Looking at your avatar, this makes sense. haha

My (primary) league started in 2002 when my friends and I lived in the dorms at University. We all graduated (eventually) and moved on to careers, got wives and had kids. Fantasy hockey is the web that keeps us all connected. But every week in the winter my phone rings a few times.

"I can't believe you keep putting Getzlaf in. He's terrible. I'm willing to give you Bryan Little for him."

"Don't ever call me again."

Our league trophy is a large, bronze trophy given by Lord Stovel to the best Ladies Double Bowling Team in the province. I'm not joking. It was made in 1919. I found it while doing demolition on a construction job & the foreman didn't care if I took it.

Once I stole it from the league champion and posted a series of photos of me on a date with it. I cannot reproduce them here due to their explicit nature. We fed each other sundaes, watched a movie, took a bath, before retiring to the bedroom.

There have been drunken shouting matches. Accusations of cheating, collusion and lying. Disputes have been settled with Indian leg wrestling matches and hockey games on playstation.

Every weekend before our trade deadline we get together for a curling bonspiel, get drunk and hammer out some trades.

Why do I love fantasy hockey? It’s more than a hobby to pass the time. It keeps all my best friendships stronger than they would have otherwise been.

I love fantasy hockey because (-besides all the obvious fun-) it even turned out to be of some PRACTICAL USE to me:

Being Swiss and playing in a league with 11 North American guys (1 gal) has helped me big time to keep my English. We're a busy, wheeling and dealing, constantly bantering league, so I've simply never managed to maintain my English at the same level before joining fantasy hockey. Now I'll never lose it

Because of the time gap (I'm usually already in bed when the games start in NA) fantasy hockey even helps me to get up in the mornings! I keep jumping out of bed just to turn on the computer because I wonder how my players and my team did, how my last proposal was taken, etc.

Isn't fantasy hockey doing me a huge service there?

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12 team H2H dynasty
G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, SOG, FW, HIT
W, GAA, SV*, SV%, SHO
C,C,C,LW,LW,RW,RW,W,D,D,D,D,Util,Util,4xBN,2xInf

Team:
C: Stamkos, Tavares, Kopitar, Hanzal, Legwand
C/RW: Backes, Pavelski
LW: Lucic, Landeskog
LW/RW: Lupul
RW: Clarkson, Hornqvist
RW/D: Byfuglien, Burns
D: Letang, Streit
G: Smith, Bryzgalov, Hiller, Fasth
IR: Kovalchuk

Farm:
S.Bärtschi, M.Foligno, E.Kuznetsov, J.Morrow, N.Niederreiter, T.Tatar

Great stuff - enjoyed reading these. Keep 'em coming!

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Follow me on Twitter: AngusCertified
Check my blog out: Angus Certified

Pick up the 2013-14 DobberHockey Keeper League Fantasy Pack today!

I Love Fantasy Hockey Because...

I am the boss. No matter what format or league I am in, I call the shots. I can decide who is playing or who is riding the pine from the comfort of my couch. I can manage multiple teams at once while having dinner at the in-laws. I can make trades from my smart phone while waiting outside the changing room at a department store. When someone gets injured, I will put them on IR and be confident in my farm call-ups because my scouts over at DobberProspects work tireless hours researching which prospect is ready for the big show. When I crush you, you will hear about it either on the league forums or on Twitter. I repeat, I will crush you. If you don't use Frozen Pools, you don't even deserve to be in the same league as me. My goalies will laugh at your pea shooters because the smart money is invested in GOLD-man.

Be it from my bed or couch, while at work, on the road, at a dinner, in a pub or in my home office. I will crush you. I am the boss. Excuse me now as my wife is calling...

I love Fantasy Hockey because I am Mike Milbury.
Here I'm not allowed to sign players to 10 year deals worth 9 million a year. I also seem to have a roster made up of Luongo, Jokinen, McCabe, Dumont (he is coming back after the lockout, ok!), Bertuzzi, Chara, Spezza and Jarko Ruutu... As long as I stick to those players, things seem to turn out pretty well for me most years. Contrary to popular belief, my only GM experience before the Islanders was winning my dynasty league (against 12 year olds). It is nice having 10 people laugh at you as opposed to 10 million...

