No Blues game today, obviously, so let’s talk a little bit about fantasy hockey.

This year’s the first year I’ve ever tried to play, and I ended up in a league with sixteen other girls. My only goal going into this season was to not lose. As of right now? I’m in third. How awesome is that?

Anyway, I’ve learned quite a few things as I’ve done this fantasy thing. Let me tell you about them.

1. Draft plans are worthless, especially in leagues with so many people. You might as well go in just ready to go with the flow. It seemed to work for me.

2. Setting one’s lineup a week in advance is one of the fastest ways to annoy yourself when you realize the guy you had in the starting lineup is in fact day-to-day and not playing, whereas the guy you benched scored two goals and had three assists. Not that this has happened to me just a few weeks ago or anything.

3. Sticking to drafting just those people from your favorite team, or those who used to play for them, will not end well for you. I started this season with zero Blues. I now have Vladimir Sobotka, and happened to pick him up right before he went onto IR. This is not anywhere close to awesome.

4. Making friends with people from opposing fan bases if for nothing more than fantasy tips is probably the best idea ever. I have a Canucks fan and a Lightning fan I can go to daily to find out about those guys who’ve been hurt from time to time.

5. Having Marc-Andre Fleury and Cory Schneider as my top two goalies has definitely been a good choice.

6. I have learned more about other teams’ players participating in fantasy than I would ever have just watching games. It has been fascinating to somehow care about outcomes of games with teams I have no strong feelings about, simply because they could get me fantasy points.

7. I’m turning into a bit of a fantasy freak and may or may not check (and change) my lineup daily.

What have you learned playing fantasy hockey?