a piece of me

Cormier Cup Hockey Pool – Tips for Your Hockey Pool

Well, it’s time to lace them up and start the next NHL season and here at Homestead Appleby/Cormier. We are in full swing of preparations for this year’s Cormier Cup Hockey Pool and looking forward to the big day.  Without further silliness here are some links that might help you prepare for picking your team this year.

TSN 30 Teams in 30 Days – 2011 NHL Preview
If knowledge is power then this is a “must read” for anyone in a hockey pool.  The definitive source for everything you need to know about the upcoming NHL season by the best source for hockey information in the world, TSN.  If you read nothing else to prepare for your hockey pool, try to read some of the enormous amount of information on these 30 pages and I promise your place in the pool standings will improve because of it.  TSN.ca is reviewing each NHL team in the month of September.  Their 30 Teams in 30 Days highlights off-season moves, some of the biggest issues the teams have to deal with and suggests a few players to watch in the upcoming season for each and every team in the NHL.  Check it out.

Yahoo! Sports Draft Kit – Depth Charts and Player News and Notes
A popular Draft Day strategy is to pick players from the same team, who are likely to play with each other (on the same line) all season long.  The theory works like this:  If you have BOTH Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin on your team you will usually get two points each time one of them scores because one will get the goal and the other will the assist.  Double the points for every goal.  If you like this strategy, you really need to see the team’s depth charts and start making predictions about which players will play together on which teams.  Yahoo! Has put together this handy chart that should help get you started.  This file also has some News and Notes about some of the key players on each team.  Not sure where to start in your Pool Planning.  This is a good place to start. (Thanks to Uncle Mike for tuning me into this great info from Yahoo!). Check it out: Download Yahoo2011_depthcharts.

TSN Fantasy Draft Kit – NHL Team Previews
TSN’s Scott Cullen’s blog posts about each team and what to expect in the upcoming NHL season. A TON of information here and a good supplement to the TSN 30 Teams in 30 Days preview. (In fact some of the teams haven’t been showcased yet at the time of writing this blog post, so this is a good place to fill in the blanks on those last few teams). Check it out.

TSN Fantasy Draft Kit – Points Predictions
TSN’s Scott Cullen predicts the top 300 scorers and makes predictions about how many points each player will get. Check it out.

TSN Fantasy Draft Kit – Position-By-Position Rankings
Scott Cullen offer his predictions about the top 70 players in each position (Center, Left Wing, Right Wing, Defense, Goalie) and tells us how many points he thinks they will get. Check it out.

Yahoo! Sports Draft Kit – Top 200 Rankings
Yahoo! has put together this excellent list of their top 200 player predictions.  What makes this list so great is they also offer a quick blurb about the player and why they are ranked where they are. Great list and a quick and easy read with some interesting differences from the TSN predictions.  Print this one off and bring it with you on Draft Day if you really want to look like the keener!  Great job Yahoo! Check it out:  Download Yahoo2011_top200

Yahoo! Sports Draft Kit – Breakout Rookies, Sleepers and Under-Valued Players, and Busts and Over-Valued Players
Great series of list of players to watch out for and players to avoid by Yahoo! Check it out:  Download Yahoo2011_rookiesovervalueandbustplayers

Yahoo! Sports Draft Kit – Off Season Moves
Making predictions about the playoffs can be hard so reading about all the different off season move is a must if you’re gonna make a serious push for that playoff pool victory.  Yahoo has graded each team’s off season moves.  Check it out:  Download Yahoo2011_offseasonmoves

 

Last Season's Stats and Current Player Salaries
And finally, I've got some updated stats/salary information on our lists.  This first file is the latest version of the stats and salary information that we will be using on Draft Day.  Last Season's Regular Season Points Leaders:  Download CormierCup-Stats-RegularSeason-ver3-1

This file is the latest info we have for last year's Playoff points leaders.  This list also has salary info.  Last Year's Playoff Points Leaders:  Download CormierCup-Stats-Playoffs-ver3-1

(KEEP IN MIND: Both these files have changed since the last version and will change again - probably a few times between now and Draft Day so you'll want to make your notes on a separate sheet of paper.  You'll get the final version of these files on Draft Day.)

