Quacking in the Pool

Well, the Ducks have made it. As some hockey pundits had predicted, the Anaheim Ducks are going to the Stanley Cup Finals. Most of the pool participants also thought Anaheim was going far in the pool, as they were the most popular Western Conference team, by way of player selections. There were 147 Duck selections in the pool this Spring and they didn't disappoint. It's amazing how many teams have three Ducks left going into the Finals. Last season, there were very few who had many players in the West... 'cuz who knew the Oilers would fluke out so badly? The Oilers, who eliminated the Ducks in last year's Conference Finals had very little support, as compared to their opponents, the Carolina Hurricanes, but this year, both the Senators and the Ducks have quite a few players selected and therefore, there are quite a few teams going into the Finals with 4, 5 or 6 players.

The Ducks have sure made an impact on the pool, not only of the elimination of the Red Wings, but quietly gone about their business, with everyone chipping in here and there. Only J-S Giguere and Ryan Getzlaf are in the Top 10 of pool scoring going into the Finals... hell, there are more Red Wings (3) in the Top 10 than there are Ducks. Three Ducks have made it to the perfect team (going into the playoffs, which may change after the Finals)... Teemu Selanne, Ryan Getzlaf and Chris Pronger. If you had that combination of Ducks, you'd be open for the best team possible in the pool. The best team in the pool does have two of the three... Derek has Getzlaf and Pronger, but has Corey Perry instead of Selanne.

With the Ducks' dominant performance through the playoffs, it has given Derek a good 4-point lead going into the Finals. Thanks to those three Ducks, who had a combined 17 points in that round, he has a good chance of keeping that lead through to the end.

Dan, who is now tied for second, also had two of the three best possible Ducks in Getzlaf in Pronger. It could be a bit of a common denominator in these playoffs. He also had defenseman, Scott Niedermayer, who didn't do too badly as well in that Conference Final, with 5 points. That'll help keep his head above water for the time being.

Also tied for second, Benson had three totally different Ducks than the first two, but was also banking on Detroit to make it past the Ducks. He'll go into the Cup Finals with both Niedermayers and Francois Beauchemin. He did manage to squeeze out 13 points from those Ducks, which isn't too shabby, considering he got 15 points out of his Red Wings before they tanked.

The third team tied for second going into the Finals is Mike E.. He went through the Conference Finals with Selanne, Scott Niedermayer and Pronger, which tallied him 15 points. Not a bad turnout to say the least.

There are also four other teams only one point behind those guys tied for 2nd, so it's been a pretty well predicted race going into the Finals and the Ducks have certainly been a big part of that. Stay tuned for the Finals preview coming soon!

Technorati Tags
NHL, Hockey Pool, Injuries, Playoffs, Scores, Hockey

Go to the Hockey Pool standings Page
Go to the Trash Talk Page