Fantasy Hockey 2011: FHS Alpha League Update

There are sometimes in fantasy sports that you have to make sacrifices to secure your team. Much like chess, sometimes you have to give up a pawn or a knight to make a move that would make it more secure or increase the chance for a checkmate. This past couple of weeks saw things from my team that made me feel quite confident about the long haul but as usual, things just keep getting in the way.

Stats and Standings

The past couple of weeks saw a great turnaround to the right direction after dealing with ties and near ties the past few weeks before. I got two consecutive weeks of great 8-4 wins against my opponents and one of the opponents was in third place behind me being in second place. Even in days it seems like my goaltending is shaky, my skaters managed to produce enough to get me some points in the matchup. I now sit on top of the mountain in 1st place and the first to 100 points with a 49-33-2 record this season. Doesn't mean the fight is over and there is still ALOT of the season still left (3/4 left to be exact) but feeling pretty good at this point.

Recent transactions after the jump...

Recent Transactions:

Dropped Kimmo Timonen and Gabriel Landeskog

Added Andrew Raycroft

This was a two-fold problem I had to deal with. At the time I knew that Ryan Whitney was returning from his injury so in order to activate him, I had to dump a player. Timonen was pretty much a player I knew I could go without so he was expendable. Problem was that when Kari Lehtonen went down with a groin injury, I had to act fast in order to pickup Raycroft as a defensive maneuver. Curtis Sanford and Josh Harding were available, but given Lehtonen's history with groin injuries, I figured it wasn't going to be a one game thing. But since I had to activate Whitney, that meant that I would have to dump two players, activate Whitney to the roster and then pickup Raycroft. This was a tough choice to make and I was considering dumping Vinny Prospal or Martin Erat, but since both were doing so well and Landeskog was certainly not, I had to dump him. Fortunately, Lehtonen is now on the IR and both Landeskog and Timonen cleared waivers so I could use the extra roster space for a player but I am going to wait and see if something jumps out at some point this week.

So let me know what you think in the comments below: do you think I made the right call in picking up Raycroft or should I have gone after Harding or Sanford?

If you're on Twitter, give us a follow at @Faketeams, @MattPTurner and @StephenKaczmar and ask away if you have any hockey related questions!