Olympic Pool Update (Final Results)

I don't know too many people who didn't get up nice and early to catch the Gold Medal Game on Sunday morning here in Calgary, I guess the only question really became whether or not you went to the bar or not. No matter where you watched Canada take on Sweden to defend their Olympic title, you were treated to one hell of a game, as the Canadians didn't disappoint, rather they put on a clinic on how to play defense in a high-pressure situation.

As expected, it was a pretty tight game between the two best teams in the tournament, as both Canada and Sweden went into the game undefeated and looking to stay that way.  The 1st period, early on, had that feeling that it would only take one goal, maybe two, to win it, as both goalies, Carey Price and Henrik Lundqvist, were sharp and the defenses were hanging on well to what the opposition was throwing at them.

Just before the 13-minute mark in the opening frame, Canada was able to break through with a good cycle play, which found Jonathan Toews in front of the net with time, squeaking the puck through Lundqvist's 5-hole and opening the scoring.  From there, Canada was able dictate the play and finish the frame with a 1-0 lead.

The 2nd period was more of the same, as the Swedes were not able to make any great pushes on the Canadian goal and around the 6-minute mark, Sidney Crosby converted on a turnover, tucking a breakaway goal in past the Swedish netminder and Canada was up 2-0.

Sweden ended up being outshot in the middle frame, 11-9, and did not really pose that much of a threat, which gave the feeling that the 2-0 lead was going to be enough.

In the 3rd, Canada outshot Sweden 13-4, added another unassisted goal from Chris Kunitz, again capitalizing on a Sweden turnover in their own zone and in total, Carey Price only had to make 24 saves for his second consecutive shutout in the tournament and Canada went home with the gold medal, winning 3-0.

Price was again the leader in points, earning the win and the shutout for a 4-point effort in the game.  Toews, who opened the scoring in the 1st period, was credited with the golden goal, giving him 2 points on the day.  Both Crosby & Kunitz's goals were unassisted, so there wasn't very many points handed out in the game.

Price was just 1 point shy of a tie for the tournament-best, which was taken by Henrik Lundqvist, who finished with 15 points.  Phil Kessel was the top forward and Erik Karlsson was the top defenseman, each of them finishing with 9 points.  Lundqvist was taken 13 times, while Karlsson was taken 11 times, but Kessel was not taken at all.

And with that, 10 days at the Olympics are in the books and no one could catch Rob A.'s first team, as he finished with 99 points, 5 points better than Curtis G. and 8 points better than Chris J..

It really looked like the idea of putting in two teams allowed him to make some extra choices that he may not have taken if he had only submitted one team.  Well, if the NHL goes to South Korea in 2018, you might want to consider doing the same thing, spending that extra $10 and putting in that extra team.

Well, if you're looking for some playoff hockey pools, you know where to come!  It will be much of the same thing, in terms of the sheet and the entry.  Thanks for playing all, hopefully you had a great time!

Congratulations to Rob, your money is on the way... I just have to break a few legs first.

Olympic Pool Update (Day 9, Feb 22)

Boy, if I thought the Americans were flat against the Canadians on Friday, then I wouldn't know what to call them against Finland in the Bronze Medal Game on Saturday.  There was next to no jam on the US side of the ice and arguably their best forward was leaned upon, but came up empty, not to mention came up with penalties, which cost his team in the end.

The 1st period was full of action, despite no goals.  There were penalties, power plays and even a penalty shot for Patrick Kane, but nothing on the board after the opening frame.

Kane's opportunity in the 1st period could have been the difference, as the 2nd period was all Finland, starting off with a Teemu Selanne goal, 1:27 in.  11 seconds later, Jussi Jokinen added the 2-0 marker on an unsuspecting and deflated American squad.

Kane had another shot, this time to get his team back in the game, earning a second penalty shot in the game, but his wrist shot clanked the post and the middle frame with Finland up 2-0, where it could have easily have been 2-2.

Early in the 3rd period, Kane was front and centre again, as he took a penalty, which gave the Finns an early power play, which they were able to convert upon, just as Kane was exiting the box, so not technically a power play goal, but still not in the play.

Selanne and Olli Maata were able to also add power play goals in the 3rd period, as the Americans began to roll over, knowing full well that defeat was inevitable.

In his sixth Olympics, Selanne was able to capture his fourth medal, as he captained Finland to a Bronze Medal, winning 5-0.

Tuukka Rask made 27 saves for the shutout, earning him 4 points in the game, while Selanne scored a pair of goals, including the winner, for a 3-point effort.  Jussi Jokinen had a goal and an assist and Mikael Granlund chipped in with a pair of assists, rounding out the Finnish pool representatives with multi-point efforts.

Rob A.'s first team was able to keep his 3-point lead through the Bronze Medal Game and with a plethora of Canadians and the two goalies for the Gold Medal Game, he'll be next to impossible to beat.

Three teams managed to snake 5 points out of this game: Curtis, Larry and Rob A. #1.

Unofficially, Phil Kessel finished with 9 points in the tournament, while Teemu Selanne led the Finns with 8 points, both being very good picks, if you had taken them.  No one took Kessel, but 11 teams did take Selanne.

