The warm glow of the bowl victory in the Yahoo’s fantasy football has now faded, and it’s time to take a look how the other instances of Haagan Hakkapeliitat are doing.
The hockey team is doing all right (5th out of 12 teams). The season has been uneven, with a lot of stars falling by the wayside in various teams. Hence, it’s less of a surprise to see that Ryan Getzlaf is actually #5 in the whole league. Daniel Alfredsson has been hurt a couple of short stints, and that clearly downgrades his position in the statistics (though ninth in the entire NHL is nothing to scoff at).
Apart from the ever-reliable Marty Turco, the goalies have been a headache (neither Tim Thomas nor Peter Budaj have exactly carried their teams this season). And speaking of headaches, Simon Gagne didn’t recover from his concussion to allow any subsequent games this season, which was quite a loss. Gambled on Teemu Selänne, when the news of his return broke, and have been happy with the choice since – a 3+2 game would be a big break from anybody, but for a 37-year old veteran in his tenth game is unexpected indeed.
And the idea of having fewer defensemen as opposed to too many right wingers was obviously dead on arrival to anybody but me. I took third of a season to figure out that this is an unworkable tactic.
The basketball team is not doing as well (6 or 12, but worrisomely below .500). Shawn Marion, the top draft choice has been in good form, though the new team in Miami certainly doesn’t have the backing talent he used to have in the Suns.
The team is very heavy on shooting guards / small forwards – with frequent crowding issues. But with the likes of Ray Allen, Kevin Martin, Vince Carter and Corey Maggette, I don’t mind too much. Though John Salmons seems to be an extra now that the Sacramento team is on the healthy side – his output during the shorthanded period were much much appreciated.
What the team lacks is a credible center, but then again, so do most of the teams in the real NBA.
Don’t worry, I won’t be as obsessively reporting about these teams as I did for the football team. Until the playoffs, that is.