Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2015 Winter Classic Preview

New Year's Day, 2015... the scene: Nationals Park in Washington, DC. This is where the NHL will hold the 2015 edition of the Winter Classic, the outdoor festival that celebrates the beginnings of our favourite game at sites in the United States, which make it far from being a classic, but from there, I digress.

This year, it will be a match-up of some teams previously involved in these outdoor games on January 1st, as the Chicago Blackhawks, veterans of their own Winter Classic previously, take on the Washington Capitals, who have visited other Winter Classic sites before hosting their own.

Where this blog is concerned is in the hockey pool, of course, and this is where the preview really starts to take shape.  I have a table below of all the players taken in the draft this year, where the Blackhawks have a two player edge over the Capitals, which suggests that our poolies thinks that this could be a close game, like many of the outdoor games have been.

Stacey C. has the decided edge in players in the game with four, three Blackhawks and the Capitals goalie... how undecided is that?  You have to think that Stacey is hoping for a slightly high scoring game with Washington coming out on top, right?

Clayton and Kristy & Don each have three players going in the game, all of which are offensive.  Clayton is mainly Chicago, 2-1, while the pool duo is all Washington, so there is a little bit of a clash of biases in that match-up.

Chicago Washington
Corey Crawford Dale C. Braden Holtby Stacey C.
--- ---
Patrick Kane Stacey C. Nicklas Backstrom Wilton
Jonathan Toews Stacey M. Alex Ovechkin Kristy & Don
Kris Versteeg Stacey C. Marcus Johansson Clayton
Brandon Saad Wes Joel Ward Stuart
Marian Hossa Stacey C. Troy Brouwer Kristy & Don
Brad Richards Clayton Evgeny Kuznetsov Benson
Patrick Sharp Wyllie
Andrew Shaw Stacey M.
--- ---
Brent Seabrook Leo John Carlson Kristy & Don
Duncan Keith Clayton Mike Green Troy
Niklas Hjalmarsson Dale C. Matt Niskanen Cam

After the game, we'll have a comparison of pool teams and how many points they got in this game.  It's really too bad that I wasn't able to secure a prize for the outdoor game, but with only 12 of 23 pool teams active in the Winter Classic, I may not feel quite so bad.

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