This week we’ve been treated with a series of impressive performances that make all fantasy owners take note. Here’s a few players to have on your radar:

Josh Bailey, Islanders – With John Tavares scoring just 8 points in his past 20 games, Bailey has taken command of the Islanders offense and has gone on a 14-point, 11-game tear, including 10 points in his last 5 games. Bailey, who was drafted 9th overall in the 2008 draft is on the verging of breaking through last year’s point total (25) in 22 fewer games. He has also made significant improvements to his defensive game, with a +11 rating thus far. Although we don’t expect this streak to continue indefinitely (remember, he plays for the Islanders) he may be worth a ride in deeper leagues and will certainly be a player to watch for in the years to come, as he and Tavares continue to develop.

Mike Brodeur, Senators – After shutting out the Rangers in just the second NHL start of his career, fantasy owners in deep leagues may want to take note of Marty’s distant cousin, Mike Brodeur. You certainly wouldn’t want to jump the gun, but if Brodeur posts another solid start, we may be nearing the start of yet another goaltending controversy in Ottawa. Their goaltending situation has been in a constant state of flux all year, and with Leclaire’s most recent concussion troubles, the door is certainly wide open for Brodeur to show the team what he’s got and make a run for it. So far, Brodeur has struggled in the AHL this year (3.30 GAA, .892 SV%), but had a solid 2008-2009 season (18-13-4, 2.45 GAA, .921 SV%), giving some hope for optimism. Stay tuned.

Cam Ward, Hurricanes – We all knew the Hurricanes weren’t as bad as they appeared early in the season, but even still, nobody wanted to touch them with a ten-foot pole. The team as a whole has been a fantasy disaster, being plagued with injuries and atrocious performances, especially in the plus/minus department. Nonetheless, things are starting to turn around, especially with the play of Cam Ward as of late. In the month of January, Ward is 4-2, with a 1.99 GAA and a .940 SV%. The team overall has won seven of their past 15 games, and is starting to make strides to pull out of the league basement. On offense they are led by Eric Staal, who is finally delivering with the 24th best fantasy performance over the past month. For owners desperate for some goaltending, Cam Ward would make a superb sleeper trade and should be a decent number two goalie for the remainder of the season.

Patric Hornqvist, Predators – After just 10 points in his first 26 games, Hornqvist has put together an impressive streak of 19 points in 20 games, with 3 GWG and a plus-10 rating. Hornqvist has really excelled playing alongside Steve Sullivan on the Predators number two line, and has shown remarkable consistency, scoring points in 12 of his past 15 games. In just his second NHL season, the jury is still out on whether he can sustain such a pace, but given the lack of depth in the right wing position, Hornqvist may be worth a look in moderately sized leagues.

Vincent Lecavalier, Lightning – The ship may already be sailing away on this one, but after struggling the first two months of the season, Vinny Lecavalier is finally starting to piece things back together, with 22 points in his past 21 games. His low-trending scoring percentages are still of concern to fantasy owners (15.3%, 12.6%, 10.0%, 6.9% since 2006-2007), but for the time being he’s seemed to have found a groove. If you’re looking for some scoring depth, you may still be able to pry Vinny away from an owner with an enticing trade, but be cautious not to overpay.

Danny Briere, Flyers – Talk about a poor return for your money – the Flyers invested $52 million over eight years in Danny Briere, only to have him miss 53 games last year with four different injuries. This year however, Briere is slowly rounding back to form and is definitely a player to keep on the watchlist, especially in shallow to moderately sized leagues. Playing on a line with Jeff Carter and Scott Hartnell, he’s scored a very respectable 31 points in 39 games thus far, and has eleven points in his last nine games, four of which are on the powerplay. As an added advantage, Briere has dual eligibility, qualifying at both center and right wing in Yahoo! leagues, making him that much more valuable. He’ll always be an injury risk, but based on his performance the past month, he may be well worth the gamble.

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?

“Keep in mind, Shanahan won ONLY ONE playoff game after Elway retired — ONE in 9 seasons!!!! So, be careful what you wish for Redskins fans.”

