Fantasy Hockey Analysis

Fantasy Hockey Scouts: The Fantasy Five - Week #26

#1 Give 'em a Look

We're into the final few days of the fantasy season so here's a few guys who could help you get over the hump... how about anyone on the red-hot 2nd line in Anaheim... Saku Koivu has 4+5=9 in his last four, Jason Blake has 2+6=8 in his last four and Teemu Selanne has 6+9=15 in his last 10. Koivu and Blake are likely available on most waiver wires, so they could probably be had. The Ducks play three games over the last four days of the regular season but beware as they're planning on “resting” some of their older players in a few of these games.

Others worth a look: Tyler Ennis (Buf – C), Sean Bergenheim (NYI - W), Andrew Cogliano (Edm – C) and Erik Johnson (StL – D)

Tough part about this time of year is that as the fantasy season reaches its height, there are a lot of teams that are just playing out the string or trying to get healthy heading into the playoffs... so while we're not suggesting you drop any of the high-flying Capitals, you want to keep a close eye on them as with 1st overall already wrapped up, they've started to rest guys down the stretch. Mike Green has sat out two games already this week with a ‘minor ailment' and the coach has said that guys like Ovechkin could possibly rest for the Caps final two games this weekend.

Others worth a boot: Alexei Ponikarovsky (Pit – W), Blake Comeau (NYI – W), Dennis Seidenberg (Bos – D) and Cristobal Huet (Chi – G)

One injury that could have an impact on the post-season and playoff pools is the concussion suffered by the Avs Peter Mueller last weekend. Mueller has been going gangbusters since he arrived in Denver with 9+11=20 in 15 games with the Avs and has really made the PP go lately with nine PP points. There really hasn't been much of an update on his condition and with concussions you really never know how long it will take him to recover. Be sure to check out his status before you finalize your playoff pool picks.

Most of the conflicts have been decided for this year... Rask in Boston and Niemi in Chicago seem to be the goalies of choice for their teams heading into the playoffs and we assume that Jose Theodore will be the game #1 starter for the Caps (how long that lasts is the real question). One team that doesn't have a conflict but we think should be somewhat concerned about their goalie is the defending champion Penguins. Marc-Andre Fleury has elevated his game in the past two post-seasons but he heads into this year's struggling with an 11-9-5 record, 2.89 gaa & .902 sv% in 31 games since January 1st. His sv% for the full year isn't much better, only .904, well below the .912 he posted last year and the .921 in the season prior.

Check out Elliotte Friedman's blog about his recent trip to Russia, some pretty funny stories, definitely worth a read.