Week Twenty-Eight Newsletter - End of the Season

We've finally come to the end of the regular season. Twenty-eight long weeks of great hockey from start to finish. Now, after all those 82-game schedules, we've figured out who will be in the playoffs and who has won the two pools!

In the Draft, it was Clayton who stormed away in the last month of the season, after having around the top six for the better part of the season. In Week Twenty-Five, his team finally took charge of their play and started to play like champs. The pool win was worth $575. Second and Third place were coming right down to the wire, with even some outside threat of losing position, but John B. and Peter did finish in those positions, respectively, which had to be decided via tie-breakers, since both teams finished with 769 points each. John took the first tie-breaker, goals scored, by a big 23-goal margin. The two were jockeying for position, even on the final day of the season, where an assist here and there was keeping each other's hopes alive for the second place title. What a finish! John will receive the $100 second place prize, while Peter gets his money back for placing third. Congratulations to you all in the Draft. I hope it was a lot of fun for you.

On the Sheet, the pool pays out for five places, but the real prize is in first place, where Dale C. managed to pull away that extra little bit away from Wes, who finished in second. Coming into the final week of the season, Dale only had a 10-point lead on Wes, but managed to claim the $600 first prize after having an 11-point advantage in Week Twenty-Eight. Dale took the win after leading the pool since the end of Week Twelve. Wes never looked back in second place since Week Sixteen, after passing Paul W., who remained in third for the remainder of the season. Caterina managed to sneak fourth away from Jeremy in Week Twenty-Six and held it until the end of the year, claiming fourth place. Jeremy and Mike E. then battled for the fifth and final money spot of the year, which saw Jeremy claim the spot in the final week of the season, after Mike took it from him in Week Twenty-Seven. What a fantastically exciting race that was!

Congratulations to all of you who won money this year and thanks to all of you for participating in the regular season pools. I hope you had a lot of fun with the whole thing and are looking forward to the Playoff Pool, which is now available. I don't have an online system up for the selection sheet, but if you want me to send you a copy via e-mail, do drop me a line.

Well, now it comes down to naming our pool MVP, which is the top point getter, according to the pool scoring. From what I believe was wire-to-wire, Evgeni Malkin took the pool points title, with a silent, but deadly quality to him. Malkin finished the year with 35 goals and 78 assists in all 82 games for the Penguins for 113 points. The scoring title will also earn him the Art Ross Trophy in the league and should give him some consideration for some of the other Valuable Player trophies in the league.

Malkin's MVP season didn't make a big splash in the Draft this year, as Derek, Malkin's team owner, didn't pick too wisely past the first round. Derek finished 12th in the pool, despite picking third in the Draft. Malkin was a very popular pick in Box 18 of the Sheet and was instrumental to those who finished in the money in the Sheet pool. It never hurts to have the league-leader in points on your team, if you get the chance.

Getting top billing in goal this season was Miikka Kiprusoff, who finished with 101 pool points and the best defenseman was Mike Green, who finished with 73 points. Kiprusoff finished fourth in overall points this season, while Green could be considered a reasonable third round pick or even a late-second round pick, if you were brave enough.

We do have one more Mover & Shaker award to hand out this year for the Draft, so I guess I better do that now too. We had ourselves a tie in the number of points gained in Week Twenty-Eight, with 37 points a piece. When the M&S award is tied in points, it then comes down to the number of positions moved in the Standings and our two contestants will be matched up here. Marcus and Jeremy each finished with the 37 points in Week Twenty-Eight, but Marcus moved up one position from fifth to fourth, while Jeremy laid dormant in sixth in the Standings, so Marcus will take home the final weekly prize of the Darryl Sittler jersey card. Congratulations Marcus!

Well, thanks again everyone! If you haven't been able to claim a prize you won this year, be sure to give me an e-mail and we'll all get back to it again in the playoffs... and then again in September/October! Have a great summer if I don't speak to you during the Spring!