Olympic Pool Update (Day 8, Feb 21)

There's no question that there is a little bit of drama that's missing out of the Olympic Semifinals without the host nation playing, but that doesn't mean that there was one less team deserving of a spot in the final four.  Semifinal Friday saw four good teams, Finland, Sweden, Canada and the USA, go to battle, each with the chance to play in the Gold Medal Game on Sunday.  The respective losing teams would play for bronze on Saturday.

Going into the day, Rob A. had a sizeable lead of 6 points, which wasn't quite locked up, with four games to go in the tournament.  This leads us to the real questions, who would be where and what does the last couple of games mean for the pool?

Heading into the first game of the day, Finland & Sweden, the news came out of the Finnish room that Tuukka Rask was under the weather, which meant that Kari Lehtonen had to take the lead in the crease for the underdog side.

From what I could gather, this was a pretty tight affair, like it should have been, with the Finns breaking through first, as Olli Jokinen snuck a puck underneath Henrik Lundqvist to take a 1-0 lead, near the midway point of the 2nd period.  Five minutes later, the Swedes tied up the game with a Loui Eriksson goal, which left Lehtonen with no chance to get over in time to get it.  Still in the 2nd period, on the power play, it was one of the tournament leaders in scoring, Erik Karlsson, hammering home a shot from the point, giving the Swedes a 2-1 lead, which was enough for the favourites to hold on and win with.
Sweden goes on to face the winner of the Canada/USA game, while Finland will play for bronze with this result.

Lundqvist scored another 2 points with the win, while Karlsson was the only other multi-point player, scoring the winner.  Lundqvist leads the pool with 15 points, while Karlsson has 9 points in the tourney to this point, tied for 3rd in pool scoring.

The day after Canada came back to win a squeaker over the US in the Women's Gold Medal Game, you know there had to be some residual feelings coming into this Semifinal Game today for the men.  The rematch between the 2010 Gold Medal Game was to feature two different goalies, as the 2010 starters were both on the bench, not really adding to the intrigue, rather injecting some new blood into the rivalry.

Both teams held court in the 1st period, as the two teams were good in some transitional hockey, getting chances at both ends of the ice, but there was a noticeable advantage for Canada after one.  Canada took that advantage and capitalized within the first two minutes of the 2nd period, as Jamie Benn scored to get the Canadians on the board, which put the pressure on the US.

To my surprise, the USA pressure was not as constant or as heavy as one might have expected, given the circumstances of the game and the nature of the rivalry, which allowed Canada to gain some chances for an insurance marker, not to mention carrying the puck out of their own zone unopposed.

Benn's goal stood up to be the only marker of the game, which gave him a 2-point game, while Carey Price made 31 saves for the shutout and a 4-point game, lifting him into 2nd place in pool scoring with 10 points.
Canada will play Sweden for gold and Finland will take on the US for bronze, another game for all four teams to seal up the Olympic hockey tournament.

Three teams in the pool finished with 10 points on the day, Bill, Tom and Chris J. each topped out with some pretty good days.  Having both winning goalies, Karlsson and some assorted players will do that for some teams.

Rob A. still finished on top, as his first team had a 7-point day, which will keep him afloat into the weekend.  Rob has three Finns on that team, so he should be well represented on Saturday for the Bronze Medal Game, while he will be pulling for a big Canada win on Sunday to win the pool in the end.

Rob appears to be going wire-to-wire, but Curtis and Chris J. are poised to still upset his chances, now with only two games left on the schedule.

Olympic Pool Team Mistake Found

Well everyone, do you remember when I made the gaff of forgetting Wes' team on the standings at the beginning of the Olympic Tournament? I did and I mentioned it in the standings, which brought our total number of teams to 32.  So, much in the same vein of mistakes, when I put Wes' team in the standings, I didn't go over all of the teams, missing yet another one.

Curtis G. had his team with four others, bought and paid for, it was entered on time, but his name never made it to the standings page.  I can assure you, his team is on the level, despite landing in 2nd place, still 5 points back of Rob A.'s first team, but he's right in the mix.

Curtis and Chris J. now are the teams chasing down Rob for the grand total of $330 in the pot and I would like to apologize to everyone for the mistake and I certainly don't want to leave anyone out of the pool, especially the new people who have joined the pools for the first time.

Enjoy the rest of the medal round!

Olympic Pool Update (Day 7, Feb 19)

In the first Quarterfinal match-up of the day, Sweden handily worked over Slovenia, 5-0, in a game that didn't surprise many people.

Slovenia did really well to make it to this point, but they ran into a pretty hot team in the Swedes, playing with the top player in the pool, Henrik Lundqvist, who has now won 4 games, with 2 shutouts and an assist for 13 points.

Lundqvist only had to make 19 saves for his second shutout of the tournament, giving him another 4-point game.  Alex Steen was credited with the winner for a 2-point game, while Loui Eriksson, Erik Karlsson and Carl Hagelin each had 2-point games as well.

With the win, the Swedes would then play the winner of the Finland/Russia game.

The pressure was immense for the Russians at the beginning of the tournament, but the heat was turned up when the hosts had to go through the qualification round and Norway, before they could get to a Quarterfinals date against Finland.

Finland had been playing some good blue collar hockey, narrowly edging some teams for the bye into the Quarters and they were going to provide a very good test for the shaky Russians.

