My early prediction to win the Stanley Cup? The Ottawa Senators. Holy fuck, they're doing fantastic. I expect my prediction will stay the same throughout the season - and well, I'm kinda glad. I would love to see them win simply to have the cup back in Canada.

Peace,
Mike

By the way, I merged the fantasy league thread in here if anyones wondering where it is. I thought it wouldnt survive THAT great on its own, and we can just keep track of it in here. When I get back to my computer Ill make a post once a week summarizing the highest point getters, highest point players, etc.

1. Shack The Ripper- 119.60

2. Munky Wings- 79.30

3. Angry Beavers- 75.60

4. Trix are for kids- 61.90

5. jmart007- 54.90

The person who controls the league is in the lead? Hmmm, very interesting.

Remember that it'll change a lot as the season goes on. Players go hot and cold all the time.

Oilers are off to a good start, despite the loss tonight. The kids look gooood.

And he was also the only person that knew that we couldn't drop players and add others.

CONSPIRACY!!!

I guess I shouldve just called this a hockey pool instead of fantasy league. Thats generally how Ive played in the past, you pick all your players at the beginning, whoever has the most points tabulated from them is the winners. With Yahoo the points system is a bit more complicated, but anyways. Theres so many good players left on the table that if adding and dropping playeres was allowed, someone could have a totally different roster by midseason, killing any point of the draft. Picking up Statsny before everyone else wouldnt be skill as much as speed. I cant change it now anyways, so youll have to live with it.

By the way Im gonna impliment a weekly bonus point system when I get back, to help players catch up if theyre behind or for me to widen my lead And to keep us occupied, doing more than just watching the points. Youll see.

Well if I would've had former knowledge of the no drop/add "policy" then I wouldn't have picked up 3-4 players that aren't even playing atm.

I don't have any problem, in theory, with the rule stipulating we can't pick new players throughout the season. However, what do we do when players get injured or goalies lose their starting position and so on?

I feel like we have a problem simply because we were not able to choose enough players in the first place when drafting, and now we have no replacements. Usually, at least when I've seen it, one has more players than you can play on any given night, and you have to sit some out. That way there is some strategy involved, and more importantly, you have extras that can fill in when players are injured.

With so few players that we each have, I can see where Munkatouille is coming from, and I would also sympathize with anybody here who had several players hit by injury. Even I have now, at this very moment, a player who is injured and so I have one less player making me points.

Anyways, I'm just trying to put my point out there. I realize it's a moot one since we can't change it now you say. I still appreciate you running this Shack!

Peace,
Mike

1. Shack The Ripper- 125.80

2. Munky Wings- 104.20

3. Angry Beavers- 85.10

4. jmart007- 76.40

5. Trix are for kids- 58.30

The Bruins played decently on the road tonight in Anaheim. If their offense had shown up (Marc Savard was out) they probably could've walked out with a point or two. Instead they lost. I did like what their defense did along with Tim Thomas in night who gave a nice effort, but their offense was non existent.

After Tonights Games:

1. Shack The Ripper- 142.30
2. Munky Wings- 111.10 (DAMN THE SEDINS!!!)
3. Angry Beavers- 100.10
4. jmart007- 78.30
5. Trix are for kids- 58.30

Well I assume with 14 players that none of us will escape the injury bug for the season, we all have an equal shot at it. As for the goalies, its tough, but if theyre good enough they should be able to take the starting position job. Anyways thats the game, having good luck with injuries and etc. is like having good luck picking the players.

Thanks for the comments everyone by the way, good to have criticism going for next year.

The problem with having injury replacements et al is that you basically have to set your roster every single day, and I, for one, don't have time for that. The way we're doing it right now is fine, even if I'm getting destroyed.

Oh, and the Oilers suck.

So the Oilers lost, but what a game in LA tonight. 8-6 Boston, I love games like this where the goals come fast and furious. Much more entertaining than 1-0, 2-0, 2-1 games. I'd hate to be a Wild fan, they've got to be the most boring team in the league since every game of theirs has no more than three goals. What do you say, jmart, your team certainly broke out tonight.

