I enjoyed the write-up, Carl. I know we chatted about it a bit on IRC last ni... this morning, but while I know it's a lot of work it's cool to see the results. If things hold this will be two years running I'd have won if we were in a roto league, but roto is fucking boring so I am glad to be playing HTH even if it isn't advantageous for me.
On another note, since the all-star game is the halfway point in the real season and close to such in fantasy, I thought now would be a pretty good time for a bit of an evaluation post on my real life and fantasy teams... this may or may not be interesting to most of you.
As of last week my real life teams - Detroit, Washington, and New Jersey - were somewhat amusingly exactly where my fantasy teams are in their conferences, with two 2nds and a 3rd. I think it's pretty unlikely any of my real teams break into first with San Jose and Boston having pretty solid leads, and New Jersey will have trouble holding on to the lead in the Atlantic, but I'm pretty happy where both my real and fake teams are this year. It's good to see all of them should get in the playoffs fairly easily, and the real teams should probably even have home ice. I'm really interested to see the bottom of how both conferences in real life develop, Dallas and Pittsburgh sneaking in at the bottom of their conferences could make for some really interesting round 1 matches(Detroit/Dallas or Pittsburgh/Washington, anyone?). I'm curious if some brink teams can make it on both sides too, kind of rooting for Dallas, Phoenix, Edmonton, and Columbus in the West, since the last three are some nice up and coming teams that should be exciting for years to come and the Stars deserve better than what they've gotten this year after last year's gritty performance. Praying the Pens don't make the playoffs, but that's sure unlikely....
In fantasy news, as of today:
2. WHALERS ON THE MOON 84-53-7 .608 175
3. Longshot 89-56-15 .603 193
1. SILVER SNAKES 70-32-18 .658 158
Apparently caps real are CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL since both of those teams have pretty respectable shots at winning their leagues barring injuries, whereas Longshot really is a Longshot - I don't think there's any way I can feasible take out the #1 in that league unless there is just a ridiculously silly week. Hoping to maneuver my way into 2nd so I can avoid him until the finals, and hope someone else gets rid of him for me - I suppose that's the nice thing about HTH.
My rosters at the all-star break, for reference
1. SILVER SNAKES 70-32-18 .658 158
C, LW Zetterberg
C Krejci, Gomez, Sundin
LW Gagne, Parise
LW, RW Doan
RW Hemsky, Brown, Holmstrom
D Phaneuf, Blake, Timonen, Whitney
G Backstrom, Luongo
IR Selanne
I had a really sick draft in this league. Luongo and Selanne being hurt have kind of been a pain but overall I'm very pleased with this team. Not much to say or complain about here, and few moves have been made. Only meaningful move was dropping Havlat for Brown.
2. WHALERS ON THE MOON 84-53-7 .608 175
C M. Richards, Ribiero
C, LW Zetterberg
C, RW Horton
LW Sedin, Kozlov
LW, RW Versteeg
RW Alfredsson, Hemsky
D Boyle, Green, Barker, Timonen
G Osgood, Conklin, Turco
Smogon league team. Lots of trades and random moves - the only remaining members from the team I drafted are Hemsky, Timonen, and Richards. Avery disappearing hurt my grit in a way that I'll probably never really recover from and the goaltending is a little suspect now but I'm pretty happy with this team otherwise - as long as the Stars continue recovering this team should be fine.
3. Longshot 89-56-15 .603 193
C Backstrom, Sedin
C, RW Mueller
C, LW Demitra
LW Elias, Gagne
LW, RW Versteeg
RW Kovalev, Backes
D Markov, Jovanovski, Markov, McCabe, Whitney
G Giguerre, Fleury
The team most likely to let me down. Outside of getting Selanne and Elias for free off free agents(lol), the only major move was with my goaltending. With Giguerre struggling my other goalie was originally Theodore, and I'd grabbed Johnson to back him up. With Whitney coming off the IR I needed to free up a spot, so I figured I'd move Theodore + a skater for a better goalie, and with Kovalev and Selanne at RW I ended up moving my other RW, a strugging Alfredsson, with Theodore for Fleury. The defending eastern conference champions, I thought! A solid fantasy option, I thought.