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HUFA League:
Rules: http://goo.gl/gf0ix
Roster: http://goo.gl/Enq5m
2010-11 Season: Last
2011-12 Season (I took over in August): Last
2012-13 Season: 10th out of 14, rebuild almost complete
(Updated April, 2013)

Ask a former Canucks blogger and Dobberhockey article writer about Canucks/Fantasy Hockey: http://ask.fm/austeane

I love fantasy hockey because...

Hockey is the best sport to watch and follow, with the best writers and most passionate fans.

Winning the regular season or playoff pool and gloating to everyone is he best feeling ever, and even if you don't win you can still harp on "dead last"

Making those sleeper picks in the later rounds that actually turn out

The draft parties with your friends that result in complaining about players from last year, laughing at who people draft and then forgetting the rest of the night the next morning

Picking a player late that people go| "who?" to with utmost confidence, that hopefully turns out!

Chirping friends who pick a player picked a few rounds earlier

Owning a team in a keeper league that you can change throughout the year. Winning trades with other owners. Obtaining the player you have wanted for a while.

Researching the entry draft. Trading up and down that draft to get the players you want.

Following your prospects progress through out the year

Watching the live scoring update on Sunday night in hopes you can get one more point to tie it or win the week.

And most importantly becasuse hockey is the greatest sport in the world

I love fantasy hockey because:

I've won my med school league 4 out of 7 years (05, 07, 09, 11) despite always picking in the bottom half of the draft (I am the Vinny Prospal of fantasy).

I spent 10 years of medical and orthopaedic training to use my knowledge of sports injuries as an advantage in pools

When you're up on-call at 2am nothing beats checking out last nites hockey stats and doing FA pickups

I have a reason to cheer against the Leafs in fantasy life too

Last year 1/2 way thru the season I was the only team above .500 in my league

I asked JR for fantasy advice at a Rockies playoffs game (was at a ortho conference and bought scalped tickets)

BONUS: I never had a reason to play fantasy BBall until this year

Attached Images

407854_10151033780465618_1739576010_n.jpg (41.6 KB, 6 views)

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Current: 3 NHL, 1 NBA
NHL winner '05,'07,'09,'11 (4/7)
NFL winner '10, '12 (2/3)

As a young boy, I use to take the 9v battery out of the freezer at night just to get another 10-15 minutes out of the transistor radio to hear Lloyd Pettit paint the picture of Bobby Hull's blistering slap shot rip the nets or Tony O. making the gloved save.
As I build my career in computers, I lost touch with my love for the Blackhawks and hockey in general.
I was fortunate enough to play in a fantasy baseball league with a wonder full commissioner (Canadian) that offered a team in his fantasy Hockey league. I joined just before the Crosby years and enjoyed my favorite team draft Kane and Toews then, beyond belief, winning the cup!

My love for Fantasy Hockey is rooted in my long love of Hockey itself. Fantasy Hockey allowed me to keep my finger on the pulse of the great game itself.

I have been a huge hockey fan since the days of Keon, Bower, Mahovolich and the rest of the Stanley cup winning teams that dominated all my free time during my youth. In 1985 I had an opportunity to join a fantasy league started by Scott Abbot of Trivia Pursuit fame. It was appropriately called the Token Hockey League. What a drug I found this to be, as it consumed me entirely. The following year I started my own league which is still active today, the Alpha Hockey League. The early years were truly a labour of love as all the stats were done manually, having to wait till Tuesdays, so we could get the numbers from the paper. Now i am talking of 8 to 10 hours of intense number crunching to get the weekly numbers. Where was Fantrax when we began. We had a GM who was a semi geek on the laptop and he wrote us a program to sort the numbers by 1992. Just to download the stats over a 9000 baud modem was a 1 hour endeavour, but it beat the 10 hours that it used to take. Truthfully I miss the old days of a handful of managers getting together every Monday night and crunching the numbers, our anticipation like that of a five year old Xmas morning. Flag to the present and what used to take hours is now mere seconds, goals are scored ang you can see the standings change before your eyes. Thank the hockey gods for technology.