Hope that helps! Remember: the more prepared we all are for our picks the faster the day will go for everyone... and it's gonna be a LOONG (but super fun!) day.  Good luck on Pool Day – so say we all!

"I know my players don't like my practices, but that's OK because I don't like their games."
     - Harry Neale.

Cormier Cup Hockey Pool – Tips and Analysis 2011

It’s been a while.  I’ve been neglecting you my little blog.  Sorry about that.  I guess, I’ve traded you in for younger, faster social media.  Hope we can still be friends.

But now it’s Hockey Pool Season and this is the best way to spread some hockey pool info to friends, family and fellow poolies.

In the Cormier Cup Hockey Pool we each choose 20 players (forwards or defensemen, no goalies – yet!) and you get 1 point for every point your players get.  So you have “spend wisely” as you “shop” for your team on Pool Day. It is an elimination pool so once a player is picked no one else can pick that same player. Selection order is taken from names in a hat and we a “snake draft” for order - so the person who picks last in the first round gets to pick first in the second round, etc.

The other thing that makes our pool a little different, I guess, is that we choose 20 players for the entire regular season (and award 1 winner for the regular season) and then we KEEP all the same players for the playoffs as well. 

Here are a few things I’ve gathered that might help when you start thinking about your picks on Pool Day and what you want to do with your team.

Playoff Tree of Last Year’s Playoffs

 

Blank Playoff Tree to Make Predictions

But now you may find yourself asking: “Self, how the hell do I know which teams will make the playoffs?”

Well, of course, that’s half the fun of any hockey pool.  But fret not!  You’ve come to the right place.  While no one can accurately predict exactly which teams will make the playoffs in today’s NHL we can at least look at some of the history and what teams have done well in recent years.  

Below is a list of every NHL team and the total Points they received at the end of the season for the last 5 NHL seasons.  I’ve also totaled those points up (on the right) and given them a ranking (on the left) so that you can easily see how well teams have done in recent years.  (Points marked in grey indicate that the team won The Stanley Cup that year).

NHL Team POINTS Leaders from the Past 5 Years

And because our hockey pool (and most hockey pools) are about Points (i.e. how many goals and assists you get) I’ve done the same thing with Team Goals so you can see which teams have scored the most goals in recent years.  (Goals marked in grey indicate that the team won The Stanley Cup that year).

NHL Team GOALS Leaders from the Past 5 Years

 

But wait!  That’s not all!  As Steve Irwin would say, “Take a look at this!”  I’ve also been examining the top NHL scorers in the past few years in hopes that it might provide us with some insight into which players are likely to be chosen in the first couple of rounds of picks.

What I did with this chart is I took the top 10 scoring leaders (most points during the regular season) for each of the past 5 NHL seasons and compiled all their stats during the past 5 seasons.  I’ve provided totals for the past 5 seasons and an average Points/Season (on the right) and ranked them (on the left) based on their points totals for past 5 years.  (Points marked in grey indicate that the player won The Stanley Cup that year). 

NHL Player Top Scoring Leaders from the Past 5 Years

 

And finally... for everyone looking to get a start on their hockey pool planning, I'm including a ROUGH DRAFT of the top scoring leaders for everyone.  Remember many of these WILL change between now and Pool Day - and we'll be using only the latest version of these stats (given to you on Pool Day) - but this should let you at least start thinking about your team.  You can download the latest version of the Regular Season stats sheet here (PDF file): Download Regular Season - Stats ver 2-2.

Remember there are no trades allowed in our hockey pool (yet!) so choose wisely!  Hope this helps with your hockey pool predictions and selections. 

Good luck in your pools. So say we all!

Please note: The Piece of Me Empire has endeavored to the best of our efforts to ensure the accuracy of this information but can take no responsibility for any incorrect information.  All stats should be independently verified by yourself before choosing players for your hockey pool. If you see any errors or omissions in any of this information please leave a comment and let me know.

