The Fantasy Hockey Experiment

Today kicks off the 2011-2012 NHL Season, and with the NBA season apparently in serious jeopardy, that means it looks like we're going to be following hockey a lot more closely this year. Now once upon a time, as a young kid in Canada, I was REALLY into hockey. I had my hockey cards:

Photo Credit: vintagecardprices.com

I could spout off names like Kurri, Messier, Coffey, Lemieux, Yzerman, Chelios, Fuhr, Moog, Neely, Borque... Shoot, I even played hockey (I'm the one in the white helmet). Granted it was only three games and then we moved to California abruptly ending my quest to become the next 'Great One', but that's another story.

Anyhow, living on the West Coast, plus Gretzky's eventual retirement, plus a lost season due to a labor dispute kind of pushed hockey to the backburner for me. But no more. Hockey's going to get some coverage this year, and in an effort to help me follow hockey, I've drafted a Fantasy Hockey Team. I couldn't for the life of me tell you if my squad is any good or not though. I know I don't have Ovechkin or Crosby or either of the Sedins, but one way or the other, I'm going to make this work. So here's my squad:

Not a ton of household names there, at least not in the Smith household, but I'll figure out a way to get something out of this group. If anyone's got any hot tips on some good fantasy hockey sleepers, by all means, send them my way. The first pucks drop tonight at 7 Eastern.