Russia got off to the start that they were looking for, a power play goal in the 1st period, but the Finns responded in 1:27 with the tying goal.  Any momentum that was gained by the goal scored with the extra man, it was quickly flipped, Teemu Selanne put Finland ahead before the end of the frame and then shut the door.  The Finns made it a 2-goal lead in the 2nd period and that ended all the scoring and in turn, dashed the Russian hopes, eliminating them before the medal round.

Tuukka Rask earned the victory, his 2nd win of the tournament, while Selanne ended up with the winner and an assist for a 3-point night, while Mikael Granlund chipped in with a goal and an assist to help the cause.

So, the early game (5am MT) on Friday will see the long standing rivalry of Finland vs. Sweden in the first Semifinal game, winner heading to the Gold Medal Game and the loser playing for bronze.

No one wanted to give Latvia any credit for playing well to get to a Quarterfinal match-up against Canada, which led to no one expecting a tough game for one of the gold medal favourites, but Latvia stood in the fight and made the Canadians scratch and claw for their 2-1 win.

No question, the star of the game was Latvia's goalie, Kristers Gudlevskis, who made 55 saves in the loss.  The Tampa Bay Lightning goalie had to make some spectacular saves, but his teammates did a good job to lessen the quality of chances, keeping a lot of shots from the point and the perimeter of the offensive zone.

Carey Price wasn't nearly as busy, but he still had to make 15 saves, some more difficult than others.  Price picked up another 2 points for his effort, his 3rd win of the tournament, while Shea Weber nailed down the winning goal, giving him a 2-point game as well.

New York Islanders captain John Tavares suffered a knee injury, which will now keep him out of the remainder of the Olympic tournament and possibly some time back in the NHL.  No one has Tavares, but this will open the door for Matt Duchene, who was scratched for this game and has been taken four times.

The Americans are doing a fantastic job of leaving no doubt about their play in this Olympic tournament, as they seem to be doing everything right, scoring goals by the handful and taking reasonable care of their own end.  The Czech Republic were the only thing in their way, standing between them and a date with Canada in the Semifinals.

The US struck early, the Czechs countered soon after, but a couple of goals, late in the 1st period, from Dustin Brown and David Backes folded their opponents and a few more goals decorated the scoresheet for a 5-2 final for the favourites.

Jonathan Quick stopped 21 shots for his 3rd win of the tournament, Backes had the winner and an assist for a 3-point night, Ryan Suter had his first 3 assists of the games and Ryan Kesler rounded out the multi-pointers with 2 assists.

Canada vs. the USA will go at 10am MT on Friday, which should prove to be one hell of a contest for both sides.

We finally found a team that has split the Rob A. lockdown of the top two spots in the standings, as Chris J. has picked up 24 points over the last couple of days to move into 2nd (via the tie-breaker), but he still sits 7 points back of Rob's first team, which may have moved too far for anyone to catch.

With very little prep time on this pool, I don't have the breakdown of the players between the two teams, but I might be able to provide something on our day off tomorrow.

Hopefully, we have a good finish to this tournament and pool... something a little closer, perhaps?

Olympic Pool Update (Day 6, Feb 18)

I suppose it would depend on how you had these two teams pictured going into the qualification game, but Slovenia and Austria went into their match-up with an identical record of 1-0-0-2, with goal differentials that were not too far apart either.

I would have favoured the hot hand of Michael Grabner of Austria over Anze Kopitar of Slovenia, heading into this game, but the team defense of the Slovenians proved to be impenetrable, as they came away with a 4-0 win and the right to face Sweden in tomorrow's Quarterfinal game.

Kopitar opened the scoring for Slovenia in the first six minutes of the game, proving to be the winner and his only 2 points of the game.  His teammates provided the rest of the offense and it was a team effort on defense that proved to be enough to overcome Austria.

They will be in tough, however, against the Swedes, who have looked quite good.  Nevertheless, Kopitar and his two teams that picked him, still have an active body going into the next round of the tournament.

After a poor showing in the round robin, the host Russians started the slightly longer trek to the medal round with a qualification game against Norway on Tuesday.

The Norwegians didn't appear to roll over for the hosts, as they kept the game scoreless through one period, but couldn't keep the favourites off the board in the 2nd period, allowing a couple goals, digging themselves a hole, which they couldn't get out of.

The Russians didn't hold their foot on the gas pedal, rather they held out until an empty-netter to go up 3-0 and then added another one, 27 second later, to finish the game with a 4-0 final.

After a public shaming from the Russian head coach, Alexander Radulov had really stepped up his game, scoring the shootout winner a couple days previous and then picking up 2 goals, including the winner, and an assist for a 4-point game.  Sergei Bobrovsky, who got the start for the Russians, also had a 4-point game, earning the shutout on 22 saves.  Pavel Datsyuk was no slouch either, picking up 3 assists in the game, which made a lot of people happy in the pool.

The Russians earned a date with the Finns on Wednesday in the Quarterfinals, a tough test for a team that hasn't got all of their cylinders firing.

An injury note from the Norwegians, as their only NHLer on the team, Mats Zuccarello, suffered a hand injury and was not able to go in this game.  I don't think he would have helped the end result, but this injury may be of note, when the NHL regular season kicks back into gear.

