Patrice Bergeron has the potential to be an 80 pt. forward this season, if he can stay healthy.
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Alright, I’m not on my usual Grumble day, but that was for a reason. I wanted to have some NHL games to discuss, and there were a few on the schedule for Thursday night. I’m not sure why major league sports in general think it is such a great idea to have the ‘gimmick’ start of the season. The NFL likes to have 1 game on the Thursday before the first actual Sunday of the year. Lately baseball and hockey have followed suit by having games played several time zones away to ‘enhance’ their image in other countries. I for one am not sold. I’d rather they just go full force into the season then have the teaser games, wait a week and then start the schedule. As a fan, I find it exciting to see the start of the season and its kind of a let down afterwards. This is mainly due to having to wait a an extended period of time for the rest of the teams to start playing. The league(s) lose the momentum they would have in the hype and advertising of the ‘new’ season. My suggestion, either make the waiting period shorter between the gimmick games and the next scheduled games (likely a scheduling nightmare) or do away with them completely, electing to play pre-season games in other countries instead. I understand that it is hard to sell the game to a country if the game doesn’t actually count. Let’s be honest though, anyone watching the Pen/Sens game in Prague would have noticed the relatively empty arena. Is it really worth losing the excitement that a new season brings by offering games to places that aren’t interested?
The shocker special of the first ‘real’ night of games was my Maple Leafs defeating the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings on the banner raising night no less. Coach Ron Wilson must have motivated the troops properly because this was a large upset. Detroit at season’s end, despite the ‘Cup Hangover’ that many teams tend to endure should be among the top teams in the NHL. The Leafs are clearly rebuilding and will try and likely fail to make the 8th playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. When the Leafs do win games, it will be of the low scoring variety as they are very likely to play a grinding defensive scheme. They have relatively little talent up front but the strength of their defenders and goalie Vesa Toskala will likely win the close games like on Thursday night. Don’t get too excited Leaf fans, as they likely caught Detroit by surprise. This was a classic case of a superior team underestimating an inferior one and not working hard enough to win the game. Either way kudos to Wilson and the Leafs for stealing last night’s game. It should be interesting to see how much the coach can get out of this young team. Beyond that, there were a few things to note from games last night for pick ups or trade targets for your fantasy hockey team.
Patrice Bergeron had a couple of assists as the Bruins beat the Avs last night. From where Bergeron has been going in drafts he’s completely worth a shot. Remember we’re talking about a potential 80 point forward here. He’s still young and is likely lining with 20 year old Phil Kessel. Do not discount the Bruins young forwards! Lots of potential for break outs here. Another guy I like from the Bruins is Milan Lucic. This guy has a scoring touch and is pretty aggressive. This means goals and penalty minutes!
Daniel Alfredsson will sit out 2 weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. I was asked why I took Rick Nash ahead of Alfredsson in a keeper league. This is exactly why. Although gifted, Alfredsson is a bit older (34) and more injury prone. Nash is still just 25 and heading into the prime of physical ability. Not that I would have predicted Alfredsson go down so soon, but he’s struggled in recent years missing near 10 games each year. Going forward I would expect less than a full season worth of games out of the Senators captain. Meanwhile, Nash is still on the upswing and should end the year a rotisserie monster.
Note a couple of things from the Sharks – Ducks match up. 1) The resurgence of Jonathan Cheechoo. He had two goals last night and his draft stock was way down. He had one bad year after a couple of good ones. I would suggest making a trade offer as he is likely to rebound back to 30 goal status. 2) Watch for aging Rob Blake to be a solid fantasy defenseman this year. He gets goals, penalty minutes and will rack up shots on goal. The Sharks offence is a lot better than his former team’s (the Kings) and he will play a big role on the power play where he has an outstandingly accurate slap shot. The Ducks offence looked a little flat last night, but so did the Red Wings. Expect better things in games to come.
The Flames come up lame in their game with the Canucks. Roberto Luongo played well stopping all 25 shots for the shut out. 25 shots is nothing to get excited about if you’re a Flames fan. I don’t expect this to happen that often. The Flames look loaded on offence after re-tooling with Mike Cammelleri and Todd Bertuzzi in the off season.
On the Canucks offensive side, always watch who plays with Henrik and Daniel Sedin. Right now that beneficiary is Steve Bernier. Is he on your wire? That’s what I thought. Grab him now.
Switching gears to the baseball playoffs, my predictions for the World Series? Somehow I think Boston will beat Tampa. Don’t get me wrong Tampa is strong but experience, pitching depth and team defence wins games in the post season. Not that Tampa lacks in the latter, Boston is just better. The inexperience of Tampa will likely hurt them in closer games. I like the Phillies to take the Dodgers but something tells me this series will go seven games. The Dodgers might be the hottest team of the remaining teams coming in. That will play into how this all plays out.
Lastly, some fantasy basketball. Please check out our excellent coverage here at Sports Grumblings of course. There’s a big debate over who to take with the top picks. My thinking is take LeBron James or Chris Paul first overall. There seems to be a bit of debate on whether to throw Kobe Bryant in there and you really can’t go wrong with him at pick 3. Amare Stoudamire is fourth best. Go Kobe if you want someone who will play most of the 82 games. I’d go James and Paul because I prefer upside. Yes James has a poor free throw percentage, but he has improved every year in all categories. He’s simply too good and too talented not to take first overall. Paul is by far the best point guard on the board and if I would draft him first to secure a scarce position. Kobe is just as good stats wise as the latter two. You get a steady number of all around stats from the best shooting guard available. My thinking is SG is easier to draft later, so Paul has more value. I’d rather have a strong point guard and weaker shooting guard then the opposite. Stoudamire is outstanding obviously, but he’s still my fourth off the board. He’s good at a scarce position and still has potential to get better. Why won’t I take him with a top 3 pick? James, Paul and Bryant will get you big numbers in rare categories (steals, assists) while not hurting percentages (other than the aforementioned James). Stoudamire’s is a strong shot blocker, but I’ll take an advantage in two scarce categories over the advantage in one.
Well, that’s it for me this week. Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian readers.
