For those who know,
“…two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.”
When you have Connor McDavid on your roster and your opponent has Nathan MacKinnon, you’d think that the Big Mac game would be covered. And yet, neither was the Biggest Big Mac. At least not for me. More about that below.
The Process
This is the final installment in my series looking back at fantasy hockey from Week 21 through the playoffs, my thinking process behind the moves I made, and the pluses and minuses.
Hopefully, you can gain some insight into how these moves impacted my matchup and more importantly, how you can use my experience + analytics to help you be more successful in fantasy hockey.
On Repeat
Use resources like Apples and Ginos for their expertise with regard to analytics. Nate and his crew are masters at getting into the weeds and digging up the numbers and rationale to help you with your decision making.
Ultimately, no one knows your team better than you do and you’re going to have to make the moves that you think will help you best. However, their information and insights can help stack the odds in your favor. They’ve done the heavy lifting, all you have to do is hold the door open.
The Sitch
As The President’s Cup winner (that and a cup of coffee…)in my points league this year, I began my playoff run in Week 23 with a bye, won my semi-final matchup in Week 24 in a squeaker over the only team in my league to defeat me during the season, and entered the finals in Week 25 going up against another loaded team featuring Nathan MacKinnon, Brayden Point, and Matthew Tkachuk. For my part, I’ve mixed and matched all year, but have held steady with my core of Connor McDavid, Timo Meier, Jake Oettinger, Ilya Sorokin, and Igor Shesterkin. I rode my goalies all year and they had, for the most part (nightly Maalox infusions notwithstanding), been difference makers. I just had to hope that they’d play a lot and well in Week 25.
After plugging in and plugging out my roster for Week 25 in preparation for the finals, I entered the finals with the unnerving reality that I didn’t have too many holes to fill. In other words, my roster looked to be pretty well set with few players on my bench on any given night including my goalies. This could mean only one of two things:
1. I was going to have to pretty much rely on my players to bring the noise. There didn’t seem to be much in the way of tinkering for me to do with one exception: I did have one streamer spot available. Because Washington had only two games in the first week of the week and a half Week 25 schedule, I could stream out Dylan Strome for another player who could help me maximize games played. The only other move I had up my sleeve was to try to replace Jake Sanderson with a “better” defenseman who played nearly the same schedule.
Or
2. Something was about to go terribly wrong.
My overall objective for Week 25:
1. Stream out Dylan Strome for a player who began Week 25 with the Monday and Tuesday back to back and reevaluate after the Tuesday game.
2. Find a “better” defenseman replacement for Jake Sandeson that played at least as many games and who had the same or nearly the same schedule as Sanderson.
3. Hope my core players had the week (and a half) of their lives and then, hang on for dear life.
The categories in my league are pretty typical for a Points League and include: Goals, Assists, +/-, PPP, SOG, and Blocks for Skaters and Wins, Saves, Goals Against, and Shut Outs for goalies.
Plus/Minus
Jared McCann, Seattle Kraken, C/LW: As mentioned above, the addition of McCann may well have been my Biggest Big Mac of the year. At least in terms of timing. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had Connor McDavid on my team for the past few years…enough said I know. And my opponent in Week 25 has Nathan MacKinnon on his team…again, enough said. But this week? My new Mac just about out performed both and staked my team out to an early enough lead to give me the breathing room I needed to hold off any other potential adds. Week 25 Points: 99.10
Aaron Ekblad, Florida Panthers, D: Adding Ekblad went against my better judgment but he represented, at least on paper, an upgrade to Jake Sanderson. I really only had one spot for an add after adding McCann, and that was at the D position so I rolled the dice again. Results were sort of mixed, but I will say that Ekblad did enough early on in the week to add to the breathing room that McCann created. Week 25 Points: 41.50
I realize that this was a rather short piece, but I wanted to get something out until I get the chance for a more season-long reflective article.
Thank you for reading all of my articles this season. I appreciate your support. Look for more content during the fantasy hockey off-season.
Mike@Fantasy Hockey Professor
Apples and Ginos 