KL Week in Review: Week 5

After 5 weeks of play, our standings look like this:

Separation Anxiety?

The In-the-Money Teams (highlighted in yellow)
9 points separate 1st-4th and that race is as close as ever. Somewhat remarkably, the same 4 teams have been holding the top 4 (though not once in the same position from week to week) since week 2.

The Playoff Teams (highlighted in green)
 However, 9 more points separate 4th from 5th, which is the biggest single gap between teams until we get down to 15th place. There are a lot of teams in that 5th to 11th bracket (again, coincidentally separated by 9 points).

The Toronto Maple Leafs Not Good Enough For the Playoffs, Not Bad Enough for 1st Overall Teams (highlighted in red)
The 12-14 spots are an island unto themselves with a mere 2 points separating them. They are, however, 6 points out of the playoff grouping but 11 points out of the final 2 spots. 

The Rebuilders (Highlighted in blue)
These teams are here for two different reasons - the Canicks were forced to rebuild after losing their franchise forward to the KHL. The Wilkes-Benham/Scranton Parkers (now the second best name in the KL after the Los Samjawors Kings) were never supposed to be competitive and are exactly where they want to be - in 1st overall territory.

Other Thoughts

The Injury Bug
Every team but the Joshfrey Krupuls have at least one injured player. Most have multiple injuries. I seem to recall this being an early-season theme but still, it is frustrating for all involved. So far most GMs are standing pat with their injured players as most of the injuries appear to be relatively mild in nature.

The Schizzarks have been awful lately - and for good reason: they have injuries to Tanguay, Lecavalier, Selanne, Nash, Visnovsky and Booth.  I don't have any way to verify but I am pretty confident that this is the most injuries at one time in this history of the KL. A dubious record to hold.

 A Return to Form
When you take a look at the "Man Games" tab, we are finally starting to see most of the high flyers come back down to Earth (and some underachievers start to pick up their pace).  As soon as Alex Steen stops scoring points (on pace for 123) all will be right with the world again.

Goaltending at the top
Interestingly, both of the current top 2 (the Powder Rangers and the G-Phil's Flyers) are holding those positions with two of the lowest goalie point totals in the league:

8 points - G-Phil's Flyers
10 points - WBS Parkers
11 points - (tie) Powder Rangers and the Joshfrey Krupuls

On the flipside, the 3rd place team, the Fylanders, have 23 points, second only to Antti Niemi's league-leading 26.

The average points from that position (scoring roster only) currently is 15.81. The 4th place Mackhawks are right there, with 16 points from Quick.