Well, I'm back, it's been awhile. I've been too busy with work and being a father and more work and more being a father. It's funny how I finally get caught up here on, of all weekends, Labour Day.
So what has happened since then? Not a whole lot in the hockey world, except that fantasy hockey leagues are officially opening up again. In only one short month, the puck will drop on the NHL season. I don't know if I'm as ready as I have been in previous seasons. My leaguemates will be thrilled to read that, no doubt. After all, I can remember spending much of July and August preparing the draft guide for fantasyhockey.com in hopes that it would be ready at the start of September.
I did say in my last posting that I would mention the Boston Bruins in my next posting. Since that time, I was able to stumble upon an article from SLAM! Sports about Milan Lucic reaching out to his new teammate Jarome Iginla during the recent Team Canada orientation camp. The article mentioned that Lucic and Iginla would likely be centered by David Krejci on the Bruins' top line, which got me thinking about what the Bruins' top six would likely look like.
Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Loui Eriksson
Honestly, I can't see the proposed second line differing much from the top line in terms of icetime.
Given that time does not take it easy on aging power forwards, Iginla's production would have to be considered less than point-per-game, which we caught a glimpse of last season (33 points in 44 games). In other words, let him slide at least a round or two later than you've picked him in previous seasons, even if he is now on a better team and on that team's first line. You probably will anyway, given that Yahoo has Iggy ranked at a surprisingly low 123. I mean, c'mon, nudge him up just a little. But not to the top 50. (Interesting footnote: Vincent Lecavalier is ranked right next to Iggy at 124. Remember this dandy from the 2004 finals? Bob Cole called the game, and he likes the word "dandy," although I don't think he and Harry Neale thought that the two superstars fighting was a dandy idea.)
Lucic is an interesting case. A host on the local sports talk radio station here in Vancouver called Lucic "an elite player," something that I'd have to disagree with given his output last season. I know that a lot of players were messed up by the shortened season, but seven goals in 46 games, including a 15-game goalless drought, is what you'd expect from Dustin Penner, not an elite player. Having said that, Looch was a 60-point and 100-penalty minute player the previous two seasons, and you should probably draft him that way. (By the way, click on my friend Chris Wassel's interesting article on fantasy categories that should possibly go the way of the tie game.)
Since I mentioned how Tyler Seguin's fantasy value would be affected by the move to Dallas, I should probably also write about the player coming the other way. As listed above, Eriksson figures to play on a line with two-way player extraordinaire Patrice Bergeron and little rat extraordinaire Brad Marchand, a line that will probably pile up the plus/minus by combining air-tight defensive play with solid offensive production. (Hey, there's that article again about fantasy categories that might one day fly away like the Atlanta Thrashers.) Eriksson's numbers dipped a little with the shortened season (29 points in 48 games), but remember that he was a 25-goal, 70-point guy in each of the previous three seasons.
I'm sure you won't need to wait nearly as long for my next posting.
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