“How many Superbowls did Noll win without Bradshaw? How many Superbowls did Lombardi win without Starr? How many has Belichick won without Brady?”

“I heard the contract talks stalled when darkhorse candidate Ryan Handley, Offensive Line Coach at Lackey High School, decided to coach the team for ten dollars an hour.”

“Snyder and Shanahan. When egos collide.”

On Mangini and Cleveland

“6 more months till’ LBJ leaves too!”

“Its now 12:03pm in Ohio & Mangini has 3hrs & 57 min left on his contract with the Browns.”

“Not sure why these coaches from different ‘philosophies’ can’t work things out. Isn’t the philosophy to win? Wouldn’t the team be best served by having as many philosophies involved as possible? Just wondering, because it would be a mistake to fire Mangini at this point.”

Ron Turner Out in Chicago

“The real story here is that with one simple trade the Broncos and Bears both managed to make their teams worse. Kudos, gentlemen, kudos!”

“Good bye Turner, Hello Charlie Weis!”

“BAD NEWS BEARS!!!!!!”

“The bears organization sticking with Lovie Smith is just as frustrating as Lovie Smith sticking with Rex Grossman.”

Not to pick on the state of Florida, but ‘The U’ – otherwise known as Miami, played games against Florida A&M and Central Florida in their own backyard.  Why in the world is the ‘U’ playing a mid-season game against – with all due-respect to Florida A&M – a Division II team that would probably be the equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals at home in Harlem. 

It behooves the powers at be to schedule more meaningful out of conference games between the major conferences and mid-major conferences.  While battle between the superpowers such as a USC/Ohio State matchup may be compelling for many different reasons, many would argue that a TCU/Florida or a Nebraska/Cincinnati tussle would be just as compelling.  And if travel is a concern, how about few more Houston/Texas, Cincinnati/Ohio, Buffalo/Syracuse type matchups which would at the very least drum up meaningful local interest, but no doubt national interest as those outside of state hope for David to slay the Goliath. 

And by the way there are some pretty good players coming out of those lesser known conferences.  All you have to do is take a look the group going to Hawaii a few weeks from now.  Of the 83 selected players going to the Pro-Bowl (DeSean Jackson was selected at 2 different positions), 23 came out of non-BCS conferences.  The conference with the greatest representation was the ACC, which was largely fuelled by Miami’s great run a few years back.  Here’s out it breaks down for the rest of the conferences: 

SEC (11)

Big 10 (fittingly with 10)

PAC 10 (9)

Big East (9)

Big 12 (8). 

Division II schools (8)

Conference USA (5)

MAC (3)

WAC (2)

Mountain West (2)

Sun Belt (1) 

With all those Pro-Bowl selections coming out of Division II schools it seems clear that some of the talent scouts somewhere should be looking for different work. 

But perhaps, most intriguing is the quality of players that have emerged from the conferences.  To put it into perspective, try and determine which conferences the following 5 players are from – Chris Johnson, Brandon Marshall, Brett Favre, DeAngelo Williams, Asante Samuel.  Not the SEC, PAC 10 or Big 12.  They all hail from Conference USA, and it might be said that no conference has as much star power as C-USA with the exception perhaps of the ACC. 

So if Boise State or TCU had been given the chance to play Texas or Alabama for the NCAA Championship, maybe they would have been trounced, or maybe we would have seen a reprise of Boise State’s improbable victory over Oklahoma in the not so distant past.  Isn’t it time for a playoff?  The folks in Boise certainly have an argument, don’t they?

On their own, Donaghy’s actions while officiating could be explained and even to a degree, understood.  Society has come to the realization that gambling is a serious illness and the extent to which inveterate gamblers will go to satisfy their habit is limitless.  The well-documented case of former NFL and Ohio State quarterback Art Schleister is familiar to all sports fans and points to the powerlessness that addicts feel under the weight of their disease and the completeness of their self-destructive behaviour.  But where Donaghy’s actions really cross a previously unapproached line is in his odious claims that the entire roster of officials in the NBA –and by extension, all professional sports- is corrupt.  Donaghy claims that fellow refs regularly influenced the outcome of games because of pre-existing grudges and personality clashes with players and coaches.  He claims to be able to predict the outcome of “80% of NBA games” just by knowing the identity of the crew working any particular game.  The implication is that the outcome of the vast majority of games is pre-determined by the officials.  

