Pirate Galaxy » eing traded that first time,

Normally the Playoff Hockey Challenge is but a small percentage of the great marathon that is the NHL season. Not so in this lockout-shortened campaign. This season, the Playoff Hockey Challenge will come with almost equal bragging rights to your regular fantasy hockey pool. In fact, if a team captures the cup while playing in four seven-game series, those games would represent more than half of what the NHL regular season was. If you havent participated in the Playoff Hockey Challenge before, this is your season to get into it. We had almost four months of hockey taken away from us earlier this season, and this game is a chance for the fantasy sports fans to reclaim part of that lost time. Dont settle for your fantasy hockey season ending later this month. Extend it through the postseason with the Playoff Hockey Challenge. The Basics This should be easy for those who enjoy playing the Hockey Challenge during the regular season. The rules are very similar to the Hockey Challenge and are consistent with most of your basic salary-cap games. You pick a team of six forwards, four defensemen and two goaltenders under a fantasy budget of $100 million. That team scores you goals, assists, wins and shutout bonuses to carry you to glory. Goals are worth a point, assists are worth a point, wins are worth two points, and goaltenders and defensemen get a bonus point for a shutout. Selecting a team of stars should be relatively easy as the game begins with most forwards drawing a salary just under $9 million, the top defensemen just under $8 million and the goaltenders peaking at $11 million. Do the math and you will notice you are just shy of being able to ice a roster of all the top players in the league. While that may be true, its not always the top players in the league who excel in the playoffs. You get to swap out your team after the first round of the playoffs and again after the conference semifinals, but you dont get to trade out the team after the conference finals. In other words, there is no harm in selecting players from teams that get eliminated in the first or second rounds. But when the playoffs are pared down to the four teams vying for a trip to the Stanley Cup finals, that is your final roster lock. There are no limits to the swapping as long as you stay under $100 million. In theory, you could have 36 different players on your roster during the entirety of the Playoff Hockey Challenge. Remember that all NHL players will be available to all other owners you are competing against, whether in a public, private or fan-based group. Your picks need to be shrewd, calculated and, most of all, pretty lucky. The Details Go for the goaltenders first in this game. Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown led the NHL in playoff scoring last season with 20 points. That means they led all skaters with 20 points in the Playoff Hockey Challenge. Henrik Lundqvist, whose team was eliminated in the conference finals, compiled 23 points in the Playoff Hockey Challenge.Jonathan Quick? He had 35 points in the Playoff Hockey Challenge. Evgeni Malkin had to be the seventh-highest scoring forward in NHL playoff history in 2009 to just get 36 points. Goaltenders are where the money is in this game. Pick two good ones and you have a guaranteed 48 points through the first three rounds. Pick two goaltenders who both make the Stanley Cup finals and battle in a seven-game series there? Thats 62 points, not counting shutouts. Brown, Kopitar and Ilya Kovalchuk, who was third in playoff scoring last season, didnt equal that number combined. Longer playoff series provide and advantage, but not for goaltenders. Goaltenders cannot win more than four games in a series and get zero points if their team loses. Goalies are somewhat capped for points during this game, but there is no limit on what a skater can do for point production. A skater can score in a loss as much as he pleases. Seven-game series are where the real money is at in this fantasy game. A lot of star players not only score points when their team wins games but also when their team loses. A player competing in seven games, even if three of them are losses, has a much better chance of getting more points than a player in four games that are all wins. Defensemen are still important in this game and there will usually be one or two who stand out during the postseason, but the majority of defensemen will all be bunched between six and 10 points. That isnt enough of a difference to break your bank and not be able to afford a key forward who can get into the mid-20s for points. Besides, would you have predicted Drew Doughty and Bryce Salvador would lead the pack last season? Pick the good defensemen at the start of the game and switch out for the hot ones when you get to repick your team. The ones you picked at the start of the game probably wont be the ones leading the way. Picking the seven-game series ahead of time can be a fools errand, but there are slightly smarter places to place your bets. Of the 25 seven-game series in the first round during the past 12 postseasons, only five were between the No. 1 and No. 8 seeds. The most series that went the distance -- eight of them -- involved the No. 3 seed versus the No. 6 seed. No. 4 versus No. 5 accounted for six Game 7s, and No. 2 against No. 7 made up the other six. Thats a fairly even split, but if you are picking between two players where everything else is even in your mind, lean toward the tighter seeding between the teams. One final point: Treat the bonuses as a bonus. Last season was the first time in several years that shutouts in the regular season were an indicator of shutouts to come in the postseason, with Quick, Lundqvist and Mike Smith all notching three playoff shutouts for bonus points. Only three goaltenders during the 2007 through 2011 NHL playoffs posted more than one playoff shutout after finishing top three in shutouts during the regular season: Tim Thomas in 2011, Antti Niemi in 2010 and Dominik Hasek