"All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity."
     - Gordie Howe

What I'm UP to - July 2011

What I'm reading: Under the Dome by Stephen King
http://www.amazon.ca/Under-Dome-Novel-Stephen-King/dp/1439148503
Comment: Very long and gorram heavy when you're trying to read in bed before you fall asleep. But I'm enjoying it.

What I'm listening to right this minute: Wintersleep's 2003 Untitled CD.
Comment: Ever notice that the lead singer sounds like Seth Green?  I find I really, really like about half of their songs and I really feel indifferent about the other half.

What board game I played last: Gridstones
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36478/gridstones
Comment: I LOVE this game! Great shapes and patterns fun-ness! 

What board game I hope to play next: Age of Conan
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27848/age-of-conan-the-strategy-board-game
Comment: I need to refamiliarize myself with this game cuz I want to get it played sometime soon! Hoping to pull this out this weekend sometime.

What I'm watching: Doctor Who - the Third Series.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/episodes/S3_00
Comment: OMG, I loved season 2 and I have a crush about the size of Judoon ship on Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones) so I'm loving it so far!

 

"It's all about the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism."
  - Craig Ferguson, a comedic musical tribute to Doctor Who

Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome

Ooooh, exciting news coming from the world of Battlestar Galactica (and Caprica).

Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome is an upcoming 2-hour pilot that looks at the first Cyclon war and will feature a young Adama.  Ooooh, can't wait!

Full story: http://blastr.com/2010/10/battlestar-galactica-preq.php

 

“The secret to "Battlestar ," as one of my colleagues keeps saying, is not to think of it as science fiction. This is a show about religion, politics, parent-child relationships, and the moral dilemmas of insurgency. Consider it a workplace drama where the business is armed resistance.”
     - Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff  

 

Cormier Cup Hockey Pool - Best Pool Evah!

Well, our Cormier Cup Hockey Pool was a huge success.  By all accounts everyone had a fantastic time and went home with rosters full of players they liked and/or were happy with.  We had 12 people over, drafting 11 teams with 220 players each for a total salary of just under $653 million.

I thought I would share one more bit of hockey pool related info here for you to take a look at how your team stacks up.  

The Hockey News has posted an article listing some players to take in your hockey and a few players to avoid.  Ooooh, noooooo! It’s too late now folks. Some surprising predictions here (including having Toronto’s Dion Phaneuf and Kris Versteeg on your “Must Have List” and Boston’s Nathan Horton and Vancouver’s Ryan Kesler on the “Players To Avoid List”).  This one is worth the read whether you’ve already picked your teams or if you are going to be drafting this week.

A look at who to go for and who to stay away from on your fantasy hockey team
http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/35445-A-look-at-who-to-go-for-and-who-to-stay-away-from-on-your-fantasy-hockey-team.html

Thanks to everyone for playing along and good luck in the upcoming season.  So say we all!

 

"At the end of each year I make a list of my mistakes and it’s pretty friggin’ long."
   - Dean Lombardi

 

Battlestar Story Continues, Superman is no Hamm, and Ender's Game Coming to the Big Screen

Some interesting stories in Entertainment news that I wanted to make note of here:

 Edward James Olmos says he will continue the Battlestar Galactica story in an
future graphic novel

Whether you loved or hated the end of Battlestar Galactica, I’m sure you see this as exciting news.  Sounds like we’ll get to find out what happens to Adama after the end of the series.

 Full story here: http://geektyrant.com/news/2010/9/16/edward-james-olmos-developing-battlestar-galactica-graphic-n.html

Mad Men’s Don Hamm denies rumours that he is set to play Superman
Ah, that sucks!  It was just during this season of Mad Men (which is great this year!) that he would make the perfect Clark Kent!  Only know him from Mad Men and can’t picture it? Look at his work on 30 Rock.  I think the two shows together make a perfect resume for The Man of Steel.  Full Story here: http://scifipulse.net/?p=33509

Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game being made into a film
I’m excited by this! It’s such a great book and I would love to see it made (properly) into a movie.  I hope they do a good job and stay true to the story.  Full story here: http://blastr.com/2010/09/enders-game-film-is-back.php

 

Cormier Cup Hockey Pool – Tips for Your Hockey Pool

Hockey is almost upon us. And that means it’s Hockey Pool Season! WOOOOO HOOOOOOO!  I’ve been gathering some links and articles to help us (translation: me) prepare for our upcoming hockey pool.  I also thought it would be fun to share them here with everyone (translation: Sherri is making me do this) so that we are all prepared and ready for the hockey pool (translation: wouldn’t it be fun if we were all close to winning all season long and then I won in the end?).

