If you read self-help guides or finance books or anything with the goal of improving yourself or your situation in some way, the best advice is often the stuff you already know.What the best authors and experts are able to do is simply make the information more actionable in the way it is presented.They make it understandable and digestible. When youre done with it, not only do you feel like you can achieve your goal, you feel like you must work toward it, and now!I bring this up today because it relates closer to fantasy hoops than you might realize. For all the tweets, emails and texts I receive each day about trade proposals and waiver-wire pickups -- yes, you should pick up Jrue Holiday if hes available in your league -- all of it pales in comparison to the most important path to success in fantasy hoops, and that is this:Optimize your roster each week based on the NBA schedule and the amount of games each team plays.For many of you, this may not seem like big news. In fact, you might already know it, like I mentioned above. And if youre already a pro at this, well, then keep being a pro. But this is something that far too often goes overlooked, and it shouldnt.The thing is, fantasy basketball is unlike baseball and football in that the schedule has a different amount of games for each team every week. There can be two, three, four or even one or five games in a given week. This differs from football, where there is only one, and baseball, where theres a game basically every night, or at worst, six games in a seven-day span.Some might look at this as a flaw of fantasy hoops, but the best fantasy owners view it as a giant opportunity. If you pay attention to the schedule each week and adjust your roster to maximize the amount of games played, you can out-game your opponent and be more successful on a consistent basis.Now, this doesnt work for every style of play. Leagues that use averages instead of totals and roto leagues that limit the amount of games played in the course of the season do not apply to this principle as much, for example. In those leagues, quality matters more than quantity, and its more important to make every game count with the best players you have.For most head-to-head leagues, though, particularly those where you can only set your roster once per week, optimizing your roster with players who are scheduled to play a lot of games is the most important thing you can do to win.I like to create a roster with two to three spots that can continually be streamed each week, so if my roster size is 15, that means having 12-13 players I intend to keep for as long as possible. The remaining spots are used to add players that are scheduled to play on whatever days I need to fill on a given week.So if you have DeMarcus Cousins and Sacramento is only playing two games this week, maybe youd pick up Bostons Amir Johnson on a four-game week to help fill that center spot on the days Cousins is out.Keep in mind, thats only half of the task; you need to know which days to fill. If Cousins only plays on Tuesday and Thursday, then you want to make sure that anyone you pick up to help out at the center spot plays on the days when Cousins doesnt. For example, if Johnson plays four games and two of them are on the same days Cousins plays, youre only gaining two games by picking up Johnson. But if Johnson plays on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, youre filling four days that would otherwise be unoccupied at the center spot.Go out there and be proactive each week. Look at the NBA schedule, see how many games each team plays and use that information to determine which players to stream into your lineup.Theres no better trick to winning in fantasy basketball than this one, and as easy as it might sound, few people take advantage of it as much as they should.To help you on your way, weve laid out the weekly NBA schedule grid for the 2016-17 season, available here as a downloadable PDF cheat sheet. Be sure to refer to it each week throughout the season to help you determine which players to avoid and which to pick up on your way to out-gaming the opposition. Custom Randy Johnson Jersey . P.A. Parenteau scored early in the third period to help the Avs edge Toronto 2-1 on Tuesday night. Cory Sarich also scored for Colorado (3-0-0), which is off to its best ever start. Roy White Jersey . The showiest items on Calgarys lot were forwards Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer. http://www.customyankeesjersey.com/custom-domingo-german-jersey-large-1444i.html . Aside from the trilogy main event title fight, there are a number of intriguing matchups in the heavyweight, welterweight and lightweight divisions. Gio Urshela Jersey . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Wholesale Custom Yankees Shirts . Sgt. Eric ONeal says most of the arrests at Monday nights game were for public drunkenness, though one person was taken into custody on suspicion of trying to steal a seat from the stadium.Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca! Hi Kerry, Keep up the great column. Just thought Id share this interesting story and question: At the weekend, a linesman went down injured late in the first period of an Australian Ice Hockey League game in Melbourne between the Melbourne Ice and the Newcastle North, after unfortunately being on the receiving end of a big hit. He was taken off the ice concussed and could not return to the game. In an extraordinary turn of events, Fox Sports Australia commentator Stephen White, an IIHF certified referee who was calling the game, was forced to jump out of the commentary box and into the game as the back-up linesman as no other was available to allow the game to continue. Apparently it was a forfeit had he not stepped in. I just want to know what the ruling is on this in the NHL, if certain officials get injured how long is it before the game has to be called off? By the way this story is all over the news