The Week One Curse

In the chase to win the annual draft hockey pool, we all pick our teams, hoping that they can do their best every day and every week, no matter how many weeks it takes to get through the season.

Well, I have a table that may suggest that you may not want your team to do so well in the opening week of the season, as the team that has finished atop the standings after the first week of the season in the last seven years, has not gone on to win the hockey pool.  A couple of teams have finished 2nd in Week One and gone on to win the whole thing, but no one has gone wire-to-wire or at the very least, been on top at the beginning and the end.

One team has gone from 1st to last, but that's not what you're after at all.

	Week One		Final Week
	1st Place (Finish)	Last Place (Finish)	1st Place (Week One)	Last Place (Week One)
2014 (24)	Brenda (9th)	Benson (11th)	Allan (10th)	Doug (5th)
2013 (17)	Wes (12th)	Clayton (6th)	Stacey M. (7th)	Ryan M. (16th)
2012 (22)	Wayne (5th)	Stuart (2nd)	Clayton (2nd)	Darren (19th)
2011 (20)	Jani (17th)	Chris (3rd)	Allan (2nd)	Dale C. (17th)
2010 (17)	John P. (17th)	Peter (15th)	Leon (5th)	John P. (1st)
2009 (17)	Dale C. (8th)	5 teams	Clayton (10th)	Grant (13th)
2008 (17)	Marcus (16th)	7 teams	Stuart (7th)	Ryan (11th)

As you can see, two teams have finished in last place in the opening week of the season and have come back to get into a money position, both in 2011 and 2012.  That's pretty remarkable.  They may not be pool wins, but at least it has been proven that money can be won from that position.

The lowest position in Week One to win the pool is 10th place, done twice, as recently as last year.  To me, it looks like a top ten position should give you the most hope, no matter how many points you may or may not be behind.

It's a new year and anything can happen, but who doesn't like to try and find patterns in the past?  Do you want your team to finish 1st in Week One after seeing this?