At first blush, Donaghy’s outrageous claims can be dismissed as the delusional ravings of a man determined to justify his own criminal behaviour.  But the problem is that they plant a seed of doubt and are subtle enough to be unable to completely disprove.  In a sport like basketball or football, most of the decisions of the officials come down to judgment and we inherently accept the objectivity of the men and women who make those decisions. The sport of figure skating was recently rocked by a similar set of accusations, that judging was pre-determined and outcomes assured in advance.  But in that sport, national allegiances were the obvious motivators and we could rationalize the pressure that the judges were under to “fix” the results.  What is the motive Donaghy is suggesting here? It’s not money, as the disgraced ref acknowledges that he knows of no other officials that are involved in gambling. Donaghy is trying to make the case that simple pique is driving this process.  Grown men are making decisions because their feelings were hurt or they are angry at one or more of the participants.  By eliminating from the equation qualities such as integrity, pride and professionalism –traits that are held in high esteem by officials in all sports- Donaghy is making the simple mistake of projecting his own failings and lack of moral character onto his colleagues.  It is the most pathetic aspect of this whole, tawdry mess.  There is also a practical element here that is being missed by those who tend to accept Donaghy’s shocking story.  It is estimated that basketball officials make between 7 and 10,000 individual judgments over the course of any one game!  These decisions are therefore happening in a fraction of a second and are described by all top officials as being instinctive and reactionary.  There simply is no time when adjudicating a tough block/charge call to factor in the personal histories of the players or teams involved and it is in hundreds of these decisions that any effect the officials have on the game are felt.  The best officials get these calls right at a staggeringly-high percentage.

At the start of this NBA pre-season, the regular officials were on the sidelines and replacement refs worked the game.  Ostensibly, this was the result of a Collective-Bargaining impasse that came down to a dispute over pension contributions and accessibility.  There was even the suggestion that Commissioner David Stern was taking a “hard-line” with the officials to send a message to the players that the economy of the NBA has taken a hit and to be prepared to make concessions when their deal ends after next season.  What was really at work was Stern re-establishing his authority over the officials in the wake of this scandal and the fact that the officials effectively caved under the pressure and accepted the NBA’s offer is an indication of the lack of leverage they now have.  They now work under the shadow of the accusations being made by one of their own and this has made an already incredibly difficult task almost impossible.  Donaghy’s motives are clear, he is trying to sell books and he has sold his soul in the process.  The effects of his actions are being felt in all sports and have called into question men and women striving in one of the last pure aspects of professional sports.  For that most of all, shame on Tim Donaghy.

 This was the scene of one of the most exciting Superbowls ever played, at the very least certainly the most exciting 4th quarter of a championship game that we’ve seen in quite some time. To me, the Superbowl is the worst day of the year, when the sport I most enjoy watching is coming to it’s finality for another year.  Watching college basketball just isn’t the same and waiting for the Masters and the draft in April just takes too long.  I actually start getting depressed right after the Conference championship games are played because I have to wait 2 weeks for the big game. When it does come, it hardly ever lives up to the hype and then I have to wait 6 months for my next diet of Football !! Oh brother !!

 This year however, was different.  This Superbowl actually made me smile for weeks after and when your favorite sport lives up to it’s hype (as it has these last 2 years) then the world (and my family and friends who only watch the big game so they can eat everything in sight and call it  “a party” )  gets to see why the NFL is justifiably King of The Sports Castle.

This was no ordinary game this time, no sireee, a classic from every angle.  This game had comebacks, heroes, more comebacks more heroes and a fantastic finish.  What more could even the most demanding football fan ask for ? Truly a game for the ages !

 As I mentioned from the start, I hate Super Bowl week and right after the game , some mild form of depression certainly sets in, but after this game, it took a lot longer for the winter doldrums to come and I wish to thank the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers for that !