Kids finally went to bed. 20 minutes to get my entry in!
Just under the wire. Sent. Time to just enjoy the games. Thanks again!
Kids finally went to bed. 20 minutes to get my entry in!
GET WELL SOON, DOBBER.
Got it in with three minutes left!
Went with 5 Canadians and Americans, but I have a sneaky suspicion that they'll be playing each other for the Bronze medal. Canada is gonna run the table in group A (weakest group I can remember in a long time). Historically, Canada doesn't fair too well in the semis when they don't face any adversity at any point in the round robin. Czechia is much better than the past few years but should still be easy for Canada, the Finns are considerably weaker than previous years, Germany lost all their star power so they're back to bottom feeder, and Austria is the blow-out game. Canada should easily go 4-0, and then beat Slovakia (youngest team in World Junior history I believe) in the quarters. Then they get either Russia, Sweden or USA. On paper, Canada is much better than all those teams, but they will have faced a lot of adversity having to play each other in the round robin which usually bodes well for the medal games.
Canada also typically doesn't do too well historically in the year BEFORE the generational talent is front and center. Next year is the Connor Bedard year (plus Cossa should be the clear starter next year and by then he should be dominating against younger players). This is the year where they don't play the generational talent as much as he should be played. Canada is the best team on paper. No team should beat them, but they could very easily beat themselves.
The Swedes are bringing a very good team this year. They could have the top forward, defenceman and goalie at this tournament. I had Eklund penciled in as my captain for days till I decided that Canada would have more opportunities at running up the score against weaker competition so I went with McTavish. But Eklund (or Holtz) could be the top forward. Edvinsson should give Power a run for top dman (I don't think Niemela pans out this year as the Finns are much weaker). And the finals could wind up as a battle between Askarov and Wallstedt. And they don't have the pressure of the round robin streak anymore - they can now play for the medal round.
I also think there's a very good chance the Czechs finish higher than the Finns. As you can tell earlier in this point, I'm quite low on the Finns this year. Don't like their D other than Niemela, losing Ratu is a big loss, and they were counting on Lambert this year and he's falling lower and lower by the day. They're usually either really good or really bad. I think this is the really bad year.
GET WELL SOON, DOBBER.
Shoot. I forgot ☹️
All the entries are in and final!
Went with 5-5-5-5-2 (CAN-USA-FIN-SWE-RUS), and one of the Russians is not Askarov. Real gambit here, especially not taking an NA goaltender. Wacky but what felt right.
About 30 entries this year, thanks for participating and good luck!
UHL - Detroit Red Wings
24 team H2H (W-:L) Dynasty - 3C/LW/RW/F, 6D, 1G.
G/A/(+/-)/PIM/SOG/PPP/SHP/GWG/HIT/BLK/FOW
W/GAA/SV/SV%/SHO
NHL Cap + 1M salary cap (AAV)
Ducked the USA altogether this year, so we'll see how that goes. Went back and forth on them, but just couldn't decide on a consensus. Fairly happy, but mostly because I don't have to work (I usually have to) and I can watch all the hockey I want for a few days.
[SIZE=1]WHL - World Hockey League (24-Team Daily H2H)
Weighted Scoring: G(1),A(1),PPP(0.5),+/-(0.5), SOG/PIM/HIT/BLK(all 0.05), FOW-C(0.01)
Saanichton Cougars
And we're off to the races! Dropped off from the 40's to the low 30's in entries, but I usually post this earlier, so I'm guessing that has something to do with it.
Fun stats:
- No player was picked by all 32 teams - Kent Johnson (CAN, 31) came close, and so did last-minute D-captain cut Shakir Mukhamadullin (RUS, 30). Much to my surprise, Matvei Michkov was picked 3rd most as a 16 year old, and Shane Wright was the 2nd most popular Canadian pick (25), continuing some tradition that hyped up prospects on the younger side are popular picks.
- Speaking of Captains, close calls Simontaival (FIN, 20 teams), Dylan Guenther (CAN, 8), Emil Andrae (SWE, 24) weren't picked as much as the collective thought! Goes to show every year as easy as some picks look to one, they aren't clear cut to others.
- Most picked is Canada (158 picks), although the Russians (132), Swedes (130) and USA (128) were fighting it out for spots. Finland have 95. Slovakia barely (25) has more picks than Czechia (24). Austria (1) and Switzerland (1) somehow beat out Germany who have been a powerhouse in recent years (0). No Draisaitl or Stutzle to carry them this year, though.
- Goalies are known to be volatile, but I've never seen such little faith in picking a Canadian Goaltender - 8 picks (Garand 6, Cossa 2) total. Finland (Blomqvist 5, Merilainen 1) is the only team whose goalies were picked that has less. People are riding on performances from Wallstedt (25) and Askarov (17), with a side of Commesso (8).
- The Most-Picked Team:
F Captain - Mason McTavish (CAN, 13)
D Captain - Topi Niemela (FIN, 13) (Tied with Sanderson, but more US players were highly picked so to make space for others it's Niemela here. Totally not Leafs fan bias)
Forwards:
Johnson (CAN, 31), Michkov (RUS, 28), Olausson (SWE, 27), Wright (CAN, 25), Khusnutdinov (RUS, 22), Berard (USA, 22),
Simontaival (FIN, 20), Coronato (USA, 19), Lysell (SWE, 15), Bourque (CAN, 14), Chibrikov (RUS, 13) one of Mysak (CZE), Jarventie (FIM), Kemell (FIN) or Pastujov (USA), all at 11.
