Hockey Pool Helper

Hockey player rankings, stats, picks and more

2005-10-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting player rankings for the 2005-2006 NHL hockey season was published by the USA Today on Oct. 4, 2005. You can find it here:

http://usatoday.com/sports/hockey/nhl/2005-fantasy-draft.htm

Actually, it's a fantasy draft and it's called "2005 mock NHL fantasy draft".
They "drafted" 196 players - 14 players in each of 14 rounds. The first players drafted - at positions 1-2-3 were: Brodeur, Iginla and Thornton - not big surprises... Moreover, other elite players, like: Forsberg, Naslund, Kovalchuk, Lemieux, Bertuzzi and Sakic made it to the first round.

Sidney Crosby was drafted as #1 in Round 4 - 43rd overall.

Fantasy hockey area at the USA Today website is powered by The Roto Times. It has many more features of interest to fantasy hockey (hockey pool) fans. There are plenty of stats and standings there, schedules, team and player profiles and notes on hot players.

While at USA Today fantasy hockey page, you can make your own projections for the players by assigning points for goals, assists, shots, PIM, etc. and get instantly your own ranking.

By the way, we still offer our own Cheetah Power Point Ranking in which we rank over 900 hockey players - based on even more categories than those used by USA Today. If you'd like to get one for free - e-mail us at hill.stan@gmail.com and we'll e-mail it back to you (tell us if you prefer full Excel version or short one in Notepad).

Stan & Helen

Picks for late 2005 hockey pool

2005-10-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

It seems it's never to late to start a hockey pool... Most of the office hockey pools are already up and running - being again the main topic of discussions around the water cooler... "Desperate Housewives" get less attention for the time being.

Anyway, many guys, and gals too missed the hockey pool draft and feel somewhat left behind, excluded from the fun and excitement enjoyed by those participating in the pools. They don't have to, as there still many hockey pools or fantasy hockey contests open. Many of them have prizes - to be won at the end of the contest or even every week. One of such contests is run by thescore.ca - Molson Hockey Shootout. It's a different kind of hockey pool - you just select the winners of the hockey games every day. You may not have much chance to win the total Shootout, but you may win some weekly prizes and fame - your name will be on Canadian TV!

But if you still want to organize the true hockey pool, use the services of the Hockeypools.net - see our prior posts. It's a free and very reliable service - we use it for our pool (unfortunately it's closed already...).

How to find the best candidates for your pool? Well, it's much easier now when the teams already played 10 games or so. Looking at the player stats at nhl.com or yahoo.com or espn.com will tell you that there are some new names there - McCabe - a defensman from Toronto being the biggest surprise, right at the top of the leaderboard, together with Jagr, Eric Staal - from boring Carolina, Jason Williams from Detroit. It seems all of them are able to continue play well and will earn a lot of points for those who selected them for the hockey pool.

However, the biggest stars are - generally - not disappointing till now. Jagr is again playing well, Naslund is shining; Yashin, Thornton, Forsberg, Gagne, Lindros, Alfredsson are not worse. All of these highly skilled and fast players are enjoying the new rules allowing them more opportunities in front of the net. But it's also nice to see many defensmen - like McCabe, Salo and Jovanovski from Vancouver, Schneider from Detroit, Visnovsky from the Kings and many more being not afraid of joining the rush and getting many points.

If you are looking for another source of "inside" information and a lot of interesting stats that can help you with selecting a winning combo for your hocky pool then go to this excellent blog - http://blog.stats.com/nhl_blog/

Stan & Helen

HockeyPools.net - great easy solution for your hockey pool needs.

2005-10-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

There are numerous Online Hockey Pool Systems available for hockey fans who are eager to test their hockey knowledge and have fan by participating in hockey pools (also called fantasy hockey).

An online hockey pool system is a website that allows you to keep track of your hockey pool online. This year we decided to use HockeyPools.net - a free online service that is an example of such a system. Our pool is called YouCanWin and HockeyPools.net is managing it perfectly.

Online hockey pool systems typically allow you to track such statistics as goals, assists, points, goalie wins and shutouts for your hockey pool. The system will keep stats and standings for all players in a hockey pool in an online format.

HockeyPools.net is a free hockey pool manager for as many hockey pools as you want to keep online. Manage your hockey pools and office pools for absolutely free using the HockeyPools.net hockey pool manager web site.

Using a hockey pool manager system like HockeyPools.net will save you a lot of time, as the stats are managed automatically for the office pool manager and the participants of the pool can log in any time to see the latest stats and standings.

