The Best Defence is a Good Offence

In an effort to integrate more bar charts into my life, I've analyzed the top four defencemen (i.e., the ones that count on the SR) for each team.

I believe this chart speaks for itself. The red bars represent the bottom four teams in the pool. The green bars represent the top four teams in the pool. The blue bars represent excel not giving a shit about my Christmas theme.

I didn't do a graph for percentage of total points contributed by defencemen, but I can tell you it ranges from 12% (Dickie) to 32% (Teehan), with a mean and median of 20%.

I don't think there is any correlation so far between good defence and overall pool performance. For example, why are the Irish so good? Dustin Byfuglien and John-Michael Liles each have over 20 points, that's why. They were taken in the 11th and 9th rounds, respectively.

J-Kru has been steadily climbing the overall standings and I like his top-4: Visnovsky, Boyle, Pitkanen and Wideman. On the other hand, the W-Claassics' sexy top-4 of Green, Chara, Subban and Weber have put in a disappointing quarter-mark performance. Finally, pool leader K-Blat's top-4 boasts no defenceman over 11 points (but also none under ten).

Conclusion: I have wasted 1.5 potentially billable hours.

KL Week in Review: Week 7

The top eight teams averaged 25.5 points this week, while the bottom seven averaged 31.1. The Moilers, Preydators and Dicklas Lidstroms all had great weeks.

Hottest forward: Sidney Crosby, Preydators, 7 points.
Hottest defenceman: Six players with 4 points.
Hottest goalie: Marc-Andre Fleury, Fylanders, 11 points.

Name Changes

A theme for KL team names has emerged that generally involves portmanteauing or bastardizing the name of an NHL team to include some element of the GM's name (or ethnoreligious identity). Three teams represent a slight variation on the theme: one is named after an NHL event (Winter Claassics), one after a player (Dicklas Lidstroms), and one after an AHL team (Manitoba Roos). Still, four teams have not lent themselves easily to the theme.

I've never liked Wittmen's Hitmen or J-Kru's A-Crew, but they were the best I could come up with at the time. Dipping into the pool of WHL teams past and present (thank you hockeydb.com and dreary Saturday mornings), I've come up with something a bit better. Stefan's team will now be simply the Calgary Wittmen, and Josh's team will be the Victoria Krugars. 

Okay, you're not rolling on the floor laughing, but at least they fit the theme now. Josh's name would be funnier if he were a striking 40-year old woman in her sexual prime.

That leaves two teams remaining - the Fightin' Irish and the Carmada (a strange coincidence as my surname supposedly derives from the Spanish armada's invasion of Ireland). I don't mind Teehan's but my whole name just does not lend itself to nicknames. Never has. Bruce gave me the Carmada moniker in a hockey pool years ago and it stuck.

I welcome suggestions.

Depth Sounding

The Scoring Roster (SR) comprises the top nine forwards, four defencemen and one goalie from each team. If an unfortunate injury wipes out a player on your SR, another player will have to step up to fill the void. Listed below is the top non-SR forward, defenceman and goaltender from each team, to illustrate the kind of depth each team can draw from should the unthinkable happen. I found it unproductive to rank the teams - too many close calls and too much unpredicatability - but they are very loosely in some kind of order of deepest to shallowest. (Numbers are as of Wednesday morning.)

Fylanders
MacArthur - 10
Morris - 4
Fleury - 12
Total: 26
This team some serious depth, with Lecavalier and Van Riemsdyk not even breaking the SR and Fleury ready to overtake Turco shortly.

St Jewish Blues
Gaborik - 9
Demers/Johnson - 5
Mason - 12
Total: 26
Gaborik will soon join the SR.

Mackhawks
Horcoff - 12
Markov - 3
Ward - 18
Total: 33
Deep like the Mariana Trench at forward; solid in goal.

Carmada
Benn - 10
Bogosian - 3
Mason - 21
Total: 34
Fuckin' Bogosian... lets me down every year.

Schizzarks
Langenbrunner - 9
Bieksa - 3
Backstrom - 21
Total: 33
Injuries to Parise and others have hurt this otherwise very deep team.

Wittman's Hitmen
Jokinen/Yip - 8
Tyutin - 3
Kiprusoff - 24
Total: 35
Stacked in net.

Powder Rangers
Zajac - 9
Kubina - 6
Bernier - 9
Total:  24
Only real weakness is goaltending. Seven of Bernier's nine points are from when the slot was occupied by Tim Thomas.

G-Phil's Flyers
Wheeler/Zherdev - 8
Suter - 4
Rinne - 22
Total: 34
Nobody too flashy on the depth chart but G-Phil does not need to sweat injuries.

Preydators
Setoguchi/Galiardi - 6
Ference - 2
Ellis - 20
Total: 28
Deep like Jersey Shore.