And just in case you didn't already think that I was completely insane and taking this whole Hockey Pool thing waaaay too seriously, here is what I'm calling "The Mother of All Hockey Pool Tips Post" where there is going to be just waaaay too much information for normal people to read or even care about.  But hopefully this won't be the post that makes you avoid eye contact the next time we meet and back away in fear.

So strap on your helmet and your elbow pads, there is a lot of information here.  Remember to keep your head up out there and try to absorb as much of it as you can because coming prepared on Pool Day is the key to having a successful team. I've even sort of prioritized them a bit for you in case you find that you just don't have the time to wade through them all.

30 Teams in 30 Days on TSN.ca
In their efforts to preview the upcoming NHL season, TSN.ca is reviewing each NHL team in the month of September.  Their 30 Teams in 30 Days highlights off-season moves, some of the biggest issues the teams have to deal with and suggests a few players to watch in the upcoming season for each and every team in the NHL.  If knowledge is power then this is a “must read” for anyone in a hockey pool.  

Check it out here: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?id=29184

Views from The Hockey News
The Hockey News has posted some interesting speculations about how the NHL season might end up that might be helpful to you in your hockey pool.

The Hockey News 2010-11 NHL regular season predictions
http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/34718-The-Hockey-News-201011-NHL-regular-season-predictions.html

Proteau’s Predictions
As well, hockey expert/columnist, Adam Proteau of The Hockey News has listed his own set of expections for how teams will end up in the standings this season.

 Western Conference Predictions by Adam Proteau
http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/35102-Screen-Shots-Western-Conference-predictions.html

 Eastern Conference Predictions by Adam Proteau
http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/35016-Screen-Shots-Eastern-Conference-predictions.html

The Prediction Addiction – TSN Edition

Every year TSN posts a list of players with predictions about how many points they are going to get in the coming NHL season.  Keep in mind that these are just educated guesses (there is no real science behind this) but many poolies find these predictions helpful when planning their picks.

TSN Player Point Predictions
http://tsn.ca/fantasy_news/feature/?ID=29817

Dynamic Duos in the NHL
One strategy that sometimes work in any kind of hockey pool is looking for line-mates that play together on the same line, develop a good chemistry together and light up the NHL with goals and points.  Finding these “2-Punch” combos may be harder than it seems.  Kyle Wahlgreen has a few predictions on the Bleacher Report website (www.bleacherreport.com).  Check it out:

The Top Ten 1-2 Punches In The NHL
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/455921-ilya-kovalchuk-amp-zach-parise-the-top-ten-1-2-punches-in-the-nhl

This Pool Carries No Back-Sliders
You never want to pick player who is on a big downward slide in terms of points production in your hockey pool.  It usually means you are going to pay a lot for that player and then be disappointed with their performance at the end of the year.  Former CBC sports reporter, Jamie Fitzpatrick lists 10 players like this to avoid in your hockey pool this year.  He says their offensive production is about to take a downward slide. 

Fantasy Hockey: Players on the Slide in 2010-11
http://proicehockey.about.com/od/fantasyhockey/tp/Fantasy-Hockey-Players-On-The-Slide-In-2010-11.htm

To Draft Defense or Not To Draft Defense
Drafting defensemen in a fantasy hockey pool can be very tough.  They are so important to a real NHL team but are often overlooked in most hockey pool because, as a general rule, they tend to produce a lot less points than the other skaters on the ice.  In a salary cap hockey pool like ours it’s also important to mention that defensemen often get paid a LOT more (the good ones anyway) when compared to forwards to who put similar statistics.  Although I don’t think this article focuses on the same kind of salary cap hockey pool that ours does (i.e. no one in our pool HAS to pick any defensemen if they don’t want to - yet!), here is a good article with some tips on choosing the right defensemen to fit in with your roster:

2010 Draft Prep: Landing the Right Defensemen
http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyhockey/story/13939529/draft-prep-landing-the-right-defensemen

And The Goalies Will Lead Them...
Many of the goalies in the league have changed this season. And although we don't actually choose goalies in our pool, they are (or should be) a significant deciding factor in making your predictions.  With that in mind here is a list of all 30 teams, their starting goalies and the backups they have sitting on the bench waiting for a turn to play and another article that rates them.  Useful information here:

NHL Goalie Primer
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/fantasy/2010/09/20/nichols-nhl-goalie-prime/

Goaltending Rankings
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/fantasy/2010/09/21/nichols-fantasy-goaltending/ 

Ask Your Bookie About Some Rookies
Worried about cap space in your hockey pool? Thinking about taking a big risk on some young, inexpensive talent that may (or may not) play in the NHL this year.  Well, look no further.  Here is HockeysFuture.com’s ranking of the top 50 NHL Prospects.  I MUST however warn you! These players are young, inexperienced, un-tried, most of them will not play a single game in the NHL this year and some of them may never develop the skills necessary to play at the NHL at all!  Only choose these players from this list in your hockey pool if you are very desperate, are required to pick a prospect player, or if you are in a “Keeper Pool” where you keep the same players over several seasons.

Hockey's Future Top 50 NHL Prospects
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/hockey_top_50_prospects/

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, How Many Points for Taylor Hall?
An Oilers fan has put together a number of different predictions on what will happen this season to the first overall draft pick Taylor Hall and his 2 other young team mates, Jordan Eberle and Magnus Paajarvi.  You gotta check this out if you are even considering picking any of these 3 guys!

How Many Points for Taylor Hall?
http://communities.canada.com/edmontonjournal/blogs/hockey/archive/2010/08/31/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-how-many-points-for-taylor-hall.aspx

Preparation-H(ockey)
CBSSports.com has put together a Fantasy Draft Preparation Guide that I think it for their own fantasy draft program, however it has a few pages of predictions and points projections that you might want to check out. It’s free to download.

2010 Fantasy Hockey Preparation Guide from CBSSports.com
http://sports.cbsimg.net/images/fantasy/hockey/spln/draft_guide.pdf

Vulcanized Rubber Can Bounce Too!
Hockey columnist Scott Cullen has some predictions about NHL players looking to make a “bounceback” or “breakout” this season.  Good reading!

Bounceback and Breakthrough Players in the NHL by Scott Cullen
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=333847

I Refuse To Pick You in My Hockey Pool Unless You Promise to Bounceback!
And Mike Brophy has posted his list of top 10 NHL players who need to bounceback after disappointing seasons last year.

On The Rebound
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/09/15/brophy_players/

They Seemed to Fall Asleep Last Year But…
Looking for those players that “slip through the cracks” is one of the most entertaining aspects of any hockey pool and can sometimes provide you with big bragging rights even if you don’t actually win the pool.  Tom Schreier suggests five teams to watch in the coming NHL season on the Bleacher Report website (www.bleacherreport.com).  Check out it at:

Five Sleeper Teams in the NHL 2010-11 Season
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/455450-the-toronto-maple-leafs-and-four-other-nhl-sleeper-teams-in-2010-11

They Have Some (Cap) Issues!
I came across an interesting article by blogger Kent Wilson about a few of the teams that are a little too close (or over) to the NHL salary cap.  Kent speculates about which players some of those teams may try to dump onto other teams with more cap room. Off season moves pretty quickly so this one might be a little old but it's still a good article.  Check it out at: http://flamesnation.ca/2010/8/5/mapping-the-cap-environment

 

"Our system of forechecking is to shoot the puck and leave it there."
     - Harry Neale

Cormier Cup Hockey Pool – Hockey Pool Cheat Sheets from RotoRob.com

 

Time for more hockey pool information for those of us who just can't get enough hockey talk or those who really, really need to be prepared for this year's Cormier Cup Hockey Pool. The website RotoRob.com (http://www.rotorob.com) has posted a few articles that might help with your fantasy hockey pool picks. The website refers to the following articles as “cheat sheets” and offer the author’s view of ranking the top 25 (or 30) players at their position in the up-coming NHL season and little commentary to help put their rankings in perspective.