in 2007. Does that mean Pekka Rinne, Cory Schneiderand Smith are bound for great postseasons? Based on last year, yes. Based on the previous five years, no. That leans toward the conclusion that the bonus points are somewhat unpredictable. That said, Lundqvist and Smith sure do seem to pick up a lot of shutouts. If you like the New York Rangers orPhoenix Coyotes chances (if they make the playoffs), those two particular goaltenders do show personal trends for shutouts. But remember some of these facts: In the 2010 playoffs, Michael Leighton led the way with three shutouts after posting one during the regular season. In the 2009 playoffs, Chris Osgood, Cam Ward, Jonas Hiller and Semyon Varlamov led all goaltenders with two shutouts each. During the preceding regular season, they recorded a combined 12 shutouts. TSN Playoff Hockey Challenge is brought to you by Kia. Cheap Air Max 97 Mens . Having already announced that the race will start May 9 with three stages in Northern Ireland and Ireland and finish in Trieste on June 1, the rest of the route was unveiled Monday. Air Max 97 Plus Cheap . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. http://www.outletairmax97.com/air-max-97-shanghai.html .7 million, one-year contract, a raise of $2.2 million. Wieters had asked for $8.75 million and the Orioles had offered $6. Air Max 97 Off White Wolf Grey Menta . Barcelonas entertaining victory ensured the defending Spanish champions retained their share of the league lead with Atletico Madrid two rounds ahead of their meeting in the capital. Real Madrid needed a late goal by substitute Jese Rodriguez to earn a 3-2 victory at Valencia to stay in third place and three points behind its title rivals. Air Max 97 Outlet . Malkin got tangled up with Detroits Luke Glendening early in the third period and his left skate took the brunt of collision with the boards behind Pittsburghs net. CHICAGO -- Far removed from the playoff races, James Shields was trying to avoid his 19th defeat this season while facing the 103-loss Minnesota Twins.It resulted in a rare night of smiles for Minnesota while confusion surrounded White Sox manager Robin Venturas future.Byron Buxton and Jorge Polanco each hit a two-run home run to send Shields to a major league high-tying 19th loss, and the Twins beat Chicago 6-0 on Saturday night.The Twins havent lost this many games since the franchise moved to Minnesota, but in this one, they got 6 1/3 innings of three-hit ball from Hector Santiago (13-10) for their third win in 14 games.Buddy Boshers, J.T. Chargois and Brandon Kintzler completed the four-hitter.Weve lost enough games already, Santiago said. So you go out there and try to give your team a chance to compete and win.The Chicago Sun-Times reported during the game that Ventura, who is in the last year of his contract, would not return after five seasons and that Rick Renteria, a former manager of the Chicago Cubs, would likely replace him.Ventura wouldnt answer questions about his future.I just said all along that Im going to talk about it at the end, Ventura said.Meanwhile, White Sox players claimed they hadnt heard the news.I dont know whats going on, third baseman Todd Frazier.Shields (6-19) concluded a career-worst season split between San Diego and Chicago by allowing five runs and four hits over seven innings. His 40 home runs and 118 earned runs allowed are the most in the majors. Only Tampa Bays Chris Archer has as many losses.Polanco homered in the fourth and Buxton connected an inning later off Shields. Juan Centeno added run-scoring doubles in the seventh and ninth.Shields is 4-12 since being traded to the White Sox in June.Thats just the kind of year Im having, Shields said. I make two bad pitches, and it costs me.Buxton continued his late-season emergence. The former top prospect hit .193 with one homer in his first 63 games this season, but then batted .277 with seven homers, 18 RBI and a .936 OPS in September.The 34-year-old Shields was an All-Star in Tampa Bay, helped Kansas City to the World Seriees in 2014 and entered the year with a major league-high nine straight 200-inning seasons.dddddddddddd That streak ended as Shields finished with 181 2/3 innings and a 5.85 ERA.Santiago, who spent parts of three seasons with the White Sox, struck out six. He improved to 4-0 with a 1.03 ERA in four starts against Chicago this year, with two coming before he was traded by the Angels on Aug. 1.Maybe a chip on the shoulder from being traded that first time, especially being there for so long and them moving me, Santiago said. Going against those guys it makes you step your game up because thats the team that brought you up and they got rid of you. So you want to go out there and beat them every time.TRAINERS ROOMTwins: Brian Dozier went 1 for 3 with a walk and two strikeouts before exiting with right oblique soreness. Earlier stage of my career Id probably keep playing, Dozier said. I didnt want to be stupid. Dozier is in a 2-for-37 slump and remains at 99 RBI. ... Molitor decided not to start 1B Joe Mauer (quadriceps) again this season.LOT OF HOMERSShields is the first pitcher to allow 40 home runs in a season since Cincinnatis Bronson Arroyo gave up 46 in 2011.MOLITOR UNPLUGGEDMolitor was blunt when asked to evaluate his team, which has the franchises worst record since the Washington Senators went 50-104 in 1949.He described the pitching as at a level thats probably the most significant reason were setting a Twins record for losses.Asked about the AL-high 126 errors, Molitor said it would be a point of emphasis next spring because its been crazy the total weve been able to accumulate.Molitor described the toll of all the losing by acknowledging you can feel the attitude and the deflation each time that we walk off the field and arent able to shake hands.UP NEXTAmid speculation he could be traded in the offseason to accommodate a rebuild, White Sox ace Chris Sale (17-9, 3.21 ERA) seeks his career-best 18th win in Sundays season finale. RHP Jose Berrios (2-7, 8.61) starts for the Twins. ' ' '