fantasy hockey tips, for everyone.

for the last three seasons i, kendra, have been in a fantasy hockey keeper league and have done terribly. last year, one win. the year before, i have no idea. i never paid attention or played an accurate line up, aka the player everyone can't stand. hold up, they couldn't stand me. this year, i got becca and ness on my team and we've been paying attention and making friends with the guys in our league and this week we won our first game!! the win inspires me to highlight my top fantasy hockey tips, or what's worked for us.

1) you need a huge guy - we have malkin. everyone wants him so we sometimes get trades. we won't let him go.

2) it's all about the lines - we picked up bickell cause he had been playing with kane and toews. still a good point generator.

3) pull your goalie - on this week we won we didn't play our main goalie lundqvist but instead played josh harding, who got us some points. goalies are the most magical of all hockey players as you will never know what happens with them. we are so proud of josh harding.

4) talk to your family. for some reason i picked up josh harding on a whim but my cousin kevin had him too who is a fantasy sports expert according to me and i listen to everything he says. so ya, you need to check in with people. when i was going to pick mason raymond i texted my dad who told me he would get '20-30 points' - turns out how he's doing now my dad is wrong about that. other things my dad is wrong about: it would break my heart to even get into it, moving on.

5) injuries: we have volkoun on our team who is on ir = the thing with that is he isn't on our salary cap but we can still put him in whenever he comes back. any player coming off of an injury, in my view and experience watching, always does well.

6) waiver wire: how it works in our league is you can pick up anyone from waiver wire but it's in order of people who've picked last. we got so buzzed and excited the other day we picked up mark stuart. but cancelled = you save your picks for when you need them

7) ron hainsey = congrats on your two goals. you are amazing. but you are still too expensive to draft....

8) salary cap - our league has a salary cap and that is really true to life. we can be like 'olliiiii what's up?" and then another will respond 'too expensive' almost akin to when we are considering staying out a bit longer. budget is helpful and there are always points, and life experiences, to gain if you can stay under budget. i am figuring anyone under 3 mill is a steal and those are the guys that want to get the points for a higher salary in the future, so get them on your team.

9) don't let anyone else bother you = for the last two years i didn't know anyone in my league. i've slowly been meeting them and they are all really nice. you will learn a healthy competition but to root for each other

10) know your competition - if you have a guy who will make a ridiculous trade because of emotion, do it. maybe they have the same birthday as eric tangradi. find that out, and my all means do it, they are thinking the same of you.

11) always keep a jet = we took frolik, he's our fave, but yes, it's always important to have a guy on the team you are cheering for.

will post more tips as they come = first win tonight, hopefully not the last. thanks to becca and ness for their help in this win and zig for being a great guy to beat and for getting us involved in the first place.

xo love kendra