The HockeyPools.net office pool manager for hockey is simple, fast, and easy to use. The system runs online in your browser to manage your hockey pool from anywhere in the world. Stats and standings can be viewed by anyone with a simple web browser. They are being updated every night.

Office pool systems run on computers with Windows and other popular operating systems such as Mac, Apple, and Linux.

The HockeyPools.net office pool system is compatible with all major operating systems since it runs in your web browser such as Internet Explorer and Firefox.

This is not just a free trial hockey pool system; this hockey pool site is 100% free and costs nothing to use. You can put your hockey pool online quickly and easily, as the hockey pool system on this site is very easy and fast to use.

For office pools that you run in your office or with your friends, this is a great hockey office pool system that you can use during the NHL 2005/06 regular season and will be your office pools site of choice for the NHL 2006 playoffs.

What makes a great hockey pool system for a web site? Ease of use, fast response times, reliability and security are all features of a great hockey pool site. HockeyPools.net has everything you need to run your hockey pool online. HockeyPools.net tracks hockey pool stats for your hockey pool online. Using their hockey pool stats tracking system is very easy. Hockey pool statistics such as goals, assists, points, goalie wins, and goalie shutouts can all be tracked with HockeyPools.net. You can view pool standings and detailed hockey pool statistics online in real time. The stats for your hockey pool are accurate and cross-referenced against numerous sources, to help ensure the most accurate NHL hockey stats for your hockey pool.

Best of all, HockeyPools.net is a free service for you and your fellow hockey poolies to enjoy for the whole NHL regular season and also will be ready to go when the NHL playoffs arrive.

If you have a hockey pool, office pool, or run multiple hockey pools or office pools and need statistics this is the site for you!

Stan & Helen

Equipment used by top hockey players

2005-10-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

Would you like to know what equipment your favorite hockey players are using?

We did some research to find out who supplies the jerseys, other hockey clothing items and more importantly - their basic tools of the trade - i.e. the hockey sticks. We also looked at the goalie equipment.

Here is what we've found.

Do you know that Keith and Wayne Primeau are manufacturing a line of hockey sticks? Viper composite sticks are being made by their own company - Fury - http://www.furyhockey.ca . Their most popular models are - Viper Pro, Diamondback - Original Transflex and Diamondback Intermediate. Primeau brothers also offer a Gladiator series of wood sticks.

Bauer Nike Hockey supplies composite stick seller to many of the great hockey players. For this season Bauer Nike offers two full composite models - the Vapor XXX and the Endure. The ultra-premium Vapor XXX uses a true monocomp construction - the blade and shaft are formed as one piece in a mold - to create a lighter, consistent better-balanced stick that provides fine-tuned responsiveness and a quicker release. With a new layered carbon-fiber blade structure ("n-touch technology") the players using it can sense where the puck is on the stick at all times. Used by such fine hockey players as: Ilya Kovalchuk, Martin St. Louis, Simon Gagne and Sergei Samsonov. The results are obvious - most points...

The Endure has a more-rugged, durable design and is mainly for the players who demand a tough stick with a high level of performance. It uses the Impact Strength System that provides optimized protection against hacking and slashing that would otherwise break down carbon fibres in other sticks. According to the lab tests it's 23% more durable than comparable sticks from other manufacturers.

Bauer also offers updated version of Vapor XX with Stick'Um grip feel and two lower-priced one-piece composite sticks - Vapor VI Stick'Um and Vapor V. But that's not all, because Bauer has four more Vapor shaft models and eleven composite or wood-based replacement blades plus Fusion Elite and Fiber hybrid sticks as well as full line of traditional wood/fiberglass sticks.

Find more info online: http://www.bauer.com

Mike Modano, Chris Pronger, Pavel Datsyuk, Patrice Bergeron, Tony Amonte are among the top hockey players using RBK 7K one-piece composite stick from Reebok - http://www.rbkhockey.com . Reebok makes also other one-piece composite sticks - 5K Snake Grip, 4K Acuflex. They also offer a wood/composite hybrid model - 3K Fiber Core - as well as 6K ProFeel long-taper and 5K Snake Grip composite shafts, 6K graphite replacement blades, 5K graphite replacement blades, wood/fiberglass sticks and goalie sticks.

Reebok also makes other high-performance gear, for example - 8K Fitlite Helmet, which is advertised as the lightest and most customizable helmet ever developed due to the innovative composite subshell and microdial technology used to make it.

