Sometimes in the world of sports, a victory doesn’t always equal success in the standings. Top of the Rock was the number one team in The Price is Right fantasy league and extended their new win streak to two games, but the victory knocked the team down a notch.
The Rock embarked on their second winning streak of the season, yet the boys watched Donkey Kong Country leapfrog them by a single point. Meanwhile, Bettmans Bubble, our opponent in week 11, also had a great week (9-0-1) and is just one point behind us. Things should get interesting as the season winds down in just two weeks.
Our week ten matchup was tightly contested and wasn’t decided until the final buzzer sounded on Sunday night.
The two teams were within three points of each other in six of the ten categories, and three categories were within just six points. The most significant margin of victory for either team was in shots on goal and goals-against average.
The Rock collected their first shutout category win on the season (1-0) and then took the goals category by one, 8-7. The assists numbers went down to the wire, with B Galli pulling out a 15-13 win. They then took the win category 4-1, and we countered with power-play points 7-4.
After so many close categories, things opened up in the plus/minus department, where we finished +9, and our opponents were +3. B Galli got a few more penalties (12-6), and we have a higher save percentage of 0.928 to 0.922.
We fired 17 more shots on goal 67-50 and then had a sub-goals-against average (1.95) compared to our 2.35.
This week’s matchup was all over the map in regards to daily scores. The Rock trailed for just two of the five days, while the two teams only separated by one point for four of the seven days.
The Rock opened things up after Friday night and were up 7-3, the largest lead of the matchup, while B Galli kept it within two points for the six other days of the week.
We had the most significant gain in the team statistics department in shutouts, where we the worse team with no shutouts. After collecting one in week 10, we moved up to the tenth spot and out of the basement.
After another win and no major shuffle in team statistics, our identity is pretty straightforward. We are a middle-of-pack kind of team who has gotten lucky in matchups. Our overall numbers may not be eye-popping; however, when you examine our matchup records, we got the second-best records in four categories and two top-four records in the goalie categories. The worse showing we have is in wins, where we stand as the second worse team record at 2-6-2. Even with a top-four spot in save percentage, we are four games under 0.500 at 3-7-0. In the eight other categories, we have a winning record.
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the top four spots will come down to the final week of the season, and if anyone has a bad week, they could see their opportunity wasted. Five points separate the top four teams, and the top three are only one apart.
Despite the loss this past week, B Galli still holds a nine-point advantage over Horcoff’s Manly Wife for the final playoff spot. All six teams currently holding down a playoff spot have secured at least 100 points and have winning records.
If our blog posts were available on Apple Music or Spotify, you’d be able to hit repeat when you reach the bench numbers part of our recap.
Four players missed out on this week’s action, Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson (Nashville), Joel Eriksson Ek (Minnesota), and Willian Nylander (Toronto). Combined, the guys collected enough points to alter the 6-4 score against B Galli.
We lost the assists category by just two points, yet these guys managed to collect four helpers, which would have made the score 7-3 in our favour. After that, the boys had three penalties (six minutes) which would have tied out opponents at 12 apiece, altering the final score yet again 7-2-1 in our favour. Those two categories would have provided us with a few extra points in the standings, helping us clear up the log jam at the top.
Week 10 proved to be busy in the roster adjustment department. Eriksson Ek was initially signed because he had a +10 rating about a month ago. Since then, the center has failed to produce his numbers have dwindled. It was better to cut him than keep him on the bench.
After the team’s week nine-win, we decided to replace Jake Allen (Montreal) with Joona Korpisalo (Columbus) based on their upcoming matchups. Thankfully Korpisalo started two games early in the week because he got injured and missed out on his weekend series with Detroit. His numbers were not impressive against Carolina, but he got the starts we needed.
Weekly Move Total: 0/4
Season Move Total: 12/50
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