Hey guys! Sadly, the season has come to an end with the Pittsburgh Penguins winning the Stanley Cup. Almost everyone but Kris Letang screwed their fantasy owners this season but that didn’t stop them from putting together an excellent performance throughout the playoffs. Please, blog, may I have some more?
Hey guys. Before my posting becomes more sparingly throughout May, June and July, I went through my top 10 players for next season here on Wednesday. Now, I'm going to go through 11-20 covering the end of the first round and most of the second round in standard leagues. Let's get right to it!
I mentioned in Monday's article here that on Wednesday, I was going to put out my top 10 for next season. Well here we are! It's still 5+ months away from the start of next season so it's obvious that plenty of things can change, but what the hell!? I'd like to get this out early to generate more conversation in the comments section again. I'm going to do 11-20 on Friday and stop there until August when we get back into the full swing of things (there will be some content coming out in the summer including a draft recap and free agency preview / recap). Without further adieu, my top 10!
After Saturday, the Blues have to be sitting around thinking “no, not again.” After going up 3-1 in the series, the Blues came back in game 5 with 2 goals in the third only to lose in double overtime to who else, Patrick Kane. Please, blog, may I have some more?
Let's play a quick game. Goalie A, in 32 games and 29 starts, won 18 games with a 2.27 GAA and .924 save percentage. Goalie B, in 54 games and 53 starts, had 23 wins, a 2.51 GAA and .918 sv%. Looks like you'd choose A pretty easily, correct? Just 5 less wins in 24 less starts with better percentages. Goalie A is Michal Neuvirth and Goalie B is Steve Mason. I have been calling for Neuvirth to get more action all season (half of those starts were when Mason was out) and after Mason made a fool of himself in game 2 and was lit up for 6 in game 3, Neuvirth got a chance with the Flyers' season on the line. He stopped 31 of 32 shots in the 2-1 win and kept the team alive for at least a couple more days. Neuvirth played very well on a tanking Sabres team and continued his success in Philly this year. I think there's a starting goalie here so it'll be interesting to see what happens with him in the offseason. Here's what else around the league Wednesday night:
I know that Jonathan Drouin couldn't have handled his demotion any worse than he did but it still blows my mind that he was sent down to the AHL in the first place. The former third overall pick was amazing on Tuesday night tallying three assists and four shots in Tampa's 3-2 win over the Red Wings. The biggest issue for Drouin in the past was been his lack of shots and while I know it's a small sample size, every game in the playoffs he's taken at least 3 shots. Did the 21 year old make all of the necessary adjustments to succeed on a regular basis? It sure looks like it. As far as next season goes, the sky is the limit. Drouin's upside is virtually uncapped. He'll certainly be in my top 100 and from there, it depends how much you want to gamble on upside versus safety. Here's what else I saw around the league the last two nights:
Throughout the season, J.T. Miller was one of my favorite streamers. The former first round pick who will play on the North American team in the World Cup of Hockey had 22 goals and 21 assists in the regular season with a solid plus-minus and penalty minutes; it was only his lack of shots that kept him from being a hold all year. Miller had his first big playoff game on Saturday dishing three assists and adding a shot and two PIM in the 4-2 win over the Penguins. There's upside for a better year next season (he just turned 23) so I'd look to take Miller with one of my last picks in drafts in the late summer / early fall. Here's what else I saw around the league this weekend:
Hey guys. The first two nights of The Stanley Cup Playoffs have been filled with drama and outstanding performances. Anytime somebody scores a hat trick in the playoffs, it's worth noting so Patric Hornqvist gets the lead here. The Penguins right winger, who had a disappointing season compared to ADP, came out as a man on a mission Wednesday night scoring a hat trick on four shots and added an assist in the 5-2 win over the Rangers. This series could turn ugly fast if Henrik Lundqvist misses any more time (more on that later). Hornqvist was in my top 50 going into the season along with the rest of the Penguins studs and ended up 60th in overall value in the player rater. Considering he played all 82 games, that's not the value we were looking for. As for next season, he's obviously in the top 100 but I expect him to settle outside of the top 50, somewhere between 50 and 75. The shots are great and everything else should be solid so there's value there but it doesn't look like he's going to be a guy who has a good chance of reaching 30+ goals, which looked like a good bet when he went to the Penguins. Could he do it? Sure, if things go right and he sticks with Sidney Crosby. But I'd rather wait until the end of the 5th or 6th round to find out. Here's what else I saw in the other games:
Hello everyone. Today, I'm going to take a look at the top 20 overall defensemen on the season based on the ESPN player rater for the categories used in the RCL's. I decided to start with defensemen because the top 10 and 20 from the preseason were the first two articles I wrote for Razzball. You can find the top 10 here and the top 20 here if you want to have them open while you read this. While there were some surprises in the teens, the most part the rankings were very close for the most part. The top 11 overall defenseman were all in my top 17. Let's get to it!
The best playoffs of them all, the battle for The Stanley Cup, starts Wednesday! Personally, I can't contain my excitement as this year has some amazing first round matchups, mostly because the NHL system is broken and doesn't seed teams properly. That's a rant for another time. For today, I'm going to take a quick look at all 8 matchups and give my predictions for all of the series. As a reminder, join the Razzball Bracket Challenge here. Let's get going!
Hey guys! With the regular season over, we can crown the champion of the 2015-16 Razzball Commenter Leagues. As I mentioned in the March RCL update here , Lord of the Rinks has been in the front of the pack for quite some time now. He ended up running away with RCL 2, accruing an incredible 100 of a possible 108 points to become this year's RCL Champ! Congrats to him for a great season. Here's a look at the top finishers in each of the leagues:
Hey guys! Sadly, the regular season is over now meaning your fantasy hockey leagues that you've been battling in for the past 6 months have come to an end. Hopefully you guys came out on top! Since there are no playoff games until Wednesday, I'm going to have a bigger writeup for tomorrow plus an RCL recap and a playoff preview. Today is just about setting up something to keep people talking throughout the playoffs with a little friendly competition.
