The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year....

The NHL season starts today (it now being Thursday morning). Two hockey pools this year; the one I ran as comissioner of the When Saturday Comes Forum which I ran on Sunday lunchtime, and the one I entered at my now former place of work this evening. Tonight was the first one I have ever done in auction style; I had an imaginary $200 to spend and allocate as I saw fit. Here's what I saw fit to spend (see below left). I had a plan to fairly evenly allocate my $200 among my 18 players but it became fairly clear fairy early that I would have to abandon that, given the amount of money that went on the first six or seven picks. $60 for Corey Perry? Seriously? After watching some people blow half their budget on their first two players (the Bangkok Chuzillas went for the Sedin Twins at ruinous cost),  I played my way in and I can honestly say that of the 18 picks above left there is only one I'm unsure about. For the record, here's the money spent on each: Iginla $40, Rinne $15, Zetterberg $26, Getzlaf $32, Kovalchuk $11, Lecavalier $5, Backes $6, Thornton $12, Visnovsky $8, Pavelski $5, Kessel $5, Lidstrom $9, Burns $6, Crawford $3, Subban $2, Hossa $5, Grabovski $5, Selanne $5. PK SUBBAN FOR TWO DOLLARS? SELANNE FOR FIVE? I'LL HAVE TWO!

Sunday saw my debut as commissioner. I think the When Saturday Comes forum is brilliant; a rare island of thought and knowledge in a vast ocean of complete nonsense. Given the number of fantasy sports there are on that forum, I though a fantasy hockey pool was in order and so I volunteered to take the reins. Nine entrants were interested and Sunday saw a traditional 'snake' draft, in which the order of picking is constantly reversed (i.e. 1st through 9th then 9th through 1st and so on). Here's how I did:

Pretty darned good, I think, on both counts. My plan was 'forwards forwards forwards' and so ignored some of the shiny defencemen on offer. Certainly more in the latter pool than the former, though. That's where I fell down last year, so hopefully I've learned my lesson. In the auction, I'll have to hope that going for depth was worth foregoing most of the star forwards, who were well out of reach very early.

Tomorrow: also on a hockey bent,  the return of the Winnipeg Jets.

Defending the Crown

The lab hockey pool crown, that is. Ladies and Gentlemen, give it up for the Flaming Jokers. I was a bit bothered I hadn't done so well in the draft, but comparing my side with a couple of others, I feel a bit better now. That said, three of the first six picks were defencemen and I'm not sure that's such a wise strategy. We shall see how things turn out.

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Or sometimes, 1593. The lab hockey pool finished yesterday and I am now $100 richer. I am feeling rather pleased with myself. After building a lead through the autumn, this was slowly eroded in the Spring due to the second placed boss-man's large number of Vancouver and Washington players. Fortunately, the Olympic break killed all his momentum, and I was able to slowly reel him in in the final couple of weeks. After a very nervous Saturday night as Vancouver laid waste to the Flames, Sunday became one very long victory lap. Click to enlarge the photo, to see my wizard drafting skills!

We had the draft for the playoff pool after work today; I got really unlucky in having to pick 8th (and so 9th, 24th and 25th and so on). I'm not sure how well I did within my plan, and some of the picks are a bit iffy. We'll find out in due course. In the meantime, bow before me, Canadia!

Whoaa, We're Halfway There

So at the risk of cursing myself in the same way that I temporarily did with my secret Santa poem, how am I doing in the lab hockey pool at the halfway mark? Well, as Darth Sidious once said to Darth Maul, "you have been well trained, my young apprentice. They will be no match for you."

UPDATE: In today's (6/1/10) edition of 'sign or replace', I almost managed to get rid of the utterly useless Jaroslav Spacek (who has earned himself the name Crapcek forever). Quite how he was placed so high in the TSN fantasy rankings, I have no idea. I wanted his Montreal teammate Andrei Markov who is back after lacerating his achilles in the first game of the season. Unfortunately, leading the pool means picking last and so he was claimed by third place. My second choice, Washington's Tomas Fleischmann, was picked by my boss in second place. Tim Connolly of the Buffalo Sabres will have to do, replacing the "out indefinitely" Chris Kunitz. Looking at his career record, he appears to be made of glass, only playing 40ish games a season the last two years. Fingers crossed I haven't jinxed him.

