Fantasy Hockey Checkpoint

Happy holidays everyone!

I hear it’s been a tad, um, blustery out on the east coast.  Which sounds fun and all, but I ran in shorts and a t-shirt here this weekend…. so I’ll just go preemptively eff myself.  Thanks.

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The old "having an edge" vs. "being an idiot" tightrope.

Did anybody else think the punch Barret Jackman snuck in on Alex Burrows last night was a bigger deal than the commentators made of it?  Judging by the lack of video of it online, I’m sure I’m over-reacting here, but I was hoping some Canucks or Blues fans saw the play and could shed some light on it.

Basically, it looked to me like Burrows crashed the Blues crease after the whistle, so Jackman snuck off his right glove to give him a solid suckerpunch to the lips.  It all happened so fast it looked pretty inconspicuous, but if that’s really what happened, that’s some vicious intent right there.  Maybe the league should give the play a quick once-over.

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The Bourne’s Blog Hockey League has reached the halfway point.  Mile 13.1 of this marathon (week 11 of the regular season), people, and it’s time for a little review.

This is my first year playing fantasy hockey, and as I’ve mentioned before, I’m loving it.

I went with head-to-head as the format, because I figured that way it would stay interesting throughout the whole year.  Even if you’re getting shellacked, you can still play (and bet) against your opponent from the week to salvage some joy from the torture (I was looking out for MY best interests going into the season).  I’m sure some fantasy league are down to four or five players actually playing by the end of it, and nobody wants that (especially in our 20-team league).

The problems with the format are clear.  Some people *ahem* do really well statistically *ahem*, but have some bad luck in their matchups *A-HEM!* 

I’m sticking with my theory that the format becomes an elaborate game of “war” (the card game).  You can win with a seven if your opponent has a six, which is no more valuable than winning with an ace if you’re opponent has a two.  You just hope that eventually you get to play that ace you still hold at the right time.  And while I’m not-so-subtley masking my bitterness, I hate you all.

Kopitar - seen here 200 feet from contributing anything of value to my fantasy team.

I’ve guaranteed that I will finished the year in the top five (I’m currently in FOURTEENTH of 20), and I’m not wavering from that.  My goalies are finally on the ball (I lost save percentage 2.23 to 2.22 last week thanks to Detroit pulling Howard against Dallas in the last couple minutes, apparently a few seconds too early), I’m close to getting healthy, and if I don’t start winning, I’ll just knock all the checkers off the board and declare that nobody won.  I am commish, after all.

Twice I’ve lost weeks where I’ve bet a temporary team-name-change, only to not hear from my opponent again (what, like I’m gonna seek you out?), and the two bets I have won have brought me much joy.

For next year, the Bourne’s Blog Fantasy League will be a pay league, where I’ll fly the winner out to hit a Coyotes game or two with me or something like that.  Whatever it is we decide, it’ll be a non-profit deal where you a-holes all have to pay attention to what your team is up to.

 So that’s where I’m at.  14th.  In a 20-team league. I have Datsyuk, Kopitar, Hossa, Stastny, Backes, J. Stall, Booth, Keith, Goligoski, and Kronwall, but can’t win.  So much for the advice I spew on an XM radio fantasy hockey show

I will now brace myself for the comment section of abuse.  Also, I will now prepare to deny the claims of the two teams who want to retroactively claim their “re-name Bourne’s team” prize. 

Hope the holidays are going great for everyone, my family is all here as of today for our first warm Christmas. (unfortunately exluding my Dad and Aunt who were unable to make it – boo - but including my brother who recently pump-faked us all on the whole “dying” thing then decided to just go back to being well by his 30th birthday.  So I’m pumped!)

 See ya tomorrow!

Tyson frequently sleeps on his back. And no, that has nothing to do with my blog.

The Gillies pup "Cash" on his one-year b'day. And no, it's not a bear.

Merry... holidays, from the Bournes!

The Bourne’s Blog Fantasy Hockey League

 *Crappy news people – the BBFHL is already full-up at 20.  Next year, we’re gonna have to some sort of contest to be a part of the league.  Top three this year will definitely earn their spot back!

Okay, the Bourne’s Blog Fantasy Hockey League is going down, I just looked into it.

A couple questions, for those of you who said you’d sign up:

Do we want a “Head-to-Head” league, “Points” league, or a ”Rotisserie” league?

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The differences:

Head to Head: versus one team “manager” in particular, with a point awarded for each statistical category won that week versus your opponent (goals, assists, plus/minus, etc.)

Points: a season-long system that awards three points for a goal, two for an assist, one for plus/minus, 0.4 for a shot etc.

Rotisserie: teams are ranked in every category (goals, assists, etc.), with points being awarded based on where you sit in the league in that particular category.  This is done for all seven categories, and an overall leader emerges from that.

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They all sound good to me, but I think Head-to-Head makes for better verbal abuse potential (when playing for no-money, the only real motivator).  Also, I think the Rotisserie thing sounds neat; in reality, it’s probably the most fair way to figure out who’s doing the overall best, but it may not be as fun.  I could see myself losing interest in the “Points” system by about November when six of my 15 guys are hurt and four are Islanders.

It’s gonna be the BBHL – Bourne’s Blog Hockey League.  There’s really only two other things to decide, and then I’ll create the league (I started to this morning, but needed some consensus opinions). 

One:  What day is the best day for a live, online draft for everyone?  It can take, according to Yahoo!, “several hours”, but you do have the option to set the thing to “autopick” if you can’t be a part of it.  I personally would rather do it during a day sometime next week, like maybe Wednesday/Thursday, but I realize some of you have “jobs” that “pay money”.  A Saturday would be fine too, and probably easier for everyone too.  Sundays, however, are for nothing-doing.

Two: Think up a good team name.  That’s half the battle here, people.

Oh, and one other thing.  We definitely have to play for something, even if it’s not money. 

Like, the loser has to comment under the name “I finished last in the Bourne’s Blog Fantasy Hockey League because I know nothing about hockey and I suck and life and therefore my comment is void”.

Actually, the running loser may have to go under some variation of that name as soon as the first month of the season.

And if I lose, maybe I have to do something like a monthly post on how bad I suck at Fantasy Hockey, or put an asterisk at the bottom of all hockey articles:

*Justin Bourne doesn’t actually know what-the-f**k he’s talking about, as verified by the BBHL standings.

Thoughts on what we play for?

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We’re able to change a lot of the league settings, so we could have up to 20 teams.

Those of you who want in, send me the email address you want used to jtbourne@gmail.com, and I’ll communicate with you about the league that way so it doesn’t have to be on the blog for other readers to become annoyed with.

From comment responses yesterday, we’re up to about 10 teams already, so get at me fairly soon so we can figure out the when, what and who’s of our league.

So yeah!  That’s all for today folks.  Should be a fun addition to the season of blogging.