2010-11 RotoRob NHL Draft Kit: Centre Rankings (Top 30) by Mike Chen

RotoRob NHL Draft Kit: Left Wing Rankings (Top 25) by Chris Wassel 

RotoRob NHL Draft Kit: Right Wing Rankings (Top 25) by Chris Wassel 

And although we don't choose any goalies in our hockey pool (yet! - stay tuned that's coming next year!) I've included the link to their Ranking of the Top 25 Goalies because there is no denying that the goaltender position is integral to a team's success and can significantly impact your decision to choose (or not choose) other players.

2010-11 RotoRob NHL Draft Kit: Goalie Rankings (Top 30) by Mike Chen

Good luck on Pool Day.  So say we all!

"It's not necessarily the amount of time you spend at practice that counts; it's what you put into the practice."
      - Eric Lindros

The Top Overpaid Players in the NHL

Hockey Pool

MSN Sports team have put together their list of the NHL’s Worst Contracts.  Hint: These might be players you want to stay away from picking in your hockey pool… or at the very least be prepared to be laughed at a little bit when you do pick any of these guys.  It’s a good idea for an article and worth checking out before Pool Day.  Check it out at: 

The NHL's Worst Contracts

Salary and Contract talk is a lot of fun and here a couple more people who have put their own list's together of the most overpaid players in the NHL:

Josh Brewster of Hockeytalk.biz has put together a team of a few "overpaid" NHL players. I think I might disagree with 1 of the guys on his list and I'm sure there are many, many more players that we could add to this team but it's a quick read and worth checking out:

The All Overpaid Team at Hockeytalk.biz

Steve Starr, hockey fan and blogger has posted his list of the NHL’s 10 Most Overpaid Players.  This one’s a little older (from January 2010) but also worth the read – check it out at:

The NHL’s 10 Most Overpaid Players on TheStevenNetwork.ca

Did any of these lists miss anyone in your opinion? Someone on these lists who shouldn't be.  I'm curious to hear what you think.  Post a comment or drop me a line and let me know.

Every day you guys look worse and worse. And today you played like tomorrow.

     - John Mariucci, To his US Olympic hockey team

The Cormier Cup Salary Cup Hockey Pool

Someone asked me a question about our hockey pool and thought I would answer it here.  The question was “Why is the salary cap so important in your hockey pool?”

SALARY CAP BACKGROUND

So a few years ago the NHL implemented a "salary cap" on all teams.  They did that because teams like Toronto and New York were spending a lot more money on their player salaries than poorer teams like Edmonton could afford.  The feeling was that the richer (more financially successful) teams had an unfair advantage because they could attract higher priced (and theoretically at least, more talented) players to join their team.

2007-08 Cormier Cup Hockey Pool

OUR HOCKEY POOL

So most hockey pools, in my experience ask you to choose 10, or 12 or even 15 players in the NHL.  And most of the really talented superstar players (the Crosbys and Ovechkins of the world) are all on multiple participants’ teams because anyone can choose whomever they want.  Some hockey pools involve everyone getting together in the same room and “drafting” players in turns so that once a players is picked he is removed from the pool and no one else can have him on his/her team (we call this a “Draft Pool” or an “Elimination Pool”).  Although some pool will take place during the regular season (or even across multiple seasons) most of them only occur during the NHL playoffs. 

The year Chris and Sherri tied

But the hockey pool we’ve been doing for a few years now is an Elimination Pool where everyone has to be in the same room at the same time to draft our players.  We choose names from a hat to see who will get to select first and what the draft order will be.  Then our selections are made using the current NHL salary cap (this year that will be $59.4 million) and the real salaries of the real NHL Players.  The salary cap is how much “money” you have to spend on the players on your team – and you can’t go over.  So not only do you have to worry about the other people choosing your favourite players before you get the chance to take them but you also have to "budget" and spend your money wisely.  You have to choose 20 players (can be forwards or defenseman - no goalies, yet – we’re going to try to bring them into the pool for next season). So with every pick everyone makes, one of us will do a quick calculation and write down how much money you've got left to spend on the rest of your team.  

