DHL Week In Review - Week 4
Feb 15, 2021 9:43:21 GMT -5
Oslo Mastodon, St. Roch Hawks, and 3 more like this
Post by Morweena Reimnoceri on Feb 15, 2021 9:43:21 GMT -5
DHL Weekly Review - Week 4
Matchups:
Oslo (2-1-0) v. Morweena (0-3-0) - Oslo wins 8 - 4
Vegas (1-2-0) v. Nebraska (2-1-0) - Nebraska wins 9 - 3
Tampa Bay (1-2-0) v. Minnesota (0-3-0) - Tampa wins 9 - 3
Portland (0-3-0) v. St. Roch (2-1-0) - St. Roch wins 10.5 - 1.5
Moscow (3-0-0) v. Haukiputaan (1-2-0) - Moscow wins 8 - 4
Simi Valley (3-0-0) v. Melbourne (3-0-0) - Simi Valley wins 7 - 5
Matchup of the Week: Simi Valley v. Melbourne
Coming into the week - it was billed as a battle of two undefeated teams. A matchup of juggernauts. A clash of the colossal super teams! Was it that epic? Yeah, sure. It was a pretty close week between these two with Simi Valley narrowly escaping with their perfect record intact, EVEN WITHOUT RECORDING A SINGLE GOALIE STAT!!!! Looking at it now, maybe this wasn’t such a close week, but I’ve already committed to this far so I’m gonna stick to my guns. Now, goaltending aside, the Bushrangers were but 2 assists, and 3 hits away from a victory. It’s too bad. You know, I’ll even go out on a limb and say that Melbourne’s goalie stats were *prrrroobably* good enough to pull them out anyways.
Performance of the Week: Nebraska Buffalo (18 goals, 17 assists, +7, 140 shots, 14 STP, 90 hits, 60 blocks, 20:08 TOI, 1 win, 1.50 GAA, 44 saves, .936 SV%)
This one was tough this week, and honestly, there were teams who had better weeks offensively, but I’m going with the, what I call, complimentary stats to award the best performance this week. While Nebraska did lead the league in goals, he also led in shots, hits, blocks, TOI, and GAA. That’s pretty great and I bet not that uncommon. Nebraska is consistently that team who seems to lead in these categories and frankly, that’s pretty smart management. Think about it - for the most part, even the most consistent offensive player will have dips in performance here and there and in a weekly format, that could cost you. But if you stack your team full of players who consistently shoot, hit, block, and play a bunch you’re going to be set in half of the offensive stat each week and then the offence will hopefully come too. It’s brilliant. BRILLIANT.
Player of the Week: Cam Atkinson (3 GP, 3 goals, 4 assists, +4, 10 shots, 3 STP, 2 blocks, 19:11 TOI)
Remember good Cam Atkinson from a few years ago? Well he’s back! Maybe...This was quite the week from the Blue Jackets
3 Stars:
1) Mike Smith (2 GP, 2 wins, .50 GAA, 65 saves, .985 SV%)
2) Jacob Markstrom (3 GP, 2 wins, 1.69 GAA, 101 saves, .953 SV%)
3) Justin Faulk (3 GP, 2 goals, 2 assists, +6, 9 SOG, 2 STP, 5 hits, 4 blocks, 24:17 TOI)
Other Notes:
1st Star of the Week Mike Smith Available - For those who are in need of a goalie to help them through the tough COVID times, Mike Smith is available on the FA market and had himself quite the week to start his season. Yes he’s old, yes he plays for an all or nothing Oilers team, but man, he’s just so cool.
Belated Playoff Confusion - Well the finals of last year's playoffs are here, but boy am I confused about what’s going on. The matchup for the final has Nebraska vs. Simi Valley, but last week’s matchup saw Moscow defeat Nebraska 8 - 4. However a deeper dive seems to show that Nebraska’s goalie stats may have been recorded incorrectly. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but I’m assuming Adam does seeing as he posted a very cryptic message to the two potential finalists asking to check their inbox ASAP. Stay tuned.
Morweena’s Mailbag:
Q: Will there be an asterisk against the winners of the belated playoffs and/or this season? Are GMs getting their excuses in early
A: Short answer, yes. To both.
Long answer, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.
But the actual long version, I think that under normal circumstances, we are more or less prepared to have major players lost to injuries for extended periods of time at some point. Sometimes that happens early and we get a mid to late season boost, sometimes that happens in the weeks leading up to the playoffs and that sucks. That’s usually a nail in the coffin (see Morweena last season losing Pacioretty, Stamkos and someone else within a week of the playoffs starting). However, this year it’s a whole different ball game. We aren’t just losing players, we are losing entire NHL teams. And what’s worse is that even if you manage to not have anyone on a team that is shut down, you still may have players who play that team and based on the way the NHL schedule is this year with baseball-style series (which is so amazing to watch I would just like to add) you could end up losing and entire week of a player without anything happening to them And THAT is frustrating. Now, all that said, it is very random and in theory we each should have enough players within our system to cobble together some sort of ragtag bunch to trot out each week, but I understand how GMs are upset that they’ve built an entire team around a few players and they then lose them because the Devils can’t stop licking each others eyeballs. What I urge everyone to remember for this season (I can’t speak to the belated playoffs because that’s a different scenario) is that baseball had a really tough start to their season too, but seemed to figure it out. Football did too, and while they probably didn’t figure it out as well, they did power through. I think that sooner or later teams and players will get into a groove of what they should and shouldn’t do and then things will hopefully get better.
Q: Does Vegas actually know how to spell 'fuck'? Does he spell it 'fuk' because he thinks that the league is cash rich enough to have a text analytics tool deployed in the chat to delete offending posts? Or is Tony 20 years younger than I think he is and this is how the cool kids spell it these days? I am hoping I am not the only one still saying 'totally rad, dude', by the way. These things move on so fast.
A: When I got this question I literally laughed out loud. It startled my family. I then had to explain myself and feel the full wrath of my wife judging how big of a dork I am. Whatever - worth it.
I like to think that Vegas GM Tony is a smart guy. Having spent many a long night with him many years ago, I can tell you that when you hear him curse out loud, and stay with me here, it ACTUALLY sounds like he leaves the ‘c’ out. How? Don’t bother worrying about it. It’s part of his charm. And I’m willing to bet that Tony is about the median age here in the DHL, definitely not some pimply pre-teen.
And lastly, you’re definitely not the only one who is still saying “totally rad, dude”. It’s a great phrase. One might even say it’s...totally rad…..dude……?