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We can’t begin to tell you how often we hear
hockey poolies bemoan their high selections in their pools that are outright
killing them. You know the ones, third, second and maybe even third round
draft picks that you thought were locks for HUGE seasons, and have turned
out…well…to be less than player should be at that spot in your draft. In
the infamous words of a recent former president – “we feel your pain!
Over the next two weeks, we look at a list of guys that potentially fit this
category, why they maybe be struggling and what you can do about it to
minimize the impact.
Our next stop through what we are characterizing as an early Fantasy Hockey
walk of shame, is Colorado. After a brutal start, the Avalanche seem to have
gotten back on track, posting a 20-win, 13-loss season in 39 games. Problem
is, is that they have been doing it on the back of the Patrick
Roy, Joe
Sakic and Rob
Blake. We try and breakdown two guys we thought were going to thrive
this season, but haven’t: Chris
Drury and Alex
Tanguay.
Chris
Drury: When Peter
Forsberg decided to take his pucks and skates and head home to Sweden,
we thought a major beneficiary of the extra ice-time was going to be Chris
Drury – er…so we thought. Hard to figure out how a guy that improved
from 0.56 PPG in 98-99, 0.82 in 99-00, and 0.92 in 00-01 could be on pace
for a 0.44 PPG in 01-02. Drury is on pace to score a disappointing 15 goals
this year. YIKES! GM Pierre
LaCroix can’t be very happy and we are sure that Drury knows this, how
else to explain his 104 shots on net (yet only 7 goals) in 36 games. But
perhaps a little more alarming has to be Drury’s +/- stats. As a –4,
only Ville
Nieminen and Eric
Messier have a worse +/-. So, where did Drury get sideways? Well, to
start, look no further than the role that Drury is trying to fulfill. A
natural center, Drury has tried to fill the void of Forsberg as the
Avalanche’s #1b pivot and well, he hasn’t been able to fill Peter’s
shoes. Secondly, as returning Stanley Cup champions, Drury’s 5’10”
frame had a total of 2 months to rest, heal and recoup after an unbelievable
season and a storybook final that went 7 games and into early June. And
finally, and perhaps the biggest obstacle, has been Drury’s own efforts.
Blessed with big league skills but not big league size, Drury is finding it
hard to adapt to life as a bona fide NHL sniper – and the restricting
checking that follows him as a result. It’s not like he hasn’t been
trying, but Drury is a streaky scorer – riding the peaks and valleys that
is player’s scoring confidence. This year he’s put a lot of pressure on
himself early to fill the sudden departure of Forsberg, and when things
didn’t go well right out of the gate, Drury’s confidence plummeted.
So, now that you know a little of what may be wrong with Drury, what do you
do with him as you watch the ‘Lanche win, without much help from him.
Well, our recommendation is to move him. We’d take advantage of the recent
news that Peter
Forsberg is likely to play in the Olympics, which means he’ll be back
in the NHL – speculation is in mid January. Play on this hype and shop him
around. Thing is, most poolies will see last years stats rather than this
years and you should do well in making a deal – just make sure its not for
a Drury like player and his stats. We don’t think Drury is likely to start
discovering his scoring touch to such a degree as to reach last year’s
numbers, so use that to your advantage and shop him now.
In a few days – we are just down the hall checking in on another ailing
‘Lanche – Alex
Tanguay.
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