First Post of the Playoffs

Good morning! It's Friday and we're already two nights into the playoffs. It's been a bit of a trick setting everyone up, so this just happens to be my first post of the playoffs.

All of the team rosters have been posted, but the team sheets haven't quite been updated yet. That's the last project of the day today... getting all my programming done so it's all updated in a snap, crackle & pop.

Well, it looks like we've ended up with 57 entries, down from last year's 63, but we'll continue on like it's no big deal. Already, we have ourselves a clean leader, Riley, who already leads by three points. He has managed to pick a bunch of great players who are jumping out of the gates with reckless abandon. Thanks to wins from Dominik Hasek (Box 12) and Carey Price (Box 24) last night, he managed to seal his spot going into the first weekend.

With our 57 entries, it looks like the prize breakdown will be fairly straight-forward. $500 for first place, $50 for 2nd and $20 for third place... the big prize should almost feel like winning the Cup yourself, except with a lot less hard work and skating. Another race for $500... that's pretty substantial for a $10 entry.

So, the name of the game in the Playoff Pool is to have picked the right combination of players that can maximize your points going through all four rounds of the playoffs, slowly eliminating players on a round by round basis. If you have chosen wisely, you shouldn't lose any players in the first round, but that takes figuring out all eight teams who are going to make it through to the second round. After the second round, every team will start to lose players (if they haven't already started) and the better teams will have a maximum of six players left when the Cup Finals start.

A goalie who makes it all the way to the Cup Finals will make a minimum of 24 points, after winning 12 games. Of course, we've already seen three goalies pick-up shutouts in the post-season: Marc-Andre Fleury (Box 24), Marty Turco (Box 12) and Evgeni Nabokov (Box 12). The shutout is worth an extra two points, so you should have been sure to pick the right keepers to take you all the way to the finals, as they are worth the most points in the pool.

The most popular keepers were Evgeni Nabokov (Box 12) in the West, who had been selected 20 times and Carey Price (Box 24) in the East, who has been taken 21 times. Much like TSN's mock playoffs with NHL '08, the Sharks and Habs were picked to play in the Finals, so it looks as though the majority seems to have the same idea of who they'd like to see in the Finals.

The last trick of the Playoff Pool is the onus on Game Winning Goals. They are somewhat like bonus points in the scoring race. Since they are the most important goal in a game, this is the sole reason as to why the point is offered up in the pool. It's hard to gauge who is going to be the better goal scorer in any one situation. Much like Friday night, where it was Joe Pavelski's (Box 6) goal that ended up being the winner against the Flames... who would have thought it was going to be the first one. But every team needs to score the first goal of the game to get that chance to win.

Out of eight games played already, we have only seen four GWG scored by players in the pool. On Wednesday night, only Joe Sakic (Box 2) collected the bonus point and only four teams in the pool capitalized on that goal. Thursday had the other three players... Andrei Kostitsyn (Box 16) got the winner against the Bruins for 13 teams... Henrik Zetterberg (Box 1) beat the Predators with his goal and 20 teams benefitted... finally, Joe Pavelski (Box 6) beat the Flames and 4 teams collected that point.


Well tonight, we're all in for the first game of the series between the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers. They are the last series to get underway in the playoffs. That game will be carried on TSN tonight at 5pm MT. It's a pretty important contest to the pool as well, since Alexander Ovechkin (Box 13) had been taken 23 times, the highest in Box 13. His season total of 65 goals was enough to persuade 23 teams that he'll be able to lead the Playoffs in scoring, despite their lack of depth, therefore chance at going exceptionally deep into the Playoff rounds.

The only game CBC is carrying tonight is the Ottawa/Pittsburgh game at 5pm MT. The Senators are going to have to put at least a little bit of an effort in if they are going to save some face in this series. They may only be down 1-0, but they were very lifeless in that first game. Now that the Penguins have sensed weakness, this game could be a lunge at the jugular vein of the team to crush some spirits.

Also going tonight, the Rangers and Devils square off again in the swamp, while the Wild host the Avalanche in Minnesota. The Northwest Division battle will also be on TSN at 8pm, while the Rangers and Devils will be on the TSN alternate channel or on Centre Ice.