Fightin' Irish
Pominville - 4
Zidlicky - 8
Anderson - 8
So much depth on defence, T should consider shopping around Mark Streit (when is he back?) or Marek Zidlicky for some forward depth.

Winter Claassics
Smyth - 12
Hamhuis - 3
Nobody - 0
Possibly the most depth up front of any team, despite the fact DC used all his high picks on Brodeur and establishing the best top 4 defence core in the league. The lack of a backup goalie hurts.

J-kru's A-crew
Doan/Bolland - 4
Nobody - 0
Miller - 12
Total: 16
Miller will improve, but there is a real lack of scoring depth on this team.

Moilers
Hall - 9
Bouwmeester - 4
Nobody - 0
Total: 13
I still like this team, although losing Shattenkirk in a trade hurt them (more on that later).

Dicklas Lidstroms
Michalek - 8
Vlasic - 0
Niemi - 4
Marc Savard cleared for contact yesterday.

Manitoba Roos
Kovalchuk - 10
Ballard - 0
Nobody - 0
Decent depth at forward but the drop off after his top four defencemen is ten points, and there is no backup for Niittymaki.

KL Week in Review: Week 6

Congratulations to the San Jose Shizzarks - the first KL team to crack 50 pizzoints in a week. Two shutouts from Carey Price vaulted him past Halak and Neuvirth as the league's most valuable goaltender. Not bad for a 16th round pizzick.

The Shizzarks also got 6 points from slow starting third rounder Rick Nash, including a hat trick last night.

Marty St. Louis had the biggest skater contribution, chipping in 9 points for J-Kru's A-Crew. Marian Gaborik earned 7 points but still hasn't cracked the SJB's scoring roster - a scary thought considering the second-round pick has 9 points in 9 games and has finished above a point-per-game pace in each of the last five years (though he's averaged just 56 games per year).

John-Michael Liles had 7 tallies for the Fightin' Irish, continuing to collect points at an unrealistic pace. The Irish may have one of the best defences out there with Byfuglien, Seabrook and Zidlicky all playing well and Mark Streit on injury reserve.

The worst weeks belonged to the Manitoba Roos and Gphil's Flyers, with 25 points each. For the Flyers, key Washington and Detroit scorers were unusually quiet. For the Roos, the lack of an elite goaltender is obviously holding them back.

Poll results: 4th overall pick

We asked who would become the cornerstone of your fantasy franchise if you had the 4th overall pick. The overwhelming majority chose Nicklas Backstrom, the 22 year old coming off a 101 point season. So far he is slightly off the pace with 21 points in 20 games. Semin has more points, but Backstrom is younger and, as a Swede, more likely to remain in North America (Naslund jokes aside).

Daniel Sedin took two votes while Henrik didn't get any. No respect for the Hart and Art Ross trophy winner.

This affirms Fy's selection of Backstrom with the fourth overall pick.  And Fy only voted 4 times in this poll. 

KL Week in Review: Week 5

Last week 51 points separated 1st and last. The gap shrunk to just 42 points this week. The Manitoba Roos can take credit for most of that after their biggest week ever: 40 points, including eight from Alexander Semin and four each from defenceman Yandle and Timonen. Anytime your top four defencemen combine for 13 points, it's a good week. And just like that, the Roos are back in contention.

Less dramatically because he is in second place, Wittman had the biggest week with 43 points, including ten combined from Canadiens Spacek and Plekanec.

The Carmada had the worst week, netting just 19 points and dropping from 3rd to 9th place, despite Drew Doughty's return from a concussion. The Islanders are absolutely terrible, something Fy points out Micah should have taken under advisement when drafting three Islander forwards. Teehan shares the pain - second round pick John Tavares has just 10 points.

The Dicklas Lidstroms also had a poor week as Lundqvist started just one of the Rangers three games (a loss) and Chicago continued to struggle with Kane and Toews held off the scoresheet.

Inexplicably, Andrew Ference and the Preydators are now in 8th place. I've contacted the admins at pickuphockey to double check this.

Procedures: Trades and Free Agent Pickups

How it works: Free agents

1.       You, the GM, send me an email setting out the players you want to add and drop. They must be of the same position.

2.       I enter it into the system that day. If I’m really busy, I enter it later but backdate it to that day. So far I have been quick to respond because the pool is more fun than my job.

3.       The player begins accumulating points the following day. Note it may appear as though you have dropped a player but not added one. The new player will show up the next morning, with points from last night.

4.       Only if the player should have gotten points and did not, by the next morning (two days after the pickup request), do you need to contact me.

How it works: Trades

1.       Both GMs email me or one GM emails me and copies the other GM with details of the finalized trade.

2.       If the trade is approved, I enter the trade that day. Alternatively, I enter it later and backdate it to that day.