We did have one absolute upset, as Switzerland, who went 2-0-0-1 in the round robin, only allowing one goal in the process, were up against the 0-0-0-3 Latvians, and couldn't do the job.  The Swiss dropped a 3-1 decision to their lesser opponents in the shock result of the tournament.

Latvia were not the worst team in the round robin in the offensive department, scoring 5 goals in their three games, but they were far from expected to be able to penetrate the Swiss goal line, with Jonas Hiller in net, yet to allow a goal in the tournament.  Sure enough, Latvia gets on the board in the middle of the opening frame, adds a brace a few minutes later, and with a 2-0 lead after one, the underdogs were in control.

The Swiss tried to make a push, outshooting the Latvians, 22-13 in the final two periods, but they only managed a single goal, late in the 2nd period and that would be as close as they came.  Latvia added an empty-netter in the late stages and it was a 3-1 final.

Latvia goes on to face Canada in the Quarters and there were absolutely no points dispersed in the pool standings from this game.

For the chance to play the USA in the Quarterfinals, the Czech Republic and Slovakia went head-to-head in an old time rivalry battle.

The Czechs, who finished the round robin with a 1-0-0-2 record, were only marginal favourites from their border cousins, who finished win-less in three games.

Ales Hemsky, Roman Cervenka and David Krejci made it 3-0 in the 1st period for the Czechs, Cervenka added a 4th goal in the 2nd period and it appeared that this game was going to be a cake walk.

The Slovaks clawed back, however, as Marian Hossa scored late in the 2nd to get on the board, again 7:20 minutes in the 3rd and then Tom Surovy made it 4-3, 3:16 later.  Unfortunately, that was as close as the Slovaks got, as Tomas Plekanec added an empty-netter and the Czechs came away as 5-3 winners.

The only Czech taken in the pool, at least once, who had a multiple-point game, was Krejci, who was taken three times.  Most of the other players taken in the pool were held pointless.

It is beginning to seem highly unlikely that anyone is going to catch Rob A.'s teams, as either one did a hell of a job picking out the point-producers for Canada and Sweden.  Rob's first team finished in the lead again on Tuesday, carrying a 3-point lead over his second team and a 7-point lead over 3rd place, Lee's team.

Marc B. and Wes M. were the top teams on the day, finishing with 11 points each.  Marc finished the day in 7th place, 9 points out of 1st, and Wes finished in 12th, 12 points back.

Olympic Pool Update (Day 5, Feb 16)

The final day of the Olympic tournament started with an inconsequential game to the pool, as Austria and Norway went head-to-head to play for 3rd place in Group B.

Well, who knew it was going to be the Austrian, Michael Grabner, who would be far and away the best player to come out of Box 13?  Not anyone in the pool, I can tell you that much.  Grabner scored another 2 goals on Sunday and he finished the round robin with 5 goals and 1 assist in three games played.

Grabner led the way for a 3-1 Austrian win over Norway and his fellow NHLer teammate, Michael Raffl, chipped in with the second goal, which turned out to be the winner, to round out the scoring.  Unfortunately, everything fell into the points abyss and the standings remained unchanged through the 1am MT game.

The Americans needed a win in regulation to guarantee their bye into the playoff round of the Olympic tournament and in their way was the Slovenians, who already had a win under their belt from Saturday.  In the end, the USA was ready to go and dominated the game from start to finish, giving up one goal with only 17 seconds left in regulation, scoring 5-1 win and a bye through the qualification round.

Remarkably, the two stars of the game for the USA, Phil Kessel (natural hat-trick & GWG) and Joe Pavelski (3 assists), were not taken at all in the pool, so another 7 points dropped into the abyss, never to be seen in the standings.  Kessel, among the pool leaders in points, with 8, was overshadowed by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in Box 1, but is spanking both of them in points thus far.

The only pool player to make a significant difference in the pool for the USA, Ryan Miller, who got the start and the win, making 17 stops for the victory.  Miller was taken three times in the pool and won't leave those teams on the lurch, but we have to expect that Jonathan Quick will get the call for the playoff round.

Derek Stepan did make it into the game for the Americans, taking out the most popular player on the team, Max Pacioretty, but there likely won't be any word on who will stay in the line-up, when the Americans start up again in the playoffs.

I don't think I am the only one to think this, but it really seems that the Russians are making this tournament much harder for themselves than it should be.  Tell me I'm wrong.  Go on.

The host country could be having trouble underneath the considerable amount of pressure of having to win a gold medal on home soil, as that would be the only real reason why they have gone to a shootout in two of the three round-robin games in the tournament.

On Sunday, the Russians had their hands full with Slovakia, a team that was winless in the tournament, but still played a hard enough game to take this game through extra time and to the skills competition, with a score of 0-0.

In the shootout, Semyon Varlamov stood his ground, stopping the only two shooters necessary for Alexander Radulov and Ilya Kovalchuk to score in a best of three situation.  With all of that considered, Varlamov came away with a 4-point shutout win and Radulov got the only scoring point, with the winner in the shootout.

It may not be much, but... well, but nothing.  The Russians didn't earn a bye through the qualification and that is likely considered a failure.

Finally, in the marquee game of the last day of the round robin, the Canadians played the Finns for 1st place in Group B and it was quite the game.

