I signed on for an online fantasy hockey league for the first time. The league has a few Caps fans (including
Clydeorama) and is aptly named "Schultzie." My team name is The Alzner Beards mainly because there was a 20-character limit on team names, and I couldn't use "You Win Some, You
Clitsome."
I'm admittedly one of those bandwagon Caps fans (although I was at Glen Hanlon's last game and Boudreau's first home game) and my hockey knowledge outside of the Capitals is limited but improving watching "NHL On The Fly."
We had a live draft, and I did absolutely zero preparation. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? Well, I've been in a fantasy baseball league for the past three seasons and prepared exactly the same way ... and finished 2nd, 2nd and 4th, respectively, over the past three years. I used to be a HUGE baseball fan but my interest has slowly waned since the strike ended the 1994 season. So in comparison, my knowledge on baseball was probably even less when that league started than my knowledge on hockey now.
Yahoo does help you "cheat" a little by ranking all the players so all you have to do is click on a player and click "Draft" when the time comes. I also had another browser window opened and checked the latest news on potential players. Chuckled a bit when somebody drafted Mark Streit ("He's out 'til February, dummy!") and knew not to touch Kyle Okposo (he's hurt too ... the poor Isles).
The secret to my success in fantasy baseball was watching trends during the season, especially on players who were in the free agent pool. My teams rarely resembled the teams I drafted, especially with the case of pitching, so I'm hoping to translate that success into hockey.
Anyway without further adieu, the 2010-2011 Alzner Beards:
Offense:
Zach Parise - Anze Kopitar- Chris Stewart
Ryan Malone - Jason Spezza - Joe Pavelski
Andrew Brunette - Travis Zajac - Mike Knuble
Defense:
Mike Green - Kris Letang
Lubomir Visnovsky - John Carlson
Goalies:
Henrik Lundquist - Kari Lehtonen
Bench:
David Booth (LW)
Jack Johnson (D)
Antti Miettinen (RW)
Mike Fisher (C)
Only three Capitals, and where I drafted them was probably about where anybody else would have drafted them. Although with Carlson, I told myself that if he was still available and I had one D to fill, I was going to take him.
Are they good? I don't know. Never heard of Lubomir Visnovsky until last night (although my scouting-on-the-fly has him on the top PP unit with Anaheim and Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan and Corey Perry), but it's a long season and I can release people if they start to suck.
