NHL POWER-POLE RANKINGS: GOALIES

The time has come to rank one of the most important positions in real and fantasy hockey, the Net-minders, otherwise known as Goalies.  On your fantasy hockey teams, goalies account for usually half of the matchup categories and more often then not make or break your weekly games. In the real world they are the very last line of defense, tasked with stopping the magical rubber puck from hitting the frozen mesh at all costs. To own a top skilled goalie in fantasy is often not enough these days, as you need to pick the goalies that not only are good on their own, but that are also on teams that provide goal and defensive support in order to get the elusive wins. Some goalies can have great puck-stopping abilities, but if they are stuck on a team going nowhere, then their fantasy value plummets. All will be explained later on, now let's get to it!!!

Carey Price finds himself at the top of our goalie power-pole rankings, and rightly so. Price has been THE main reason Montreal is doing as well as they are, having 27 wins, 4 shutouts and a goals against average of 2.03 to go along with a .933% save percentage. He continues to rack up "Star of the Week" awards as well as monthly MVP's, and shows no signs of slowing down. As long as the Habs continue to put points on the board, Price should have no problem keeping them competitive in every single game he plays, right on into the playoffs. Coming in a distant second on our power-pole is none other than the past king himself, the great Henrik Lundquist. The Rangers puck stopper has been absolutely stellar this season, but especially so over the last 30 days posting 7 wins, a 1.96 goals against average and a .943% save percentage. Last season the New York Rangers relied solely on Lundquist to win almost all of there games, but this year is a whole different story as they have been scoring goals a plenty and aren't half bad on defense too. His pure amazing talent now mixed with a solid team playing behind him, the King has returned and is very deserving of his number two ranking.

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The two goalies I really want to talk about is Corey Schneider(#8) and Steve Mason(#9), who both managed to sneak into the top 10 in RotoMags Top-20 power-pole rankings. First let's talk about the net-minder you should target as a must have for the rest of the season, New Jersey's own Corey Schneider!!! Trade for him now if you can, as the workhorse is finally starting to get the Wins to go along with his fantastic stat lines. On the season, Schneider boasts a 2.36 GAA, .922 SV% and 17 wins, pretty good stats, however in the last 30 days he's put up 4 wins, a meagre 1.87 GAA and .940 SV%, all fantastic totals! As the Devils begin to pick up steam and mesh better with each other, the better the defense will play and the more goals they will score. Corey is the workhorse goalie and hold the league lead for most starts thus far this season, so don't worry about his playing time as he will start almost all of New Jersey's games. As long as he keep up his current level of play, which he has shown throughout his entire career, he should keep on climbing the ranks and I predict he ends the season in the top five. Grab him now if you can, expect to give up a medium amount but it is well worth it. The other really enticing buy low/high ranking goalie is none other then Steve Mason. Mason has had an up and down career, and being stuck on a team like the Flyers really doesn't help matters, but last season he managed to put up fantastic totals and provided top tier fantasy goalie support. The big question at the beginning of the season was would he repeat, or fall back down to his old ways, and for the first little while he was mediocre at best, goal-tending for a lousy team, and not winning many games. Then he got hurt, and since he's come back seems to be lighting things up, and is actually carrying the Flyers to victories. On the season his stats are ok like I said, he has a mere 11 wins, a 2.32 GAA and a .924%, but it's the last 30 days we really want to focus on, which have been dazzling. In the last 30 days Mason has amassed 2 shutouts to go along with 5 wins(half his win total), a 1.15 GAA and a .968%!!! Mason should and is highly undervalued in fantasy hockey right now, so get in on the ground floor of the Steve Mason experience, as his stock should start to soar. Trade and or pick him up anywhere and everywhere you can as he should continue to put up great numbers and the Flyers seem to finally be winning. I project Mason to keep his top-10 placement for the remainder of the season, going no higher then 7 or 8, but definitely in the top-10!!!