Defence:
Mukhamadullin (RUS, 30), Andrae (SWE, 24), Grans (SWE, 21), Jiricek (CZE, 17), Zellweger (CAN, 14), Faber (USA, 12)
Goaltending:
Jesper Wallstedt (SWE, 25), Askarov (RUS, 17)
5 Canadians, 5 Swedes, 5 Russians, 3 US players, 2 Finns, a Czech and a wildcard (Czech, Finn or US born.
But without further ado - the early standings!
Rank Team Points 1 bmctee 25 2 CrimsonYann 25 3 metaldude26 25 4 JagrBomb 23 5 Driedger18 23 6 dodospice 22 7 Pit Bulls 22 8 Markyj 21 9 watchingthegame 21 10 InForAPenny 20 11 forsbergfan 19 12 CaptainCally 19 13 cmrtn 18 14 PenguinHunter 18 15 Eskimo Brother 18 16 Kjamieson 17 17 Essej 17 18 burnsy00 17 19 nikitanikitin 16 20 Dcamp12 16 21 Axeman33 16 22 pmorrow 15 23 Bubba55 15 24 Rocky71 15 25 Magicstew 14 26 Nights 14 27 doulos 13 28 StuntMan12 13 29 dennis 13 30 Jussin88 12 31 newfcollins 11 32 flyers94 11
UHL - Detroit Red Wings
24 team H2H (W-:L) Dynasty - 3C/LW/RW/F, 6D, 1G.
G/A/(+/-)/PIM/SOG/PPP/SHP/GWG/HIT/BLK/FOW
W/GAA/SV/SV%/SHO
NHL Cap + 1M salary cap (AAV)
The 17 of us that picked Jiricek already took a hit. Going for an MRI today, looks like he could be out for the remainder of the tournament.
10 Team, Points Only, Cash League
25 Man Roster (no position), top 20 point getters count at end of month
Keep 20/25 at seasons end, Cut 5 to FA for redrafting
Goalie points W=2pt L=-1pt SHO=2pt
Stamkos, Tavares, Eichel, JRobertson, RThomas, Kucherov, Nugent-Hopkins, Tuch, KConnor, Necas, Point, Konecny, SJarvis, Morrissey, Bouchard, Josi, Peterka, PKane, Bunting, Voronkov, BClarke, Perreault
G- Vasilevskiy, Oettinger, Blackwood
"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."
Mark Twain
At the very last second before submitting, I changed Helenius to Kemell...damn
[SIZE=1]WHL - World Hockey League (24-Team Daily H2H)
Weighted Scoring: G(1),A(1),PPP(0.5),+/-(0.5), SOG/PIM/HIT/BLK(all 0.05), FOW-C(0.01)
Saanichton Cougars
12-team Dynasty Salary
G-A-H-B/W-SO
Crosby, Ovechkin, Hagel, Ehlers, Tavares, Stone, Neighbours. DeBrusk. Seguin, Cotter, Lindstrom, Kasper, Blake, Rosén, Brindley, Del Bel Belluz, Unger Sorum
Dunn, Carlson, Sergachev, Harley, Fehervary, Luneau, Korczak, Pickering, Rinzel, Ufko
Bobrovsky, Woll, Stolarz, Bussi, Garand
10-team Dynasty Roto (Defending Champ)
G-A-FOW-STP-H-B/W-GAA-Sv%
Matthews, Hyman, Bratt, Guentzel, Konecny, Horvat, Lindholm, Buchnevich, Laine, Vilardi, Peterka, Kulich, Kemell, Öhgren, Bourque, Snuggerud
Makar, Josi, Dobson, Pietrangelo, Hanifin, Faber, Edvinsson, Zellweger, Casey, Willander, Molendyk
Shesterkin, Hellebuyck, Wallstedt
Dec 28th (Morning) update!
Rank Team Points 1 bmctee 39 2 CrimsonYann 39 3 metaldude26 37 4 Pit Bulls 33 5 Driedger18 32 6 dodospice 31 7 InForAPenny 31 8 watchingthegame 30 9 Eskimo Brother 30 10 JagrBomb 29 11 PenguinHunter 29 12 CaptainCally 29 13 cmrtn 28 14 forsbergfan 28 15 Markyj 27 16 nikitanikitin 27 17 Rocky71 27 18 Kjamieson 26 19 Essej 26 20 Dcamp12 24 21 Bubba55 24 22 burnsy00 24 23 Magicstew 23 24 pmorrow 23 25 Nights 22 26 newfcollins 20 27 Axeman33 20 28 dennis 20 29 doulos 19 30 Jussin88 19 31 flyers94 17 32 StuntMan12 16
UHL - Detroit Red Wings
24 team H2H (W-:L) Dynasty - 3C/LW/RW/F, 6D, 1G.
G/A/(+/-)/PIM/SOG/PPP/SHP/GWG/HIT/BLK/FOW
W/GAA/SV/SV%/SHO
NHL Cap + 1M salary cap (AAV)