Wildfire Hockey Pool Standings - End of Week 23

Team.......................................Total...This Week
Langdon River Dogs...........................605..........33
Don's Dinos..................................577..........30
Team EA......................................560..........35
The Shaving Moes.............................550..........16
THE Team.....................................523..........28
Team Lowes Racing............................514..........30
The Slim Pickens.............................501..........34
Taffy's Tyrants..............................493..........31
Sherpa's Yaks................................472..........18
Team Chevy...................................462..........23
The Late Impact..............................462..........19
Pull the Goalie..............................454..........16
Thanx For Comin' Out.........................440..........24
Doug's Deadbeats.............................428..........19

Stats updated through Sunday's games...

Well, Team EA took the week's crown with a grand total of 35 points this week, pulling themselves further into third from the Shaving Moes. Joe Sakic's 8 points and Alexei Kovalev's 6 points led Team EA to the week's best. Actually, all but Brent Sopel registered at least 2 points for the now third-place team.

Teemu Selanne (The Slim Pickens) was the big shooter this week scoring a huge 11-points in Anaheim's run for the playoffs. Selanne's 33 goals this season is his highest since the 2000/01 season, where he had scored... 33 goals. The 3-time 50+ goal scorer is finding his hot hand again this season and may be a good pick for next year's pool if you're thinking about that already.

Sunday morning column:
Just before the games start on Sunday, it's becoming quite apparent who's taking off and who's falling off the map in the hockey pool. The money players (the top 3) have shifted a little bit in the last couple weeks, seeing the Shaving Moes get eaten alive by injuries and thus giving up their money spot to Team EA, who has been hot the last couple weeks. Team EA has been so hot, in fact, that the Don's Dinos and their lacklustre couple of weeks may be fearing a drop in position to getting their money back this year.

The Langdon River Dogs, however, are not fearing anyone of these teams, because they have led the pool in points for the last 3 weeks. With the league's top two goal scorers signed to the roster (Jaromir Jagr and Alex Ovechkin), there is almost no way that they can be caught, on paper. With only 4 weeks to go, a 37-point lead... teams aren't looking closer than they appear in the rear view mirror.

There are only 5 games to be played on Sunday and the money teams look like this...
Calgary & Dallas - Daymond Langkow & Marty Turco (Don's Dinos)
San Jose & Chicago - Joe Thornton (Don's Dinos)
Toronto & New Jersey - Tomas Kaberle (Langdon River Dogs)
Montreal & Pittsburgh - Saku Koivu (Don's Dinos), Sheldon Souray & Alex Kovalev (Team EA)
Edmonton & Colorado - Ryan Smyth & Rob Blake (Don's Dinos), Joe Sakic (Team EA), Shawn Horcoff (The Shaving Moes)

Injuries:
Jiri Slegr (Thanx For Comin' Out) - Back; Out for the season


Marek Svatos (Pull the Goalie) - Shoulder; Out for the season
Jose Theodore (The Late Impact) - Foot; Indefinitely
Alex Tanguay (Team EA) - Knee; Mid-April*
Bryan Berard (Langdon River Dogs) - Back; Out for the season


Bill Guerin (Doug's Deadbeats) - Eye; Day-to-day


Pavol Demitra (The Shaving Moes) - Concussion; Day-to-day
Alex Frolov (Doug's Deadbeats) - Shoulder; Returned on Saturday

Todd White (Team Chevy) - Broken Leg; Out for the season


Andrei Markov (The Late Impact) - Back Spasms; Returned on Thursday*


Alexei Zhitnik (Don's Dinos) - Ankle; Out for the seaon


Alex Mogilny (The Slim Pickens) - In the minors


Dominik Hasek (Doug's Deadbeats) - Groin; Indefinitely
Jason Spezza (Sherpa's Yaks) - Hip; Returned on Friday
Zdeno Chara (Pull the Goalie) - Hand; Day-to-day
Kim Johnsson (Team Lowes Racing) - Head; Day-to-day
Peter Forsberg (Pull the Goalie) - Knee; Returned on Tuesday*