TOP-20 GOALIES

1. Carey Price
2. Henrik Lunquist3. Braden Holtby
4. Ryan Miller
5. Brian Elliott
6. Frederik Anderson
7. Tuukka Rask
8. Corey Schneider
9. Steve Mason
10. Marc-Andre Fleury
11. Corey Crawford
12. Semyon Varlamov
13. Devan Dubnyk
14. Ben Bishop
15. Roberto Luongo
16. Antti Niemi
17. Jonathan Quick
18. Jonas Hiller
19. Michael Hutchinson
20. Jaroslav Halak

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The following players have been omitted from this edition of RotoMags Goalies Power-Pole Rankings due to their designated reasons:

*Craig Anderson: Injured Reserve
*Jimmy Howard: Injured Reserve
*Pekka Rinne: Recently Returned From Injury

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The Suspicious Superbowl

Well here we are, at the end of one of the most highly contested playoffs in the Superbowl era, we have the New England Patriots squaring off against the Seattle Seahawks! Now let's shed some light on what everyone's been asking, do either of these teams actually belong in the championship game?!? I mean after all the conspiracy surrounding the playoffs including the referees with their blown calls, the excessive fining of certain players, and the whole "DeflateGate" ordeal, it's a fair question to ask, and an even harder one to answer. Let's start off with the Patriots, shall we?

The Patriots started the season off pretty poorly, especially for them at 2-2, causing many experts to question Tom Brady and the team's overall strengths/abilities. Their running game seemed out-of-whack and with no clear-cut lead back to distinguish himself from the rest of the pack, they seemed lost and unable to finish games off. This quickly had people dismissing the Patriots as Superbowl contenders, and made many wonder if they would even make the playoffs, and then something happened. Exactly what it was, no one can be sure, but whatever it was, the New England Patriots were not the same team after their week 4 loss, as they went on to win 7 games in a row and pretty much secured a playoff birth. Many attribute the slow and rocky start to Gronkowski not being fully healthy, one of Brady's favourite targets. It is no secret that Rob Gronkowski has become a ferocious Redzone machine, and is without a doubt Tom Brady's favourite go-to guy whenever they need yards or points! Another popular reason is that Brady didn't have an experienced enough receiving corps, thus was not able to use their pass-heavy offensive game plan and were forced to rely on their shaky run-game instead. Whatever the reason is irrelevant, as Tom Brady and the New England Patriots once again seemed to easily trot their way into the playoffs, and this is where all the fun really began!!!

The Pats/Ravens game didn't have much controversy, although the Patriots were losing for most of the match and mounted a heroic comeback, there was no chatter of a rigged game. However the Pats/Colts game held a much different story! Now don't get me wrong, the Patriots would have won regardless of "DeflateGate" as the Colts sucked massively that day, but it still caused/causing quite the stir in the football world, and many people wonder if the Patriots should even still be in the Superbowl. By now you should know the whole

"DeflateGate" story, but if you don't, the super quick version is that 11/12 of the Patriot's footballs used during the game against the Colts were found to be deflated by about 2 pounds, making it easier to throw, catch and run with. Who did it and who paid him/her off is still unknown, but that really doesn't matter, as someone cheated in order to further advance the Patriots, and the question is should they be forfeited because of it. If this was any other team, no one would be calling for them to miss the Superbowl, but this isn't any other team, this is the Patriots. The team that has been accused and found guilty of cheating several other times, most recently and notably they were caught filming other teams private practises before they would play them. Now of course they aren't going to miss the Superbowl, that would be a PR nightmare for the NFL, especially since the league only ever admits it's made mistakes, but never actually does anything to fix them. We might see some light fines or some loss of draft picks, but the Patriots were never in any trouble of missing out on this years Superbowl, proving that even when he gets caught, Bill Belichick can still get away with cheating!!! Hahaha! Now the Patriots vs. the Seahawks game will be a perfect, made for TV matchup, as it pits the defending champs trying to make it two in a row, against the team that has won back-to-back Superbowls most recently. Just adding more flame to the conspiracy fire? Maybe, but facts are facts, when Gronkowski is healthy, Brady and the Patriots really do seem to be a completely different football team, and even with their shaky run-game and the "DeflateGate" dilemma, I believe they deserve to be in the Superbowl.

