The consolation prize

That was a well played games last night, and the Minnesota Wild should have earned the 2 points against the Devils...except that the team from the East had their ace in net and he was his usual self, spectacular. Goaltender Martin Brodeur was the difference and pulled one out for the top team in the Eastern Conference. However, if there is a silver lining to the loss last night, it is in the form of the 33.7 points I earned...fantasy points that is. Two NHLer's in last nights game accumulated almost half of the total points I earned and made it a very good night for the Midwest Checkers. Devils Captain Jamie Langenbrunner, playing in his 15th season, notched his first career hat trick, which was worth 19.2 points. And Wild Captain Mikko Koivu netted a short-handed goal, good for 14.5 points. It was a much needed boost for my team, which has been holding on to the top spot in the 20-team points league, and has pushed my overall lead to 121.3 points.

As for my other yahoo team? Having both players were not enough to compensate for the rest of my roster, as I only earned 1 point in the 16-team rotisserie league that I am hosting. Although I am currently in 2nd place, behind by 9 points, my Wild-Puck team is having a hard time catching the leader.

No, I am not serious enough about fantasy hockey to sacrifice a loss from my favorite team in order to gain points...but I guess it could be considered a consolation prize, although I would gladly exchange my fantasy points for Western Conference standings points for the Wild.

3 in a row, the bad kind

With the 5-3 loss last night, the Wild (43 points) slipped to 8 points out of the final playoff position in the Western Conference. Earning zero points is not the cause of the slip, but instead the fact that most of the teams that are technically catchable by Minnesota are all on winning streaks, ranging from a four gamer to a two gamer....and our team is on a 3-game slide, their second longest pointless streak of the season (the team dropped 5 in a row early in the season and more recently went on a 4-game losing streak but earned a couple of those 'free' points during that stretch). Rounding out the teams occupying positions 4-8...the Flames (53 points) are riding a 4-game winning streak followed by the Predators (53 points) who are on a 3-game streak, ending with Canucks and Kings, who both have won 2 in a row and are also both sitting with 51 points. So consider this a very dangerous time for the team. A continuation of this current streak and/or any more losing streaks could all but cement its position in the bottom 7 teams in the West.