I'm thinking of trading my Pavelec for Lehtonen. Not sure if I should do this straight up or if I should try to get an upgrade elsewhere while at.
I JUST traded for Lehtonen and thought I was buying low, but it appears that they are continually sinking to new lows..
I don't blame Lehts as much as I blame the team, but we are almost 20 games into the season and they still haven't figured things out.
Two games ago I think they were up 2-0 on Chicago, tied 2-2 heading into third, then gave up 4 more in the 3rd for a total of 6 unanswered.
Last game vs Carolina they decided to choke early, they were up 2-0 after the 1st, gave up 4 in the 2nd, lost 6-4.
This is right after Lehtonen shut out LA with a highlight reel save of the season on Stoll.....
What do you guys think? Wait 20 more games for their AHL Dmen to grow up? No one's coming to save them. No one's coming back from injury. They're about to waste $$$$ on Spezza instead of upgrading their defense.
I'm thinking of trading my Pavelec for Lehtonen. Not sure if I should do this straight up or if I should try to get an upgrade elsewhere while at.
It’s hard to think you have to give up on a guy like Lehtonen when he’s been healthy. I haven’t been watching them, but I’d say hold out longer. Last yr Brobovsky wasn’t strong. They finished the first 20 games like 8-9-3 or something like that. Hold out longer, but he’s no longer a must start or an anchor of someones fantasy team.
12 Team, H2H, Keep 6 (in Bold)
G, A, Pts, PPP, FW, SOG, Hits, Blocks
W, Saves, S%, GAA, Game Started
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G, 5BN, 2IR, 1IR+, 1NA
C: Horvat, Trocheck
LW: J. Robertson, Byfield (C), Guenther
RW: Pavelski (C), Giroux (C), Svechnikov (LW)
D: Fox, Makar, Bouchard, Morrissey, Gudas
Util: Meier (LW, RW)
G: Oettinger, Georgiev, Samsonov, Woll
You think health would be the biggest concern but this season I'm afraid to even start him....
Are any of these goalies an upgrade? I don't even care so much about Wins. Just give me a sub 2.40 GAA, .920SV%, couple shutouts and I'll be a happy camper. There are a lot of borderline playoff teams out there with some superb goaltending at the moment.
Luongo
Varlamov
Pavelec
Mason
Bobrovsky
I'm fairly confident I can swap Lehtonen for one of these goalies....if I have to lose a forward or downgrade my stacked offense to do so, so be it.
re: Goalies.
Mental. Goalies are mental.
The reason we (at least me... many others) question how we can constantly pick the wrong goalies is that a goalie's performance can change with the flip of his mental preparation.
And we never know what's going on in there.
If a goalie is frustrated or has something to think about or a tiny little nagging injury on their mind, perhaps their visual-to-action reflex is just .01 seconds slower.
Often the difference in saving a shot and having it go through.
(btw. Reason I speculate on this is because I played mostly defense growing up. In the lockerrooms, I always sit next to the goalie and shoot the shit with them. I just find them interesting. Usually one of my best buds on each team is the goalie - but they've all been completely mental. All of them. Even the quiet ones.)
Lehtonen.
My thoughts.
He hung in there with this team because it was rebuilding... because it was young... because they were stealing some games.
But this season - they are SUPPOSED to be GOOD.
They signed a top player (Spezza) and added another decent piece (Hemsky) and they should be winning games.
But they are not.
And the defense is shit. Terrible. Possibly bottom 5 defense in the league. I mean, who is worse? Buffalo perhaps? Colorado? I can't quickly name another team. Philly?
And as soon as a goalie feels like he's doomed because his defense is shit... then he ceases to believe.
For me, Lehtonen might be all mentally shaken up like "We can't win with our defense playing like that."
I mean, really, who knows...
That's just my crackpot theory...
Oddly, in the Dobber PRO draft this year, the 2nd round came around to me and I had to pick a goalie.
Varlamov & Lehtonen were the consensus guys on the board.
I went Varlamov.
Somebody said "I would've gone Lehtonen there".
Does it matter?
They are both garbage this season... as neither of their clubs is fulfilling expectations and giving up a boatload of shots.
RE the mental goalie theory…it’s no theory. We/they are mental when playing in net. I played goalie for 4 seasons when I first started and if I didn’t have my pads done up in a certain way (I did every other strap up) I’d have to take my whole pad off and start again. Then I switched to defense because house league was getting more goalies in it (50/50 split my last yr) so I was always next to the goalies in the change room. Defense always have a stronger bond to the goalies than forwards. During warm up you couldn’t skate through one goalies crease at all, then the next yr he wanted you to go through it all the time.
To judge goalies (in fantasy) outside of Price, Quick, Lundqvist and Rask is a total crap shoot. Out of all the goalies in the NHL, those 4 are the only ones I’d bet considerable amount of money on to do the same as the yr before.
12 Team, H2H, Keep 6 (in Bold)
G, A, Pts, PPP, FW, SOG, Hits, Blocks
W, Saves, S%, GAA, Game Started
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G, 5BN, 2IR, 1IR+, 1NA
C: Horvat, Trocheck
LW: J. Robertson, Byfield (C), Guenther
RW: Pavelski (C), Giroux (C), Svechnikov (LW)
D: Fox, Makar, Bouchard, Morrissey, Gudas
Util: Meier (LW, RW)
G: Oettinger, Georgiev, Samsonov, Woll
his value will increase if/when Spezza gets hurt
Lehtonen has really let me down as well. I really thought dallas was going to dominate this year and be one of the top teams. I thought they would be a scoring machine, but I really underestimated how bad their defense is. Lehtonen is also playing the wost he has since joining dallas. He's usually pretty reliable when healthy but has been a sieve this year.
I don't think it's time to give up, yet. The Stars started out good, almost all of the problems now stem from one source and it's right between their ears. If and when they get their heads on straight a good many problems will clear up. The atrocious defense, that one will take personnel changes to fix. They are really lacking in NHL-caliber defensive defensemen.
On Lehtonen, he stated early on that his unusually light workload in pre-season had adversely affected his game. He's used to getting much more work and that heavier load helps prep him mentally and physically. With all the other struggles going on and a flighty netminder who says he wasn't ready mentally when the season got started it's small wonder they and he are fubar at the moment.
They can right the ship if they can conquer those mental demons. You can see it on their faces and in their body language at the first sign of adversity,"Ah shite here we go again". They just have to figure out how to change that mentality.
I have faith in Lehtonen. He's been good every year and he'll put things together this year too. The Stars are a better than than their current play. They'll turn it around too.
I can't promise I'll try but I'll try to try.
I'm keeping him for a bit longer
Sucks to see all those leads disappear though
4-0 on LA and barely win 5-4
Once they get their act together, youčll be loving it.
14 Team H2H Keeper League - no waivers G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHG, GWG SOG W, GAA, SV%, SHO C - Lee, Kopitar, Zibanejad RW - Simmonds, MacKinnon, Stone, Pastrnak LW - Datsyuk, Michalek, Nash D - Suter, Klingberg, Hamilton, Lindholm IR - P. Kane, E. Kane G - Schneider, Holtby