Week 2 has now come and gone.  Here is a look at your scores and a quick review of each game.

Grant 27  Charlie 20
Angry to have a win from last week turned into a tie, my guys put up a win that won’t be rescinded.  (See later in the newsletter for details on this travesty.)  Only some of them cared enough to contribute, however, as four of my guys went pointless.  Obviously, something is going to have to be done soon, but I am trying to be patient.  Lindros and LaFontaine led the charge with 11 and 7 points.  Charlie was led by Duchesne, who contributed 6 points for the second week in a row, who continues to be near the top of the NHL scoring leaders.

Tom 25  Chris 18
Tom continues a surprising start with his second straight win.  Francis and Yzerman contributed 6 and 5 points, and Galley continued to be strong on defense with 4 assists.  Chris could be in deep trouble and I will probably be saying this every week until Kariya signs.

Bill 35   Mike 25
Bill goes to 2-0 and takes the total points lead in the process.  Leclair tore it up with a hat trick and 10 points.  Berard and MacInnis chipped in 6 points each on defense.  Mike had on off week with Forsberg going scoreless.

Tony 29  Rich 20
Hull scored 5 goals for Tony this week.  If Hull returns to his form of his 70 and 80 goal seasons, the rest of the league could be in trouble.  Possible, as he is playing for absolutely huge dollars as an unrestricted free agent, but not probable.  Rich got one point from his defensemen.

Brett 29  Rick 24
What!  Rick is 0-2?  It's true.  Rick has had two decent weeks, so it is probably not time for him to panic yet.  Brett was led by Gretzky's hat trick and 9 points.
 

I will assume that everyone received the stats and newsletter OK last week, since I did not hear from anyone regarding any problems.  I will continue to maintain a version of the web site that is scaled-down from my original plans.  It will be updated weekly with the standings and total points and alphabetical rosters, but most likely will not include the detailed team stats.  They are included in the Excel file.  In case you are unfamiliar with Excel, as I know at least one person is (Chris), the team stats are in a separate sheet within the Excel file that I sent.  Near the bottom left of the screen in Excel you should see tabs for the two sheets in the file.  The first one is the standings and other summary data.  The second sheet, entitled something like “Wkly. Rpt.” is the detailed team stats.  Also posted on the web are the schedule and rules.  At various points during the season, I will post and/or e-mail other information, possibly to include player scoring rankings, season and league records, and team head-to-head records.

A couple of corrections to report from last week.  Just so you know, these corrections are because the NHL evidently can decide to change its "official" stats after they are released the following afternoon on its web site and also posted on other sites with the official stats.  I mentioned this situation last season, but it is worth bringing up again for those new to the league, but otherwise I am sure nobody cares, until it affects them.  These corrections can become apparent when a player ends up with a -1 point for the week in the preliminary stats calculations.  In this case, a player had an assist taken away from him and his previous week score would be adjusted.  This is really the only way this can become apparent, unless I happen to notice the change while perusing the stats during the week or someone alerts me to a change.  If the player would have actually got an assist, then the preliminary stats would show zero assists for the week, since he lost one from the previous week.  So unless I somehow discover the previous week’s stats change, the previous week’s score would stand.  The weekly totals would be off but totals points would be OK. This could affect, and now has affected the outcome of a game.  In light of this situation, I may take the time to recheck the stats of players involved in ties or one point games a day or two later, but even this won’t necessarily work if a team has played a game in the new week..  Anyway, whatever, you probably didn’t get all that, but suffice it to say, these situations will be corrected when discovered.

Meanwhile here are two corrected scores from last week.
Grant 19 Chris 19 I lost an Ozolinsh assist and the win.
Brett 30 Charlie 26 Brett loses a Pronger assist.

Not much else to write about this week.  On the holdout front, Alfredsson has signed.  I guess this makes Bill, already the points leader, a little stronger, although he must decide who to reserve.  As far as Kariya goes, the situation seemingly got a lot uglier this week.  He is reportedly reasonably happy with a $7 million per year offer, but angry about the way it was delivered, as well as a lot of "little" things.  It remains to be seen whether these little things will cause him to sit out the season and ruin Chris' EFHL season.  Although Kariya stands alone as perhaps the biggest jerk in hockey (as far as how he relates to the fans), I think he is being jerked around by the Ducks, who suddenly don't have any Disney money to sign him.  You almost have to think that he will sign.  It doesn't make a whole lot of sense for him to sit out and the Ducks will suck without him.  Mogilny, Federov, and Tverdovsky are the other major holdouts, and nothing seems to be new with any of these guys.