Fantasy Hockey - Coming up on the Halfway Point

[notyoueither]

Incidently, Sava wanted to initiate this exchange. Thanks for complying.

[Asher]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Incidently, Sava wanted to initiate this exchange. Thanks for complying.

You have no one to blame but yourself.

I talk hockey, as usual, and you come out swinging with the personal attacks pretty early. Then the thread degenerates quite a bit, and then as usual you blame me. It's a tired circle, really.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Asher


I do not know how you think this line of argument is not personal.

Perhaps one day you'll have a strong enough argument to argue in this thread based on, you know, hockey stuff.

In the meantime, as a friend, I have noticed you are agitated and clearly in a depressive funk right now. As such, I have taken the liberty of opening up a therapy thread for you in the OTF. Please join us there.

This is as personal as you let it be, sweetheart. It is no more personal than you get with Tingkai by questioning where he lives as if that means ****.

I am discussing your own words, not you. You were flat out wrong and ran with it like a dumbass. Unlike some other situations, this one you are demonstrably wrong. Live with it.

[Asher]

Originally posted by notyoueither
I am discussing your own words, not you. You were flat out wrong and ran with it like a dumbass. Unlike some other situations, this one you are demonstrably wrong. Live with it.

WTF?

I have conceded long ago. Well before you even brought this up.

You brought it up because you were making ridiculous rationalizations for Hemsky, got cornered, and wanted to change the subject. You're fooling no one.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Asher

You have no one to blame but yourself.

I talk hockey, as usual, and you come out swinging with the personal attacks pretty early. Then the thread degenerates quite a bit, and then as usual you blame me. It's a tired circle, really.

I'm talking about your talk about hockey.

Learn to check your swing if the fool you've made of yourself does not wear well.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Flubber
IOh and the thing I find somewhat amusing is that "some" have slammed Kipper's play of late and it is true that it has been one of his weaker stretches. yet the Flames went 5-4-1 in their last 10.

HOW could this be? I "know" from this thread that the Flames are "crap" (just like Columbus and Chicago eh?)

4-5-1 now.

What I find interesting is that yesterday, 42 points put the Flames in third spot in the West, while 42 points put the Leafs in seventh. We could end up with a situation where a team with say 90 points finishes out of the playoffs in the east, while 90 points might be enough to finish at the top of the Northwest division.

As for the Flames play of late, out of four wins, two came against LA (one of the worst teams in the league) and one against Pheonix (another powerhouse).

So crap was flushing crap.

[Ming]

Asher and NYE... why don't you guys chill. This act is getting very old!

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Tingkai


4-5-1 now.

Not the record I want to see but it was in stretch where for 8 of those games they were missing their top d-man this year (Hamrlik) and for most of that stretch Kipper has not been as excellent as he usually is.

After a very hot stretch I expected that the Flames would cool off some and that is exactly what happened

Originally posted by Tingkai
As for the Flames play of late, out of four wins, two came against LA (one of the worst teams in the league) and one against Pheonix (another powerhouse).

So crap was flushing crap.

and all the losses came against the the Sharks, Ducks and Canucks. The Sharks and Ducks are among the elite of the league while the Canucks have played well lately plus Luongo has been exceptional. Basically the Flames record lately comes down to the fact that the Canucks beat them 4 times. I'm disappointed with this but these things happen

Originally posted by Tingkai

What I find interesting is that yesterday, 42 points put the Flames in third spot in the West, while 42 points put the Leafs in seventh. We could end up with a situation where a team with say 90 points finishes out of the playoffs in the east, while 90 points might be enough to finish at the top of the Northwest division.

Its called parity in a division where there is not one weak team and none of them is an elite team either.

Oh and TODAY 42 points gets you 8th place in both the east and the west. I find your scenario highly unlikely anyway. The Leafs after all are on a pace to get 84 points while the Flames winning percentage does translate to 90 points.

But even if your sceario occurred, SO WHAT?? Last time we checked, the West had a winning record overall against the East so you can't be implying in any way that an eastern team with more points is more deserving of a playoff spoy than a western team with one point fewer? THat seems ludicrous given how they play 72 of 82 games within their own conference.

[Flubber]

To follow up, the west and east have played 83 games as of last night

The west has a record of 48-28-7 while the east is 35-38-10 so no matter which way you read the stats, the west has been "better".

