The NHL regular season in finally here! That means your fantasy draft is finished and you’re ready to win some games or jump to the top of your roto standings! Fantasy drafts are great: every one is filled with excitement about the coming season and ready to prove how much they know about the players in the league. Every draft is filled with trash talking when an owner drafts a player who’s on IR, or when someone thinks Ondrej Pavelec will have a bounce back season. You grabbed your favorite players, had a player stolen from you right before your selection, and probably picked your sleeper a round earlier than you needed to. The draft is the easy part of fantasy hockey though. Now comes the hard part. The day-to-day grind.

Fantasy hockey isn’t like fantasy football or baseball. You check your fantasy football team’s lineup on Thursdays and Sundays, and add/drop players on Tuesday. It’s easy. Fantasy baseball is similar to fantasy hockey in that it’s a day-to-day sport. However, in baseball you know when starting pitchers will play days in advance, and there are far fewer major injuries in baseball than in hockey. Fantasy hockey is very reactionary and therefore takes more work as a fantasy owner than other fantasy sports. In fantasy hockey you need to make sure you’re checking who the starting goalies are for each team every day. You also need to be checking who is hurt and who is starting on what line each day. Fantasy hockey takes more effort than other fantasy sports, but that doesn’t mean it has to feel like work. All fantasy sports should be fun and not tiresome. Set a time each day to go through your teams and set your lineups and check injures. Normally this is the morning for most owners. Right as you get into work or before you leave for the office. Make it a part of your normal morning routine to check your lineup. You can even save your lineup days in advance if you’re traveling or know you’ll be busy on the weekends. Just make sure you have a routine.

We all know that unless you’re in a super competitive league there will be people in your league who stop trying halfway through the season. Normally this happens because people start losing games and/or interest. Sometimes a team has to deal with an assortment of injuries so they feel like they can no longer compete. Numerous owners who lost Steven Stamkos last year felt like their season was over and threw in the towel way too early. Losing one player doesn’t have to be the end, regardless of the quality of that player. It’s tough when you have a bad team and feel like putting in the time is a futile endeavor. However, the biggest reason people drop out is because they feel they can’t stay on top of hockey enough to be competitive.

If you’re a league commissioner, it’s tiring trying to keep everyone in the league participating throughout the year. You might think it’s great to watch people drop out of the league because it makes it easier to get easy wins or bump up our roto stats in categories those fantasy owners were doing well in. But every league is more enjoyable when everyone has fun and participates. Make sure you’re pushing owners who you see slipping in the standings or encourage those who suffer through horrible injuries. It’s understandable to not want to help other owners in your league if you’re battling them for playoff position or in some categories, but if you can help someone beat another owner who’s close to you in the standings, it can go a long way. Not only do you potentially help an owner who can return the favor sometime in the future, but you help yourself if they can beat that guy you’re chasing in the standings. A competitive league is a fun league.

The key to the success of any league is to perform in your individual role to the best of your ability. Don’t count on the commissioner to do everything. Commissioners don’t normally get paid to do what they do, so help them out when you see other owners struggling. This is especially true if you’re the person who brought an owner into the league and then left them to fend for themselves. If you brought a rookie into a fantasy league, it’s your responsibility to make sure they know what they’re doing and aren’t just going to be an easy win for everyone. Also, if you brought an owner into the league and only use them as an easy trade partner, you’re “that guy” and deserve to be thrown out of the league. Don’t be that guy.

Have fun this season, owners! Help others have fun as well. It’s only a game and we’re here to enjoy it.

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