Easton advertises Stealth - their ultra-premium model as their best-shooting stick ever, especially for the pure shooters. It is uni-molded (shaft and blade formed as one piece without any seams), it has 3:1 shaft-to-blade weight ratio. The manufacturere claims that Stealth stick has the lowest kickpoint on the market and greater shot accuracy and velocity. It is also available in intermediate and junior versions.

Easton also offers one-piece composite Synergy line of hockey sticks with Kevlar/graphite shafts - Synergy SL (Super Light) , Synergy ST (Super Tough) for the pros. For the recreational players they offer lower-cost one piece composite model - the Easton One. Their composite shaft line includes: Synthesis, Z-Bubble, Ultra-Lite, Typhoon, Ultra-Carbon and Octane models. Online info - http://www.eastonhockey.com

If you found this information interesting, look for more - about goalie equipment in another post.

Stan & Helen

Best Canadian Hockey Players Selected For The Olympics

2005-10-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

What a great list of hockey players was presented today by Team Canada Executive Director Wayne Gretzky...

Just incredible number of both older and up-and-coming players is being considered for Canada's Men's hockey team at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. Canada is defending Olympic Gold in Turin.

All participating countries are required to select their final Olympic men's hockey rosters of 23 players, by December 22nd, and it will be quite a painful process to eliminate any of those wonderful hockey players.

Canada's list includes: 9 goaltenders, 23 defensemen and 49 forwards.

There are no surprises on the list. Each of the players deserves to be there. The oldest ones? Yzerman (40), Lemieux (40), Nieuwendyk (39).

The youngest? Of course - Crosby (18); Phaneuf (20), Bergeron (20), Carter (20), Mike Richards (20). The youngest goalie? Cam Ward (21).

The average age for the whole team is 29 years. Surprisingly, the average age for defense is the lowest - 28, then go forwards - 29 and goalies are the oldest group - 30 years.

It's nice to see well-performing players being noticed by Gretzky and selected to such elite group of players. No doubt, they will be working hard to prove that they deserved to be on the list and be considered to represent their country at the Olympic Games.

Stan & Helen

Surprising Nashville Predators

2005-10-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the Sports Illustrated's ranking for the 2005-2006 hockey season? Yes, the one from December 2004 everybody was laughing at?... Why? Because they put Nashville Predators in the 5th spot:

1. Calgary Flames 2. Philadelphia Flyers 3. Ottawa Senators 4. Tampa Bay Lightning 5. Nashville Predators 6. Vancouver Canucks 7. Detroit Red Wings 8. San Jose Sharks 9. Edmonton Oilers 10. Florida Panthers

By the way, the put the Rangers at 30th...

And now what? It seems they were right. Maybe not about the Flames (they even lost at home to Wayne's Howlers). But those Predators!

Nobody - beside the SI - was expecting the team wearing the ugliest jerseys in the league and located in one of the smallest markets to play so well .

But they are still unbeaten and have a couple of great players - Vokoun, Sullivan and Kariya getting the honors of the best players in the NHL.

Predators are the biggest surprise at the beginning of the 2005-2006 season and it would be interesting to see them play so well the whole season and get to the play offs again this year.

Anyway, Nashville is the best example of the $39M cap working as expected and providing all teams with the same chances, making them able to compete with such power houses like Detroit, Philadelphia or Rangers.

We hope that Kariya will stay healthy and will be able to shine during the whole season. He will be trying to show the Canada Team's bosses that he deserves to go to the Torino Olympics...

Stan & Helen

Another Sidney Crosby's Jersey Stolen

2005-10-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

Who is the most popular hockey player in the NHL this year?

Based on the number of stolen hockey jerseys it is Sidney Crosby who is reported to lose another one lately...

Just joking... No, it's true that somebody "appropriated" his another jersey, but it's also undisputable fact that despite his younf age, Sidney is one of the best players in the league.

Crosby was expected to become the new Great or the Biggest One and possible savior of the NHL which is trying to get the fans back after the 18 months of the lockout.

So Sidney came and for the time being he is proving that he really was worthy all the hoopla and the attention he was getting from the media and from the fans.

Moreover, he seems to be another nice Canadian role model - a very talented young athlete who is not only performing well on the ice, but is also very mature off the ice. Apparently being around Mario Lemieux is helping him a lot and he made a very promising start to his NHL career.

Expectations around Sidney Crosby certainly dominated the hockey news and comments and it's nice to see that he didn't disappoint even the most demanding hockey observers and is living up to the expectations.

But do we have any disappointments at this early stage of the 2005-2006 hockey season?

