been playing. Trends matter. I don't just look dogmatically at how many points a team has-- I also consider if the team has been improving or declining, coaching changes, injuries and just simply how they have been playing.

------------------

OH and a quibble

NHL.com has Calgary at 14th in the league-- so while they are indeed tied in points with 18th place TORONTO, I find it impossible to believe that that the fact that Calgary has played FOUR fewer games isn't noteworthy. ON winning percentage Calgary would be like 11th if we wanted to get technical but I'll accept 14th for now-- But this is all temporary right??-- its just a streak right? The fact that they have dominated some very good teams is a fluke right? Oh ya and they are a defensive shell team right-???- then how come they score more goals per game than Detroit, Dallas, Edmonton??

[Asher]

I was banned, else I'd have posted by now

Originally posted by Tingkai
And the crappy teams in the West wouldn't last long in the east where there are players who can score goals. Kippersoft looks good in the West where hardly anyone can score.

In the top ten scorers, eight are from the east and 16 out of 20 are from the east.

And no wonder. All the snipers are in the east.

Actually, the reason why so many of the top scorers are in the east is more of a function of the east's poor defensive play and porous goaltending. 7 of the top 10 goalies are in the West, the best defensemen are in the west, and the style of gameplay in the west is far more close-checking than the wide-open east. It's really like two different leagues right now.

As for the "crappy teams in the West"...they consistently win more often when the West and East played. I'd strongly recommend you learn more of what you talk about before you make such a fool of yourself.

For your convenience, here is the West's record vs the East thus far this season: 37-21-7

And last season: 78-52-19

It's clear where the "crappy" teams are. You guys are just so lucky that the East's bad defense and goaltending lets your forwards inflate their numbers to give you some sense of self-worth. Make no mistake, players like Iginla are better than players like Gionta and Sundin. I've said it a million times, but if you actually watch hockey often enough, it's really a night and day difference.

[Asher]

Speaking of Iginla vs Sundin and Gionta...I noticed Sava refuses to do the update on the scoring situation.

Iginla: 18G 19A +13 in 28 games
Sundin: 10G 13A -6 in 25 games
Gionta: 13G 10A -5 in 29 games

Also, McCabe's a +1 while Phaneuf's a +16. Interesting stat.

More fun facts:
Calgary is 1 point behind Edmonton/Minnesota for 1st place in the NW with 2 games in hand.

Iginla is now leading the NHL in even-strength scoring with 27 points.

The Flames lead the NHL at +29 (the roster is a combined +140).

The Western conference is screwed by excessive travel compared to the East. Home-ice advantage is massive.

Home-ice advantage in the NHL has been relatively consistent over time. Naturally adjustments need to be made re: the shootout and the loser-point, but so far this season (prior to last night's games), the overall numbers are right in line.

* The average team in the average game will earn 55.4% of the available points, or about 1.11pts/gm (to be clear, these are the figures that would be 50%/1.00 if there were no 3-point games).
* The home team will earn about 1.20pts/gm, and the road team will earn about 1.01pts/gm
* So, the average team will earn about 18.7% more points at home than on the road, aka the home ice advantage is 18.7%

To date this season:

* Eastern Conference home-ice advantage = 3.6%
* Western Conference home-ice advantage = 36.7%

By division, home-ice advantage is ranked like so:

1. Northwest: 60.9%
2. Pacific: 33.3%
3. Central: 16.8%
4. Southeast: 9.3%
5. Atlantic: 9.1%
6. Northeast: -5.6%

13 of the top 16 teams ranked this way are from the WC (the Devils, Panthers, and Hurricanes are the only teams who can actually claim that they have a home-ice advantage). There are 12 teams with worse records at home than on the road (though not by a ton) -- 11 are from the EC.