Quarter Pole NHL Fantasy Awards

Fantasy Norris Trophy

3. David Clarkson, New Jersey – With 350 PIM in his first two years in the league, Clarkson was classified by many as a bonafide goon. This year however, Clarkson has surprised everyone with his scoring touch, having posted 37 PIM combined with an impressive 15 points, 6 PPP and two game-winners in his first 21 games. He’s a capable scorer, having totalled 32 points last year, and is poised for a career year while skating on a line with Patrik Elias. Look for a 50 point season out of the rugged young winger, with 150+ PIM.

Aki Berg Fantasy Award

To all Irish soccer fans…your not alone.

Mr. “Sports” Bean

Jimmy Clausen is sporting a black eye today after apparently being punched at at bar at approximately 2 am early Sunday morning.  Read the full story

It is time for my fearsome predictions of teams headed for playoff bliss and teams headed for playoff whiffs – the contenders versus the pretenders, the players versus the dreamers, and the combatants versus combustibles. Read the full story

One of the things we do in this section is provide reviews of the latest sports books that you may want to pick up, or warn you of the ones to leave on the shelf.  This week we go back to Michael Lewis’, “The Blindside” which is four years old but is back in the public eye as it happens to have its debut as a major motion picture today. We’ll review the movie for you next week, but as for the book, this really is one of the unique sports-reads of the last few years. 

“The Blindside” tells the now well-known story of Michael Oher (pronounced “oar”) who plays right tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, but who had a very difficult childhood and would likely have remained an anonymous tragedy in the inner-city of Memphis, Tennessee were it not for his incredible size and athletic ability and the assistance of a wealthy Memphis family who took Oher into their home. When Lewis’ book came out the story was not complete as Oher was then just in his freshman season at the University of Mississippi and his NFL success was only a potential outcome.  What makes the book different from other human interest stories in a sports setting, is the fact that Lewis weaves throughout his narrative a fascinating history of the Offensive Left Tackle (thus the title ”The Blindside”) position and it’s importance in the game.  Lewis’ position is that the horrifying injury to Redskin’s Qb Joe Theissman, witnessed by millions on Monday Night Football, changed forever the way GMs and coaches in the league viewed that previously, relatively unimportant position.  The writing is engaging and the book reads more like a work of fiction than the biography/sports textbook that it actually is.  My only quibble with the author is the portrayal of the family that took Oher in, the Touhy’s.  Lewis seems to accept completely at face value that this family are the caring, humanitarians that selflessly take in a poor, homeless boy from the projects with no ulterior motive whatsoever.  The fact that Oher selects as his college Ole Miss which happens to be the alma mater of both Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy and rejects a host of other offers, including from all of the most potent football factories in the country is never really addressed or explained satisfactorily.  I’ve met Sean Touhy who happens to be the “color voice” of the Memphis Grizzlies and he comes across as incredibly sincere and honest, but for this book to be complete some digging probably would have been in order, even just to prove that nothing underhanded was involved.

Nonetheless, this is a great read and it feels like you’re getting two books for the price of one.  Enjoy!

The chances of erstwhile colleagues and buddies Bill Belichick and Eric Mangini being reunited have seemed remote…until now.  They appear together this week in our Braincramp of the Week section as our first two nominees.

Nominee #1 – Bill Belichick: Sunday night’s shocking decision to go for it on 4th down from their own 28 with 2:00 remaining and leading by 6 would on it’s own be enough to find a spot here, but blowing his last two timeouts moments before was beyond explanation.  Without a remaining timeout, Belichick was unable to challenge the spot of the ball on their misguided 4th down play.  The resulting Colt’s winning touchdown falls squarely on the shoulders of the biggest ego in the NFL – Nice job, Bill!

Nominee #2 – Eric Mangini: The “Mangenious” was up to his usual bizarre behaviour about 24 hours after Belichick’s Braincramp with one of his own.  At the end of their completely futile effort against the Ravens and trailing 16-0, Mangini used the last play of the game to enact his own version of the “Stanford Band” play. Notwithstanding the fact that victory was impossible, the Browns were out there lateraling the ball as only the hapless Browns can when Mangini’s best player Joshua Cribbs was absolutely annihilated by the Ravens hulking defensive end Dwan Edwards.  After Cribbs was stretchered off the field and taken to hospital, Mangini sheepishly admitted that the play call may not have been the shrewdist one, “In retrospect I would probably do (the last play) differently if I had to it again”. Ya think?! Would somebody please put Mangini out of his misery soon!

