1998-99 EFHL Newsletter #7
December 5, 1998
It's been an interesting couple of weeks since the last newsletter. With one week to go in the period, Charlie has taken the lead by 5 points over Chris and 8 points over Rick. Well, actually there will be no more than 3 days left in the period by the time you read this. But Chris and Charlie probably know where they stand now. Tony, who led after two weeks, dropped to fourth (19 back) with a lousy week following a week in which he led everyone with 44 points. The total points results are also interesting. I had a 24 point lead but after that 4 teams are separated by 1 point. Here are the scores and a few notes.
Rich 27 - Brett 26. Rich comes within a point of his third straight tie. This should be the month he gets Bure back, as the Canucks stumble and Keenan quietly fumes. Brett was led by Lindros with 9 points and he continues to lead the league in moves. He gets Koivu back and also takes a (long) shot at Kovalev. To tell you the truth, he may have better off keeping Beranek.
Chris 38 - Tony 20. Chris hands Tony his first loss of the season. Chris got 14 points from Leclair, including a 4 goal game. The win keeps him in a tie for first in the Medicine Hat division. Tony's team only managed 2 goals.
Charlie 50 - Jay 30. Things are looking a lot better for Charlie. Alfredsson and Chelios are back, Nedved has been traded and signed (although that may not turn out to be good in the long run), and Khabibulin and the Coyotes are the biggest story in the NHL. He wins his third in a row in addition to taking the period lead. Jay's defensemen put up a big goose egg. Not helping was recent pick up Kaberle, who is the second guy picked up this year that I had never heard of (the first to be activated). My guess is Jay didn't know who he was either until he looked at a list of defensemen scoring leaders.
Grant 44 - Mike 32. I had 8 points each from Samsonov, Jones, and Leetch. I guess there is something about the third guy on the line with Lindros and Leclair that intrigues me. I've tried Renberg and Zubrus in the past and maybe Jones will pay off. Leetch finally is earning the outrageous amount I paid for him and has moved into second place in defenseman scoring. What sucks, besides the fact that Kolzig and the Capitals are horrible, is that I've been to 2 Caps games this season so far (including Friday night) and Kolzig has not played in either.
Here is an interesting stat. In the last 3 years, my combined record in the first 7 games of each season is 15-4-2. I don't know what happens at this point (I can't blame it all on injuries).
Mike has dropped three in a row, is last in the period and has dropped to sixth in points I am sure he will be heard from again when some of his guys start to get hot.
Rick 55 - Bill 30. Rick was led by newly acquired Straka with 12 points. I am guessing that at least a few of us were considering picking up Straka when Rick did. I know I was and Chris tried to pick him up. With the real possibility of Palffy returning within a week or two, Rick looks like he will be a factor, as usual. On the other hand, it appears that Bill will not be a factor. Brodeur (8 points) outscored his forwards (5 points). His defensemen were pretty impressive though.
And that's about it for now. These newsletters have been relatively lame lately, but there doesn't seem to be too much to write about. At some point in the near future, I'll get into some analysis of bargains and busts from the auction and some other statistics plus maybe some other things of interest (as soon as I think of them).