Well, we are only a couple of weeks away from playoff time -- the only time of the year that really matters.
I'm glad to say that nobody has taken off with the title this year, like Brandon did last year, and we have a fight to the finish going on between John and Jay. It's interesting to note the John holds the tie-breaker by exactly 13.5 points. That is to say they split their head-to-head match-ups, but John beat Jay by an EXTRA 13.5 points during the cumulative point total of those match-ups.
We also have an intriguing race for the final three playoff spots between Greg, Brandon, Joel and Jarrett. One of these teams will not make it.
In both cases it should be very exciting to watch!
As for last week's match-ups, I'm pretty excited to see a 40-year-old Teemu Selanne on the list. He continues to defy his age by contributing PPG totals. I'm hoping he can keep this up in our playoffs. The only other guy I can think of that did something like this recently was Joe Sakic, but I think he hit 100 points at the age of 38.
John's defense core is very impressive. He did a great job of picking Burns to have a bounceback year, and Babchuk to break out, especially since he was traded to the Calgary burnouts. We all knew Chara had it in him.
Bryzgalov sess his second appearance in four weeks on the top goalie list, and is playing a major part in Phoenix vying for top playoff positioning. Maybe this year they won't have to face Detroit in the first round!
And yes, how can I not mention Tom Gilbert. He has been a real plum this year. Hard to believe this guy had 45 points two years ago. He has fallen into absolute oblivion.
The weekly and nightly point totals were nothing to celebrate this week. I still have the feeling that Jay's totals are going to stand for a VERY long time. They are quite a bit higher than totals from the last two years.
Good luck to everyone on the stretch run!