This past week was the highest scoring week so far in the EFHL season. It must be because there are just more games on the schedule, because it does not seem like the games are higher scoring. Here are the scores.
Tony 31 Grant 30
For the second week in a row, Tony notches a win against
a previously unbeaten team. He gets two goals from Friesen late Tuesday
night to notch the one point victory and extend his winning streak to six
games. Tony was led by NHL player of the week Hull, who had 9 points. LaFontaine
led my team with 8 points as my team made a pretty decent comeback after
a horrible start to the week.
Bill 27 Chris 20
Bill beats Chris despite missing a couple players with
"day-to-day" injuries. Chris continues to be in his own league for total
points for and against, as Bill had the lowest score this week after Chris.
Mike 41 Brett 37
Mike squeaks out a win in this shootout as both guys
look like geniuses for the moves they made last week. For Mike, his top
three scorers were all newcomers to his line up. Free agents Donato and
Demitra had 8 and 6 points, while Mogilny returned to the ice with 7 points.
For Brett, his leaders were the guys he got in his trade with Rick. Nieuwendyk
had 8 points and Shanahan 7 as the guys Brett got outscored those traded
19-3 in the first week with their new teams.
Charlie 41 Tom 27
Bondra's 6 goals and 14 points lead Charlie to just his
second win of the season. Charlie must really be desperate for defensemen.
He picked up rookie defenseman Derek Morris on Calgary. I would be surprised
if anyone else in the league (besides me) has even heard of him.
Rich 33 Rick 28
Rich's victory creates a three way tie with these two
teams and Charlie at 2-5 for third place in the Dion division. Rich was
led by his defensemen, who scored 14 points, led by Mironov and Numminen
with 7 and 5 points. Oates scored 9 points for Rick, who really missed
the guys he traded to Brett.
A look at the standings and points certainly leads to some interesting observations. There are only three teams above .500 and those teams are way above. Tony and Bill are 6-1, and I am 5-1-1. Everyone else has 4 or 5 losses. However, this big bulge in the standings does not translate to points. Bill remains first with 222. I am second with 217 and Tony is third with 213. The next four teams are all within 28 points of the lead. So like I said before, there may be no clear cut winner and a team may move up or down a few spots in one week with a really good or really bad week.
As far as the period goes, with one week remaining, Tony leads with 110 and has a 13 point lead over Bill. Me and Rick are just one and two points behind Bill and with a good week or if Tony falters can make it interesting.
Time for a note regarding moves. (It seems like every newsletter has a note regarding moves.) You cannot reverse or change moves once they are made. This past week, Brett picked up Travis Green and dropped Kozlov and the next day wanted to change the pick up to Bobby Holik. Unfortunately for Brett, since he has made two changes to his active roster, he has just blown two moves. If you pick up a guy on Thursday, it is not fair to be able to change that move Tuesday and in doing so prevent other teams from picking up the first guy selected. Look at a move Chris made this week. On Thursday, he picked up Kapenan and finally put Juneau on IR. Juneau played Tuesday. Should Chris be able to rescind that move. No. That was the chance he took to get Kapenan before anyone else wanted him. Now he must take Juneau off IR by this Tuesday.
Speaking of moves, I know you have not forgotten, but they are limited to 15 for the season. Things could get ugly for Brett and Chris, who have 6 and 7 moves left. Oh yeah, things are already ugly for Chris. For whatever it is worth, the Millen division has out-moved the Dion division 34-12.
Let's take a quick look ahead to this week.
Grant (-4) vs. Mike. Should be close. Mike's team has
been inconsistent, but does have potential.
Tony (-20) vs. Chris. Tony is on a roll. I hope this
is a low scoring game.
Brett (+3) vs. Bill. Hard to pick against Bill in what
should be a close game.
Charlie (-11) vs. Rich. Despite Derek Morris, Charlie
may be moving closer to where I think he should be based on my preseason
projections.
Tom (+7) vs. Rick. Rick needs Jagr back.
Finally, the quote of the week.
"You just watch the people fly in and out of there now.
That's all I'm going to say."-Brett Hull speculating on what changes Mike
Keenan will make in Vancouver in the continuing feud between the two.