User blog:SpartHawg948/Fantasy Hockey Stuff

Sooo... I'm bored. And when I get bored, and the Wiki is slow, and there's nothing much to do, I blog about random things. Hence my Book Corner blog, and my "Who's the best Star Trek Movie Villain?" blog (btw, it's Khan, hands down!). Well, now it's time to blog fantasy hockey. As some may remember from last month, I'm in a fantasy league with some friends and friends-of-friends, with a team boasting the confidence-inspiring name "The Ralph Wiggums". Who is in the Ralph Wiggums? Let's check the roster:

In the interests of nerdiness, when possible, links to both The NHL and Wikipedia pages for players will be provided. An asterisk (*) denotes that the player was a draft pick.

Forwards

 * Jason Spezza (Ott-C)*
 * Matt Cullen (Min-C)
 * Travis Zajac (NJ-C)*
 * Rick Nash (Cls-L/RW)*
 * David Booth (Fla-LW)*
 * Raffi Torres (Van-LW)
 * Johan Franzen (Det-RW)*
 * Nathan Horton (Bos-RW)*

Defensemen

 * Zdeno Chara (Bos-D)*
 * Andrei Markov (Mon-D)*
 * Ryan Whitney (Edm-D)*
 * Tobias Enstrom (Atl-D)
 * Nicklas Lidstrom (Det-D)*
 * Brent Burns (Min-D)

Goalies

 * Henrik Lundqvist (NYR-G)*
 * Cam Ward (Car-G)
 * Niklas Backstrom (Min-G)

Injured Reserve

 * Marc Savard (Bos-C)* - Post-concussion symptoms. Is skating again, and The Boston Globe reports that there is a chance (slim though it may be) that he'll start playing next month. If not then, likely early next year.

Former Players

 * Semyon Varlamov (Was-G)* - Great goalie and all, but he started getting injured right as the season began, which is a bad sign. Dropped him and picked up Cam Ward before this could become a chronic problem.
 * Mike Commodore (Cls-D)* - Picked him up mainly for sentimental reasons. He's a competent defenseman, but doesn't excel in any areas. Dropped him in favor of Anton Stralman (more on him later) when it became apparent he wasn't going to be racking up the points.
 * Rostislav Klesla (Cls -D)* - Much the same story as Commodore. Klesla has put up some assists, but he wasn't really producing when I needed him to, so dropped him for Tobias Enstrom.
 * Steve Mason (Cls-G)* - A really good goalie with tons and tons of potential. Won the Calder Memorial two years ago, for heavens sake! But he's having a rocky start this season, and it was really starting to hurt me. So with a heavy heart, dropped him for Backstrom.
 * Antoine Vermette (Cls-C) - Marc Savard's long-term injury left me short one Center, so saw Vermette was free and picked him up. Realized a little later that he wasn't the one I wanted, as I was looking to pick up the Center from Columbus' #1 line (aka Rick Nash's line). So dropped him for Derick Brassard (more on him in a sec).
 * Michael Cammalleri (Mon-LW)* - A pretty good wing, but he's just been having a slow season. Last week I decided my offense needed bolstering, so dropped him for Raffi Torres.
 * Derick Brassard (Cls-C) - Funny thing is, I didn't mean to drop him. As part of the offense-bolstering mentioned above, and on the advice of a friend/commissioner of the fantasy league, wanted to add Matt Cullen. So I went to add him, and meant to drop Zajac, but accidentally dropped Brassard. So now I'm waiting till Wednesday when his waiver is up so I can drop Zajac and get Brassard back.
 * Anton Stralman (Cls-D) - All in all a good, solid defenseman, and fairly good from an assists perspective. But my defense is already super-stacked (Chara and Lidstrom, not to mention Whitney, Markov, and Enstrom), so I decided to get a more offensively-minded D, and grabbed Brent Burns.

So there you have it, folks! The Ralph Wiggums! We're stacked for defense, have some seriously solid goaltending, and are starting to get to where I'd like to be for offense. If there's anyone else contributing to the Wiki who is in a fantasy NHL league, I'd love to hear about your team, and maybe we can talk shop! :) Or if any hockey fans in general have comments, let's hear 'em! Ditto for people with an interest in, but not much knowledge of, hockey. If no one wants to comment (entirely possible), I'll just keep puttering away, stroking my own ego! :P