Possibly we have one in Big Bert - Todd Bertuzzi - who's coming back from his long and infamous suspension. He seems to have a rather slow start and was recently even demoted by coach Crawford to the second line of the Canucks. Most probably he needs a little more time; let's wait a bit. At least Todd is trying and finally getting more than just empty netter... And he's not taking too many stupid penalties. Hopefully, he will regain his reputation as the league's most dominant power player.

There is one disappointment we have to note as we had this player in our hockey pool - Martin Havlat from the Senators. He appeared to be a growing star with great future. But for the second time he was involved in a kicking incident and just got a 5-game suspension. We won't take him to any hockey pool in the future...

Stan & Helen

NHL Rookies - Top Young Guns

2005-10-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of talk about the rookies this year. Obviously, Sidney Crosby is at the center of attention - considered by many as the next Great player. But there are many more new rookies playing this year in the NHL. And they play surprisingly well. Look at Ovechkin in Washington - 4 goals and 4 assists in 7 games! It's only 1 point less than Sidney... But Ovechikin has many more shots on goal - 28 while Crosby only 16.

Some of the rookies are being given a lot of ice time already - Duncan Keith (Blackhawks) plays over 22 minutes in each game. Dion Phaneuf from Flames is not far behind - a little under 22 minutes. Both are defensmen, but Phaneuf recorded already 20 shots.

Are you looking for that kind of up-to-date information? It's hard to find it at the NHL's website. But you can always rely on ESPN... Go to espn.com and look for NHL stats.

Stan & Helen

Finding Best Players For Hockey Pool - Part 2

2005-10-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

More and more hockey fans are looking for the best hockey players that they could use in their hockey pool.

We wrote in prior posts about that - just look at the right side.

The best way to choose is to look for young guns - those who are in their 3rd and 4th year in the NHL. There is a small problem with that as there was no hockey last year. But many of them were playing - in Sweden, Germany, Austria, etc. Check how they were doing there.

Here are some more ideas. Look for the players who will try to show - once again - that they are the biggest stars. Players who are expected to use the new rules to revitalize their careers. Who that could be? Players like Jagr, Modano, Selanne, Kariya, Lindros, Nedved. Even Daigle (finally...).

Use the following list at the NHLPA website to find such players:

http://nhlpa.com/WebStats/CareerStats.asp

As you probably noticed we don't write here much about the goalies. Why? because many pools don't have them and because in many cases goalies' performance depends on the defence performance. So again, we'd look at goalies who will try to prove that they belong to the elite. Who? Luongo (whose loss in the arbitration was really bad), Cluotier and Khabibulin.

Got the idea? It's all common sense, isn't it? Just use it and you'll be the winner in your office hockey pool. Good luck!

Stan & Helen

Free Hockey Pool Advice, Stats, Etc.

2005-10-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

It's obvious that hockey fans were missing the 2004-2005 NHL hockey season - being unable to test their knowledge of the game by participating in the hockey pools, often called (especially in the USA) fantasy hockey.

Well, the NHL hockey is back and the teams played already at least 5 games and the usual hockey pool frenzy is on. Everybody who loves this fastest game on the earth is trying to find the best players to put them on their roster and finally win the office pool this year...

So once again, hockey is the main topic being discussed around the water coolers at every place of work and over the cubicle walls in every office (almost every...). Everybody is waiting for the daily and weekly hockey pool stats and those who assumed the role of hockey pool managers are very, very busy and most talked to people at the office.

Still most of the hocky pool participants look for up to the minute, real-time news and updates on each hockey game, stats and standings. There are quite a few of them available on the Net, but the most reliable and fast resources are:
ESPN - espn.com and NHL's own website - nhl.com. Yahoo.com also has good hockey coverage.

Now, some people are still looking for hockey pool advice, hockey pool tips, stats and how to set up a hockey pool (apparently still isn't too late and new pools are being created).

This blog is a good place to start - just read all the posts we have here and you'll find most of the answers.

Still want to set up a hockey pool? You can do that for free by going to HockeyPools.net . By the way, we are using their service for our hockey pool - YouCanWin and are very happy with that.

And if you need our prediction on how each of the players (over 900 of them) will perform in 2005-2006 - send an email to hill.stan@gmail.com and ask for the ranking - it's free...

If you have any comments, questions, just ask us.

And good luck in your hocky pool.

Stan & Helen

Pick Players Well With Hockey Pool Tools

2005-10-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

Although most of the hockey pools are already closed - both free hockey pools and paid hockey pools - there are still few pools who will allow join after their draft. And some still have deadline of October 25... Our pool oficially closed on Oct. 12, but we were approached by many hockey fans who missed the deadline due to Canadian Thanksgiving and are begging us to let them in.

