A Roto-Look Ahead - Week 2

As a hockey fan you have to love those days when most NHL teams are in action. However, there is a downside too. For some fantasy owners these days can mean painful decisions. Which two centers to play and which one to bench? The next day you have your answer but it is too late. There is no predicting the future but here is a spreadsheet tool that minimizes the amount of times you have to make these tough decisions.

 
The first tab in the spreadsheet "Two Teams" is a chart showing the number of games on the same night between any two teams. If you read the number in the Canadiens rows and the Coyotes column you will see that they play 57 games on the same day. That is 70% of their games. Conversely if you compare the Ducks and the Penguins you see they only play 28 games on the same night, about 34% of their games. This is potentially useful if trying to get two players to share one roster spot.
 
But why stop there? Go to the second tab of the spreadsheet "Three teams" where the same principal can be expanded to three teams. If you have two center spots to use daily and want to rotate three players though this spot this tab helps you see what teams you might want to have. Say you have Sidney Crosby and Mike Richards. If you pick up an Anaheim player as your third centre would have only 18 games when all three centers play on the same night. If you pick a Minnesota player you would have 44 games when all three play in the same nights. By picking a third center from the right team you may be able to get a lot more games, and therefore points, out of your third centre.
 
As the season progresses you can keep using this tool but changing the date, shown in blue, and looking only at the results for the rest of the season. If you are in a pool with daily moves and you are trying to get the most points out of your bench players this is a tool for you. It could help you decide which teams you want to get those key depth players from.  However, be careful if you are in a league with maximum games per position - don't burn your games too early.

The number next to the team indicates the 'multiplier' to use on a player's point-per-game pace to give you an idea how many points to expect for that week. Example:
 
Example: For the week starting on October 7 the NY Islanders have a rating of 4.20. That means that if you think Mike Comrie is a 0.80 point-per-game player then you should expect about 3.4 points from him (4.20 X 0.80). Boston has a 1.90 rating over the same period. If you think Marc Savard is a 1.10 point-per-game player then you should expect about 2.1 points from him. So even though Marc Savard is a better player you may choose to go with Comrie over Savard.