Fantasy NHL Team Totals Challenge - Discussion

[Pengwin7]

Bruins (SA) will be interesting. Shots Against is often a "system" call by the coach.
And Cassidy has moved on to Vegas. The players will still naturally play on the effect of his system.
But Bergeron IS such a defensive beast. His all-around game really does do SO much for limiting teams simply entering the BOS D-zone.
[Defensive forwards have, actually, a LOT to do with simply limiting zone entries. That's one reason I like this pool format concept so much... it's not just the 6D.]
[Further to that... many people know that I seemingly "love the plus/minus"... it's not exclusively so much the plus/minus as that I feel fantasy hockey should have SOME sort of capture towards a player's defensive prowess... and what stat gives ANY sniff of that???]


I'm interested to see how this pick and the Kraken (SA) pans out. LA, too.
Those teams were 2nd-4th in shots against last year... and, if somebody has quizzed me last year, without looking at those stats online... I wouldn't have guesses those were top league defenses.

[Invictus]

Kraken had to since Grubby was bad lol. I had Grubby so saw how few shots he would get a game so not surprising to see them that high.
LA Kings got Danault so not surprised there... saying that I don't know how much of an effect one godly defensive type forward (Bergeron / Danault) has.
Never had to pay attention to it.

[Pengwin7]

Kraken had to since Grubby was bad lol. I had Grubby so saw how few shots he would get a game so not surprising to see them that high.
LA Kings got Danault so not surprised there... saying that I don't know how much of an effect one godly defensive type forward (Bergeron / Danault)
Never had to pay attention to it.

Yeah, Danault is great case study for LA.
In 2020-21, LA finished 23rd (of 31) in NHL for shots against per game, with 31.18
In 2021-22, LA finished 2nd (of 32) in NHL for shots against per game, with 28.55.
Same coach: McLellan since 2019/20.

[Many people can confirm that I am, always have been, big Danault fan!]

[Invictus]

And looking at the Habs they cratered.
Though they had other variables against them too.

I was big on Habs keeping Danault...

Ya Ottawa GF was definitely and interesting one on who would jump on them first.

[Eskimo Brother]

Figured Seattle should have a similar system, and really on paper they only got better from last year, so to get a top-5 team from any stat from last year at this point... I couldn't pass up on that.

[Pengwin7]

re: Seattle. Yeah, Hakstol is a solid coach. I loved him when he was in PHI... and then the whole "We expect better" PHI-fan shit came down on him & Hextall (via PHI's dumbass Comcast Hockey Rep to Holmgren) that year they got out of the gates slow.
It's been nothing but disappointment for PHI since they tried to move on from Hakstol.

And Francis (GM) is smart dude. He knew how to play into a team formation.
You want to start with a solid core, good players per $$$. High end players are found through draft.
And best way to get those guys is to suck a bit for a few years, then bring them into a solid support system where they don't have to be the main defensive cogs.

And yeah, Seattle has a really solid group of smart forwards.
I'm actually not terribly high on their defense... but they did expansion draft very solid defensive defenders.

I don't see why they can't repeat a top 10 SA/gp.
That said.. when the range from 2nd best (28.55 sa/gp) to 16th best (STL 31.6 sa/gp) is just 3 shots per game... one solid defensive-forward (say, Danault) or a critical coaching change... can really flex a team there.

And 3-5 years ago, best teams were closer to 24 or 25 sa/gp... before entire NHL exploded with shots last year.
I think that's one of the key areas where data analysts have just looked at games and said "We need to shoot more, here - here, this situation, that situation..."
And it's still a work-in-progress for teams.

LOVE me some shots-against discussion!!!

[Invictus]

About 1/3 way through. Some teams going all in on a cat - some going more balanced approach.

I think this is where things will open up.

Penguins being the 3rd team completely off the board!

[niconasr]

About 1/3 way through. Some teams going all in on a cat - some going more balanced approach.

I think this is where things will open up.

Penguins being the 3rd team completely off the board!

Make that the 4th team after Carolina, Calgary and Tampa Bay.

[Invictus]

Right Thanks. Missed marking it off in a spot.
Not enough automation... but had to do a separate spreadsheet for my ranking/notes since I made the other one public for you all to view.

[Invictus]

Tough one here for me...

Okay, banking on a further developing Ranger team and the inclusion of Trocheck to continue their upward trend.

[tweetdrivr]

Torts…

[Invictus]

(My one early morning and the picks are no where near me...)

A lot of faith there...
I haven't looked into how much teams, Tort's has taken over, improved their SA.

[niconasr]

Made my pick. Busy all day today so sent a list to pmorrow and PH.

[4T2]

I'm tied up most of the weekend, so if someone could message me on the Yahoo app if my pick comes up, I'll log on when I can.

[Pengwin7]

I'll have my two in a few minutes...