With 1st place through the round robin on the line, assuming one of the teams won in regulation, both Canada and Finland played pretty close to the vest.  After Canada took a 1-0 lead in the 1st period, the push wasn't quite there and Finland was there with a good drive to the net, tying up the game before the end of the 2nd period.

Instead of trying to win the game, both teams were trying not to lose, which led to extra time, where Drew Doughty, the scorer of the opening goal of the game, scored the winning goal and gave Canada the group win.  Seeing as though the game went to extra time, Canada finished 3rd in the overall standings, while Finland kept the standing in the bye position, finishing 4th.

With two goals, including the winner, Doughty finished atop the scoring table with 3 points, while Carey Price, who was chosen over Roberto Luongo, finished with the win and another 2 points.

On the roster side, P.K. Subban became a healthy scratch again, while Patrick Sharp and Dan Hamhuis returned to the line-up.

It was another flip-flop of Rob A.'s teams, as his first team overtook his second team again.  His first team finished with 9 points on the day, while his second team finished with only 3.  The difference between the two teams is only 3 points, while Chris J. sits in 3rd place, 5 points out of 1st.

The top team in the pool on Sunday belonged to Thor, who's team had 12 points, thanks to a couple of wins from Ryan Miller and Carey Price, while having Drew Doughty to help out the cause.

Olympic Pool Update (Day 4, Feb 15)

Is any other team going to lead this pool other than Rob A.'s teams?

Rob's second team jumped back on top of the standings after somewhat of a lacklustre Day 4 in the scoring department in Sochi, but I guess we should expect a few of these kind of days, while we watch the style of play get tighter and tighter with more and more on the line.

Rob's second team was the best team on Day 4, picking up 12 points and it jumped ahead by 3 points over his first team.  The only team to break the 40-point barrier with Rob's teams was Scott A., who has a team of goalies that hasn't let in a goal yet.

How about an upset to start your Saturday off?

Now, Slovakia, is by no means, expected to push too hard in the medal race, but they should have been able to handle the even smaller hockey nation, which is Slovenia.  Right?

Well, they didn't.  Slovenia, led by their only current NHLer, Anze Kopitar, the underdog nation was able to hold Slovakia to a 0-0 tie going into the 3rd period, before they were able to break the game open, score three goals before the middle of the frame and then hang on for dear life, as the Slovaks pushed, but not quite as hard as you may have expected.

The only Slovenian on the Sheet, Kopitar, did pick up a goal, but unfortunately, it wasn't the winner, so it was 1 point for the Los Angeles Kings forward.

The marquee game of Saturday was the Russians playing host to the Americans and it looked like it was a screamer of a game.  I slept through the game, so I'm not able to speak to it exactly.

The game is mired in controversy, as a goal disallowed for the Russians has the whole country up and arms.  The Russians were also quite unhappy about Alexander Radulov and a couple of key penalties he had taken that led to a couple of American power play goals.

Nevertheless, the game went to the shootout and thanks to international shootout rules, T.J. Oshie was able to put on a show, scoring four goals, including the winner, on six attempts, putting his name in lights.  As the scoring rules in the pool dictate, Oshie, not taken at all, was credited with a game-winning goal.

Remarkably, there was only one American that notably affected the pool standings, as Jonathan Quick earned his second win of the tournament.  On the flip side of the game, Pavel Datsyuk scored a pair of goals and Andrei Markov added a pair of assists.

Derek Stepan, taken three times in the pool, has yet to feature in a game for the Americans, being a healthy scratch for the first two games.  It looks like the US is going to stay the course with a couple of wins under their belts.

How about those Swiss?  Or more to the point, how about that Jonas Hiller?  Hiller has dressed a couple of times for Switzerland and he has yet to let in a goal.  On Saturday, Hiller made 26 saves and stymied the Czech Republic, bringing his points total for the tournament to 8.

As for offense, the Swiss managed to get by on the minimum amount of goals for the win, one.  Sadly, the goal and two assists that were credited, had no effect in the pool standings, so the only points that were taken were from Hiller and only one team was able to collect those points.

The Czechs were likely the favourites in this game, if you went by pool selections, as the Swiss only had three selections to 24 picks on the other side.  But much like an underdog that makes it through the Stanley Cup Playoffs, all your team needs is a hot goalie and just enough of the other essentials to make a solid run.

Finally, one of the other favourite teams to make it through to the Gold Medal Game, Sweden, also went to 3-0-0-0 in the tournament with a 5-3 win over Latvia.

The Swedes needed a solid power play to push their way past the Latvians today, as their defense had a few holes exposed and Henrik Lundqvist wasn't quite his Vezina Trophy self, but still managed to earn his third win, going undefeated in the round robin.

Picking up multi-point games in the pool for Sweden were Jonathan Ericsson (GWG), Daniel Alfredsson (goal & assist), Alexander Edler (goal & assist), Erik Karlsson (goal & assist) and Daniel Sedin (2 assists).  Edler, made his debut in the tournament after serving his 2-game IIHF suspension and was able to make an immediate impact.

As for the Latvians, the two players that are on the sheet, Zemgus Girgensons and Kaspers Daugavins, each recorded a point, their first of the tournament.  No one really cares, as they were not taken by anyone in the pool.

With the 2 points from the win, Lundqvist now leads the pool with 9 points, which will make the 13 teams that picked him very happy.

