Every year I am in two hockey pools, one for the regular season and one for the playoffs. I don't really play online nor do I need complex scoring ones or management type leagues. I'm old school and do a classic pick'em and points and assists, nothing else.
This year in the regular season I started off strong but finished second last. My fortunes were directly linked to that of the Habs. It wasn't that Price went down, it was that when he did every wheel on the truck came off with him. Yesterday was a day for my annual redemption.
With paper in a hat we drew numbers and I go the second overall pick. Not bad, not good but I prefer to get around 4-6 as with a snake draft you are never waiting too long to pick and if you have a strategy to load up on teams it seems to help better.
So I looked at the NHL's weird brackets and this is how I decided to go.
1. I wanted one team from both conferences who I though had a clear path to the second round and likely conference final. 2. I wanted teams that would be facing opposition that would allow scoring, meaning not a trap and defend style. 3. I wanted to be able to add depth players on these teams later while I had some later random picks thrown in 4. I had to be able to get 4 players, 2 from each team, in the first 4 rounds.
The fact that this all started after two wobbly pops was wishful thinking but impossible. So this is how it went.
1. Crosby (2nd) overall 2. Kesler (18th) overall- by this time Getzlaf and Perry were both gone (did not realize he was day-to-day) 3. Malkin (21st)- I know he was injured but sources indicated a probable game 2 return 4. Silfverberg(38th)- this was a twitter poll over him Vatanen and McGinn and Rakell 5. Hornqvist (41st)- going to be a sleeper pick IMO 6. McGinn (57th)-Could keep adding Ducks and scoring Ducks so why not 7. Simmonds(60th)- At this point there were good players on less desirable teams and Simmonds seemed to be in right place 8. Hudler (78th)- again needing to diversify some picks and I like Florida and Hudler should like post season too. 9. Hagelin (81st)- Had to go back to the well with Pittsburgh again, if you are going deep, go all in. 10. Pirri (97th)- At this point I was able to have 4 Ducks and 4 Penguins and people starting calling me the Birdman. I never realized this common element 11. Shaw (101st) had to go off board again and hope to get some points from the other side of west bracket 12. Cogliano (119th) So there it was, a final Duck and the end.
What did happen through the pool is this:
Teams avoided the Wild, Detroit, Philly, Rangers and Preds pretty hard until 6th rounds or later. Some guys went heavy on the Islanders, okay one guy, and a few tip-toed around the Blues. That's what the legend of the Blackhawks does. Cheers were had when Ladd went. Few guys wanted to take defensemen early even if it was likely they would still rack up assists.
Some players did not care about aligning there team with a particular NHL team and simply went BPA, best player available. Most importantly though is no one had any clear idea who was coming out of what conference and the west it appeared to us was a crap shoot.
Best part of all was the joking and camaraderie that happens at pools. The mind games and the reactions when picks get 'stolen'. For me, as a non-native Manitoban it took awhile to find a group of guys to play with and it all happened the first year of the Jets back in 2011. I'd been in Winnipeg for some time but had never managed to infiltrate a close group of guys and once I did it was like being home again and in some ways back in university.
Two of my favourite nights are regular season and playoff pool pick nights. Always a blast.
So, how did I do?