Ladislav Nagy (Pull the Goalie) - Knee; Out for the season


Mario Lemieux (Doug's Deadbeats) - Retired
Ziggy Palffy (Pull the Goalie) - Retired

Dan Boyle (Langdon River Dogs) - Ankle; Day-to-day


Eric Lindros (Taffy's Tyrants) - Wrist; Out for the season
Ed Belfour (The Shaving Moes) - Back; Out for the season*

Dan Cloutier (Sherpa's Yaks) - Knee; Out for the season
Ed Jovanovski (Don's Dinos) - Groin & Abdominal Surgery; Indefinitely
Sami Salo (The Shaving Moes) - Shoulder; Day-to-day



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NHL Playoff Pool Coming Soon...

The Playoff Pool is almost ready to go. I am just waiting for confirmation of all of the participants and all the injury news to filter through. I think, even though the races may go down to the wire, I will release the pool pick sheet in a couple weeks (partially pictured on the left).

The pool will be very easy and straight forward...

You will choose 4 lines of forwards (two from the Western Conference and two from the Eastern Conference), 4 defensive pairings (2 West, 2 East) and two goalies (1 West, 1 East).

Out of these 22 players, you may only take a maximum of 3 from any given team. This being said, you cannot have your entire 1st Western Conference set as Huselius, Iginla, Langkow, Phaneuf, Hamrlik and Kiprusoff. You can only take a maximum of 3 Flames (or any other team for that matter).

The points given out will also be very easy.
Goal = 1 point
Assist = 1 point
Game Winning Goal = 1 point
Shorthanded Goal = 1 point
Win = 2 points
Shutout = 2 points

So, a shorthanded game-winning goal will be worth 3 points... and goalies registering goals and assists will count. Most points wins all.

$10 Entry Fee... all are welcome. If I don't receive your money, you're not eligible to win anything. If you'd care to play from anywhere in the world, since I have visitors to this site from all over... I have a PayPal account that I can accept and payout money through. Please e-mail me at opiated@telus.net if you are interested!


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Wildfire Hockey Pool Standings - End of Week 22

Team.......................................Total...This Week
Langdon River Dogs...........................572..........44
Don's Dinos..................................547..........31
The Shaving Moes.............................534..........14
Team EA......................................525..........21
THE Team.....................................495..........25
Team Lowes Racing............................484..........24
The Slim Pickens.............................471..........21
Taffy's Tyrants..............................462..........27
Sherpa's Yaks................................454..........20
The Late Impact..............................443..........25
Team Chevy...................................439..........21
Pull the Goalie..............................438..........16
Thanx For Comin' Out.........................416..........23
Doug's Deadbeats.............................409..........16

Stats updated through Sunday's games...

Well, it's almost getting to that time where the standings get to be pretty static until the end of the season. If there was ever a better time to use the word dominance, it would be right about now. The Langdon River Dogs scored a pool record week of 44 points to extend their lead to 25 points, which almost seems insurmountable with the way the Dogs have been racking up points. The injury to Sean Burke in Tampa Bay has allowed John Grahame to start every game now and players like Jaromir Jagr, Alexander Ovechkin and Pavel Datsyuk seem to be rather unstoppable at the moment.

Tomas Vokoun (Team Lowes Racing) was Week 22's Player of the Week, racking up a few wins and a couple shutouts for 10 points this week. A form that he held earlier in the season which kept the Racing team in contention... but had fallen off a bit through the mid-part of the season.