I hate to say it, but I shut it off after 3-1 to watch Cheap Seats. I'm glad to see they got their offense going tonight though. And we're back at .500!

The Bruins played again today? I had no idea.

And they won 2-1? Holy shit. That means they're on a winning streak. And they're above .500. I can't say I care very much though. I mean I hope they keep winning because I will care at some point. Just not during the ALCS.

Not only that, but they won it with 12 seconds left after San Jose had just tied it.

Oilers suck. That's all I'm gonna say.

So I guess the win last night wrapped up the road trip as well. The Bruins went 3-2 out on the west coast. I'm sure they've gone above .500 out west to open up the season before, but I can't remember the last time they did it. That's good to see. Hopefully some people will show up on Thursday for the season opener at home, but I'm not counting on it.

Here are the updated fantasy standings.

1. Shack the Ripper - 183.30
2. Munky Wings - 154.30
3. Angry Beavers - 146.00
4. jmart007 - 136.30
5. trix are for kids - 99.80

Wow, I suck.

I'm a Wild fan

By the here, here's kind of a league stat report, I'll do this once in a while, if not weekly

Top 10 players overall

(Goals, assists, +/-, power play goals, short-handed goals, game winning goals, total points)

1. Dany Heatley
(Ott - F) Shack the Ripper 6 4 2 2 0 1 32.50

2. Henrik Zetterberg
(Det - F) @Anh Munky Wings 3 6 2 2 0 0 26.00

3. Daniel Alfredsson
(Ott - F) Munky Wings 5 4 -1 1 0 1 25.00

4. Daniel Sedin
(Van - F) SJ Munky Wings 3 4 0 2 0 2 23.00

5. Vincent Lecavalier
(TB - F) Angry Beavers 3 3 4 0 0 1 20.50

6. Milan Hejduk
(Col - F) trix are for kids 4 2 0 2 0 1 20.50

7. Jason Spezza
(Ott - F) jmart007 0 11 -2 0 0 0 20.00

8. Daniel Briere
(Phi - F) Angry Beavers 4 3 0 0 0 1 19.50

9. Alexander Ovechkin
(Was - F) trix are for kids 3 2 1 2 0 1 18.50

10. Simon Gagne
(Phi - F) Shack the Ripper 2 4 -1 2 0 1 17.50

By the way, jmart's Jonathan Cheechoo is the league's lowest with -2.0 points overall.

Defencemen

1. Francois Beauchemin
(Anh - D) Det Shack the Ripper 1 4 3 0 0 1 15.50

2. Nicklas Lidstrom
(Det - D) @Anh Shack the Ripper 1 4 4 0 0 0 15.00

3. Andrei Markov
(Mon - D) Angry Beavers 2 3 -1 0 1 1 14.50

4. Zdeno Chara
(Bos - D) Shack the Ripper 0 4 2 0 0 0 10.00

5. Sergei Zubov
(Dal - D) Munky Wings 1 3 -1 1 0 0 9.50

Goaltenders

1. Henrik Lundqvist
(NYR - G) Shack the Ripper 2 10 141 0 12.10

2. Roberto Luongo
(Van - G) SJ jmart007 3 13 118 0 10.80

3. Marty Turco
(Dal - G) Munky Wings 2 9 98 0 8.80

4.Tomas Vokoun
(Fla - G) Angry Beavers 2 13 109 1 7.90

5. Chris Mason
(Nsh - G) Shack the Ripper 2 16 112 1 5.20

Interesting fact, currently the top 8 goaltenders were ones not selected, tops being Gerber with 29.2 points followed by Backstrom with 25.4 and Cam Ward with 21.7, and then Leclaire(Columbus' goalie... yeah I didn't know who he was either)/Kolzig/Biron/Thomas, all guys likely to drop quick, and finally DiPietro.

One thing, since this measures shots vs goals allowed, I actually think that the fantasy point scoreboard here will be a good barometer overall for goalies.

Hmm...

I have the 2nd, 3rd AND 4th best Forwards?!?