We see that many people are visiting our blog to find solid information and tools to prepare well for the pool draft. Some people asked as for our Cheetah Power Ranking in which we assign value to all players from 2003-2004 season, including factors such as games played, goals, assists, goals/assists in PK and PP, average time played in total, in PP and PK, winning goals and more. We'll see how using it will help the poolers who gave it the try.

If you still want, just email us at hill.stan@gmail.com and ask for it.

Stan & Helen

Another Great Star Retires

2005-10-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

Big news today - Brett Hull is retiring!

Many people were expecting him to do well in the "new" NHL, in Phoenix where he wanted to help his friend - Wayne Gretzky - become a successful coach. But the results were not as good as expected and he decided to quit - just 2 hours before the game with Detroit. Before the Coyotes' home opener a week ago, Brett's father, Bobby Hull, had his number "un-retired" so his son Brett could wear it this season. But it didn't last too long.

Big surprise, some people even had Brett in their hockey pools, despite his age - 41...

Anyway, Brett was a great hockey player - only Gretzky and Gordie Howe have more goals than Hull in NHL history! He had 741 goals and 650 assists. He won two Stanley Cups in 1999 with Dallas and 2002 with Detroit. He will be remembered not only for his exceptional stats, but also for the goal in the third overtime to give the Stars a 2-1 victory over Buffalo in the series-ending sixth game in 1999.

Stan & Helen

Last Call For Hockey Pool Entries

2005-10-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

You can still have time by midnight today to send me 10 skaters (defensmen and/or forwards) and one goalie. Brian R. is our early leader, buy you can still have the chance to win! See the earlier post (below) how to do that.

By the way, you can challenge your friends, family members, co-workers, etc. and tell them to join our hockey pool too.

Thanks in advance and have a nice day!

Stan & Helen

Who's Leading In Our Hockey Pool

2005-10-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

Congratulations go to Brian R. who is leading our YouCanWin Hockey Pool with 30 points after the first week. Helen is well back - with 24 points. But it's only the beginning...

We are still accepting entries into our hockey pool - until tomorrow, Oct. 12. Yes, you can still come and take the lead. Who knows, maybe you'll be the winner...

By the way, many hockey poolers are celebrating the Ilya Kovalchuk's deal. He's expected to play for about 100 points.

Stan & Helen

Awards After NHL's First Week Back

2005-10-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

It's so nice to see the puck in action again and most of the hockey players skating with excitement and showing again great skills and poise. Some of the players - especially those who were not playing during last year - are still a bit rusty and adjusting to the new rules is somewhat difficult. But it's hard to find a hockey fan who wouldn't enjoy the "new" NHL.

Still, not all of the changes are seen favorably. Many people don't like the shootout - mostly because it appears not to be fair and there is apparent problem with the stats - who should get a point(s). Also, the rule that was used against Ohlund in the Oilers-Canucks game when he had to go to the box for sending the puck out of the ice in the last minute. Because of that the Canucks who were leading, finally lost the game in the shootout. We don't think there will be many fans of those new rules in Vancouver.

Anyway, the NHL just announced that they honored Thrashers' Marc Savard, Panthers' Roberto Luongo with weekly awards. These well deserved honors, although not expected... See more on that here - http://www.nhl.com/news/2005/10/237668.html

Helen & Stan

Successful First Day of NHL Hockey

2005-10-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

So finally hockey was back and we were very happy to see that everything went smoothly and excitement was at the highest level.

An most of the players were giving their best and many of them had multi-point games. Good candidates to late hockey pools? Not necessarily... For example, "hat tricker" Marc Choiunard from Minnesota Wild - we don't expect him to do much, project him to be around 300-400 rank.

Most interesting were the line combinations - with whom will Sidney play? He didn't play with Mario; instead he played with John LeClair and Mark Recchi. Still one of the best lines. Sidney got his first NHL point, although not at his first shift...

There were few surprises - small one - only one shootout - won by Ottawa.
Only one shutout - Luongo.

Bigger surprises - 5:3 win by NYR over big favorites - Philadelphia
6:3 win by Wild over Calgary
and 5:4 win by Dallas over LA Kings despite losing already 4:0!!!

Most expected NHL returns were also successful - of course they were taking place in Vancouver during the Canucks - Coyotes game. Bertuzzi played well and Gretzky can be proud of what his Coyotes achieved against the pumped Canucks. However, he doesn't dave an easy task, although all hockey fans wish him the best - which may be taling Phoenix to the playoffs.

