Week Twenty-Seven Newsletter - The Year End Edition

It's all done and dusted everyone! The regular season is officially over at OpiatedSherpa.com and we have ourselves some official results to the two biggest pools of the season... or should I say the longest pools of the season. Yes, 27 weeks have elapsed (where did the time go?), 976 players hit the ice for an NHL game this season and only a small percentage of those played a part in these pools, but all of these players will make the Summer just as interesting, as we look ahead to the 2012 regular season, which may get started a little sooner than usual with talk of a keeper pool in the works.

I know, I've been hinting at a keeper pool for quite some time now, but now the desire to put one together is getting a little bigger, so don't forget to call me in June when the Entry Draft goes, maybe we'll get something worked out for August or early September.

The best thing about handing out prizes for a hockey pool is that the results don't really come as a big surprise, so opening envelopes to reveal the winners are just useless.  I think first this year, I'll announce the player nods, just for the hell of it.  We'll mix it up a little bit this year.

The hockey pool MVP goes to the player who picks up the most points, as per my scoring table, in the season, which doesn't lead to any voting or balloting controversies, but it has led to back-to-back brother years, as Daniel Sedin was the only player in the NHL pool scoring race to crack 100 points, finishing with 104 points (41 goals and 63 assists) in 82 games.  Brother Henrik was the recipient of the nod after the 2010 season, finishing up with 112 points.

It was by no means a wire-to-wire win, but the Sedins were fairly consistent in their scoring records between both seasons, where as some of their closest competition in the 2011 season was very hot for good streaks and had some longer cold spells, unless you're talking about a guy like Sidney Crosby, who ended his season shortly into the New Year, after suffering a season-ending concussion.  Nevertheless, Crosby didn't get back into the Penguins line-up and the race was left to the two Canucks and a scoring pair from the Tampa Bay Lightning, a sniper in Anaheim and a handful of goalies rounded out the top 10 in scoring.

Daniel only managed to pick up a single Player of the Week nod in the draft this year, scoring 8 points in Week Twenty-Three, while only one player was able to pick up the nod twice in the year, Ryan Miller in weeks Nine and Twenty-Five.  For those wondering, Kari Lehtonen was the Week Twenty-Seven Player of the Week, as he was the only one in the draft to pick up 8 points, but no playoff spot.

The top goalie nod in 2011 belongs to Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers; 36 wins, 11 shutouts and 4 assists added up to 98 points, finishing 4th in pool scoring, while the top defenseman was Lubomir Visnovsky of the Anaheim Ducks, who finished with 18 goals and 50 assists for 68 points in 81 games.

A new year worth of winning and I though it would be very wise to make up a new animation for what these pools are really about... the money!  Who wants to see what the prizes are looking like this year?  I thought you might... check out our money winners for both the draft and the sheet pools this year.

We will begin with the draft, where it was a bit of a runaway after Week Seventeen.  Allan S. had only a 1-point lead through 17 weeks of the season, but then the afterburners kicked in, finishing the year with a 94-point victory and $500 to his name.  A monster finish to the year, just shortly after the second waiver draft of the year, he just destroyed the competition, taking the Mover and Shaker three times in the last ten weeks and was in the conversation for the other seven weeks as well.

Leading the way for Allan in pool scoring was Antti Niemi, who finished with 83 points.  Niemi was ranked 16th in pool scoring this season, showing that you don't necessarily need the best players in the pool to reach the pinnacle of the standings, just some very good consistency within your line-up.

It was an incredible finish to the season and a well deserved money, not to mention the third jersey in the segment as well.  In the final nine weeks, Allan picked up 316 points, by far the best segment of the year.

2nd place and $175 goes to the only duo in draft history, Kristy and Don, they finished with 715 points, followed by Chris M., who takes the 3rd place prize of $100 with 708 points.  After all the points were counted and checked, re-checked and verified, there was a tie for getting the 4th place prize of their money back and by virtue of the first tie-breaker, goals scored, Don D. comes away with his money back, scoring the $50 thanks to his 244 goals for (best in the draft) and 695 points.

Congratulations to everyone in the draft, what a great year... and a great race, for everyone not chasing 1st place.

In the selection sheet pool, it was a much closer race, but Burc B. did stay on top since the end of Week Seventeen as well.  That was a great deal of holding on, finishing with 1,694 points and a 30-point victory, earning himself $450 for his troubles.  A great payout for a participation level, well under the usual years.  Burc made the right decision taking on both the Sedin twins for 198 points between them, Martin St. Louis, Tim Thomas and Alex Ovechkin at the beginning of the year, capitalizing on some massive points this year.  HIs trades were very good, coming at the right time, especially moving Tuukka Rask for Henrik Lundqvist very early and picking up 88 of his 98 points on the year.  That was a clutch move and it really paid off in the end for him.

In 2nd place, Wes M. finished up 1,664 points, 23 clear of 3rd place, Mitch F., 1,641 points and 25 point clear of 4th place, Paul W., who had 1,619 points.  Wes picks up $200 for 2nd, Mitch gets $75 for 3rd and Paul gets his money back at $25.  There were a number of teams that were in and out of the money spots all year, but the last few weeks seemed to slow the whole thing down, as the top three were set after Week Twenty-One and Paul moved into 4th in Week Twenty-Six, sniping the spot away from Scott G.

Well, there you have it.  Another regular season in the books and we'll start it all over again in no time.  First things first though... let's do the playoff pool!  Get your entries in, it sounds like it'll be one hell of a pool this year... or at least, that's what I'm to understand.

Thanks to everyone who participated this year, I hope it was as much fun for you as it always is for me.  Tell your friends, if you like it, of course.  If you're interested in the keeper pool that'll get started this year, keep an eye on the blog and we'll get things going for it, for sure!  Have fun in the playoffs and we'll see you again for the next regular season.