Damn! It just seems like you can’t keep your team healthy. The feeling that your team is full of red marks is never good. We are doing some thing a bit different this week. This edition of The Wire Troll will be very light, but it is a setup for November. Blame Daylight Savings Time or whatever creative reason but do not mind us.

Burn Before Reading?

Okay, maybe this is what you should do. Unfortunately, the original column got sacked. We apologize for this inconvenience. What we do know is the copy got sacked so this is the recreation of sorts. Think of it as a remade movie. Hey, this might even be a little better.

Again, the first month was a “burn before reading” period for a lot of people. That is not a joke. Every day we get questions on Twitter to look at rosters and they look like a mass humanity of red everywhere. It really does hit owners in the gut, whether it be a high stakes money league or a free ESPN league. Now the volume of injuries may be alarming but the timing may be more so.

What is it With the Injuries?

We wish there was a tangible answer to this question. We were asked this several times all over the radio last week. When playing any Fantasy sport, inevitably one or several teams will be riddled at some point with players in the red (DTD, O, IR). Please remember that Yahoo! has that fun IR+ spot which is actually quite useful. You just have to hope it remembers to list guys (usually done the morning after).

Two weeks ago, there were 37 new injuries and last week there were nearly as many. Yes, many players have come back but the problem is so many keep going on the shelf. This is Anaheim’s injury report, for example.

Warning: This is Ugly!

ANAHEIM
Player	Date	Status	Description
Luca Sbisa	2013-09-28	on injured reserve	sprained left ankle
Sheldon Souray	2013-10-01	on injured reserve 2-3 months	right wrist surgery
Matt Beleskey	2013-10-06	on injured reserve	upper body
Viktor Fasth	2013-10-17	on injured reserve	lower body
Jakob Silfverberg	2013-10-26	on injured reserve 4-6 weeks	broken right hand
Saku Koivu	2013-10-27	on injured reserve	head
Teemu Selanne	2013-10-30	on injured reserve	oral surgery
Sami Vatanen	2013-11-03	questionable for Monday (NYR)	upper body

The Ducks have to miss Sbisa’s physical presence (see video below), but with this many injuries, it should be no surprise why guys like Mathieu Perreault thrive. Anaheim is 11-3-1 because of coaching, top line talent, cohesive play, and the best group of goalies from an overall organizational depth chart perspective.

It is why you take a look at adding guys like Andrew Cogliano to your roster along with Perreault. These players can play low end top six minutes without being glaring liabilities defensively. When we are asked what players to look for, we usually pick Anaheim’s third line for that very reason.

Next week, we will take a look at how to cope with all those Edmonton Oilers injuries. There are 11 Oilers hurting as of press time.

You can always follow me on Twitter @ChrisWasselTHW. Good luck this week.

Now it’s your turn. Let us know in the comments below how you are dealing with your Duck injuries.

Do you get the feeling that the NHL trade deadline is getting closer? The answer is surely an emphatic yes. At press time, there will only be eight days until one of the craziest days of the year in hockey. The speculation always rises every season even if the trades do not live up to the hype. Say hello to cold reality, but players will change teams even before the deadline and some already have. more