Still not in any hockey pool yet? Join YouCanWin FREE Hockey Pool see prior post - and win great prize(s)! Challenge your friends, co-workers, neighbors and join us - it FREE and it's FUN. The results are already on, but you can still join by Oct. 12, 2005 - the earler the better, if you want to win!

Stan & Helen

You Are Invited To Join FREE Hockey Pool With Prizes!

2005-10-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

Hello Hockey Fans!

We’d like to invite you to our own hockey pool – YouCanWin Hockey Pool.

It’s FREE, it’s great and it may just the one that you’re gonna win this year! And because it’s an online pool – available worldwide – you will become very famous when you win it…

Aren’t you missing hockey so much that you join many hockey pools, also called fantasy hockey pools? Well, Helen and I are in maybe 10 or so already, but we decided to offer another one - with great prizes…

Anyway, this pool is FREE, available to ALL hockey fans – all over the world. It’s hosted by The HockeyPools.net who will be keeping track of our hockey pools online.

Remember, this is not just a free trial hockey pool system; this hockey pool site is 100% free and it has fast response times, reliability and security.

PLUS we are having GREAT TWO PRIZES too, courtesy of Fish Of Paradise and Cheetah Consulting:

- First Prize – Beautiful green, honey and cognac amber necklace - worth $79.95 - (see it at http://amber-jewelry-and-beads.com/0587.html)

- Second Prize - Let’s Go to Disneyland®! ebook – worth $19.97 (see http://smartandrichadvisor.info/disneyland/disneylandguide.html)

HockeyPools.net will track hockey pool stats for our hockey pool online - hockey pool statistics such as goals, assists, points, goalie wins, and goalie shutouts.

You can view pool standings and detailed hockey pool statistics online in real time. Stats are updated daily to include the latest NHL stats and NHL statistics, player stats, player statistics, goalie stats, and goalie statistics.

The stats for your hockey pool will be updated automatically every night and are accurate and cross-referenced against numerous sources, to help ensure the most accurate NHL hockey stats for your hockey pool.

The system runs online in your browser to manage your hockey pool from anywhere in the world. Stats can be viewed by anyone with a simple web browser. The HockeyPools.net office pool system is compatible with all major operating systems since it runs in your web browser such as Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Interested? You can join now by sending us to hill.stan@gmail.com your name and your picks – 10 scorers plus 1 goalie. We will enter you info into the system and will send you the password so that you can view the stats and the pool standings online any time you want – 24/7. We’re updating the participants list every night (around 11 PM PST).

The Rules of YouCanWin Hockey Pool are as follows:

- Pick 10 scorers (forwards/defense) plus 1 goalie
- Each Goal (for scorers) is worth 1 point
- Each Assist (for scorers) is worth 1 point
- Each Win (for goalies) is worth 1 point
- Each Shutout (for goalies) is worth 1 point

To make our pool even more interesting, we’re setting a late deadline of Oct. 12, 2005 – to celebrate Stan’s 50th birthday (just joking, but it’s true Stan is having his 50 soon). But seriously, by doing that we’re giving everybody the chance to see for one week who is performing well, playing with whom, or playing at all…

So, you’re cordially invited – the more people join, the more fun we will have… Tell your friends about our FREE hockey pool and challenge them – even if they live on the other side of the globe they can still join and participate and win fame and nice prizes too!!!

Remember, the deadline is Oct. 12, 2005, 11:59 PM PST. (the stats will be available from Oct. 5, 2005).

We hope to see your picks soon. Good Luck!

Stan & Helen

P.S. As one more incentive, we’re offering FREE Gmail account invitation to those who participate in YouCanWin Hockey Pool. Just send us your picks and ask for the invite. It’s so simple – but offer is good only for those who join our hockey pool!

The Goons Will Have To Use Their Sticks Now

2005-10-02T00:37:00.000-07:00

Finally, the goons will have to use their sticks too. And they will have to learn how to use them to handle the puck - not to hit the player from the opposite team...

Yes, with the new rule changes, there is not much of need of having enforcer on the team as there will be few fights now as you may get suspension for fighting late in the game.

Anyway, we've never liked watching serious men on the skates with helmets on their heads trying to take off the jersey from the opposite team's player. It wasn't funny, even when they were exchanging punches at very high speed and it was rather dangerous as they easily could harm each other. Fortunately, they used very rarely their sticks and skates for that and the NHL was reacting severely whenever it happened.

