Shooting Percentage: Breaking the Slump Does Just That? ALSO! Goalies and Stuff

WTF Breaking the Slump?

The life of a fantasy blogger is unpredictable. Some weeks you have a shooting percentage like Mike Ribiero's last year (an insane 25.2) and sometimes... well sometimes you tell people to bench an entire team the same day that that team finally breaks out of a season long slump.

So... let me start by saying that I'm sorry and that I too believe that ...


Breaking the Slump Last Week Was An Unmitigated Disaster:

I told you to drop Mike Ribiero... the same day that he scored 5 points. To be fair though I probably did less damage by telling you to drop him then I would have by telling you to bench him. Why you ask? Well let me explain.

BTS went up before rosters would have locked for the night, so if I told you to bench him you would have missed out on those points. However, if I told you to drop him THAT CHANGE wouldn't have been reflected in your line up until the next day... so instead of missing Ribiero's five point night you would have gotten a nice farewell present.

So for now I've backed down from my suggestion of dropping him, HOWEVER I do think that there are better options likely on your waiver wire as we speak. Mikko Koivu, Patrice Bergeron and Andy McDonald are all players who will put up similar numbers, if not better ones, to Ribiero while taking more shots and, in some cases, scoring more goals. Don't be married to the roster you drafted. It will come back to bite you.

As to the Ducks... well I told you to bench their stars the weekend they all finally broke out. You could take this two ways. One you could be very mad at me for telling you to miss those points...OR... you can be thankful that my harsh words broke them out of their slump. I'll be on the lookout for your torches and pitchforks.


Cristo-BAD!

I said this about Huet when I ranked him 13th among NHL netminders for this season "I want to put him higher, because I believe that he is a starter and not a member of a platoon. However, all of the rhetoric coming out of the windy city... well I guess not all of it but all of the hockey related rhetoric... suggests otherwise. I expect that Khabibulin will be moved at some point this year, but until he is Huet will be at least splitting some time with the Bulin Sieve." There are so many things wrong with that statement that I don't know where to begin.

That Platoon thing looks like a reality now. In fact, Huet owners will be lucky if he doesn't lose the job to Khabibulin altogether. Whatever the case Chicago HAS to move a goalie before the end of the year, and sooner rather then later. Cam Barker, who was also the source of many pre-season trade rumors, made his first appearance of the season last night for the big club so perhaps they are trying to showcase him as well.

In almost certainly completely unrelated news... I'm hearing a lot of things out of Ottawa about a possible move involving Spezza...


Hey I'm a Psychic!

When I ranked Manny Legace 22nd amongst NHL netminders the very first line of my ranking was "Manny is going to get hurt." Now could I have predicted that he'd do this tripping over a carpet put out for Vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin? No... we should check Nostradamus and see if that's one of the signs of the apocalypse though "And lo an Icy Mother shall come and injure the Keeper of the Twine, the Minder in the Mask, the Legace of Manny."

While on the subject of goalies I pretty much called another situation going on right now. In ranking Alex Auld 35th amongst NHL starters I said "I feel like he has the best combination of talent and situation. You can win the starters job away from Gerber as long as you have a pair of pads and a pulse (so tell your Mom to go buy some pads!)." And last night there he was, starting his second consecutive game against what WAS one of the two teams that had yet to suffer a regulation loss. This is not the end of Ottawa's problems (Witness: Buffalo started former-Senator Goat Patrick Lalime against them) but its a decent start and a nice story.


Then again...

Mike Modano continued to be hot this week scoring another goal and adding three assists and while I remain "Anti-Miettinen" he's now up to 6 goals and 3 assists and spending time on the powerplay, despite the return of Pierre Marc Bouchard.

So... it wasn't the best week for my predictions, though my pre-season stuff is still looking like it will hold up. The rest of it... well... tough week. Here's what I recommend. Do you have a fantasy player that you want desperately to break out of a slump? E-mail me at breakingthetrap@gmail.com and I will tell everyone to drop him in Breaking The Slump thus causing his spectacular break out. Sigh...