Fantasy Hockey Schedule Week 11: Sidney Sits, Defensemen Traded and New Coaches

As we approach the second week of hockey in December there have been several big stories in the NHL.  First is that Sidney Crosby sat out two games as precautionary measures after being hit in the game against the Boston Bruins.  This will always be a concern as all it takes is one big hit and how his head responds to it.  Chris Pronger is now out indefinitely with concussion-like symptoms.

Tomas Kaberle is with his fourth team in less then a year after being traded by the Carolina Hurricanes to the Montreal Canadiens for Jaroslav Spacek.  The Canadiens are in desperate need of a powerplay quarterback so expect Kaberle to get a ton of powerplay time to start.

Finally there were three coaching changes.  Dale Hunter is the new head coach for the Washington Capitals, the Anaheim Ducks quickly hired Bruce Boudreau and Kirk Muller stepped behind the bench in Carolina.  These changes should pay fantasy dividends for Alexander Ovechkin, Eric Staal and Bobby Ryan.

Games to be played in week 11:

	GP	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN
ANAHEIM	3			PHO		@CHI	@WPG
BOSTON	3		LA	@OTT			@PHI
BUFFALO	3		OTT			TOR	@PIT
CALGARY	4		@NAS		@TB	@FLA		@CHI
CAROLINA	3		@TOR		VAN			@FLA
CHICAGO	3			@MIN		ANA		CGY
COLORADO	3		SJ		@SJ		WAS
COLUMBUS	4		VAN		LA		TB	@STL
DALLAS	3		@NYR		@NYI	@NJ
DETROIT	3		@PIT		@NAS		LA
EDMONTON	2				@PHO		@SJ
FLORIDA	3		NJ			CGY		CAR
LOS ANGELES	3		@BOS		@CBJ		@DET
MINNESOTA	3		@WPG	CHI			NYI
MONTREAL	3		NYI		PHI		NJ
NASHVILLE	3		CGY		DET		STL
NEW JERSEY	4	@TB	@FLA			DAL	@MON
NY ISLANDERS	3		@MON		DAL		@MIN
NY RANGERS	3		DAL		@STL		@PHO
OTTAWA	3		@BUF	BOS		PIT
PHILADELPHIA	3		@WAS		@MON		BOS
PHOENIX	3			@ANA	EDM		NYR
PITTSBURGH	3		DET			@OTT	BUF
SAN JOSE	3		@COL		COL		EDM
ST. LOUIS	3				NYR		@NAS	CBJ
TAMPA BAY	3	NJ			CGY		@CBJ
TORONTO	3		CAR			@BUF	VAN
VANCOUVER	3		@CBJ		@CAR		@TOR
WASHINGTON	3		PHI		@WPG		@COL
WINNIPEG	3		MIN		WAS		ANA

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 December 9, 2011):

HOME: Columbus (5-7-2), Florida (6-2-4), Montreal (4-5-6), Nashville (4-5-3) and Winnipeg (8-4-0)

AWAY: Calgary (6-8-0), Dallas (6-7-0), Edmonton (5-7-1), Los Angeles (5-3-3), New Jersey (8-8-0) and Vancouver (9-6-0) 

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 (December 18, 2011):

SUNDAY: Calgary, Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Florida and St. Louis

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:

BACK-TO-BACK: Anaheim, Boston, Buffalo, Calgary, Columbus, Dallas, Minnesota, New Jersey (two sets of back-to-back), Ottawa, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Toronto

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 over their last 10 games up to December 9, 2011:

TOP FIVE: Minnesota (8-2-0), Vancouver (8-2-0), Detroit (8-2-0), Florida (7-2-1) and Boston (7-2-1)

BOTTOM FIVE: Anaheim (2-7-1), Tampa Bay (3-7-1), Nashville (3-6-1), Carolina (3-6-1) and Buffalo (3-5-2)

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 December 9, 2011:

Vancouver Canucks: 25.8%
Toronto Maple Leafs: 22.1%
Colorado Avalanche: 20.6%
Nashville Predators: 20.2%
Florida Panthers: 20.2%

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].