Injuries:
Jiri Slegr (Thanx For Comin' Out) - Back; Out for the season


Roman Hamrlik (The Slim Pickens) - Hand; Returned on Thursday*


Marek Svatos (Pull the Goalie) - Shoulder; Out for the season
Jose Theodore (The Late Impact) - Foot; Indefinitely

Bryan Berard (Langdon River Dogs) - Back; Out for the season*


Bill Guerin (Doug's Deadbeats) - Eye; Day-to-day*


Pavol Demitra (The Shaving Moes) - Concussion; Day-to-day*
Alex Frolov (Doug's Deadbeats) - Shoulder; Day-to-day
Brent Sopel (Team EA) - Knee; Returned on Thursday*
Craig Conroy (The Late Impact) - Eye; Returned on Saturday*
Andrei Markov (The Late Impact) - Back Spasms; Day-to-day*


Alexei Zhitnik (Don's Dinos) - Ankle; Out for the seaon*


Alex Mogilny (The Slim Pickens) - In the minors


Dominik Hasek (Doug's Deadbeats) - Groin; Indefinitely


Kim Johnsson (Team Lowes Racing) - Head; Day-to-day
Peter Forsberg (Pull the Goalie) - Knee; Day-to-day

Ladislav Nagy (Pull the Goalie) - Knee; Out for the season


Mario Lemieux (Doug's Deadbeats) - Retired
Ziggy Palffy (Pull the Goalie) - Retired

Eric Lindros (Taffy's Tyrants) - Wrist; Out for the season
Ed Belfour (The Shaving Moes) - Back; Day-to-day*

Dan Cloutier (Sherpa's Yaks) - Knee; Out for the season
Ed Jovanovski (Don's Dinos) - Groin & Abdominal Surgery; Indefinitely
Sami Salo (The Shaving Moes) - Shoulder; Day-to-day




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Decimation Through Injuries

This year's hockey pool was a pretty big example of how many games were lost due to injury and where it has put people in the standings this year. At the beginning of the season, much of everything has still remained even, but we do have to realize that there are risks of injury throughout the season, which does provide the biggest gamble in these hockey pools.

If we were to look at the bottom seven teams in the pool, you should probably catch on to the pattern that injuries can take away a team's season... not to mention some bad gambles.

In 8th place on Sunday, Taffy's Tyrants found themselves in injury/minors trouble a quarter of the way through the season. His young Duck, Ryan Getzlaf, found himself playing the minors for several weeks, because he couldn't quite make it in the bigs right away. It was surprising, after he had such a promising pre-season. A couple weeks ago, it was deemed that Eric Lindros would require surgery on his wrist, therefore, cutting his season down to just over 30 games. Granted, Lindros was one of those guys who you may not consider to be your safest picks for staying healthy. Waiver draft pick-up, Brent Seabrook, missed 3 weeks with an injury, only a week or two after being picked. He is healthy again and does pick up points for the Tyrants, but its just to keep him from the basement.

In 9th place, it's the Sherpa's Yaks... who found themselves without a goalie for most of the year. The waiver draft was the time to get rid of your players, but when the draft had actually happened, Dan Cloutier was understood to be coming back for the Canucks not long from then. As it turned out, a couple days later, they put him under the knife, thus ending his season, without very much warning, so Alex Auld's 28 wins were not claimed in the pool and a huge tailspin started. Other major injuries for the Yaks included Martin Havlat (who was dropped), Joni Pitkanen (who was dropped, but is now missed), because Steve Eminger (who was picked up) found himself injured right away and has not registered many points at all.

In 10th place, The Late Impact couldn't catch a break. Again with goaltender problems, Jose Theodore just wasn't playing well, while guys like Alexei Zhamnov (Dropped), Daniel Briere, Craig Conroy (Picked), Pierre Turgeon, and now Andre Markov; couldn't keep themselves healthy in their respective line-ups. This may be a team that hasn't quite been hit as hard on the injury bug, rather just underachieving picks.

In 11th, Team Chevy's defense corps just couldn't manage to stay very healthy all year. Mattias Ohlund, Greg de Vries, Ric Jackman, Daryl Sydor, Oleg Tverdovsky... all couldn't avoid the injury bug this year, thus not getting a whole lot of support from the blue line. It also hasn't helped that his goaltending situation was hurt when Evgeni Nabokov got hurt before he got dropped at the Waiver Draft and then Manny Legace was picked up, only to be platooned with Chris Osgood. A lot of points were lost in the goaltending department as well.

