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.