Fantasy Surge In Standings

The past two weeks the fantasy gods have been quite kind to me. Not only have I cut the lead Gopher had on me to a mere 15 points, (explanation coming on how this is nothing) but I have rocketed up the standings to second place. If the playoffs in our league started today I would have a first round bye, which after how this season has gone, would be a massive accomplishment.

For those of you who are not well versed in fantasy sports here is how I set up our league. We have 17 statistical categories up for grabs every week in a head to head format. Each week you play someone different in the league. There's 23 weeks in the regular season, top six make the quest for glory (a.k.a. playoffs.) Top two seeds get a bye in the first round thus guaranteeing at least a fourth place finish.

You earn two points for every category you win each week and earn one point for every category you end up tied in, so as you can see one big week for me and one bad week for Gopher could propel me back to the top of the mountain where I belong. Keep in mind; I did set this league up.

Anyway, two weeks ago Gopher and I faced off in what could quite possibly be a preview of the league finals and a rematch of last year's finals. As would be expected, this was a hotly contested battle between two of the best teams in the league. Heading into that Sunday's action, Gopher had a slim 8-7 lead on me. However, I had a full roster of players going to his measly two and as would be expected (borrowing from Mike Lange here) I ended up beating him like a rented mule 9-4.

The main reason I can tell for this recent surge is the play of Evgeni Malkin and Brian Rolston waking up finally and putting the puck in the net like we all know he can. If you're reading this Brendan Shanahan, you're dangerously close to being dropped or traded so step up and start putting points on the board.

Once the week was over I messaged Gopher to announce and gloat about my demoralizing victory. As would be expected he retorted with, "Whatever, I'm still in first place by a lot. I've been on top all season and will be at the end anyway."

Granted he may be correct in assuming I'll get to the finals of our league for a third straight season only to watch my team (quoting Larry the Cable Guy here) act like a retard in a room full of bouncy balls and see Cheech or Gopher rip the title away from me again.

Moving on to last week's match-up which was another barn burner. Mr. Tully who has been in and out of the playoff picture needs to put a big run together to sneak into the playoffs as the 6-seed. After last week, I'd be shocked if he gets in considering he played the 2-seed in me and is now playing numero uno Gopher.

Once again Gopher is cleaning up and soaking in the rewards of my domination. Tully had a slim 7-6 lead on me heading into Sunday and once again I made a big stand and walked away up 9-5 and with a four point lead over Cheech in the standings. Now Gopher is driving the stake into Tully's chances where he will now battle to defend his consolation bracket title from last season.

Last year Tully was the low man on the totem pole, but put an impressive run together in the consolation bracket to prove to the world that his team was the bad luck team of the century. He was actually looking like a lock for the playoffs this season, but a big slump due to some injuries, namely Sidney Crosby have sunk any hopes of that happening. On the bright side, he'll most likely have the 1-seed in the consolation bracket. As was the saying in Boston for 86 years, "There's always next year."

This week I am locked in another mid-week battle with Army pal "The Mick" who is currently the 9-seed. His team isn't all that bad, but due to him being in Iraq defending our freedom back here in the States and allowing me to be able to entertain you with these random thought processes that run through my head, don't allow him to check his team very often.

In any event, the NHL trade deadline is fast approaching and in the next post I'll try to make some predictions on where some stars could be heading.