Fantasy Hockey

Kevin over at BfloBlog said today that there is nothing in the universe more boring than reading about a blogger's fantasy team. Well, I'm not the type of blogger who'll let a statement like that pass by untested. By which I mean, I'm a boring blogger. So, get ready to hear about my fantasy teams!

Recently, the experiment in fantasy hockey known as the IPB Superleague got underway with its draft. The point of this league (and it's less-fabulous sister league, the Amazingleague), besides the obvious smack talking possibilities, is to familiarize fans of one conference with players from the other. I'm certainly no expert even on the Eastern Conference, so I could really use this education, especially living in a WC city. Here's my team, It Just... Team:

Joe Thornton (C)
Jonathan Toews
Andrew Brunette
Ryan Smyth
Milan Michalek
Brian Rolston (A)
Dion Phaneuf (A)
Kevin Bieksa
Brett Clark
Mattias Ohlund
Mike Modano
Alexander Radulov
Fredrik Modin

Miikka Kiprusoff
Niklas Backstrom
Ilya Bryzgalov

I'm reasonably excited about this line-up, even though there are a few guys there I've never heard of. (Bryzgalov was a last-minute pick-up when the guy I originally had drafted from Phoenix was sent back to the AHL. There were few WC goaltenders left at that point, and I knew next to nothing about any of them. Bryz may not have been the best available option, but lord knows I love me some chatty back-up goaltenders, and since the team name is a tribute to him, I figured I owed him that much. Welcome to the fold, Breezy!) I seem to have achieved what I've decided is my trifecta of fantasy hockey desirables: 1) they're roughly talented, 2) I'm not morally opposed to them and all they stand for (I'm ignoring the general squickyness that seems to follow Ryan Smyth wherever he goes), and 3) they're acceptably hot (hello, Andrew Brunette and Milan Michalek!). We'll see how it all pans out.

I also joined another, non-conference-restricted league, partly to keep my jealousy of the other Superleaguers allowed to have Sabres and other ECers to a minimum, and partly to help take my brother's mind off the kind of shitty month he's been having. Well, the latter may have worked out, but the former backfired on me somewhat. Meet the Christ Punchers:

Jason Spezza
Marc Savard
Henrik Zetterberg
Alexander Frolov
Jarome Iginla
Drew Stafford (C)
Nicklas Lidstrom
Sheldon Souray
Dion Phaneuf (A)
Bryan McCabe
Daniel Alfredsson
Patrick Marleau (A)
Slava Kozlov

Roberto Luongo
Marty Turco
Jean-Sebastien Giguere

As you can see, my goal to get more EC guys kind of failed, and with the inclusion of Spezza, Alfredsson, and McCabe, #2 of my fantasy hockey desirables went completely out the window. There are only three other teams in the league (run by my brother and two of his friends), so talent is spread pretty thick, and I'm afraid that if I follow my heart and dump these guys for one of the leftovers, I'm pretty much guaranteeing myself the bottom feeder spot. Time will tell if anyone is willing to make me any kind of trade. In the meantime, I'm really psyched about that goaltending.