What Goes Up…

As the old adage goes, what goes up, must come down. It’s an unfortunate reality and one that can be perplexing for fantasy owners, especially at the start of a new season. Players very often will get off to uncharacteristically hot starts, posing a classic dilemma for their fantasy owners: is this guy for real, or will he eventually come crashing back down to Earth? A classic example of this was last year’s version of the Rangers’ Brandon Dubinsky, who started the first 13 games of the season with 12 points, 21 PIM, 4 PPP and 3 GWG. For the month of October, Dubinsky was on top of the fantasy world, and owners were scrambling to pick up the newest hot young talent. Come November however, Dubinsky’s performance tanked – he scored 5 points or less in all but one month for the rest of the year, ending up with a paltry 41 points in 82 games. Those who saw past Dubinsky’s hot start were able to take advantage by trading him away while his stock was still high, perhaps netting a 2nd or 3rd line defenseman in return.

In the 2009-2010 fantasy year, there are several players who have started the season in Dubinsky-esque fashion, but are starting to show signs of cracking as we approach the quarter mark of the season. Here’s a list of who’s the real deal and who you should be looking to trade away:

Dustin Penner, Edmonton – as discussed in a previous column, Penner is a career 50-point player, at best. He started this season extremely hot, posting 19 points in his first 13 games, but has since fallen back to Earth, scoring only four points in eight games. That translates into a 0.5 points-per-game pace, which is roughly in par with his career average, and with what you can expect from him going forward. His numbers are still strong enough to entice a trade with another owner though, so act quickly before the goose-eggs pile up on this guy. One potential trade avenue might even be to try lure the oft-injured Simon Gagne from a disgruntled owner. The upside on Gagne is much bigger than Penner’s, and even though Gagne is injured, you can stash him on your IR and pick up a Tim Connolly, Maxim Afinogenov, Nik Antropov or even Antoine Vermette in the meantime to fill in.

Michael Del Zotto, New York Rangers – congrats if you were sharp enough to catch this guy early on. Del Zotto is a very gifted 19 year-old rookie defenseman who was selected 20th overall in 2008 by the New York Rangers. Del Zotto has excelled at every level he’s played in, having consistently averaged nearly a point per game in the minors, and every indication is that he has a promising NHL career ahead of him. He has 15 points in 20 games with the blue-shirts, and mans the point on the first power play unit, a rarity for rookies – in fact ten of his fifteen points have come on the power play. For the most part, Del Zotto went undrafted in the majority of fantasy pools, which means that he’s likely filling in your roster as a third or fourth defenseman. He’ll have some growing pains to be sure, but a 40-45 point season doesn’t seem too unrealistic for the young blueliner, which, especially in deeper leagues, is a real bonus coming from the depths of your back end. Hold on to this guy, unless someone is willing to overpay.

Ryan Smyth, Los Angeles – this is a tricky one. Smyth has shown flashes of first-line production throughout his career, having approached the point-per-game pace several times throughout his career in Edmonton. He hasn’t been quite the same player of old however since his departure from the Big Oil, but seems rejuvenated playing alongside the league’s scoring leader, Anze Kopitar – in fact, Smyth has been given much of the credit for Kopitar’s explosive start to the season. He has been somewhat injury prone over his career, and isn’t the type of player who can dominate on his own. Paired up with Kopitar however, Smyth may be one to hold on to, especially with the overall lack of fantasy depth at the left wing position. Unless you’re overwhelmed with an offer, hold on to him.

Ryan Malone, Tampa Bay – if you’re ever going to get a chance to show your stuff, you would think playing alongside Sidney Crosby would be that chance. Despite playing alongside one of the greatest players in the league in Sid the Kid, Ryan Malone never scored more than 51 points in his career. Based on that, I’m not confident that Malone’s 19 points in 18 games pace to start the year will last, despite playing alongside Vinny Lecavalier. He’s definitely poised to have a career year, perhaps even around 65 points, but you may be able to sell high for some long-term value, especially perhaps those off to a slower start – Eric Staal, Thomas Vanek, Martin Havlat.

Craig Anderson, Colorado – I’ll start off by saying that this guy is no flash in the pan – I’m definitely not doubting his talent. Nevertheless, a sizzling October (10-2-2, 2.04 GAA, .939 SV%, 2 SO) may have left some fantasy owners expecting too much out of the Avalanche goalie. Colorado was picked by most this year to compete with Phoenix for the worst record in the Western conference, which makes it a tough environment for any goaltender to excel. Anderson has shown in his days with the Panthers that he is capable of carrying the load on a poor team, so his numbers should still be good, but don’t expect his hot start to go on forever, especially in terms of wins. In fact, November has been a much tougher month for Anderson, going 1-3-1 with a 3.53 GAA and a .883 SV% thus far. His numbers should bounce back to something more respectable however, and he may even finish among the top 10 goalies by year end. I’d be perfectly happy keeping Anderson as my number one goalie, provided he is paired with a goalie that can provide some additional win support, but I would nevertheless keep my ears open for anyone looking to overpay for Colorado’s hot, but unsustainable, start.