The NHL resumes tomorrow
Here along the Lake It was a long Olympic break, but we are bright eyed and bushy tailed waiting with bated breath to get back to managing our fantasy teams, the previous weekly matchup was only four days of play and there are only five days to the upcoming weekly matchup.
As of this week, Buffalo Winter & asher1961-1, have already clinched a playoff seeding and there are now four teams eliminated leaving four teams vying for first place in the Eastern Division or endeavoring to earn the fourth and final invitation to the playoffs.
I would like to go over goaltenders once more; it is a fact that the ESPN FHL point system for goaltenders creates a high-risk high-reward player, some league managers when creating their league assign top points for goalies essentially having a “goaltender league” where the netminder earns incredibly high points, but goalies either earn you points or minus points from your weekly matchup score.
Highlighting my league’s last place team, (not to mock/make fun of), let’s go over this team’s goaltending points earned so far this season, this manager collected 37 wins (4 points per), 4 shutouts (3 points per), 13 OT/SO losses (1 point per), and 1,683 saves (.02 point per) which garnishes this team 206.66 positive points earned thus far, now the negative points, 190 goals against (-2 points per) which cost this team 380 points, now minus the lower number from the higher number and you get a negative 173.34 points which were taken away from their overall point total.
Now for the team in first place, this manager collected 29 wins, 5 shutouts, 11 OT/SO losses, and 1,506 saves earning a positive 172.12 points, and on the other side of the ledger, 161 goals against for a negative 322 points, again we subtract the lower from the higher number and we get, a negative 149.88 points, which can be taken away during the weekly matchup and overall points in the standings.
Nothing is 100%, not even in fantasy hockey, so your goaltender can earn you monster points one day during the week and help you win the weekly matchup, but then if your goaltender has one bad game during the week it will interfere greatly with your ability to win the weekly matchup, costing you valuable points that could have been utilized to strengthen your bid for a playoff seeding.
Finally, if you are going to draft and keep goaltenders on your roster, try not to select more than one or two, these players take up valuable roster spots, remember that even the best NHL goalies do not play every scheduled game, but your defensemen, centers, and wingers do.
In my experiences participating in ESPN FHL’s I have found that goaltenders are not worth the risk, and I present receipts to highlight just this, I put my ESPN FHL team out there for everyone to observe, statistics and standings to show other managers that I am a legitimate ESPN FHL team manager and not some content creator advising you what to do without participating in ESPN’s FHL.
Buffalo Winter 