Beating the Locals

So given today was the end of the hockey season, how did I finish in the pool? In the money! Thanks to my guru, who guided me through the various players on offer largely successfully (we'll ignore Montreal players in the future), I have finished third, and stand to make about $50. Not a lot, but enough to plot how to spend it. For posterity, here's the top of the table and my final team scores. In a final, grand splash, you'll see from the far right column that I managed to score zero points at all today! Finishing ahead of 32 other teams is quite funny when you think they are probably mostly locals. Beaten at their own game.....

Credit where it's due

My hockey pool guru knows his stuff. Last night saw my highest daily score of the year, and the highest score of the night. It hasn't translated itself into a great deal of upward movement (only 10th to 7th) but after a couple of bad weeks I have hauled myself back within striking distance of the the top five. Last night, +26: Ovechkin +3, Backstrom +3, Datsyuk +3, Nabokov +3, Iginla +2, Cammalleri +2, Lidstrom +2, Doan +2, Ribeiro +2, Getzlaf +1, Perry +1, Richards +1, Hossa +1.

And the Leafs lost 8-2 at home to Dallas and the Canucks lose 5-0. A fun night to be a Flames fan :-)

A Bad Night in the Hockey Pool

Where to begin in terms of adopting Canadian customs and culture? Sport is as good a place as any to start, and north of the 49th parallel there's only one real major contender: hockey. I've seen a few games in Coventry in the Elite League in my time there (the arena was walking distance) and always thought it an entertaining way to spend an evening. Over here, the NHL has status comparable to the Premier League back home and I've been coming to learn the game a little more thoroughly since I got here in early March. And so it has come to pass I've entered the chemistry department hockey pool, the equivalent of 'Fantasy Football' back home to see if I've learnt anything. I should also thank my hockey guru for some assistance. I'll be keeping track of the progress fairly frequently.

So, 21 boxes of five players divided into fifteen sets of forwards, three sets of defencemen and three sets of goalies. Pick one from each box: a point each for a goal and assist, one for a shoot-out winner, one for a winning goalie and two more if he keeps a shutout. Given the start the Calgary Flames have made, I think there might be a couple too many Flames players in there, but we'll wait and see. Perhaps Mike Keenan will stop shuffling the forward lines every game and some consistency might appear in the Flames play. Here are my 21 (with team and score so far):

Ovechkin (WAS, +18), Iginla (CGY, +21), Datsyuk (DET, +18), Getzlaf (ANA, +22), Ribeiro (DAL, +18), Hossa (DET, +24), Doan (PHX, +17), Backstrom (WAS, +16), Langkow (CGY, +12), Richards (DAL, +13), Perry (ANA, +20), Koivu (MTL, +16), Cammalleri (CGY, +15), A. Kostitsyn (MTL, +6), Brown (LAK, +11), Lidstrom (d) (DET, +12), Phaneuf (d), (CGY, +13), Corvo (d), (CAR, +7), Nabokov (g) (SJS, +10), Osgood (g) (DET, +7), Biron (g) (PHI, +5).

After a slow start, Ovechkin and Backstrom scored 21 points between them last week. Ovechkin, Iginla and Datsyuk were 1st, 3rd and 4th respectively in points in the whole league last year and have started where they left off. Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins was 2nd in the NHL last year, and currently leads with +31. Most people at the top of the table picked him over Iginla. The only real bust so far is Andrei Kostitsyn of Montreal. Most people doing well have Patrick Sharp of Chicago or Patrick Elias of New Jersey in that box. But it's a long season, and only 18ish of 82 games have been played by most sides.

I'm quite frustrated with my 3 goalies. Not one of them has a shutout, yet Roberto Luongo of Vancouver has five. The league leader is killing everyone else because of him. Nabokov is now injured after ten wins, Osgood is rotated with his backup more often than I thought he would be and the Flyers had a terrible start, with no wins in the first six games. I was going to pick Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres and really wish I had.

After having moved from third last about a month ago, I've spent the last two weeks in the 7th-8th-9th (of 35) area. Some of that good work has been undone tonight to a small degree. Only 3 of my players were playing, the three skaters from Detroit. Osgood was rested again (typical that his backup would keep a shutout). Yet despite Detroit winning 4-0, not one of my players scored a point (out of a possible 4 goals and 8 assists), so tonight, for the first time I have scored, in Eurovision style nil points.

I suppose that above all, it emphasises the talent in the Detroit squad that a team can be flattened and Hossa, Datsyuk and Lidstrom all fail to trouble the scorers.