We applaud the NHL for making hockey nicer now as less fights means better flow of the game and increased interest - from the fans and the media. Some people may miss that element of the hockey game from not so distant past, but those brawls really weren't necessary. If somebody is hungry for such kind of "entertainment", he or she can watch the WWF or other nonsense. However, the majority of the true hockey fans AND the sponsors simply didn't like it.

So, the next tip - if you planned on picking this year the guys who liked to fight a lot and had lots of PIM - like Oliwa or Worrell - think twice, because they may not get much ice time in the new-look NHL. If you still would like to have a thug or two on your roster, pick an enforcer who also knows what to do with his stick and will be fast at chasing the puck - somebody like Domi, or even Laraque and Avery (if you can stand his using of mouth also...).

But in general, look for guys with more finesse and other assets.

Stan & Helen

Pick The Guys With Great Work Ethics & Passion For The Game

2005-10-02T00:08:00.000-07:00

You must have noticed that the hockey players from certain countries are more passionate about the game of hockey and displaying better work ethics during the practice and the games than the skaters from some other countries. That's why so often you hear about hockey primaballerinas, or princes, etc.

Some of the best examples of the players who have fantastic talent but are or were not always willing to give their best are Jaromir Jagr and Pavel Bure.

It's not a secret that many players from countries like Russia or the Czech Republic are not the best at coming on time and working hard during the practice and they play well only when they are in good mood.

On the other hand, Canadian players are very proud to play hockey - their national game and they love to be the role models for young fans. Their biggest dream is to be able one day bring to their city or village the biggest trophy - the Stanley Cup...

Swedes are also recognized as very serious about giving their best.

While making your office pool picks, look also at their country of origin. Obviously, it would be a mistake to generalize and not to take any player from Russia or the Czech Republic - there are many, many good, hard-working players coming to the NHL from there, so this small tip can only be used sparingly. But, hey, it may help you win this year!

Good luck.

Stan & Helen

Choose The Players That Haven't Forgotten To Play

2005-10-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed how many players are not playing in the exhibition games because of soreness and back problems? In many cases it's the direct result of not playing hockey last year.

There is a good chance that those players will miss the opening game on Oct. 5, 2005 or even some more games. That's too bad if you hoped to pick one of them and now you have to make the decision - to stick with them and allow for losing a couple points at the beginning of the season - or to look for somebody healthier.

So another important tip is to choose the players who were playing many games last year - especially in Sweden or Czech Republic or even in Russia. They are well conditioned now and HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN TO PLAY!

And importantly - they they were playing in the leagues that already adopted many of the rules the NHL is implementing this year, so it will be much easier for them to play the game than to those skaters who stayed at home.

Stan & Helen
==

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The Joy Of Playing Together

2005-10-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Now we'll tell you a little more advanced hockey pool draft tip.

Using it is not always possible, but if your drafting rules allow for that, then you should make use of it.

What we mean that for example if you decided that the that the order in which the pool participant choose the hockey players will change every second round - i.e., if in the first round the order is 1-2-3-4-5-6, then in the second round you pick in the order 6-5-4-3-2-1 and round three will be again 1-2-3-4-5-6, etc. In other words, the person whose picking as the last one in round one, will have the chance to pick twice - one after the other and the person who is 5th will have two picks done very close one after the other.

The trick is that when when you have 2 consecutive picks close to each other, it may be easy to pick the hockey players that play on the same line for some time!

Why? Such players love to play together and help each which translates into many points for them and for you in the hockey pool.

The best example right now is Naslund-Bertuzzi duo, although it may be very difficult to get them together this year, but there are many other options available with the players of lesser caliber. Plus you can always take the third guy from a good line - like Morrison - to stay with the Vancouver power line... By the way, he may be your silver bullet and may also place in Top 10 this year.

If you want to use this tip, you can find the current line combinations on each team here:

http://www.fantasyhockeyutopia.bravehost.com

They also show the powerplay units and info on injuries - all relatively current. Very useful stuff, isn't it? Make good use of it and good luck in your office pool...

Stan and Helen

Who Will Win The Office Hockey Pool This Year?

2005-10-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

If you are determined to win this year’s office hockey pool, you must be spending last couple weeks on working on your list of desired hockey players that you’d like to use on your hockey pool team. You know very well that you need more than just the list of players and the last year’s stats to find the skaters who will win the first prize for you.