Things never go well when you do too much thinking.
On another note, since the all-star game is the halfway point in the real season and close to such in fantasy, I thought now would be a pretty good time for a bit of an evaluation post on my real life and fantasy teams... this may or may not be interesting to most of you.
As of last week my real life teams - Detroit, Washington, and New Jersey - were somewhat amusingly exactly where my fantasy teams are in their conferences, with two 2nds and a 3rd. I think it's pretty unlikely any of my real teams break into first with San Jose and Boston having pretty solid leads, and New Jersey will have trouble holding on to the lead in the Atlantic, but I'm pretty happy where both my real and fake teams are this year. It's good to see all of them should get in the playoffs fairly easily, and the real teams should probably even have home ice. I'm really interested to see the bottom of how both conferences in real life develop, Dallas and Pittsburgh sneaking in at the bottom of their conferences could make for some really interesting round 1 matches(Detroit/Dallas or Pittsburgh/Washington, anyone?). I'm curious if some brink teams can make it on both sides too, kind of rooting for Dallas, Phoenix, Edmonton, and Columbus in the West, since the last three are some nice up and coming teams that should be exciting for years to come and the Stars deserve better than what they've gotten this year after last year's gritty performance. Praying the Pens don't make the playoffs, but that's sure unlikely....
In fantasy news, as of today:
2. WHALERS ON THE MOON 84-53-7 .608 175
3. Longshot 89-56-15 .603 193
1. SILVER SNAKES 70-32-18 .658 158
Apparently caps real are CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL since both of those teams have pretty respectable shots at winning their leagues barring injuries, whereas Longshot really is a Longshot - I don't think there's any way I can feasible take out the #1 in that league unless there is just a ridiculously silly week. Hoping to maneuver my way into 2nd so I can avoid him until the finals, and hope someone else gets rid of him for me - I suppose that's the nice thing about HTH.
My rosters at the all-star break, for reference
1. SILVER SNAKES 70-32-18 .658 158
C, LW Zetterberg
C Krejci, Gomez, Sundin
LW Gagne, Parise
LW, RW Doan
RW Hemsky, Brown, Holmstrom
D Phaneuf, Blake, Timonen, Whitney
G Backstrom, Luongo
IR Selanne
I had a really sick draft in this league. Luongo and Selanne being hurt have kind of been a pain but overall I'm very pleased with this team. Not much to say or complain about here, and few moves have been made. Only meaningful move was dropping Havlat for Brown.
2. WHALERS ON THE MOON 84-53-7 .608 175
C M. Richards, Ribiero
C, LW Zetterberg
C, RW Horton
LW Sedin, Kozlov
LW, RW Versteeg
RW Alfredsson, Hemsky
D Boyle, Green, Barker, Timonen
G Osgood, Conklin, Turco
Smogon league team. Lots of trades and random moves - the only remaining members from the team I drafted are Hemsky, Timonen, and Richards. Avery disappearing hurt my grit in a way that I'll probably never really recover from and the goaltending is a little suspect now but I'm pretty happy with this team otherwise - as long as the Stars continue recovering this team should be fine.
3. Longshot 89-56-15 .603 193
C Backstrom, Sedin
C, RW Mueller
C, LW Demitra
LW Elias, Gagne
LW, RW Versteeg
RW Kovalev, Backes
D Markov, Jovanovski, Markov, McCabe, Whitney
G Giguerre, Fleury
The team most likely to let me down. Outside of getting Selanne and Elias for free off free agents(lol), the only major move was with my goaltending. With Giguerre struggling my other goalie was originally Theodore, and I'd grabbed Johnson to back him up. With Whitney coming off the IR I needed to free up a spot, so I figured I'd move Theodore + a skater for a better goalie, and with Kovalev and Selanne at RW I ended up moving my other RW, a strugging Alfredsson, with Theodore for Fleury. The defending eastern conference champions, I thought! A solid fantasy option, I thought.
Things never go well when you do too much thinking.
