The Opiated Sherpa's Hockey Pool Domain: Second Round Has Begun

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Second Round Has Begun

Welcome to the second round, everyone. This is where you're gonna start to see if you'll be in the money or not. The first round of eliminations have been made. Some teams fared well (Mike Emery still has all 22 players) or some fared quite poorly (regular season winner, Dieter, has only 6 left). Ten teams came out of the first round quite well, only losing 3 or less players, which will help in the long run. The eventual goal will be to have the maximum 6 players for the Finals, hopefully having that one guy that will put you over top of everyone else when push comes to shove.

Spotlight Player

This playoff season did seem to lack some really big nights, in my opinion. Of course, who goes out and gets one when I start to think that. Andy McDonald... that's who. He notched a hat-trick and an assist. The big line, which includes Teemu Selanne and Chris Kunitz, were held to a miserable amount of points against the Wild, but feasted on the Canucks last night. Thankfully, for all us poolies, only one team (now in 52nd) has McDonald, so unless he really starts to light the lamp... Greg will be down there and McDonald will have no significant value to the pool.

Game Winning Goal Scorers of the Night
In the Game Winners section, it was Thomas Vanek who scored the Sabres third goal in a 5-2 win against the Rangers on Wednesday night. Vanek, a pool favourite at 34 selections, was a welcomed sight to the GWG column last night. The Sabres take an early 1-0 series lead on the Rangers to Friday night. In Anaheim, Teemu Selanne had the eventual winner, which was a part of a 3-goal first period for the Ducks, on the way to routing the Canucks 5-1 in Game 1. The second game of that series also goes on Friday night.

Thursday night sees the other two series going ahead...