Playoff Strategy Having passed the halfway mark of the fantasy hockey season, you should by now have a strong grasp of what type of team you have. Enough time has passed for you to take note of scoring categories in which you tend to dominate, others in which you’re basically treading water, and those that you are virtually giving away each week. So what now? What if you’re stuck with one of those teams that just seems to be treading water most of the time – not terrible, but not great either, just kind of continually hovering around the .500 mark? A team in which you’re more than just one good trade away from joining the elite level? For those in H2H leagues, now is the time you start to look towards building your team for the playoffs. In the playoffs, a win, is a win, is a win. It doesn’t matter if you shutout your opponent 10-0 or if you barely squeaked by on a last second empty net goal that gave you a 6-4 victory – it’s all about survival until the next round. So how can you survive? The key is to ensure that you can consistently dominate a significant number of categories, preferably at least half, in order to guarantee yourself of a certain number of points each week. In fantasy hockey, most leagues are broken up into two tiers: goaltending scoring and offensive scoring. That is, in a ten-category league there may be five goaltending categories (W, GAA, SV%, SO, SV) and five offensive ones (G, A, +/-, PPP, PIM). If, through smart trades, you can build your team to dominate one side of the puck, you’ll likely have a good chance at winning your matchup, albeit by the slimmest of margins. Dominating one side of the puck typically implies punting away the other categories. It’s very difficult to build a team that dominates on both sides of the puck, and virtually impossible to do so halfway through the season when all you’ve got to work with is a mediocre roster. For that reason, managers stuck in mediocrity should assess their team’s strengths and weaknesses and pick a direction in which to go. Holding on to an average team and simply hoping for a hot hand is a great strategy for those aspiring to finish fifth, but a poor one for those looking to win their league. Typically, the easiest direction in which to transform a team is towards the defensive side. Why? Because it’s simply easier to negotiate trades to acquire 4 elite goaltenders rather than 12 elite forwards/defensemen. For example, if you can dominate W, GAA, SV% and SV (4 of the 5 goaltending categories that should be winnable with elite goaltending), you can likely find enough goons to get you the needed number of PIM to assure yourself of a 5-5 tie at worst. And that’s not to mention the goalie shutout category – although that’s the trickiest of all to predict with any consistency, with elite goaltending the odds are in your favour. Nearly 50% of the weekly shutout categories in my fantasy hockey league end in ties, suggesting that if your elite goalies can’t you get enough shutouts, there is a very good chance that at worst, you’ll end up with a tie in that category, meaning a 5-4-1 victory for you. And as an added bonus, if your opponent is not particularly strong in the plus/minus category, you have yet another wild card category in which anything can happen.

The execution of this plan lies in the trade offers you make. The important part of all this is not the relative equality of the trade, but that the trade is a means to an end for you. It doesn’t matter if the offensive player(s) you are giving up are more valuable than the goalie you are getting in return; what matters is that you’re getting the goalie you need to execute your plan. Remember, we’re not concerned with offensive statistics. Some might see certain trades as lopsided, but your final objective is what’s important. It doesn’t matter if your opponent outscores you in goals 60-10, as long as you can get steal that 5-4-1 victory. For example, the odds are that you’ve got at least one top ten forward, one top ten defenseman and one top five goaltender on your team. Sacrificing a package of number one ranked Alexander Ovechkin together with Drew Doughty, for the 13th ranked Ryan Miller, would be a victory despite the uneven rankings, because you would now equip your team with a second top five goaltender. As your offensive depth dwindles however, a little more creativity will be needed to land that third elite goaltender – perhaps a package of some relatively good forwards and defensemen to a team that has some goaltending depth but is desperate for scoring would suffice. Whatever the case, your ultimate goal is to reach 3 elite goaltenders. Beyond that, your own second tier goalie will likely suffice, especially if he plays well at home. Tampa Bay’s Mike Smith for example has a superb record at home (7-3-3, 2.05, .933, 1 SO) but is absolutely awful on the road – as your fourth goalie however, you can afford to only be playing him in home games.

What to do with your now depleted offensive roster? Go out there, whether by waiver pickups or “lopsided” trades, and pick up the best PIM goons you can find. Again, you are not looking for equal value in a trade, you just want to execute your plan. As an added bonus, if you can find players that won’t hurt your plus/minus ranking, you stand a reasonable chance of picking up a victory in that category as well, especially if your opponent isn’t particularly strong in that respect.

All of a sudden, you’ve turned a mediocre team into one that will manhandle opponents defensively for at least 4, if not 5 points, and will have a very good chance at winning PIM to seal up your win, not to mention the possibility of a plus/minus victory. All of this is possible, but only if you are willing to take the risk. If you’re currently stuck in the middle of the pack, what do you have to lose?