Well, it's been a while, (like 6 weeks) since I've been blogging. I've been quite busy dealing with a lot of other things in my life, but enough about me, let's talk about fantasy hockey. While I've been gone, there's been a lot of player movement, and as you can see, Ovechkin has climbed to the #2 spot. To all the haters, he may be seventh in the league when it comes to total points, but he's the only guy who's pumped 304 shots on net, and will most likely eclipse 400 before the season is over. Daniel Sedin, while leading the league in points is currently trending downwards with no points in his last three games and a -3. Maybe I put too much stock in shots on goal, but that is one of the major categories most 5x5 leagues use, but I feel as though the more you shoot, the more likely you'll score. Ovie hasn't had much luck this season, but I have a feeling he'll break 40 goals, and then come back next year with 50.
Forwards:
1. Steven Stamkos
2. Alex Ovechkin
3. Corey Perry
4. Daniel Sedin
5. Henrik Zetterberg
6. Eric Staal
7. Jeff Carter
8. Jarome Iginla
9. Patrick Sharp
10. Ryan Kesler
11. Rick Nash
12. Martin St. Louis
13. Danny Briere
14. Bobby Ryan
15. Brad Richards
16. Sidney Crosby
17. Anze Kopitar
18. Jonathan Toews
19. Phil Kessel
20. Martin Havlat
21. Henrik Sedin
22. David Backes
23. Milan Lucic
24. Mikhail Grabovski
25. Tomas Plekanec
26. Johan Franzen
27. Justin Williams
28. Teemu Selanne
29. Dany Heatley
30. Logan Couture
31. John Tavares
32. Scott Hartnell
33. Dustin Brown
34. Nicklas Backstrom
35. Ryane Clowe
36. Patrick Marleau
37. Mike Richards
38. Patrick Kane
39. Brenden Morrow
40. Alex Steen
41. Patrice Bergeron
42. R.J. Umberger
43. Brian Gionta
44. Claude Giroux
45. Nathan Horton
46. Brandon Dubinsky
47. Loui Eriksson
48. James Neal
49. Thomas Vanek
50. Jeff Skinner
51. Alexander Semin
52. Mikael Samuelsson
53. Shane Doan
54. Joe Pavelski
55. Paul Stastny
56. Matt Moulson
57. Patric Hornqvist
58. Ilya Kovalchuk
59. Mikko Koivu
60. Nikolai Kulemin
61. Andrew Ladd
62. Olli Jokinen
63. Ryan Smyth
64. Matt Duchene
65. Clarke MacArthur
66. Evander Kane
67. Brian Boyle
68. Radim Vrbata
69. Joe Thornton
70. Erik Cole
71. Patrik Elias
72. Rene Bourque
73. Sean Avery
74. David Booth
75. Brooks Laich
76. Michael Grabner
77. Jarret Stoll
78. Pavel Datsyuk
79. Brad Boyes
80. Marian Hossa
81. Tyler Kennedy
82. Cal Clutterbuck
83. Stephen Weiss
84. Jakub Voracek
85. Alexandre Burrows
86. David Krejci
87. Derick Brassard
88. Alex Tanguay
89. Drew Stafford
90. Antoine Vermette
91. Dustin Penner
92. Curtis Glencross
93. Mike Ribeiro
94. Andrei Kostitsyn
95. Milan hejduk
96. Rich Peverley
97. Dan Cleary
98. Brad Marchand
99. Tuomo Ruutu
100. Kris Versteeg
With the defensemen, the gap between Dustin Byfuglien and Kris Letang has narrowed a lot! Then there's the group of Zdeno Chara, Keith Yanle and Shea Weber. Brent Burns in somewhere in between the top two tiers and the rest of the pack. However, it is worth nothing that Travis Hamonic has been insane since Wisniewski got traded to the Habs. He gets points, PIMs, and quite a bit of shots on goal.
Defensemen:
1. Dustin Byfuglien
2. Kris Letang
3. Zdeno Chara
4. Keith Yandle
5. Shea Weber
6. Brent Burns
7. P.K. Subban
8. Christian Ehrhoff
9. Nicklas Lidstrom
10. Dan Boyle
11. Lubomir Visnovsky
12. Theo Peckham
13. Alex Goligoski
14. Drew Doughty
15. Kevin Bieksa
16. Dion Phaneuf
17. Roman Hamrlik
18. Tobias Enstrom
19. John-Michael Liles
20. Steve Montador
21. Mark Giordano
22. Jack Johnson
23. Duncan Keith
24. Matt Carkner
25. Ryan Suter
26. James Wisniewski
27. Anton Babchuk
28. Dennis Seidenberg
29. Brent Seabrook
30. Mike Green
31. Niklas Kronwall
32. Alex Edler
33. Joni Pitkanen
34. Alex Pietrangelo
35. Jordan Leopold
36. Travis Hamonic
37. John Carlson
38. Stephane Robidas
39. Eric Brewer
40. Chris Pronger
41. Kimmo Timonen
42. Andrej Meszaros
43. Adam McQuaid
44. Dennis Wideman
45. Brian Rafalski
46. Joe Corvo
47. Erik Johnson
48. Marc Staal
49. Kurtis Foster
50. Adrian Aucoin
This was quite difficult to do this time around as Tim Thomas, while still being an elite goaltender, is not seeing the minutes that most other netminders get. He's got 43 starts and everyone else in the top 7 has at least 50 starts. Hiller and Luongo would also be up there if it were not for injuries. But with Tuukka Rask, he has to get his minutes in and as a result, Thomas' opportunities to play are restricted a bit. I doubt Thomas will even get to 60 games started this season. It appears that no netminder will reach 50 wins this season. Some might get to 45, if they're lucky, but with less than 20 games remaining and most goaltenders to likely play in only 80 percent of those games, I think we'll end up with several 40 game winners.
Goaltenders:
1. Carey Price
2. Cam Ward
3. Tim Thomas
4. Ilya Bryzgalov
5. Henrik Lundqvist
6. Miikka Kiprusoff
7. Jonas Hiller
8. Roberto Luongo
9. Ryan Miller
10. Pekka Rinne
11. Kari Lehtonen
12. Marc-Andre Fleury
13. Tomas Vokoun
14. Jimmy Howard
15. Jonathan Quick
16. Antti Niemi
17. Ondrej Pavelec
18. Niklas Backstrom
19. Corey Crawford
20. Sergei Bobrovsky
21. Steve mason
22. Dwayne Roloson
23. Jaroslav Halak
24. Michal Neuvirth
25. Craig Anderson
26. Brianelliott
27. Martin Brodeur
28. Nikolai Khabibulin
29. Peter Budaj
30. Dan Ellis
I'll make sure to add more next week, til then, thanks for reading!