Olympic Pool Update (Day 3, Feb 14)

It's the end of Day 3 in Sochi and the pool has a new leader... well, sort of. Okay, the leader is still Rob A., but since he put in two teams, the team he had deemed his "first team," has now taken the lead from his "second team" and now they sit 1-2 in the standings. How fair is that, right?  Nevertheless, there is only one prize, but now we all have to contend with both of his teams, instead of just one of them.

Rob's first team was the best on Day 3, picking up a pool-high of 20 points, surpassing a few teams and then taking a 4-point lead into the weekend.

The Valentine's Day worth of action started with an early game between the Czech Republic and Latvia.  It sounded like the Czechs had their hands full of Latvian pressure, as they were up two goals going into the 3rd period, up 4-2, and held on in a scoreless final frame to earn their first points in the Group C standings.

Two players of note in this game, with an impact in the pool, Jakub Voracek of the Philadelphia Flyers, scored the game-winner in the match, picking up 2 points for the three teams that had picked him in the pool and defenseman Marek Zidlicky had a goal and an assist for the one team that picked him in the pool.

Ondrej Pavelec started the second game for the Czechs, earned the win and the 2 points, but those points headed to the abyss, as no one took the Winnipeg Jets keeper in the pool.

In other Group C action on Friday saw the Swiss get an A+ for effort against a Zetterberg-less Sweden team, keeping the number one ranked team in the world to a 1-0 game, albeit a loss for the underdog Switzerland.

With the Czech win and the Switzerland loss, the Czechs hold the 2nd place in the group, for the time being, with the two teams going head-to-head on Saturday, in their last round robin game.

Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers appears to be carrying Sweden to however far they'll go in this tournament and is now leading the pool with 7 points, thanks to his 26-save shutout performance against the Swiss.

Seeing as though there was only one goal in this game, it was also the game-winner and that was credited to Daniel Alfredsson, who was taken three times in the pool.

Sweden concludes their round robin games on Saturday as well, in one of the late games against Latvia.  I'm sure the Sweden-heavy poolies will be all over this game, as the Swedes should overpower the winless Latvian team.

Those who were expecting an offensive display against the Norwegians had to wait a couple of days for the explosion to happen for Canada, but it was at the expense of Austria.  The Austrians showed a little bit of NHL speed in the early part of the 1st period, but that kind of momentum fizzled quickly, as the Canadians opened the scoring five minutes in and didn't let up until the end of the 2nd period.

Canada put together a 6-0 rout of Austria on Friday, relieving some of the second guesses that this team didn't have the firepower to go a long way in the tournament.

Roberto Luongo, the less-favourite Canadian keeper in the pool, picked up 4 points with the shutout, while Jeff Carter, taken six times, added a hat-trick and Patrick Marleau, chosen 11 times, had 3 assists.  Also picking up a couple points were Drew Doughty (GWG), Shea Weber (goal & assist) and Ryan Getzlaf (goal & assist).

Canada will finish off their round-robin schedule against the Finns on Sunday, while Austria will play Norway.  There was no announcement on the starting goalie for Canada, but it sounds like Patrick Sharp and Dan Hamhuis, who made way for Matt Duchene and P.K. Subban on Friday, will be back in the line-up on Sunday.

Also in the late games on Valentine's Friday, Finland exercised their dominance over Norway, handing them a 6-1 thumping, as they warm up for the Canadians on Sunday.

Finland scored within the first six minutes of the game and never looked back, carrying a 5-0 lead into the 3rd period, where the two teams traded goals and your final was pretty well elementary.

The most popular Finn, Teemu Selanne, taken 11 times, opened the scoring and that was his contribution to the game.  Defenseman Olli Maatta, taken six times, had a goal and 2 assists to be the largest contributor in this game for the Finns.  Tuomo Ruutu, taken nine times, also chipped in with a couple of assists, making an impact on the pool standings on the day.

Kari Lehtonen, goaltender for the Dallas Stars, was not included on the Sheet, as I wasn't going to include all three goalies for Finland.  He was the one that ended up playing and is arguably the number two goalie, ahead on Antti Niemi, who acted as back-up on Friday.  There has been no indication of who will start against Canada on Sunday, but it will likely be between the two starters already, Lehtonen or Tuukka Rask.

In today's game, an injury note, as forward Alexander Barkov left the game with a knee injury.  The young Finn, taken once in the pool, will be re-evaluated on Saturday and his status will likely be updated for Sunday then.

As for Saturday, we will see Group A and Group C action, as Slovakia and Slovenia, Russia and the USA, Switzerland and the Czech Republic and Sweden versus Latvia all go.  I'm sure we're all hoping for some high-scoring games, but is anyone going to get up for the 5:30am start between the host nation and the Americans?

Olympic Pool Update (Day 2, Feb 13)

Did anyone get up really early to watch the early games on Thursday morning? I know, here in Canada, we're pretty lucky that our home team is getting some prime time action and getting those 10am MT starts.

Every team has now played a game and now everyone is getting in the mix.  The first games are all about getting legs moving and second games are going to be about possibly getting some back-up goaltenders in the crease or giving them an opportunity to earn some time down the stretch.

Nevertheless, all twelve teams have played and we'll quickly go over the eight teams and four games that went on Thursday in Sochi.