3.       The trade takes effect the following day. Note it may not appear that way on your roster until the morning after (two days after the trade).

4.       Only if something still looks wrong after that should you contact me.

KL Week in Review: Week 4

Has the future arrived early? The Moilers led all teams with 35 points this week, including 11 from Luongo's three wins and one shutout. Mo also benefited from eight different players chipping in for at least two points. 

K-Blat's Blues extended their lead to its widest margin ever with a big 34-point week, including yet another shutout by Jaroslav Halak. See G-Phil's post below for an interesting analysis of the early impact of shutouts.

The biggest week from a non-goalie came from the Winter Claassics' Loui Eriksson, who had 7 points despite the Stars being shut-out last night in Colorado.

There's no such thing as a shutout jinx.

In my view it is still way too early to tell whether goalies are worth too much in this league, but here's a quick overview of what the standings would look like if we eliminated points for shut outs all together, counting only the two points for the win. I'm not advocating such a change, but its a handy way to tell at a glance who is relying too heavily on shutout points from goaltenders:

New Pos	Old Pos	Change	Name	Pts	S/Os	Total SO pts	New total w/o SOs
1	1	0	St. Jewish Blues	142	3	21	127
2	3	1	Powder Rangers	127	1	7	122
3	4	1	Carmada	126	1	7	121
3	4	1	Mackhawks	126	1	7	121
5	7	2	Fylanders	120	0	0	120
6	2	-4	Winter Claassics	128	2	14	118
7	6	-1	Wittman's Hitmen	125	2	14	115
8	8	0	Schizzarks	116	1	7	111
9	10	1	J-kru's A-crew	110	0	0	110
10	11	1	Fightin' Irish	108	0	0	108
11	8	-3	G-Phil's Flyers	116	2	14	106
12	11	-1	Dicklas Lidstroms	108	1	7	103
13	13	0	Preydators	106	1	7	101
13	13	0	Moilers	106	1	7	101
15	15	0	Manitoba Roos	97	0	0	97

A few things jump out:

1. K-Blat is still leading the way, though his current 14 point lead is brought down to a more reasonable 5 points.
2. Dave Claassen takes the biggest hit, dropping from 2nd place to 6th place and losing 10 points - though with 3 points currently separating 2nd and 6th, thats not awfully suprising.
3. I take the second biggest hit in the standings, dropping three spaces and 10 points.
   
4. The biggest beneficiary is Fy, who actually gains 2 positions. As one of only four GMs with zero current shutouts - and the only one in the top 8 - he is in perhaps the best position overall to make a big November push if Turco puts together a few shutouts, or Fleury remembers what, exactly, he's in the league for.

In any event, with 7 point shutouts, a good goalie can potentially win it all for a mediocre team, but there is no substitute for a well-rounded roster. K-Blat is in first place because he is getting excellent production from his whole roster, not just big SO victories from Halak.

In any event, this is still awfully early, and this has been a weird year with obscenely hot starts from okay players, and no production at all from previously consistent stars. I, for one, dig the idea that Nittymaki could string together 4 shutouts in a couple of weeks and propel Roos, however artificially, to the top of the league. With so many points coming from a single position, any hold at the top is tenuous and no one at the bottom is every truly out of it.

Transactions

11/01/2010   FA    Winter Claassics    drop: Michael Grabner (NYI)    add: Andrew Ladd (ATL)

11/01/2010   FA    Manitoba Roos   drop: Tukka Rask (BOS)    add: Antero Niittymaki (SJS)

11/01/2010   FA    Manitoba Roos    drop: Cody Hodgson (VAN)    add: Ryan Callahan (NYR)

11/02/2010   FA    Schizzarks    drop: Lars Eller (MTL)    add: Justin Williams (LAK)

This Just In: Undrafted Talent Still Available

You can't do a realistic assessment of the best available free agents after five games - if you tried, you'd end up nabbing someone like Clarke MacArthur.

But after about ten games, a decent picture of available talent begins to take shape.

A little-known feature in pickuphockey is the ability to search player statistics and see only undrafted players. (To do this, go to the left column --> NHL Player Stats --> then select undrafted players.)

So who's hot and available (besides the Deputy Commissioner, amiright ladies?) I won't go into a detailed analysis, because that's your job. But there are some point-per-game forwards out there that I'm surprised nobody has bit on. Some rhyme with fadd, others with schmallahan.

The D crop doesn't look that good, but there a few goalies that I wouldn't hesitate to swap for, especially if my only goalie were, say, backing up a goalie who was 6-0 with three shutouts and a .5 GAA.

To date, Dickie and Micah have used both their pickups, while Fy and Powder have used one each.