Fantasy Hockey Start/Sit

Fantasy Hockey Friday took a break this week. Sometimes real-life gets in the way of fantasy, and this week was absolutely that week for me. I sincerely apologize, but sometimes when you’re not being paid to do something, other things have to take precedence.

Look forward to next week when I’ll be discussing positions and roster depth. I’m looking forward to it, so should you! And of course I can’t leave my faithful readership in the dark, so I still present.......

The Saturday Slate

Your weekly guide to goalie sits and starts. If my “start” goalies record a win and a peripheral statistic of either 2.00 GAA or less, or .920 save % or higher, I take one point. If they record one of the two, I take a half-point. If my “sit” goalies take a loss and post either a 3.00 GAA or higher or a .900 save % or less, I take one point. If they take either one of the two, I take a half. For the year, I have 11.5 of a possible 16 points, recording at least a half-point in 14 of 16 games thus far. In the event of a starting goalie not playing the game, I will assume their backup’s stats.

START

Jon Quick v. Nashville: Nashville was having trouble scoring anyway, and then subtract their leading goal-scorer and overall best player Shea Weber from that equation and you end up with even less. While they managed to pepper Jonas Hiller with 40 shots, Hiller stopped all of them for the shutout, and with Nashville having no one outside Weber having scored more than 3 times this season in 14 games, you can’t see the hot-handed Quick having too much trouble here, can you?

Semyon Varlamov v. Florida: Washington to Florida overnight is no short trip for a back-to-back set and with the anemic Panthers struggling to score(2.7 goals/game), you can’t imagine they’d do too much better after a long flight against one of the NHL’s best teams. Varlamov has looked much better in his last 2 starts and still has lots to prove to earn the #1 chair in Washington, so I love this play.

SIT

Cam Ward @ Columbus: Carolina sucks. Ward’s great but has been let down time and again by his porous defense, and Columbus has started to find their scoring touch, which is never good for the opposition. Not only that, but Ward may not start here in a B2B situation. Rick Nash seems poised to have the season of his life in the run-up to the 2010 Olympics and Derick Brassard is finally coming around, which leaves this an easy decision.

Tim Thomas v. Buffalo: Boston and Buffalo are playing opposite right now, with Buffalo playing really hot and Boston playing really......not. Derek Roy got his first goal of the season this week and Thomas Vanek is finally playing with some consistency, and man-of-glass Tim Connolly is leading the team with some great performances. I know Boston is an easy target, but it’s hard to vote against the Sabres right now.