Strategy Q: Illogical to start Crawford 2nite if u have 6 Wings on ur fantasy team?

[PocketRockets05]

Hey guys, so in my 2 head-to-head pools I'm still in the running for the crown.

Pertaining to this post, in one of my pools I own the following relevant players: Helm(spot start), Cleary, Rafalski, Crawford

In my other pool I own these following players: Zetterberg, Hudler, Lidstrom

As you can see I have a combined 6 different Red Wings players starting tonight from my 2 pools, and the 1 Chicago goalie whom is facing off against them in Motown. Would it be totally crazy for me to sit Crawford tonight because I'm hoping that the Wings blow the Hawks out? I usually never sit a goalie on a Monday but technically if I start him I'm hoping he does well, and thus shut out my 6 Wings. I'm not really sure what side to take.

Really what I'm more broadly asking here is if you own a goalie (other than the top tier ones: Luongo, Lundy, Miller, etc. who are all pretty much automatic starts) and he is facing off against a team by which you have a lot of their offensive players does that weigh into your decision of whether or not you start him or sit him?

Also, please note that in the pool where I own Crawford I also own Bryzgalov and Luongo so if I were to sit Crawford tonight I still will be getting some quality starts throughout the week.

Would suck if I were to sit a shutout and my Wings do nothing, but would also suck if he puts up bad numbers tonight. Would love to hear what all your thoughts are on this. Thanks!

[bondon]

Typically I don't use that as part of my rationale to bench a goalie, the way I see it is:

A) What you do has no effect on the game or the way it plays out - A lot of people are kind of blinded by the belief that something they do will impact the outcome of the game (like angering the gods or something lol)
B) There's a chance that your goalie will have a good game while at the same time having your skaters score a couple points
C) I'd be livid if I benched a shutout because if its a low scoring game I'm gonna want a piece of that pie.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

Edit: Just thought I'd add that it heavily depends on who the goaltender is, but that leads to a larger topic of discussion regarding reasons to bench/start goalies in general.

[MGW]

Funny you should bring up Crawford tonight. I only have Listrom to worry about, but I'm still benching him. I love the fact that he's starting to heat up, but I'm just unsure about how he'll fare against the high powered Wings. I know they are without Dats, but Franzen is back and they have so many offensive threats.
I also have some other goalies who I'm looking to lean on later in the week (and we only need 2 goalie starts/week in this league so I'm not too worried about picking and choosing).

If Chicago was at home, I may be more inclined to start Crawford, but even then I think the risk is more than I need to take.

Apparently I turned this post into one about my own situation haha, but hey

[Dutch]

I don't think you should have that 1 pool influence your other pool, so essentially it's going to be 3 wings vs. 1 goalie.

I can't see the wings "blowing" the hawks out, so I would say play everyone. you probably benefit across the board with that

your other pool has absolutely nothing to do with crawford playing

[PocketRockets05]

Thanks for all your responses!

b0ndon - Thanks for the advice. I know what I do has no effect on the outcome of a game, but what is the IDEAL outcome that I want? A high scoring game. I'm usually a very high risk / high reward kind of person when it comes to fantasy pools and I always try to run my teams based on what I want to ideally happen which would give me the best chance of winning. A Crawford shutout would be great, but I think the odds are greater of the Wings scoring more than 2-3 goals at home, as opposed to Crawford getting a shutout. If Craw was my #1 goalie and my other 2 goalies were say for example Montoya and Elliott then I would definitely start Crawford tonight. But, since I also have Bryz and Luongo that's kind of swaying me to not start him. If he gets a shutout though I would be extremely pissed lol...at the moment, I'm still undecided.

MGW - Good luck with your situation! Thanks for your weigh in.

Dutch - Thanks for the advice. I know what you're saying but this question does relate to both pools for me just because I am Wings heavy in both. The Wings scoring a lot of goals tonight would/could positively effect me in both pools. A Hawks loss or a high scoring game would negatively effect me in 1 pool, but it is the previous that I'm trying to target, and since I am trying to target the previous I am gambling on Crawford letting some in tonight. I know I'm pretty much playing a guessing game here, but that's the fun of it I guess!

[jff100]

Question: Would you bench Crawford even if you had *NO* Detroit skaters? If your answer is NO, then definitely do not bench him tonight. That way you maximize your overall rate of return on your players, i.e. playing him would give you the best chance of winning the weekly H2H matchup, without knowing the outcome in advance. It's kind of like hedging your bets but with very little risk.

[PC_269_]

Yeah, I'm with the consensus here; select goalies to start based on whether or not they stand a reasonable chance to win or at least not give up 7 goals. THis is hard to predict, but for tonight, this will be tight checking, playoff type hockey. I like a low scoring affair, 3-2 Wings.

[PocketRockets05]

Thanks everyone for your continued responses. I initially had Crawford out, but I've decided to slide him in based on a lot of good points each of you have brought up. Hopefully it works out! cheers