Pull the Goalie, now in 12th, was a team that wasn't sure whether or not to be injured or not. Unfortunately, they were a team not only hit by injuries, but by retirements as well. Ziggy Palffy was one of two guys who retired from the pool this season, it would have been three if Brett Hull was taken, but he wasn't. But Pull the Goalie got hit the hardest not too long ago with the losses of both Ladislav Nagy and Marek Svatos for the season... Waiver Draft drop, Jocelyn Thibault was in the doghouse in Pittsburgh, never to recover. Sergei Fedorov had an early-season injury before being dropped. And Peter Forsberg, was a constant on-again, off-again player, which is what you don't want from your first pick overall.

Thanx For Comin' Out actually shot themselves in the foot by picking poorly, more than having some injury problems... with just a dash of bad luck. The only player they have done for the season is Waiver Draft pick-up, Jiri Slegr... otherwise, their picks of Darren McCarty, Denis Gauthier and Sean O'Donnell came up and bit them in the ass pretty hard. Chuck Kobasew and Todd Bertuzzi are underachieving pretty badly, while Steve Reinprecht is finally finding his game in Phoenix.

Finally, Doug's Deadbeats have been really unlucky this season, only having 3 players over the 60 games played mark from about a week ago. Mike Modano, Sidney Crosby and Bill Guerin were the three guys who have seen just about all the games for their team this year. Mario Lemieux, the second retiree of the pool, left after 26 games, Kenny Jonsson didn't even make it to the NHL this year, Sandis Ozolinsh hit hard by injuries when in Anaheim, Mike Peca struggled with an injury early this year, Alex Frolov didn't make it out of the Olympics healthy, Derek Morris wasn't healthy all year, Dominik Hasek also didn't make it out of the Olympics, Mats Sundin had the puck in the eye injury... the list was long and painful, thus a last-place standing at the moment. They have been fortunate to get points from the games that were played or else the basement would be all theirs.


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Wildfire Hockey Pool Standings - End of Week 21

Team.......................................Total...This Week
Langdon River Dogs...........................528..........37
The Shaving Moes.............................520..........30
Don's Dinos..................................516..........23
Team EA......................................504..........29
THE Team.....................................470..........26
Team Lowes Racing............................460..........16
The Slim Pickens.............................450..........22
Taffy's Tyrants..............................435..........25
Sherpa's Yaks................................434..........20
Pull the Goalie..............................422..........18
Team Chevy...................................418..........24
The Late Impact..............................418..........26
Thanx For Comin' Out.........................393..........15
Doug's Deadbeats.............................393..........18

Stats updated through Sunday's games...

With only 6 weeks left in the season, the race at the top remains fairly tight. Despite the Langdon River Dogs pulling away another 7 points from 2nd, the race for 1st is still between three, soon-to-possibly be four teams.

The lack-of-a-race down at the bottom is heating up as well... pitting Ilya Kovalchuk (Thanx For Comin' Out) against Sidney Crosby (Doug's Deadbeats) in a battle of basement dwelling scoring leaders. How exciting!

Player of the Week for Week 21... Olli Jokinen (The Shaving Moes) had both a new 4 year contract signed and 9 points to celebrate it. Jokinen, the Moes leading scorer, kept the pace for his teams this week, making sure his teams stay in relative contention, the Moes moreso than the Panthers though.

Injuries:
Jiri Slegr (Thanx For Comin' Out) - Back; Out for the season


Roman Hamrlik (The Slim Pickens) - Hand; Day-to-day


Marek Svatos (Pull the Goalie) - Shoulder; Out for the season
Jose Theodore (The Late Impact) - Foot; Indefinitely

Bryan Berard (Langdon River Dogs) - Back; Indefinitely


Pavol Demitra (The Shaving Moes) - Eye & Nose; Day-to-day
Alex Frolov (Doug's Deadbeats) - Shoulder; Day-to-day
Brent Sopel (Team EA) - Knee; Day-to-day
Kimmo Timonen (Team Lowes Racing) - Hand; Returned on Saturday


