WEEK 12 (thru Tuesday)

With two goals and five assists in his past four games, Victor Hedman is one of the hottest players in the league - the 27 year-old defenseman pocketing 9.0 (1g, 2a) of his team's league-best 25.0 points on Tuesday, his Badger Bob team storming into second place in the overall standings.

Badger Bob: 28.0
Bluliners: 21.9
Don't look now but Badger Bob is skating in front of their once-leading-by-a-lot opponent, GM Chester's on-fire squad now 6.1 points better than GM Hamilton's punch-drunk Bluliners.

Polar Bears: 5.0
Central Red Army: 18.0
The Central Red Army were again better than the waiting-for-the-weekend Polar Bears, a 10.4 outing placing GM Buker's team 13.0 points in front.

Misconducts: 18.1
Wild Ducks: 16.0­
The Misconducts and Wild Ducks exchanged blows on Tuesday, GM Smalley's 12.0 point punch inflicting the most damage, the Misconducts now leading the Ducks by 2.1.

Ice Cats: 6.7
Mooses: 19.8­
The Ice Cats continue to have trouble manufacturing points, a dismal 5.0 point showing placing GM Cutshall's sinking felines 13.1 points in back of the underdog Mooses.

SC Cobras: 18.5
Vegas Vipers: 24.2­
The future looks brighter for GM Murphy as King Karlsson (two goals, 9.0 points) is rounding into shape, the SC Cobras keeping pace with the playing-well Vegas Vipers, trailing now by 5.7 points.

Boulder Flyers: 9.0
Ice Hogs: 8.9
Both the Boulder Flyers and Ice Hogs fumbled Tuesday - the Hogs carding 6.3, the Flyers coughing up just 4.0. As such the Boulder Flyers saw their lead narrow, now 0.1 with five days remaining in the week.

LINK: Standings

Really need Hedman to produce points in this matchup against the Bluliners, who are in first place for a reason. Badger Bob realizes in against a STRONG opponent. Five days to go. A lot of time for a lot to happen.

Had been waiting patiently for Hedman to hit a heater. I was starting to think about dangling Hedman in trade talk. But as Paul correctly mentioned in today's write-up, Hedman has been on a heater in the last four games -- two goals and five assists. A lot of this production coming on the power play. So like Jake Gardiner before him, Hedman staying put.

# # #

The Jag is in the shop for rear brakes and a few other repairs. So taking bus to and from work this week.

Stayed at office a bit late last night since I got on a roll on a long-term project. Due to size and scope and the fact that I am the lone worker on the project, have to stay with it when get on a roll.

So headed home around 10 p.m. Bus that goes closest to my home runs once an hour at that time of night and requires a transfer from another bus, burning another 15-30 minutes in between.

There is another line that runs every half hour and will get me within a 20-minute walk from home without a transfer. So I opted for the latter. It was a nice night with temperature in low 40s.

I am about halfway through my 20-minute walk after getting off bus around 10:45 p.m. (Eastern) when I check scores on my phone. I see that Winnipeg is now up at Nashville, 5-4, with 10 seconds left in the third period. I think two things.

One, great if Winnipeg can hold on since that means points for Badger Bob from goaltender Hellebucyk.

The second (jokingly) was great if I could get an empty net goal from Blake Wheeler at 19:58 with an assist from D Tyler Myers.

Why Myers? I have him in two other leagues.

What happened clearly an early Christmas present. I check back a few minutes later to see that Wheeler scored into an empty net with Myers getting the lone assist. Last night, the time of the goal initially was reported to be 19:59. But today, I see it has been changed to 19:58.

I let out a Ric "Nature Boy" Flair WWWHHHOOO!!! Didn't care about disturbing the residents.

Can't make this up.

Just like a good shot in golf (amid all of the not-so-good ones) keeps you coming back to the course, it is occurrences like this that makes it fun to compete in fantasy hockey.

On to Period 12 Wednesday night in the FHL.