Repeat Win for Maulers

[ross10019]

Latest in a line of these threads, but wanted to thank this great forum for your help throughout the year. My keeper team (in sig) has just won its 2nd straight league championship in a hard fought 2+ week series against fellow forum member Dejeanneret.

Not too many moves this year (I'm finding as the years go by I make fewer and fewer moves during the season, both add/drop and trades, and the ones I do make are more tactical), but here are some highlights:

- Drafted Jonathan Bernier in the 3rd round, and was able to flip him to felow Dobberite Tripel for Dustin Brown and Marty Brodeur at the trade deadline. Marty was pure insurance (especially since I had Hiller, who was always 1A/B with Fasth) but I didn't end up starting him, and he's a dropper next year. Brown was quite useful in SOG, Gs and PPPs, as I expected, he helped me win in both series. Bernier is a loss, I really like him going forward, but it was well worth giving him up.

- After the Spezza injury, I was not going to jump for trades or anything, because I felt I could still compete with my squad. But once Karlsson went down, I knew I needed to do something quick to make up for the huge hit on D. So I ended up trading Spezza/McBain/Atkinson for Hossa/Markov/Granlund (and a pick downgrade) to a team that was clearly going to be a bottom-feeder this year and for whom I figured older guys like Hossa and Markov might be expendable. Hossa did nothing during the regular season but really turned it on in the playoffs for me and was a big contributor. Markov was pretty solid all year long in terms of PPPs in particular. It was a move I needed to make to cover for the loss of Karlsson, and it paid big dividends, even though in the end Atkinson had more short term value than Granlund (still like that swap notwithstanding Granlund's relatively underwhelming debut).

-Hudler and Spurgeon were good mid-round draft picks who helped me here and there, even though they're not keepers.

- A solid waiver wire pickup in Fedor Tyutin, who contributed very well all-around. Also a last minute IR swap that allowed me to pick up Baertschi when he was still in the minors, and was very happy to see him perform when he got the chance after the Flames trade deadline moves -could see keeping him next year for some youth infusion (he and Granlund).

- Finally, sometimes you win with the moves you DON'T make, just like in the NHL - I considered trading Hiller and, yes, even Lundqvist, but glad I didn't, they both played very solidly down the stretch to pretty much seal my playoff wins.

- Team MVP was clearly Lundqvist, just so solid when the chips were down,despite what was for him a slowish start. Honorable mentions to Zetterberg, who finished like gangbusters and got me the win in the last week, and Getzlaf, who had a great bounceback year (as I had predicted!), as well as Moulson who just gets better and better (another guy I've touted for years). Solid contributions from Letang, Byfuglien and Markov to round things out.

Now come the difficult keeper decisions.

Thanks again guys!

[blayze]

Congrats Ross, very impressive that you were able to pull it off with injuries to BOTH Karlsson and Spezza. WOW.

[Shake]

Back-to-Back. Nice job!!

[dejeanneret]

Just noticed this thread ... a well-earned win indeed. Lundqvist and Zetterberg: total monsters in our series and just too much timely studliness for my team to overcome. Congrats, my friend. I'll be back next season seeking another shot to reclaim the Cup and win the race to three!