Hockey Wilderness Fantasy League: Mid-season Recap: Division 1

Hey everyone! Remember the fantasy league we started here in HW? Well, we're currently in week 16 and it's been doing great so far, lots of action, lots of exciting matchups, lots of unhappy GMs because of all the injuries this year. When you go into the draft, you really never know what will happen. You have to identify sleepers, players primed for a breakout, or due for a bad year, you have to deal with injuries to top players, making sure you have a minimum of games played for goaltenders and so on and so forth. We have twenty participants this year, many of them completely new to fantasy hockey, including yours truly. These twenty participants are divided into two divisions. I seem to understand that only 6 teams make the playoffs, which is something to look out for.For part one of this recap, I'll be talking about Division 1, how they've been doing, and who's been good for them.

Stick around and make the jump.

Division 1 standings as of January 27th 2011:

1. Redheaded Step Child, managed by RHZ (RedHeadZeb), 119-61-15 = 253 pts

3. Zombies, managed by Jeremy R, 111-64-20 = 242 pts

8. Know Knothings, managed by Jeremy M (KnowKnothing), 100-79-16 = 216 pts

10. Datsyukian Dekes, managed by Ola (Call of the Wild), 96-73-23 = 215 pts

11. The Haves and Havlats, managed by Anthony N, 97-81-17 = 211 pts

13. Rubber Mallets, managed by JDub, 82-91-22 = 186 pts

14. Komissaari Erämaa, managed by Buddha (BReynolds), 84-96-15 = 183 pts

15. WhoKnew?, managed by John, 83-96-16 = 182 pts

19. Ihmeellinen9, managed by Moni (MMcAlister), 54-122-19 = 127 pts

20. Singapore Slings, managed by CircularTheory, 32-146-17 = 81 pts

The number next to the team is the team's overall position in the league. I'm going to give you a bit of info of each team.

 Team MVP: Alex Ovechkin.

Best Matchup: Laying the smack down on Fedoruk's face (just like Boogaard did) 11-1-1 in week 11 (that's a lot of 1s)

Fun Fact: Only team to have the same draft order (1st) and position in the standings (1st)

Best Matchup: Bringing down the league-leading RedHeaded Step Child 9-1-3 in week 6.

Fun Fact: Drafting 14th and having the 2nd highest total in points gives him +12 in draft/standings... highest difference in the league.

Best Matchup: Slowing down the 2nd best Zombies 10-1-2 in week 4

Fun Fact: Know Knothings in the only team without any shutouts, yet thanks to teams not fulfilling the 3-game minimum for goalies, he managed three wins in the shutout category.

Team MVP: Tim Thomas

Best Matchup: Whitewashing Hakan Loobies 12-0-1 in week 12

Fun fact: Only has players from 9 differents teams in the NHL, lowest among all teams of the HWFL

Team MVP: Brendan Morrow

Best Matchup: Crushing the Shienar Black Hawks 11-2-0 in week 11.

Fun fact: Overall: 97-81-17, Against own division: 50-53-14, Against other division: 47-24-3.

Best Matchup: Shutting out Singapore Slings 11-0-2 in week 12.

Team MVP: Niklas Backstrom

Best Matchup: Humiliated The Haves and Havlats 11-1-1 in week 2.

Fun fact: I'm better than him, which fulfills my team slogan! (I just wanna beat Bryan)  :)

Team MVP: Nicklas Backstrom

Best Matchup: Kicked Bryan's ass 11-1-1 in week 6.

Fun Fact: Has an overall losing record, but has a winning record against his own division.

Ihmeellinen9: Monica's team should thank Daniel for saving her the humiliation of being dead last. The way things are going, Daniel's staying there forever. Monica drafted 15th overall, and during the draft, her preference for Red Wings was well known. In fact, it was a war between Ola and her (two known Wings fans) over who would get these players. That being said, given the high number of Wings in Mon's team, it's a wonder she's doing so poorly. In all fantasy teams, there will unevitably be players who will update their team very little, if at all. Monica is (probably) one of them, being a busy mother/writer and all. She has done very little moves, and while she does have many good players, many of them are on the same team, which leaves her screwed during matchups in which these players don't play very often. Losing Pavel Datsyuk to injury certainly doesn't help either. Very poor goaltending, plus having only one who is active, makes Monica lose a truckpile of goaltending points, which is the main reason she is in 19th position. Will she be willing to trade away her Wings so that someone can fly to a higher spot? Unlikely, but maybe she'll trade those other guys.

Best Matchup: Two way tie between beating Finnish your Czechs 7-6-0 in week 2 and beating Datsyukian Dekes 6-5-2 in week 4... those were the only matchups Monica's team won.

Fun fact: She lost 3-9-3 five times.

Best Matchup: His only win, against WhoKnew 7-5-1 in week 4

Fun fact: Since his win in week 4, he is 14-119-10  from week 5 to week 15... ouch.

Those were the 10 teams in Division 1, I will have part 2 up shortly, hope you enjoyed it!