 

Our first year of "salary cap" we found that the women (Sherri and my sister) in our group did the best.  The theory at the time was that they were better than "us guys" at shopping and budgeting the money of the household.  That may or not be true, but it is true that Sherri’s team seems to be “in the running” for top spot every year.  I seem to be either at the top - or at the very bottom.  I have however, won 2 consecutive playoff pools, so I'm working on building a dynasty (brag, brag, and more brag). LOL!  

Matthew Wins the Pool

What usually happens in a "salary cap" pool is most of us end up with a few players that we don't really like.  But that’s part of the fun too.

The other thing that is a bit uncommon about our hockey pool is we KEEP as 20 players for the entire regular season and into the playoffs so making playoff predictions (at the start of the season) is important.  Basically you get two chances to win as we award a winner (takes half) for the Regular Season Pool and another winner (takes the other half) for the Playoff Pool.

 

POOL STRATEGY

• Some people like to spend big early and get the “big-name, expensive players” (like Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin who both make $9 million each this season) early in the pool so that they make sure they get the "good player" that they really, really want on their team. Too many expensive players might mean that you have to fill up your roster with cheaper (and potentially) less talented players in the later rounds of the pool.
• Others choose the “high-value players” early in the draft (Steve Stamkos who was #5 in scoring last year and makes just $0.8 million this year is the perfect example) who they think will get a lot of points but get paid relatively little when compared to other players who produce the same number of points.
• And of course, some people will choose a more balanced approach - either choosing mostly "middle-of-the-road" players (I’d say someone like maybe Zach Parise - #16 in scoring last season, or Ryan Kesler - #22 in scoring, who both get paid $5 million this season might fit this definition) or some sort of combination of big/expensive players and some cheap/maybe-not-so-talented players.

The Cormier Cup Mascot

And because we KEEP all the same players that we chose for the regular season into the playoffs, many of the players that we all pick are going to be on teams that don't make it into the playoffs at all. And if your player doesn’t make it into the playoffs you won’t get any points for him during the Playoff Pool.  Theoretically at least, most participants will lose about 50% of their players once the playoffs start, but it’s not uncommon for the person who wins the Playoff Pool to have had 14 or 15 (or more) players at the start of the playoffs.

On top of these 3 basic strategies above is deciding if you are going to choose players that you think will do well during the regular season (i.e. "Going For The Regular Season"), try to choose players mostly on teams that you believe are going to make the playoffs and do well (i.e. "Going For The Playoffs")  - or some kind of balance between these 2 ideas.

 

One final factor that often changes the outcome of the entire pool is injuries.  If one of your players gets injured they could miss a lot of games, and as such not get as many points.  A lot of injuries for your team usually means you're going to end up in last place.  But that is true in "the real NHL" as well, as player injuries is often just about "bad luck".

 

So, if that all sounds very complicated and you're starting to get worried about juggling all this information and the different strategies.  Worry not.  While I would say that everyone in the pool "likes" hockey.  We’re not a bunch of die-hard, puck head fanatics that eat, drink and sleep hockey 24/7.  Mostly it’s just an excuse for us all to get together and have some fun.  And it gives us all something to trash-talk to each other about, and bragging rights if you win.

Matthew and the Cormier Cup celebrating on Parade Day

As an added bonus it provides us all with a little more incentive to watch what's happening in the long NHL season a little closer and offers us the chance to learn about some players and teams that we maybe wouldn’t normally hear about.

They all call me the Pool Nazi – I guess I’m a little strict about keeping everyone focused and moving forward (it’s a lot of fun but it can be a very long day).  

Bragging rights seem to be the biggest incentive to win.  Last year’s Regular Season winner still hasn’t picked up his hockey pool winnings (I think he’s waiting to get it on Pool Day).  But winners get their name on the Cormier Cup trophy and we ask that you stand for a photo that will one day be put up in the Cormier Cup Hall of Fame.

"Nobody's a natural. You work hard to get good and then work to get better. It's hard to stay on top."

     - Paul Coffey