Puckheads: Schedule
October 13, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Folks:
Not that it really seems to matter but I feel better getting it done since I promised it.
THE REGULAR SEASON FOR THE NHL STARTS TOMORROW (Thursday 10-1-09).
Please watch waiver moves and bubble players for transactions, movement up or down and early season injuries placed on IR at last minute.
That guy you took a gamble on in Round 22 like JVR or the extra goalie you carried as a backup for quality starts (Boucher maybe as an example) should be watched as FINAL ROSTERS ARE DUE TODAY AT NHL OFFICES IN TORONTO. That doesn’t mean moves can’t be made after the roster deadline but it matters for starts, fantasy and salary cap reasons!
Watch the quirks of the schedule this year as well.
ESPN FANTASY starts tomorrow as well and the first week in H2H is only 4 days!!!!!!!
The Fantasy Hockey season is 26 weeks (or scoring periods as the Olympic break causes about an 18 day stoppage in the NHL).
REMEMBER THE “NEW” H2H rule of NO LIMIT for games played HOWEVER you can only have 7 “acquisitions” during the scoring week. This can be 7 additions from waivers in one day OR spread out over the week.
KEEP IN MIND some “special” weeks have different limits:
Week 1 has only 3 acquisitions
THERE ARE NO GAMES ON 10-18-09 but the week still allows 7 pickups
Week of 12-21-09 to 12-27-09 only allows 5 as no games 12-24 or 12-25 this year!
Week 21 2-15-10 to 3-7-10 allows 7 pickups for the entire scoring period (Olympic break time)
PLAYOFFS are COMBINED for scoring and NOT 2 separate weeks!
ROTO it should be noted that you need a completely different games played “PACE” or you will run out of games by week 23 or 24 and as previously noted the game stretches for 26!
Watch your pace with this suggestion in mind:
CARRY AN EXTRA DEFENDER ALL SEASON AND PUT HIM IN UTIL SLOT WITHOUT MOVING HIM – put a durable defender that averages 78-82 games per year and don’t worry about him as you get 82 Util games and this move will make your TOI higher giving you a better score in that category.
CARRY THREE GOALIES (sometimes 4 isn’t bad either) at least half of the season which will cut down on player games for forward, defense and util. Even the most games played by any goalie (Kipper played 75 last year) but most played is usually 65 and put another goalie you only total 130 and with a limit of 164 that gives you 34 games to play with! Use this advice creatively especially early and/or late when teams are finding themselves, juggling lines and goalies are playing for starting jobs, etc.
LIMITS for ROTO: Forward 738
Defense 410
Util 82
Goalie 164
Weekly goal: forwards 29 games (28.3 per week)
Defense 16 games (15.76 per week)
Util 3 games (3.15 per week)
Goalie 6 games (6.30 per week)
WATCH NHL schedules for LONG road trips and LONG homestands
A perfect example this season is VANCOUVER – they are the host city for the Olympics and the Canucks BOTH benefit and suffer for this.
Example they play 8 straight at home in December AND another stretch of 9 out of 11 at home in January. They then don’t play a home game for a period of 44 days (6.5 weeks) from January 28 to March 13. In that period they have the 15 days off for the Olympic games but play 14 games straight on the road.
Another team with a LATE season favorable schedule is Nashville. If they plan on making a run this year in the West (which I don’t think they can) but mid March through start of April would be the time to do it as they play 9 of 10 at home and that is a stretch where FANTASY PLAYOFFS ARE PLAYED TOO.
Atlanta plays 12 times at home and 4 on the road in March.
EARLY season schedule advantage goes to OTTAWA as they in play October and November with a total of 17 home games and only 7 road games. The schedule catches up with them really at no point as they have a few 5 game road stretches and a few 3 game stretches but nothing too long to handle!
If Toronto is going to make a move for the playoffs this year (not quite as they are still one year away) coming out of the East then it will be late March into April as they play 8 of 10 at home!
Bruins have a stretch leading into the Olympic break where they play 4 on the road and come back from the break playing 7 of 9 on the road as well. That could be a rough patch for a team challenging for the top spot in the East. They make a stand here or wither into 4th in the East based strictly on this stretch!
Good luck and watch those waiver moves in the NHL
Newman