Now, myself personally, I'm not getting up at (or staying up until) 1:30am to watch the early, early games, so no, I was not up for the Finland/Austria match-up.  By the scoreline, I am kind of glad that I didn't get up for it, as Finland dominated the game from the last minute of the 1st period and onwards.

Finland scored a pair of goals in the final minute of the opening frame, making it a 4-2 game, and appeared to finish up pretty strong, winning the game, 8-4.

In the pool, the big player of the game was Jussi Jokinen, who scored the winning goal for a couple of points and added a couple of assists for a 4-point effort in the competition.  As our 4-point player yesterday was, Jokinen was also only taken once in the pool, taken by Thor, instead of some other good players in Box 5.

Also having a good day for Finland were Mikael Granlund (pictured above), who had 2 goals and an assist, while being picked seven times in the pool.  Tuukka Rask got the win for the Finns, taken once, and Alexander Barkov, taken once, had a goal and an assist.

Austria did have three players on the sheet, none of which were taken, but Michael Grabner may have had a few people pondering what could have been, since he scored a hat-trick in the loss.

One roster note from the game, the Finns are carrying three NHL goaltenders, so one was bound to find the press box and in game one, it was Antti Niemi, who was taken once, watching the game from above.  It sounds like Kari Lehtonen will get the nod tomorrow, so Niemi may be the odd-man out in this tournament.

In the first of the two 5:30am MT games this morning, the Russians had their hands full with Slovenia to start the tournament, as the underdogs were holding their own through two periods, entering the final frame at a score of 3-2 Russia.  A couple more goals in the final 20 minutes was enough for a more lopsided scoreline of 5-2, but it wasn't the easiest game for the host team.

Evgeni Malkin, arguably one of the most important players on the Russian team, came up big, leading the way with 2 goals and an assist for a 3-point start to the tournament.  Russia will be leaning on their big guns and despite a slow start against Slovenia, guys like Malkin proved that they're up for the challenge.

The only other multi-point Russians taken in the pool were Semyon Varlamov, who picked up the win for the five teams that picked him and Alex Ovechkin, who was taken 22 times, had a goal and an assist.

The bonus point for the game-winning goal went unclaimed, as Ilya Kovalchuk, who was mired in the same box as Malkin and Sidney Crosby, got no love.

Slovenia only has one player on the sheet, Anze Kopitar, was taken twice and he chipped in an assist for his true believers.

In the other 5:30am MT game, it may have taken the USA a period to get their game legs, but once they did, Slovakia had no answer for what the Americans had to offer.  The boys in red, white and blue were able to put up a 6-spot in the middle frame, and flexed their muscle for a 7-1 win to open up the tournament.

Two Americans were able to post 3-point games against the Slovaks, as Ryan Kesler scored the winner and added an assist, while Phil Kessel had a goal and 2 assists in the game.  Scoring wasn't going to be the biggest issue for the US, so these offensive explosions didn't come as a surprise.

Jonathan Quick picked up the opening win, James Van Riemsdyk, Patrick Kane, John Carlson, T.J. Oshie and Paul Stastny all rounded out the players who had 2 points each.  Quick and JVR, the most popular of the bunch, taken five times each, spread out some points through the pool, which is good news.

The most-popular American on the Sheet, Max Pacioretty, taken 10 times, did manage an assist.

Slovakia had a fair number of players on the Selection Sheet, but only three players had any love in the picks: Zdeno Chara, taken five times, Andrej Meszaros, taken thrice, and Marcel Hossa was taken once.  None of the three managed to pick up a point on the only goal for Slovakia.

As for roster notes, Derek Stepan, taken three times, was a healthy scratch for the Americans.  No word yet on whether or not he'll feature in the next game against the Russians.

Finally, the marquee game for everyone in the pool, the Canadians opened up the tournament against Norway and they were held in check for quite a while.  The Norwegians were able to hold their shape for 26 minutes before the favourites were able to punch a goal through and take the advantage in the game.

Canada had to work hard in this one and a 3-1 result was a testament to the push back that Norway gave defensively, as they could have just rolled over and given out a bundle of goals that would have made all you poolies wet in your pants.

No, the Norwegians limited multi-point games to Carey Price (win), Jamie Benn (GWG), Patrice Bergeron (2 assists) and Drew Doughty (goal & assist).

The most popular player/Canadian in the pool, Sidney Crosby, was held off the scoresheet, making his Box 1 dominance a tad weak after game number one.

Norway only has one participant in the NHL today, Mats Zuccarello, and he was an option on the Sheet.  Of course, no one exercised that option, nor did they feel bad about it, as he was unable to hit the scoresheet today.

As for line-up notes, P.K. Subban, taken four times, and Matt Duchene, also taken four times, were healthy scratches for the game against Norway.  Both players are expected to dress against Austria, but there was no word on who was coming out.  Carey Price is also expected to be the healthy scratch on Friday, as Mike Smith will back-up Roberto Luongo.

A big injury concern from Sweden's camp, as Henrik Zetterberg has been diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back and his participation for Friday against Switzerland, not to mention the rest of the tournament, is now in question.  Zetterberg, taken five times, was going to be a crucial pick-up for these certain teams in the pool, but if he cannot go, that will be a huge hole in their pool line-up, coming out of Box 3.

