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Another Weekly High Score

Here along the Lake I was matched up with the league leading and undefeated asher1961-1 and came away with the weekly matchup victory and literally outscoring every team for the second week in a row.

Our league now has a three-way tie for first place overall 4-1, (all three teams in the West Division), and a two-way tie for first place in the East Division 3-2, so far there are five teams realistically playing for a playoff seeding.

Waiver Wire Transactions

From Sunday morning until this morning, I initially dropped the Lightning’s (C) Cirelli because he was getting hurt and slowly trending down, so I was able to add the Blackhawks (LW) Bertuzzi who has earned monster fantasy points in his last three games and now I have possible line-stacking with Chicago (C) Bedard.

Secondly, I dropped the Capitals (C) Protas who was trending down because he can go three games without earning decent points, he is still worth having on the watch list to bring him back on the roster if needed, which allowed me to pick up the Stars (C) Hintz who has come back from a disclosed injury and is trending up and averaging at least two fantasy points per game.

Finally, I dropped the Jets top blocker in (D) DeMelo, another watch list keeper, but I noticed the Knights (LW) Barbashev is trending up with his scoring and now I can line-stack with (RW) Marner which can produce more points than a single blocking defenseman can earn most of the time.

Current Watch List

To begin with, (LW) Burakovsky is averaging 2 points per game, takes a decent number of shots on goal, has 14 points in 15 games with 7 goals and 7 assists, has a positive plus/minus, and if I did not already have two Blackhawks on my roster he definitely would be on my team.

Even though I have two Knights on my roster (LW) Olofsson makes the list because he currently is on his team’s top power play unit and has more shots on net than most players in the league, although he has not scored as many fantasy points (29) as the elite players, none the less this 30-year-old is having a solid season in Nevada, and I have liked his play since he was with the Sabres.

These two examples are to highlight the importance of keeping a fresh watch list in case of IRs and DTDs, as well as other roster problems, we are allowed to make seven moves each weekly matchup, so take advantage and if you have any, drop your nonproductive point producers to bring on some productive players off your watch list and onto the roster.

Controlled by Carolina

Sabres 3 – Hurricanes 6 (en x2) Buffalo’s (D) Power scored his second of the season to tie the game at one during the first period, and both (C) Thompson and (RW) Tuch each scored their sixth of the season to get the Sabres within one at 4-3 early in the third period, but Carolina finished with two empty net goals for the 6-3 win.

Game Two of Buffalo’s five-game road trip is not until Wednesday night at 9 pm versus the Utah Mammoth a team the Sabres are playing twice this season and the two games are within eight days of each other, Buffalo dropped the initial meeting in overtime on the 4th of November.

Blues Best Buffalo

Sabres 0 – Blues 3 (en) Buffalo played a decent game with enough shots to win and killed off both St. Louis power plays but getting tagged in the first period with a shorthanded goal by St. Louis hurt, going forward the Sabres continued to increase their shots on goal each period, alas to no avail as it was the Blues that scored in the second period for the 2-0 lead.

As the game was winding down and the goaltender pulled the St. Louis Blues scored with 62 seconds remaining in the game for the 3-0 lead and the win.

Buffalo begins a four-game road trip tomorrow night versus the Carolina Hurricanes then three days off until playing the last three games in four nights.

Fifth consecutive overtime game

Sabres 1 – Mammoth 2 (OT) Buffalo gets beat in overtime for the fourth time in the previous five games, I know the Sabres are earning points and I am grateful that Buffalo is above 500%, but last night’s shot output effort was paltry at best.

In net, (G) Lyon was fantastic earning a .943% save percentage while stopping 33 of 34 regulation shots giving Buffalo a great opportunity to win the game but getting outshot 15-5 during the second period and 12-3 during the third period is not going to get the job done.

Sabres Swedish (C) Ostlund scored his first NHL goal in his fifth game this season in what could be a preview of plenty more goals to come, especially with the line of Ostlund, Quinn, and Rosen.

The Sabres host the Blues Thursday night at 7 pm for the last of this three-game home stand before embarking on a four-game road trip.

Highest Score Earned

After four weekly matchups there is one undefeated team followed by three 3-1 teams including yours truly, it is too early to predict playoff seedings, yet ESPN FHL does and again I sit with an incredibly low 10% chance of making the playoffs and the winless team has more of a percentage chance to make the playoffs than me.

In the West there are three playoff contenders, and in the East, there seems to be just one team earning a playoff seeding.

This week’s matchup I am pitted against asher1961-1, my division rival/leader the one undefeated team in our league that I can share first place in our division with if I win this current weekly matchup.

Goaltenders Use Them or Not

Here is one team manager that has four goaltenders on the roster, and all four of them were starting which creates the pressure of which two would not play and hoping the two that are played win and collect positive points.

As you can see the team manager had two goaltenders producing negative points, as we know, goalies are a high-risk, high-reward type of player, for myself I avoid them all together.

Today’s Transactions

Three team managers including myself made at least one transaction today where Mike’s Magnificent Team made six moves in four minutes, probably well thought out before coming online and purging non-productive players.

Remember to check your roster daily before first face off so as to get every eligible player on the roster into the line-up, also the waiver wire can possibly provide more productive players for your team, so take the time to build a watch list and maintain that daily as well to watch trending players.