Fantasy Sports
By Jeff Oreilly, Thu Dec 8th

A Fantasy Sport is a game where a person builds a team comprisedof individual players of a professional sport. These team”owners” compete against others based on the individualprofessional’s real statistics. Simple versions of this convertstatistics into points earned by each team, then determine theoutcome. Other more complicated versions create a computer modelof the game by inputting the statistics of each player generatedby their professional sport. Examples of fantasy sports areFantasy Football, Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Hockey, etc.

Fantasy Football is played by football fans who assemble a teamof real NFL players with their real statistics. These teams joina league of from 8-12 teams, then compete throughout a regularseason. Often these leagues even have playoffs at the end of theseason. A typical roster is made up of 2 quarterbacks, 3 runningbacks, 5 wide receivers, 2 tight ends, 2 placekickers, and 2defenses. Points are scored similar to real football, with extrapoints added for running or passing for many yards at a time,and points subtracted for turnovers.

Fantasy Baseball has a very similar format to Fantasy Football,with players who manage baseball teams made up of real lifebaseball players. It is the earliest form of Fantasy Sports,with origins in a form called “tabletop baseball”. This form ofFantasy Baseball was made up from customized baseball cards withstats from recent seasons. Players then made up fantasy teamsfrom these cards and played imaginary baseball games againsteach other. Tabletop baseball evolved into a form calledRotisserie Leage Baseball, where stats were taken from thecurrent season and events such as injuries were counted into thegame.

Methods of choosing players for a team include an auction,where players pay for which professionals they want, or around-robin draft until teams are filled.

Fantasy Hockey is similar to the other popular versions ofFantasy Sports. Players are chosen from real NHL players. Atypical Fantasy Hockey team is made up of 2 centers, 2 leftwings, 2 right wings, 4 defensemen, and 2 goalies. Two types ofleagues are Head-to-Head, where owners play one on one gameseach week, and Rotisserie, where all owners are trying to winthe most amount of points, with no weekly competition.

Fantasy Sportsonline has grown into a huge business, generating over $100million in revenue. Over 30 million Americans play fantasysports. Each year the number of internet leagues and websitesgrows substantially.

Fan Excitement Builds For The 2005 National Hockey League Season
By Austin Culley, Thu Dec 8th

With the ratification of the Collective Bargaining Agreementcompleted, devoted fans of the game breathe a sigh of relief.With each new week that goes by, curiousity grows to see whateffect the new rule changes will do for the game, and themovement of players in all directions due to an implementedsalary cap brings a very real excitement and anticipation forthe upcoming 2005 NHL Season.

The work and sacrifices that the league, owners, and playershave done to make the new season a reality is to be commended.Gary Bettman, never with due appreciation it seems, has done afantastic job at the helm of the league for over a decade.Owners and General Managers of teams such as the Edmonton Oilersand Calgary Flames now have the opportunity to compete, for themost part, on an equal playing field.

A Summary of Rule Changes for the 2005 NHL Season:

1) The goal line will be moved two feet closer to the endboards, and the blue lines moved two feet further away from thegoal lines to give an extra four feet in the offensive end.Tension during powerplays will increase for the fans ofshort-handed teams.

2) The red line will be disregarded for the two-line pass rule,giving rise to a faster game and more breakaway opportunities towatch.

3) The tag-up rule will give offensive players who’ve overshotthe blueline into the opponents zone before the puck a chance tocircle back to the blueline and then continue back into theoffensive zone to play the puck. This will reduce whistles foroffside infractions; once again speeding up the game.

4) The instigator rule has changed to penalize fights startedduring the last five minutes of the game. One game suspensionsand a $10,000 fine to the instigating players’ coach aremanditory penalties. Fighting will always remain an excitingpart of hockey from a fan’s perspective, regardless of bleedingheart support to stop the act of throwing the gloves off.

5) Changes to the way linesmen approach icing will hopefullyreduce the worrisome issue of dangerous end board collisionsthat occur during races for the puck.

6) Goaltender padding will finally be reduced. The days ofseeing ridiculously large equipement on goaltenders are over.Scoreboards will no doubt show the effects of this rule change.

7) The elimination of tie-games due to the incorporation of ashootout is a welcome addition by most fans of the game. A tiegame at the end of regulation will be followed by a four-on-fourfive minute overtime, and then followed by a three man per teamshootout if both teams are still deadlocked. If still tied afterthis, then a sudden death shootout will begin to produce awinning team. The winning team will receive two points: theloser in overtime or a shootout one point; and the loser inregulation zero points.

A Summary of Player Movement:

Mike Peca, Jeremy Roenick, Darian Hatcher, Peter Forsberg, TonyAmonte, Paul Kariya, Bobby Holik, Scott Niedermayer, NikolaiKhabibulin, Sergei Gonchar, Brian Leetch, Chris Pronger, MikeRathje, Adam Foote, Gary Roberts, and Joe Nieuwendyk are but afew players who have moved on to new teams.

The new Collective Bargaining Agreement, all rule changes, andall player movement can be viewed at http://www.nhl.com/.

About the author:Austin Culley is an avid fan of the NHL, and Vice President forOil-Net.Com Inc. http://www.oil-net.com