If it happens that a western team makes the playoffs with fewer points than an eastern non-playoff team, this will be due to the distribution of the points within the conference. Since there are more very good teams in the west (ie with 50 plus points) it would not shock me at all if the threshold in the west were a couple of points higher.

But again, these teams play 72 games of 82 in their own conference so its difficult to draw any comparisons by number of points

[Kontiki]

Ottawa trades for Comrie:

The Ottawa Senators have acquired forward Mike Comrie from the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for center Alexei Kaigorodov.

Comrie has seven goals and 13 assists in 24 games this season. He missed 14 games earlier this season with a fractured right foot. Since returning, he has recorded nine points in his last 11 games.

The 26-year-old Comrie is earning $3 million US this season and will be an unrestricted free agent July 1.

Kaigorodov, a second round pick of the Senators in 2002, was signed to a two year deal back in September and appeared in just six games for Ottawa this season, collecting one assist. He was suspended in November for refusing an assignment to Binghampton of the AHL.

The trade comes a day after the Senators lost forward Petr Nedved to the Edmonton Oilers on waivers. With top two centres Jason Spezza and Mike Fisher out with knee injuries, Senators GM John Muckler has been working the phones over the past few days trying to find some help.

The Coyotes had a surplus at centre after the return of Steve Reinprecht and Comrie didn't fit into their future plans this summer. The Senators were seen by many as needing a centre even before the injuries to Spezza and Fisher. Once everyone is healthy Comrie will likely be the No. 2 centre.

In six NHL seasons, Comrie has collected 110 goals, 127 assists and 252 penalty minutes in 345 career games with the Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers and Phoenix Coyotes. The Edmonton, Alta., native was drafted by the Oilers in the third round, 91st overall, of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. He played in Edmonton from 2000-01 to 2002-03 before he was traded to Philadelphia on Dec. 16, 2003. Comrie was then traded later in the 2003-04 season to Phoenix on Feb. 4, where he has played since.

Comrie's best seasons to date came first in 2001-02 when he recorded 33 goals, 27 assists and 60 points in 82 games with Edmonton. He also played in the 2002 NHL YoungStars Game as part of NHL All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles. Comrie had his second 30-goal season in 2005-06 with Phoenix, and added as many assists for another 60-point campaign.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Ottawa trades for Comrie:

Seems like a good pick-up-- I don't really know the player they gave up but sincwe he refused an AHL assignment I don't think he is exactly a hot property.

THis looks like a bit of a salary dump by Phoenix. Why pay 3 million to a guy thats not in your plans?

[notyoueither]

Very interesting trade.

Has Phoenix thrown in the towel already? How good is Kaigorodov?

[Kontiki]

Don't know anything about Kaigorodov, but Phoenix doesn't really have a hope in hell, so they might as well throw in the towel. They desperately need to rebuild that team with some youth.

[notyoueither]

Hmmm. I had to double check, but they are only 8 back of the playoffs. A good string of games and a slide by a couple of teams ahead of them, and...

[Flubber]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Hmmm. I had to double check, but they are only 8 back of the playoffs. A good string of games and a slide by a couple of teams ahead of them, and...

While its certainly possible, I just don't see them having much of a chance. They need more than a "couple" of teams sliding. Currently theyhave 6 teams within 5-10 points ahead of them. Of those 6, 3 occupy playoff spots.

To make the playoffs, Phoenix needs to outperform FOUR of these 6 teams and by enough to overcome a deficet as follows-- (brackets show Phoenix games in hand)

Chicago 5 (1)
Edm 6 (2)
Color. 6 (2)
Calg. 8 (0)
Van 9 (2)
Minn. 10 (2)

So the only way that Phoenix makes the playoffs is if four of these teams slide bad or if Phoenix can suddely play .600 hockey. I assume .500 hockey from pretty much everyone ahead of Phoenix so then they would need to win at a .600 clip to gain 8 points in 40 games.

Note that Columbus has the same number of points as Phoenix with one more game played and I see them as having a slightly better shot at making this unlikely run.

But I keep calling it a longshot because of the large number of teams that you need to pass. PLus I am betting that of those 6 teams that are more closely in contention, a few of them will start winning at a stiffer clip than the .500 level.

Last point is that I have watched Phoenix play a couple of times and they seemed a listless and dejected team. Cujo does not seem to be a superstar and Tellqvist follows a shutout with an awful display. They just simply don't seem to play well enough, often enough , to make any kind of extended run