Alex Mogilny (The Slim Pickens) - In the minors


Dominik Hasek (Doug's Deadbeats) - Groin; Indefinitely


Kim Johnsson (Team Lowes Racing) - Head; Day-to-day


Ladislav Nagy (Pull the Goalie) - Knee; Out for the season
Derek Morris (Doug's Deadbeats) - Ankle; Returned on Tuesday

Mario Lemieux (Doug's Deadbeats) - Retired
Ziggy Palffy (Pull the Goalie) - Retired

Eric Lindros (Taffy's Tyrants) - Wrist; Out for the season


Dan Cloutier (Sherpa's Yaks) - Knee; Out for the season
Ed Jovanovski (Don's Dinos) - Groin & Abdominal Surgery; Indefinitely
Mattias Ohlund (Team Chevy) - Ribs; Returned on Thursday
Sami Salo (The Shaving Moes) - Shoulder; Day-to-day
Steve Eminger (Sherpa's Yaks) - Ankle; Returned on Monday




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Deadline Deals in the Pool

Deadline Day Deals...
In a less than significant move in the pool, defenseman Sean O'Donnell (Thanx For Comin' Out) was dealt from the Coyotes to the Ducks. O'Donnell has done pretty well nothing in the pool and will only add a little bit of defensive help to the Ducks who have been lacking all year.

Mark Recchi (The Shaving Moes) has been dealt to the best team in the league (at the break, statistically), the Carolina Hurricanes on Deadline Day. Recchi, who has enjoyed a decent season with the Penguins and Sidney Crosby (Doug's Deadbeats), will now have a chance again in the playoffs with this move. Recchi will move from playing with one young starlet to another in Eric Staal (The Slim Pickens). I think the only change in the pool will be Crosby losing out on some production in the end. Recchi will probably play at the same pace, but with linemates other than Staal. More than likely, he'll see a lot of time with another Moe, Cory Stillman (The Shaving Moes). This move may also increase the wins for Martin Gerber (Team EA) as the scoring has been upgraded as well.

Sergei Samsonov (Team Lowes Racing) becomes the fifth player in the pool to move in the last couple days, picking up his roots in Boston and shifting them up north to Edmonton. What does this mean?? Samsonov's 18 goals will be a decent fit with the free-flow play that Edmonton's system is known for. Samsonov can skate with the best of them, when he's not hurt and could be a good match with Shawn Horcoff (The Shaving Moes) or Ales Hemsky (The Late Impact). This should be considered a healthy pool move.

A late trade coming off the wire saw pool defenseman, Ric Jackman (Team Chevy) move from Pittsburgh to Florida for a younger prospect. Jackman, a waiver draft pickup, was not seeing the amount of ice-time he should have deserved in Pittsburgh after Michel Therien became coach and was rumoured to be moving ever since the coaching change. In Florida, he should be able to fit right in and maybe pick up a few more points here and there.

Wednesday's Deals...

Wednesday, the Montreal Canadiens sent injured goaltender, Jose Theodore (The Late Impact) to the Colorado Avalanche for Swiss goalie, David Aebischer. This would be a significant deal in the pool, if:

a) both goalies were taken in the pool this year and/or

b) Theodore wasn't injured.

As it stands though, Theodore may actually regain his Hart Trophy winning confidence in the thin air of Denver... or is it the lack of media scrutiny in Denver? Either way, there is a good chance that Theodore will become a good pick. Next year. Granted, if he's healthy soon... he might be a solid pick-up in any playoff pool you may find yourself in.

Defenseman Brent Sopel (Team EA) was also dealt today... to the Los Angeles Kings from the New York Islanders. The Kings were projected to be big buyers in this deadline session and they are showing some life, also picking up forward Mark Parrish for a couple of prospects and a pick. Sopel returns to the Western Conference where he had quite a bit of success with the Canucks before his couple seasons with Long Island. I would imagine he'd fit in pretty well and increase his somewhat quiet production he has had all year.



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