Breaking the Slump: Duck and Cover

"My expectations!"

Its a long season and unless you are coolest of cats in the worst of times then you will, at least once, stare at your star player and shout some obscenity laced diatribe. The words may never be the same but the message will be clear, "Break out of your slump high round draft pick."

When the smoke clears and you've picked up whatever it is that you decided to launch across the room logic will take over and questions will start to creep in. Is this the best I can hope for? Is this just temporary? Should I drop him? Should I let my friends know that he's on my team? If I decide to will they applaud, mock or be jealous of me?

Yes, fantasy sports is an intimate relationship and we here at BTT are your sympathetic ear. Unlike most of your no-good friends, however, our opinion will be informed. Every Thursday (from now on) we'll take a look at a different star player that for whatever reason isn't performing up to expectations. Then we'll tell you whether to keep him in your roster, bench him, or pack up his stuff and kick him to the waiver wire. All that and more in a little feature we like to call:

Breaking the Slump

Back in August we had this to say about J.S. Giguere "The unfortunately nicknamed Giggy has been pretty consistently stellar for the last several years. He tends to have a bit of an injury bug but if he stays healthy he is every bit the elite option in net that Brodeur is." Those of you who know me know that that is no small praise from me. Marty is God and he LETS us watch him play goal.

That said, Giguere is one of the best mortals currently playing the position. But after 5 games his numbers look like this:

1 W, 4 L, 3.27 GAA, .896 Sv%, 13 goals against.

Not exactly the kind of numbers you want out of your answer to Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, et al. Giggy lost his first three appearances 4-1, 4-2, and 6-3 before finally getting his first win of the season, a shutout, against the San Jose Sharks on October 17th.

So on a scale of Gretzky to Daigle where do I rank my level of concern over J.S. Giguere?

Giguere ranks a Jaromir Jagr: I'm upset at his inconsistent play but fully expect that I will get full value by the end of the season.

Here's some facts:

Giguere has been known to have some rough patches. In 2007-2008 Giguere had a stretch of five games started in November without a win. The scores: 5-2, 2-1, 3-1, 5-1 and 1-0. He finished that season with 35 wins a 2.12 GAA and .922 Sv%.

In 2006-2007 Giguere had a string of 6 starts without a win. The scores: 1-0, 4-3, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2, and 3-2. He finished that season with 36 wins, a 2.26 GAA and .918 Sv.%.

There was another goalie in 2007-2008 who lost his first three starts. The scores were 3-1, 4-2, and 3-0. He would win his next two but allowed 5 goals in one and 4 in the other. He then dropped three more decisions, 4-0, 2-0 and 4-1. That goalie would finish with 44 wins, a 2.17 GAA and .920 Sv%. Figured out who I'm talking about yet? Yea that's right, last year's Vezina Trophy winner, Martin Brodeur.

Maybe this would have had more force before the shutout against the Sharks but, if you are a Gigure owner I've got one word for you... relax. Your investment is safe.

Final Verdict: Play Him!

Plenty more good stuff coming your way on BTT. Tomorrow will see the second ice stock of the year as well as news and notes from the weekend's games.