Stadium Series Pool Review

Well, that was it.  The last of the big regular season events, as two of the 50-year anniversary celebrating teams went outside for a state rivalry game.  The evening setting looked pretty decent for a game, despite the reports of the wind swirling around in the stadium, the ice looked pretty good, in comparison to some of the previous games we've seen.

The stage was set for the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Flyers needing to find their way back into the playoff race, while the Penguins were looking to keep pace with the Washington Capitals, atop the Metropolitan Division.

The pace of the game to start was quite good off the hop, but it wasn't too long before the Penguins really took control of it and never looked back.  It was their home game, they were the better team on paper, despite some of the injuries and the better team clearly owned the game.

The Penguins were the eventual victors in this one, winning 4-2, and the scoreline only suggested that the game may have been a bit closer than it was, but Penguins goalie Matt Murray was kept fairly busy, making 36 saves, but it didn't feel like he was tested too greatly in the game.

With six goals in the game, you would have thought that the hockey pool would have been much happier with this outdoor game, compared to some of the others, but it really wasn't all that great.  You'd think that six goals, a possible 18 points, plus a goalie win would make for 20 points to take from... well, the pool only took in 8 points.  There were only 9 points unaccounted for, so the maximum amount of points wasn't even reached, but no one took a chance on a kid like Jake Guentzel in the Waiver Draft, so his 2-point effort went for naught on Saturday night.

Murray led the way among pool players with the win and the 2 points, giving Scott the best score in the game for the mini-game... 2 points.  So many expectations, squashed!

Scott's 2 points made him the closest one to Marcie's 6-point total before the game and since she had no one to bank on in this one, it was a race to see if anyone else could get to 6 points.  In the end, it was not to be, as Marcie won the mini-game with her 6-point total and her team was unable to score a goal in the mini-game, leaving it ripe for the picking.  All Scott needed was a single point from Radko Gudas, Ivan Provorov or Mark Streit in this game and they didn't produce.  Heck, even an assist from Matt Murray would have done the job.  Nevertheless, Marcie does indeed collect some money back, the first of what could be three prizes this year.