The big winners (sorry, I don't have an animated gif for this) on Thursday were Clayton and Scott A., who each finished with 16 points on the day. Clayton cashed in on Malkin, Ovechkin, Varlamov, Kesler, Barkov and Price for his big day, while Scott had Malkin, Ovechkin, Doughty, Kesler and Granlund for multi-point games.  There were a couple teams with 15 points on the day as well, but no one was able to catch Rob A.'s second team, which had 13 points on the day and remained in the lead, albeit dropped to only 2 points.

Olympic Pool Update (Day 1, Feb 12)

Well, first of all, I would like to welcome all the participants in the Olympic hockey pool. A whopping 31 entries were submitted, which puts the prize pool at $310, a nice chunk of change for a simple $10 investment, plus a little bit of time.  If you're checking the site regularly, I would hope that you're also checking the blog, as it will have a small breakdown of some of the daily action, possibly will give you a little bit of insight as to how the pool is operating as well.

Play underway in Sochi on Wednesday evening (in Russia) with a couple of games, including a couple of big hockey nations facing off.  So, how about a quick recap of some points?

It wasn't quite an offensive display in the Group C game between Latvia and Switzerland, as the favoured Swiss came away with a 1-0 win.  Jonas Hiller, the Anaheim Ducks number one goalie, was the star of the game in the end, making 21 saves for the shutout win, which was good for 4 points in the pool, 2 points for the win and another 2 points for the shutout.  Hiller became the early leader in points in the pool and he was taken once in the pool, by Scott A., who jumped up to 4th place with the victory.

There were only eight Swiss players on the Selection Sheet and three players were taken once, Hiller, Damien Brunner and Nino Niederreiter.  The two forwards that were taken were unable to get their name on the only goal of the game, but Mark Streit, defenseman for the Philadelphia Flyers, did pick up an assist that went into the abyss of unclaimed points.

In the second Group C game, it was far more exciting, as Sweden topped the Czech Republic, 4-2, after going up 4-0 early in the 2nd period. When the Czechs started to pour it on, after their second goal, New York Rangers number one, Henrik Lundqvist, stood on his head and kept the opponents at bay, leading his side to the 2-goal victory.

Lundqvist, taken 13 times in the pool, also added an assist to his victory, making his debut at the Sochi games a rousing success, coming away with 3 points.  Yes, assists count for goalies as well.

Erik Karlsson, taken 11 times, potted a pair of goals, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, taken six times, picked up a pair of assists, and Henrik Zetterberg's goal in the 2nd period was the game-winner, which gave him the bonus point on the day for 2 points as well.  Zetterberg was taken five times in the pool, giving a handful of teams an early bonus point in the standings.

Also of note, Vancouver Canucks defenseman Alex Edler, missed the opening game of the tournament and will also miss Friday's game against the Swiss, due to a 2-game suspension he picked up at the World Championships last Summer.  Nine teams in the pool will forego a couple of games for the rearguard, which may play a role in the scoring in this pool in this sprint to the finish.

Rob A.'s second team took an early lead in the pool, since his team was very Sweden-heavy, picking up the win for Lundqvist and the bonus point for Zetterberg, just to get started.  Rob's team finished with 11 points to snag the Day 1 lead.

On Thursday, it will be a busy day, and an important day for most teams, as Canada will get underway against Norway late in the evening in Sochi.  Other pool favourites, Russia and the USA, also get started the tournament, so there should be lots of points to go around.

Scoring in the 2014 Olympic Selection Sheet Pool

Something I didn't mention in my original posting was how this pool is going to be scored, which is probably very important to how this operation works, right?

1 point - goals, assists and game-winning goals
2 points - win, shutout

It's really that easy.  Now, since the playoff rounds will have shootouts to decide winners, hopefully we don't have that sort of thing in the medal round, shootout winning goals will count, only in the game-winning goal column.  Shootout goals will not count in the goal column.

In order to settle any ties in points, the first tie-breaker is goals scored, next is wins and finally, game-winners.  If a team is to have the same across the board and win the pool, the prize will be split.

Nice and easy, right?  Right.

Good luck to everyone!

Entries Into the 2014 Olympic Selection Sheet Pool Now Accepted

There hasn't been a lot of fanfare for the Olympic Pool this year, but I wasn't quite sure how popular it was going to be.  Hell, I haven't even done any snazzy new graphics for it quite yet, but the selection sheet has been done for a while and is available, via e-mail or by shooting me a quick text.

Here are the details... I have a selection sheet with 20 boxes: 12 forwards, six defensemen and a couple of goalies, with players from all the teams mixed in and throughout, trying to keep to mostly NHL talent.  Select a player from each box, no limits on countries, as it will be a sprint to the finish.

Beware: The selection sheet was completed a couple of weeks ago, so there are a few landmines, in terms of players on the sheet, not participating in the tournament, due to injury.  Henrik Sedin, Vladimir Sobotka, Mikko Koivu, Valtteri Filppula... just to name a few.

Scan your sheet, e-mail it to me and we can work out a way to get the entry fee, $10, winner take all, to me.  I would prefer an Interac e-mail Money Transfer, as it's really easy and I'd pay your winnings that way as well.

The deadline for entries is tomorrow night, 7pm MT, as I would like to have everything in for the start of the tournament.