johnson44

It's official! The Atlanta Falcons are the 2010 Champions of the NFC South, and their 13-3 record guarantees them that the next time that they will have to get on an airplane will be to catch a flight for Dallas after they win the NFC Championship. Division Champs....it has a nice ring to it, but we want more. Home Sweet Dome!!!

This is my first year playing in a H2H fantasy hockey league. I usually just play roto in hockey. Just a little while ago, I logged on to check out how my team was doing in my H2H fantasy league. While I was there, I saw one of my players score a goal. When my score was updated, I watched my overall score go DOWN because of my player's goal. 

As it turns out, my player had played the night before and had tallied 2 goals in his earlier contest this week (6 fantasy points). Because of the way the scoring system is set up (each player earns an average score based on the total amount of fantasy points scored for the week, divided by the number of games played in that week), when he scored a goal the following night (3 points), that gave him a total of 9 fantasy points for the week. And because of the fact that his 9 points over the course of 2 games averaged out to a total of 4.5 points for the week to date, when my player scored his goal, I actually saw my score DECREASE by 1.5 points.

Now, I always  thought that scoring a goal in a hockey game was a GOOD thing, so I find it a bit bizarre when someone can score one and be penalized for it. Equally bizarre, to me at least, is the fact that a player can be penalized and he is credited with scoring .25 fantasy points for each minute of his penalty. Some goon can earn a 5 minute fighting major, and he is actually credited with 1.25 fantasy points for making his team play shorthanded for an extended period of time.

Go figure.

Next year, I think I'll just go back to roto. It just makes more sense.

No deep insights in this post, guys. It's just that, as a fan of the Atlanta Falcons since the day they entered the NFL (along with New Orleans), I HATE THE Saints! Quite frankly, I hope that the Falcons run the table on the rest of this season, while New Orleans loses at least one of the next two games, thereby making the season ending matchup of the Aints and the Birds completely meaningless. And I hope the Falcons just beat the H&!! out of the Saints in week 16, just for the fun of it.

GO Ravens!!!!

Don't look now, but following last nights 4-3 OT win over the Ottawa Senators. the Atlanta Thrashers (currently one of the hottest teams in the NHL) are only 2 points behind the Washington Capitals for the Southeastern division lead. The Caps, who have lost their last 6 games, have 39 points. Atlanta, which has won 8 of its last 10 games, is right behind them with 37.


Following all of their offseason moves, thought that the Thrashers would make the playoffs by being in the top 8 teams in the Eastern Conference. Now I'm thinking I might have sold them a little bit short. I think they just may be the Southeastern Division champs.


The Caps may be hearing footsteps.

College bowl games have become utterly ridiculous. Many of them have become nothing more than showcases of gridiron mediocrity. Of the 35 bowl games on this year's calendar, 11 of them feature at least one team that enters the game with a 6-6 record, another (Armed Forces Bowl) matches one team (SMU) that could leave the game with a record of 7-7 against another (Army) that could possibly enter the contest at 6-6 (the Golden Knights of the Hudson are 6-5 going into this weekend's Army-Navy game), and yet another game (New Mexico Bowl) that feature an intriguing matchup of TWO teams (BYU and UTEP) that enter their bowl game with 6-6 records.

Think about it... we could have as many as 13 teams that participated in bowl games who could potentially end their seasons with a LOSING record after all of the bowl games have been played. A bowl bid used to be a reward for an excellent season. Now, even the most mundane teams can expect to play in late December.

We deserve better.

     So far, I am enjoying the 2010-11 NHL season immensely. The Thrashers seem to be buying into Coach Ramsay's system nicely, and almost all of the recent moves made by GM Rick Dudley seem to be paying off very well (including, it seems, the one that sent Ilya Kovalchuk to the Devils for Johnny Oduya and a player to be named later. Oduya is fitting in nicely here, while Kovy is struggling in NJ.). I was very vocal in my opposition to the Kovalchuk trade, but it looks like I was wrong about that, and the move that brought us Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd looks like a stroke of pure genius right now. When you add in Ondrej Pavelec's recent brilliance in goal, the Thrashers are beginning to look like a team that might have to be reckoned with when the Stanley Cup playoffs roll around. The team has won 7 of their last 8 games (the lone loss was a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Pens) and currently are in 8th place in the Eastern Conference.

     I don't expect this team to go anywhere but up from here.... 

Anybody that knows me knows that I am a big fan of the Georgia Bulldogs, but last night I found myself in the unusual position of hoping that my favorite college football team would LOSE to their traditional in-state rival, Georgia Tech. Not because I don't want to see my team do well, not because i'd like to see Mark Richt get fired (I've heard that sentiment voiced by more than a few, but personally, I think it would be a move that Dawg fans would come to regret)...I just think that any team that plays in the postseason should have a WINNING record. To be sure that I make myself perfectly clear on this, I mean at the very least a 7-5 record, which is still mediocre anywhere else, but not too bad if you play in the SEC. And if there are any teams out there who still play an 11 game schedule, 6-5 shouldn't get you in, either. The bar needs to be set at least at 7 wins. The Dawgs' 42-34 win over the Bumblebees last night gave them a 6-6 record, which, for some damn reason, makes them bowl eligible. I hear that the Liberty Bowl is interested, though for the life of me, I don't know why. It seems like the glut of games that we have now has made mediocrity acceptable. UGA, as a 6-6 team, this year you just don't deserve to play an extra game. Please, if a bowl bid is extended, do the right thing and DECLINE IT. Then go out, recruit some players (PLEASE find us some guys who can play defense!), practice hard in the spring and summer and next fall KICK SOME @$$ if you want to play in the postseason!