in Australia, apparently this has never happened in any sport in history (a commentator replacing an injured match official). Cheers, Jake GDay Jake! We at TSN and Cmon Ref are honoured to answer your question from Down Under and the unusual incident you described during an Australian Ice Hockey League game. Kudos to Fox Sports commentator Stephen White for allowing the game to be completed instead of forfeited when he exchanged his microphone for a whistle. I loved the YouTube footage from the game and hope that injured Linesman, Russell Huber has fully recovered from the hit he took. An NHL game would never be called off should any (or all) of the Officials be unable to continue through illness, accident or even in cases where they were unable to arrive at the game through any misadventure, including bad weather. Provisions in the NHL rule book provide for such situations to indicate that "the show must go on!" Rule 31.1—If, owing to illness or accident, one of the Referees is unable to continue to officiate, the remaining Referee shall perform the duties of the ill or injured Referee during the balance of the game. In the event that a member of the Leagues Hockey Operations departments is in attendance at a game where a spare official is present, he shall have the authority to substitute the injured Referee with the spare official. (In reality any NHL Ref or Lineman if in attendance would suit up in the event one of the Officials could not continue. In the playoffs there is always a Stand-by Official assigned to the game who is required to be dressed and ready to go, short of lacing up his skates. In deciding games both a Stand-by Referee and Linesmen are assigned.) If, through misadventure of sickness, the Referees and Linesmen appointed are prevented from appearing, the League will make every attempt to find suitable replacement officials, otherwise, the Managers or Coaches of the two Clubs shall agree on Referee(s) and Linesman (men). If they are unable to agree, they shall appoint a player from each side who shall act as Referee and Linesman; the player of the home Club acting as Referee and the player of the visiting Club as Linesman. If the regularly appointed officials appear during the progress of the game, they shall at once replace the temporary officials. To paraphrase rule 32.6—If a linesman is unable to finish the game, the Referee can appoint another to replace him and if no replacement is availablee the two Referees will assist the remaining Linesman with his duties in addition to retaining their ability to assess penalties.dddddddddddd While you might think it bizarre to appoint a player from each team to act as replacement officials it actually did occur in an NHL game. On January 15, 1983, tough guy Gary Howatt (as a member of the New Jersey Devils) and Mickey Vocan (as a member of the Hartford Whalers) became the only active players to officiate an NHL game as linesmen when a snowstorm prevented a referee and linesman from reaching the Hartford Civic Center for a game between the Whalers and Devils. The lone NHL Linesman who made it through the storm acted as the Referee in the game. Another unprecedented assignment of replacement game officials which I wrote about extensively in my book, The Final Call, occurred during the 1987-88 Stanley Cup Playoffs in Game 4 of the Wales Conference final between the Boston Bruins and the New Jersey Devils. In the aftermath of Jim Scheonfelds one-game suspension resulting from his infamous "doughnut" line shouted to Referee Don Koharski following Game 3, Referee Dave Newell (President of the NHL Officials Association) refused to take the ice when the Coach was granted an injunction by Judge James F. Madden of the New Jersey Superior Court 40 minutes before the game. The game was delayed for over an hour as Director of Officiating, John McCauley (Ref Wes McCauleys father) pleaded with Newell to work the game. When McCauleys efforts to broker a truce failed the off-ice crew was pressed into service as replacement officials. Devils goal judges Paul McInnis and Vin Godleski served as referee and linesman, respectively, while Jim Sullivan from the NY Islanders crew worked as the second linesman. They officiated while wearing bright yellow practice jerseys. Jake, it appears that the Australian League uses one Referee and two Linesmen. When we worked under that system there were several times we were forced to finish the game with just two Officials on the ice due to injury. One Saturday night in the Montreal Forum Linseman Ron "The Bear" Asselstine and I worked two full periods when Wayne Forsey blew a groin at the end of the first period. It was a tough game and Hall of Fame defenceman and class act, Larry Robinson was quoted by Red Fischer in the Montreal Gazette as suggesting the First Stars of the game were Fraser and Asselstine for such a fine job while playing a man short! Finally I have to provide details of an incident that demonstrates Los Angeles Kings Coach Darryl Sutters intensity and focus on winning. He was behind the Chicago bench as the Hawks played host to Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis and the Pittsburgh Penguins in an afternoon game televised on ESPN. The Hawks were on the power-play midway through the third period with the game tied when Tony Amonte deflected a puck up into my face. The puck broke my nose, fractured my tooth and cut my upper lip. As I stopped play blood from the cut sprayed out of my whistle. The game couldnt continue until I received some quick repairs. I approached Coach Sutter at the Hawk bench and advised him that the game would be suspended until I was stitched up. With a look of frustration on his face Sutter rubbed his chin and said, "Holy F Kerry, hurry up and get back, were pressin!" The Hawks doctor put seven quick stitches in my lip to close up the cut and I finished the game blowing the whistle out of the side of my mouth. The show must go on! ' ' '