Now on to the defending Superbowl champs, the Skittles fuelled Seattle Seahawks. Russell Wilson led the Seahawks to a mediocre start to the season at 3-3, and the whole team seemed like a ghost of its past season champion-selves. The defense was lacking the decisive quick and brutal punch that caused so many teams such terrible headaches last season, and their infamous run game was non-existent, both from the running-back Marshawn Lynch and their extremely mobile quarterback, Russell Wilson. Then they got a couple guys back from injury and presto, the Superbowl Champs returned, falling into a groove and coasting into the playoffs with a first round bye. There isn't really any foul play to speak of surrounding Seattle, but what the team does have issues with is players going against the NFL's rules and getting fined, and one in particular had a knack for causing a plethora of issues...

Marshawn Lynch's many media kerfuffles are all well documented, with each new infraction garnering him more and more fines. He has been fined for what he's said and hasn't said during interviews, what he's wore on the field and during interviews as well as being fined for certain gestures and actions he has taken on the field during games. It all adds up to one huge media frenzy, which sees "Marshawn Lynch" trending nearly every Sunday and Monday, making him the most talked about NFL player this season. The same can be said about Richard Sherman and his loud mouth which seems to always land him in hot water. The Seahawks are a team the NFL hates to love as they constantly are breaking the rules and causing trouble, but at the same time it's these very actions that are attracting so many interested fans and viewers. All the NFL sees is $$$, so the more viewers/fans, the more money, meaning as much as the NFL might make you think its completely against a player like Lynch and Sherman, secretly they are really egging them on, hoping to create an even larger media explosion, and making sure that they make the Superbowl!!! For all the conspiracy theorists out there, here you go. Well into the season the Seahawks looked lost and highly unlikely to repeat as champs, and it can be said that since the NFL saw a huge possibility for greater media exposure, measures were taken to ensure that the Seattle Seahawks made the playoffs and had a chance of repeating as Superbowl Champs.

Here's what it boils down to, any moderately intelligent person knows that all professional organized sports are rigged, but we never want this fact thrown so blatantly in our faces. Just because we know the dirty truth, doesn't mean we can't still enjoy watching our favourite games, but it makes it really difficult to want to watch when the cheating is so

thinly veiled. Is the Superbowl fixed? Most likely(yes)! Will it stop millions of people from watching it? No! Who will win? Whoever makes the bookies the most money probably, but it will still be an entertaining game to watch, and as long as they don't remind us that the sport is rigged and we have an almost naked Katy Perry entertain us at halftime, we should all be A-OK! 

SUPERBOWL PREDICTIONS

SEATTLE WINS!!!

SCORE SEA:38 NE:27

Russell Wilson- 1 TD, 1 INT, 225 yards

Tom Brady- 2 TD, 2 INT, 335 yards

Marshawn Lynch- 2 TD, 145 yards

Rob Gronkowski- 2 TD, 115 yards

Seattle DEF- 2 INT(1 TD), 2 FUM(1TD)

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NHL RANKINGS-LEFT WINGS:JAN.26TH

Since its the All-Star Break, its the perfect time to do mid-season rankings, so let's get to it! Today we have ranked the Top-30 Left Wingers using both Yahoo and Espn's fantasy statistics and rankings, incorporating goals, assists, power-play points, short-handed points, shots-on-goal and penalty minutes. We here @SportzGuruz have included all the eligible positions each player plays according to Yahoo, meaning overlaps will occur between our Centre, Left Wing and Right Wing rankings. So you will see some players repeated here from my other article by RotoMags NHL CENTRE RANKINGS: JAN.22

With no real surprise here, Alex Ovechkin takes

NBA ULTIMATE LINE-UP: JAN.20TH

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NHL TOP-25 CENTRES:JAN.20TH

Well we are a little over halfway through the fantasy hockey season, so it's definitely time for another position rankings with none other then RotoMags! Up first we have the top 25 Centres as of January 20th, and oh boy was this list not only hard to make, but is sure to be both shocking and controversial!!! Let me hear what you have to say, we are always up for debates in the comment section below the article, so let me HAVE IT!!! lol. Now on to the rankings, starting with the sizzling hot