Fantasy Hockey Schedule Week 6: Concussions the Word of the Week

Concussions are playing a major role in who plays this season. 

Sidney Crosby still has no timetable on his return.  David Perron is dealing with post-concussion syndrome.  James Reimer’s injury was called a "head" injury or "whiplash" when it should have been called a concussion.  Marc Savard won’t play a game this season due to post-concussion syndrome and Daniel Alfredsson is currently dealing with a concussion.

Others out with concussions are: Jochen Hecht, Raitis Ivanans, Ben Smith, Peter Mueller, Radek Martinek, Ian Laperriere, Kurt Sauer, Nick Petersen, Andy McDonald and Marc Staal. 

Lets hope we don’t see any new concussions in week 6.

Games to Be Played in Week 6

Games that are to be played in Week 6 ranked in order of who plays the most games:

1. Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings and Minnesota Wild all play four games. 

2. Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Phoenix Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning all play two games,

3. While the rest of the league plays three games.

Home/Away Games This Week

When it comes to dressing your players for the upcoming week–especially your goalies–it is important to know which team is on a long road trip and which team is enjoying an extended period at home.

Listed below are the teams that play at least three home/away games this week or play all their games at home or on the road (home/road records up to November 4, 2011):

HOME: Anaheim (3-2-0), Boston (3-5-0), Columbus (2-4-1), Detroit (3-2-1), Los Angeles (3-3-0), San Jose (2-2-0) and St. Louis (2-1-0)

AWAY: Dallas (3-2-0), Edmonton (2-1-1), Minnesota (2-1-2), NY Islanders (0-2-1) and Philadelphia (4-1-0)

Teams That Play on Sunday (November 13, 2011)

If you participate in any type of head-to-head hockey pool, you are likely dressing a lineup for each scoring period, which usually ends on Sunday.

As the week comes to an end, and you find yourself in a close battle for those wins, you want as many players as possible playing for you.

Here are the teams that play on Sunday (November 13, 2011):

Anaheim, Chicago, Edmonton, Florida, Minnesota, NY Islanders, Philadelphia and Vancouver

Teams That Play in Back-to-Back Games This Week

When you are deciding which goalie to dress you need to look at the NHL schedule to see if your goalie's team will play in a back-to-back game that week.

Most coaches will not dress the same goalie in back-to-back games, so that is something to consider when you are thinking about which goalie to dress. 

Here are the teams that play in back-to-back games this week:

Buffalo, Calgary, Carolina, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Nashville, New Jersey, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Vancouver and Washington

Top 5 and Bottom 5 Teams

Knowing which team is on a hot streak or cold streak will help in making your lineup decisions. 

For example you definitely want to dress a goalie from teams that are on a hot streak. Here are the top five and bottom five teams up to November 4, 2011:

TOP FIVE: Washington (8-2-0), Chicago (7-1-2), Edmonton (7-2-1), Dallas (7-3-0) and Toronto (6-3-1)

BOTTOM FIVE: Columbus (2-7-1), NY Islanders (3-5-2), Anaheim (3-4-3), Boston (4-6-0) and Detroit (4-5-1)

Top 5 Power Plays

Fantasy hockey is all about offense and what better place to generate offense then the power play.  Here are the top five power plays up to November 4, 2011:

Ottawa: 28.9 percent
Colorado: 26.3 percent
Washington: 23.7 percent
Florida: 22.4 percent
Los Angeles: 22.0 percent

Latest Significant Injuries

Staying on top of injuries is extremely important to the success and failure of your fantasy hockey team. 

Not knowing who is injured could lead to dressing a player who won’t get you any fantasy points.  A player on injured reserved (IR) doesn’t have an exact timeline yet so dress with caution if you are going to put him in your lineup. 

Here are the latest significant injuries taken from TSN.ca up to November 4, 2011:

Jason Blake: Anaheim–out three months (Oct 15) after wrist surgery

Jochen Hecht: Buffalo–out indefinitely with a concussion
Tyler Ennis: Buffalo–out one to two weeks (Oct 23) with sprained ankle

Mikael Backlund: Calgary–out six weeks (Oct 4) with broken finger

Jussi Jokinen: Carolina–out three to four weeks (Nov 2) with leg injury

Duncan Keith: Chicago–questionable with a hand injury

Peter Mueller: Colorado–out indefinitely with concussion-like symptoms

Kristian Huselius: Columbus– out indefinitely after pectoral surgery
Jared Boll: Columbus–out six to eight weeks (Oct 1) with broken thumb
Jeff Carter: Columbus–on injured reserve with hairline fracture in foot
Curtis Sanford: Columbus–out two to four weeks (Oct 19) with groin injury

Steve Ott: Dallas–will miss Friday’s game with hip injury

Ryan Whitney: Edmonton–out three weeks (Oct 26) with high ankle sprain
Ales Hemsky: Edmonton–on injured reserve with shoulder injury
Cam Barker: Edmonton–probable Saturday with sore shoulder

Scott Clemmensen: Florida–out one month (Sep 26) after knee surgery
Sean Bergenheim: Florida–on injured reserve with a lower body injury
Mikael Samuelsson: Florida–out indefinitely with groin injury

Andrei Markov: Montreal–on injured reserve with knee inflammation
Chris Campoli: Montreal–out indefinitely with leg injury
Scott Gomez: Montreal–out indefinitely with upper body injury

