Just doing a bit of research for the mid-season guide...

Make sure you get your hands on it if you haven't done so already. Quite a few tidbits like this in it.

Since the lockout the Preds have records of:
2005-06: 25-16-5
2006-07: 25-13-5
2007-08: 23-14-6
2008-09: 23-18-5
2009-10: 23-16-3
2010-11: 26-14-5
2011-12: 7-2-0

From January onwards...

Something to look forward towards for Rinne owners...

And if you don't own him get your hands on him NOW!!!

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Dobber Expert Pool Champion 2011-12

Thanks for the heads up. As a Rinne owner I hope the trend continues!

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Member of OCHA, SCFHL2, DTDL, ITC, UNDL, LOFHL, LOL, BL

12 Team Keeper League (max 4 years)
Start 12 FWD, 6 DEF, and 2 Goalies weekly - protect 12

STATS: F (G,A,GWG) D (G,A,+/-) G (W,GAA,SV%)

FWD - Parise, E. Staal, RNH, Oshie, Zetterberg, Roy, Brown, Stastny, Kesler, Wheeler, Okposo, Pavelski
DEF - Giordano, Fowler, Ehrhoff, E. Johnson, Bogosian, B. Smith
GOAL - Schnieder, Quick

RESERVE - Bernier, Markstrom, Petry, Elliot, Murray, Bailey, Silfverberg, Grigorenko, Galchenyuk, Nyquist

Just a bump from last year's post.

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Dobber Expert Pool Champion 2011-12

Thanks for the tip

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12 team H2H Keeper
G,A,PP,PIM,SOG
W,GAA,SV%,SO
C:Giroux,Zberg,Marleau,Kadri
LW:Ovi,Neal,Pach,Benn
RW:Perry,MSL,Wheeler
D:Yandle,Subban,Edler,OEL
G: Lundqvist,Miller,MAF

12 Team H2H
R,2b,3b,HR,RBI,AVG,SB,BB,K,E
W,L,SV,HLD,K,ERA,WHIP
C:Buck
1B:Santana
2B:Kipnis
3B:Zimmer
SS:Tulo
LF:Marte
CF:McCutch
RF:Pence
Util:Ozuna
SP:Cain,Moore,Latos,Kennedy,Ryu,Guthrie
RP:Henderson,Rivera,League,Gregerson,Herrera
DL:Hart,Anderson,Bailey

I wonder if Trotz uses this as poster board material? Stick up 25 labelled sheets in the locker room... and tear one down every time you get a win till it hits 0.

That'd be enough to get the players riled up IMO.

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Dobber Expert Pool Champion 2011-12

Just the tip?

Good. I needed some reassurance!

I've been thrilled with Rinne this season (I'm ignoring that little mini-slump), and I have a sem-underperfoming Niemi as my backup (at least in this leagues scoring catagories) so I figure to be leaning heavily on Rinne down the stretch, and yesterday I read an article at hockey prospectus, where the authors are analyzing puck posession metrics/shooting pct./ and records in one goal games etc, and trying to project which teams we can expect to have performance dopoffs over the second half.

Here's a link to the entire article, which is definitely worth reading:

http://www.hockeyprospectus.com/arti...articleid=1234

But their take on the Predators is that they've been somewhat overperforming and will likely slip out of playoff contention when all is said and done.

As a Rinne owner, I was of course up all night weeping uncontrollably after reading it, but eventuallly my wife convinced that since they were predicting a similar dopoff for the Flyers, (...and we all know that's just crazy talk), that it was very possible that their projections would be wrong.

Those Nashville second half records have given me new hope!

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CBS 8 team keeper(5-8) - Points only

C: Tavares, Duchesne, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins
LW: Parise, Benn, Neal
RW: Kessel, Giroux, Stewart
D: Green,Karlson, Carlson, Whitney, Edler, White
G: Rinne, Lundqvist
2LW,2C,2RW,4D,1G pts.= G=2, PPG=3, SH=5, A=1, W=3, S=.2, GA=-1, SO=4,


(Tired of watching today's trophys pass you buy? Waiting for a tomorrow that may never come? Why not win NOW? ...Ask about our "Pre-owned vets for prospects" program, and start winning TODAY!)

Nashville Predators
First half: 48 points Projected second half: 40 points
Slump: 8 points

Radio personality Willy Daunic of Nashville 102.5 The Game calls me Buzzkill for a reason: I think the Predators are unlikely to hang on to their postseason position.

It's not the percentages that will kill the Predators; it's the players. They're 29th in close-game puck-possession metrics -- 45.1 percent and holding flat. sorry don't have the numbers to counter that argument... They're 27th in shots per game so what? last year they were 24th and they still got in... they would've been 27th if it wasn't for 25 extra shots (I mean 25 shots isn't going determine whether you're in or not...) and 22nd in shots againstThey were 15th last season, 30.6 compared to 31.4 this season... an extra shot a game isn't exactly going to sway the numbers that much... and Pekka Rinne is suddenly appearing mortal since a lack of depth and injuries forced them to use a number of promising but untried defensemen like Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Ellis, Roman Josi and Teemu Laakso. they've always had a history of bringing in young D talent and developing them into "star" players, in 06-07 they had Timonen and Zidlicky, who were their up and comers then? none other than Ryan Suter and Shea Weber, who's to say that Ekholm, Ellis, Josi or Laakso won't turn out to be a Weber or Suter in 5 year's time... Their first half was temporarily boosted by a great 12-5-4 record in one-goal games (they were sub-.500 last season)18-10-11, not really sub-500 (I mean sub-500 from a winning perspective, but points-wise that's points in 74% of 1GG. Also you could argue that this season they have a bit more help offensively with a full season of Fisher, and newcomer Smith, that they're winning more 1GG because they're more talented. So instead of losing the close ones in OT, they're winning them, and some hot shooting gave them the league's second-best power play I do expect a dip in that department in the 2nd half as they aren't a team to be 2nd in the league in PP%, but with that said, last season they were running makeshift units Hornqvist, O'Reilly, Sullivan (9.27%), Hornqvist, Wilson, Kostitsyn (9.01%) compared to Erat, Hornqvist, Fisher (16.31%), Legwand, Smith, Wilson (15.67%). So the PP is much more stable this season than it was last season. Plus I would argue that it's more talented as well...

The level of success the Predators have achieved with marginal spending and a limited talent pool is admirable, but they could potentially find themselves as sellers at the trade deadline with head coach Barry Trotz's future finally in question this offseason.
I think they could be sellers, but only because they're always thinking of affordability and future viability. If they do sell it'll be either Suter or Weber and they would ask for a reasonable return back which would help their team out offensively in the present. Plus they already have decent pieces in the system who are ready to step up just like how Suter and Weber stepped up when they moved Timonen and Zidlicky...


That would be my counter argument... You know me and my stats, but there are plenty of other factors like history, coach/management influence that you can never just depend solely on stats to explain...

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Dobber Expert Pool Champion 2011-12