The National Hockey League regular season is drawing to a close, and for some lucky hockey fans like me, that means its finals week in fantasy hockey leagues across the continent.
For me, it’s the second straight year I’ve made a finals appearance with my team, the Hogs of War, and while I’m poised and ready to take home back-to-back titles and the cash that comes with it, I’m also just excited to have snuck back into the top two.
The joy of fantasy hockey does not come through victory as much as it does through trash talk, and gaining bragging rights over your friends. Furthermore, involving yourself in fantasy sports allows you to gain a much better understanding of the game, for in order to be successful you must immerse yourself in the sport, watch teams other than your favorites, and pay close attention to the subtle nuances of the game.
My league is set in a head-to-head format that pits teams against one another through 11 categories, seven for skaters including goals, assists, game winning goals and plus-minus, and four for goaltenders, wins, shutouts, save percentage and goals against average. The team leading the most categories at the end of the week wins the match up.
My season started off an a fairly abysmal note back in January, despite getting first pick in the draft for my 12-team league, my roster left much to be desired, and with an underachieving year from players like Evgeni Malkin, I had to make some moves in order to even manage a top-six postseason berth.
I snuck into the playoffs in 5th place with a 5-5 record, narrowly edging out the 6th place finisher in a tiebreaker by defeating the team in the regular season, and met up with the Greedy Millionaires in the quarterfinals.
Last year, I was lifted to a title thanks to the triumphant return of Sidney Crosby, who I had buried on my injured reserve for the greater part of the season. His return from concussion boosted my team to an underdog championship. This year, it was his departure from the ice through injury that led me to victory, as Crosby took a puck to the jaw a few weeks ago, leaving him unable to compete for the Greedy Millionaires, and allowing me to complete the upset.
The next week pitted me against the league’s top seed, Team Seabass, in a match up I seemed destined to lose at the onset of the week. However, only a few days into the week my match had jumped to a 10-0 lead, and thanks to some stellar goaltending from my trio of Mike Smith, Marc-Andre Fleury and Brian Elliott, I’m now in the finals, in a rematch from last year against Team Roosters.
The trash talk has begun, the puck has been dropped, and both of us face a number of difficult roster decisions to make before the season reaches its end on Sunday evening.
It’s a match up that’s sure to come down to the wire, and the only thing I can say for sure is that it will end with just enough time to set up a pool for the post season.