Travis Zajac: New Jersey–out indefinitely after Achilles surgery
Ilya Kovalchuk: New Jersey–questionable Saturday with lower body injury
Jacob Josefson: New Jersey–out three to four months (Oct 22) after clavicle surgery

Nino Niederreiter: NY Islanders–on injured reserve with groin injury
Evgeni Nabokov: NY Islanders–probable Saturday with lower body injury
 
Marc Staal: NY Rangers–on injured reserve with concussion
Wojtek Wolski: NY Rangers–doubtful Saturday with groin injury

Peter Regin: Ottawa–on injured reserve with shoulder injury
Daniel Alfredsson: Ottawa–out indefinitely with concussion-like symptoms
Alex Auld: Ottawa–on injured reserve with undisclosed injury

Chris Pronger: Philadelphia–out two to three weeks (Oct 25) with eye injury
Brayden Schenn: Philadelphia–out four to six weeks (Oct 27) with broken foot
James van Riemsdyk: Philadelphia–questionable Saturday with lower body injury
Matt Read: Philadelphia–questionable Saturday with upper body injury

Martin Hanzal: Phoenix – questionable Saturday with lower body injury

Sidney Crosby: Pittsburgh–on injured reserve with post-concussion syndrome
Jordan Staal: Pittsburgh–questionable Saturday with lower body injury

Antero Niittymaki: San Jose–out three months (Sept 19) after hip surgery
 
David Perron: St. Louis–on injured reserve with post-concussion syndrome
Andy McDonald: St. Louis– out indefinitely with head injury

Mattias Ohlund: Tampa Bay–out indefinitely after knee surgery

James Reimer: Toronto–on injured reserve with concussion-like symptoms
Colby Armstrong: Toronto–on injured reserve with a sprained ankle
Nazem Kadri: Toronto–on injured reserve with torn knee ligament

Mason Raymond: Vancouver–out indefinitely with fractured vertebrae
Sami Salo: Vancouver–questionable Friday with sore groin

Troy Brouwer: Washington–probable Friday due to shoulder injury
Mike Green: Washington–will miss Friday due to swollen ankle

Eric Fehr: Winnipeg–on injured reserve after shoulder surgery
Ron Hainsey: Winnipeg–on injured reserve with an upper body injury
Tobias Enstrom: Winnipeg–out indefinitely after breaking collarbone
Nik Antropov: Winnipeg–questionable Saturday with hand injury

Top 10 Scoring Forwards

Most elite stars are consistent scorers, but there are several players who are very streaky so keep an eye on their stats so that you can dress them while they are on a hot streak.

Here are the top 10 scorers at forward and defense from the past 14 days:

FORWARDS:

Teemu Selanne: Anaheim (7 GP 3 G 8 A)
Scott Hartnell: Philadelphia (7 GP 5 G 5 A)
Jaromir Jagr: Philadelphia (7 GP 5 G 4 A)
Claude Giroux: Philadelphia (7 GP 3 G 6 A)
Joffrey Lupul: Toronto (7 GP 4 G 5 A)
Phil Kessel: Toronto (7 GP 3 G 6 A)
Joe Pavelski: San Jose (6 GP 5 G 4 A)
Mikhail Grabovski: Toronto (7 GP 3 G 5 A)
Tomas Fleischmann: Florida (6 GP 4 G 4 A)
Danny Briere: Philadelphia (5 GP 3 G 4 A)

Top 10 Scoring Defensemen

Alexander Edler: Vancouver (6 GP 3 G 5 A)
Kimmo Timonen: Philadelphia (7 GP 0 G 7 A)
Sergei Gonchar: Ottawa (6 GP 0 G 7 A)
Corey Potter: Edmonton (6 GP 2 G 4 A)
John-Michael Liles: Toronto (7 GP 1 G 5 A)
Dmitry Kulikov: Florida (6 GP 0 G 6 A)
Filip Kuba: Ottawa (6 GP 1 G 4 A)
Erik Karlsson: Ottawa (6 GP 0 G 5 A)
Nick Leddy: Chicago (6 GP 1 G 4 A)
Kris Letang: Pittsburgh (5 GP 0 G 5 A)
 

Top 5 Goaltenders

Here are the top five goaltenders from the past 14 days:

HOT GOALTENDERS:

Nikolai Khabibulin: Edmonton (5 GP 5 W 2 SO)
Pekka Rinne: Nashville (6 GP 4 W 3 SO)
Mike Smith: Phoenix (5 GP 4 W 0 SO)
Jonas Gustavsson: Toronto (6 GP 4 W 0 SO)
Craig Anderson: Ottawa (5 GP 4 W 0 SO)

Bottom 5 Goaltenders

COLD GOALTENDERS:

Ryan Miller: Buffalo (4 GP 4 L)
Johan Hedberg: New Jersey (5 GP 3 L)
Steve Mason: Columbus (5 GP 3 L)
Ilya Bryzgalov: Philadelphia (5 GP 3 L)
Jimmy Howard: Detroit (4 GP 3 L)

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Aaron Brouwer is the co-creator of www.fantasyhockeycoach.com.  FHC is a free fantasy hockey service that developed a ranking system combining post-lockout statistics, current factors and our own hockey knowledge.  Brouwer writes about fantasy hockey on Bleacher Report. You can contact Coach Brouwer at [e-mail].