Month: December 2025

Another strong week

Here along the Lake I finished with the weekly matchup win and overall best score for the week, and I continue to lead the league as I defeated last week’s opponent who was the only team manager to beat me so far this season.

I have become the top producer in Goals, Assists, and Power Play points, and second overall in blocks, these are the fantasy point producing statistics that recently have catapulted me to the top of the league.

This weekly matchup finds the two division leaders, Slapshot in the East and my Buffalo Winter team from the West, if Slapshot wins then these two teams will share the overall lead.

TRANSACTIONS

The last four days of waiver wire action, as much as I like (C) Cozens I did want another point producer for tonight’s games to ensure a strong start to this weekly matchup versus the West Division leader, additionally, I dropped (D) Ekman-Larsson because he seems a bit inconsistent and I already have two other Maple Leafs players that produce solid points consistently and I think it best not to have too many players from one NHL team on the roster.

Regular Season Series 1-1

Sabres 1 – Jets 4 Buffalo beat Winnipeg at home three days ago and the Jets returned the favor and beat the Sabres in their barn last night.

Goaltending remains an issue with the Sabres rotating three players, two inconsistent goaltenders and one rookie netminder while our number one future star in net remains sitting on the nest in Rochester.

Buffalo remains one of the premier penalty killing teams in the NHL with an 87.2% PK percentage, and last night the Sabres special teams scored on the power play thanks to a Jonathan Toews tripping penalty then stymied the Jets on Winnipeg’s power play.

The Sabres have two days to ready themselves in Alberta for back-to-back games versus the Flames then Oilers this coming Monday and Tuesday nights.

Sabres Special Teams Faulter

Sabres 2 – Flyers 5 Buffalo took a 1-0 lead on the power play and while on their next power play began earning penalties including a coach’s challenge that did not go Buffalo’s way, the Sabres killed off 43 seconds of a 3 on 5 then were scored upon when it was 4 on 5, then the Flyers scored shortly after that and took a commanding 3-1 lead in the first period.

Buffalo even had one goal disallowed during the third period because of a successful coach’s challenge from Philadelphia, a disappointing start to a six-game road trip but the Sabres can even things up this Friday night as they look to win against Winnipeg once more.

Buffalo’s (C) Norris Returns

Sabres 5 – Jets 1 It did not take Buffalo long to take control of this game as they scored twice in 15 seconds on their first two SOG during the first three minutes of the first period for a quick 2-0 lead with Sabres returning (C) Norris assisting on the first goal.

Buffalo’s special teams excelled with a goal on the power play and killing off Winnipeg’s man advantages, (G) Luukkonen played exceptionally well in net for the Sabres, Buffalo finished off a perfect first period scoring three times on 14 shots chasing Winnipeg’s starting goaltender.

Even when the Jets were able to score during the second period the Sabres came right back 83 seconds later and scored again as (RW) Tuch took a difficult angled shot that bounced off of Winnipeg’s rookie backup (G) Milic that gave Buffalo its three-goal lead back.

Excitement started early in the third period as (C) Norris scored his second goal of the evening just 41 seconds into the period, only a minute or so later 6′ 7″ defenseman for the Jets elbowed 5′ 10″ (LW) Benson’s head into the glass for a penalty that was addressed later in the period as there was roughing and three 10 minute misconducts handed out with six minutes remaining in the game.

Buffalo wins convincingly at home and now begins a six-game road trip Wednesday night and then to Winnipeg Friday night for the rematch.

Division & League Lead

Here along the Lake I was behind last week’s opponent until Saturday night when I was able to pull ahead and ended up with the higher score by the completion of Sunday night’s games.

Still maintaining the League lead, this week I am matched with Magnificent Mike’s Team the only loss I have absorbed this season was in the initial weekly matchup to this opponent.

I was the only team manager thus far to utilize the waiver wire today, so I had to make some adjustments to ensure I have a near equal number of players for tonight’s games.

The two players I dropped are now underachieving, not to say I will not endeavor to bring them back onto my roster, (LW) Barbashev is doing well enough, but I would rather have (RW) Stone who seems to be trending upwards since his return, and adding (D) Gudas and dropping (C) Cirelli (whom I like) seems prudent for tonight’s games.

Remember, no matter how brilliant of a team manager and strategist you are, if the actual NHL players do not perform…you don’t win.