For most of us – the regular hockey pool participants – beer is always helpful (although not always allowed if the draft is held at work, during the lunch time. But some use coffee - usually geeks and nerds – they say organic coffee increases accuracy of prediction by as much as 23%, some use water (mineral is the best, not the tap water) – e.g., girls who use lists of players compiled by their boy-friends. But those girls who rely on their knowledge (based usually on the looks of the players) bring Gatorade to the hockey pool drafting room. Have you noticed that those smarty pants place in the top 3 year after year?... Interesting…

But this year will be different, right? Yes, it’s your time to take the first prize and be envied by the co-workers and the boss too. How can you do that?

It’s simple – you have to do your research and use proper tools. If you’ve already read our prior posts, you are well ahead of those unprepared. But it may not be enough if you have many participants in your hockey pool – that will be the case for sure, because everybody was missing hockey so much during the last 20 months. So more hockey players will be needed and you need to know something good about those who placed about 500-600 out of 916 classified for the 2003-2004 hockey season.

So if you really want to prepare well for the draft and be able to choose the winning set of the hockey players, you should get so called Draft Kit.

There is a number of them available on the Internet. Some are being sold for something between $10 and $20, but there are also great FREE draft kits available.

For example,

AOL Draft Kit
Forecaster.ca Draft Kit

The AOL Draft Kit is FREE and includes everything you could possibly need in order to take that first step toward hoisting your league's hardware at the end of the season.
Cheat Sheets :

Experts Mock Drafts Depth Charts
Draft Strategy
How To Play Fantasy Hockey
Young Stars
Busts
Goons
Bounce Back Players
Position By Position Stat Leaders

Users can view the AOL Draft Kit online or easily download it and print it out to take with them on draft day. Get it for FREE here:

http://fantasysports.aol.com/hockey/draft/index.cfm

And here is another FREE one that you’re gonna love:

http://magazine.forecaster.ca/hockey2005/

This site has a FREE 2005-2006 fantasy hockey The Sports Forecaster: Hockey 2005-06 – online fantasy hockey magazine – with great projections and lots of other material that you’ll find very useful getting ready for your office hockey pool draft. You’ll be able to download it and enjoy during the hockey pool draft time and during the season.

Actually, the URL for that online magazine is here:

http://magazine.forecaster.ca/hockey2005/TSF-Hockey-2005-06-Generic.pdf

Please make sure you are using the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Forecaster magazine requires Adobe Acrobat Reader version 6.0 or later. You can download it for free from http://www.adobe.com

Our Own Power Point Cheat Sheets

By the way, we’re just finishing our own cheat sheets – very powerful ones, where we classify all 916 players from the 2003-2004 season (some of them unfortunately are no longer available with late great Sergei Zholtok being the first-hand example; Datsyuk another one…).

Would you be interested in getting them for FREE? Imagine having power points assigned to each player for the following:

Games played
Goals
Assists
+/-
PPG
SHG
PPA
SHA
GWG
GTG
OTG
TOI/g
SHTOI/g
PPTOI/g
S

We used our proprietary methodology and assigned weight to each component and arrived at one number for each player – combined value – that we call “Cheetah Power Points” (CPP).

Here are our first five players in or ranking:

RK Player CPP
1 MARTIN ST. LOUIS 245.37
2 PATRIK ELIAS 229.08
3 MARKUS NASLUND 225.45
4 JOE SAKIC 215.70
5 JAROME IGINLA 211.70

and so on - we have CPP points for EACH player!

Would you be interested in getting that ranking for FREE?

If yes, just email us at hill.stan@gmail.com and write “Send CPP ranking” and give us your name and email address and we’ll send you the ranking in Excel or Notebook form.

For now, good luck in your hockey pool draft!

Stan & Helen

Another Great Cheat Sheet From The Fantasy Hockey Café

2005-10-01T00:57:00.000-07:00

Here is another useful ranking of the hockey players for the 2005-2006 hockey season. Also delivered by the Fantasy Hockey Café. You can try using this cheat sheet in your preparations for the office hockey pool draft.

This ranking is called Top 100 and it was prepared by Tony Huang, Fantasy Hockey Cafe's Regular Contributor.

The ranking is available here:
http://www.fantasyhockeycafe.com/2005/player_rankings_top.php

Tony obviously used different methodology in preparing his ranking than was used by the eight experts - described in our previous post. However, he used the same scoring categories: goals, assists, game-winning goals, power-play points, +/-, PIM, wins, shutouts, save percentage, GAA. The big difference is that he put all the players in one bag.

It’s interesting to notice that in his ranking the best goalie is not Brodeur! It is Raycroft from the Bruins:

16 Andrew Raycroft G Bos

Anyway, the Top 10 is as follows:

Rank # - Player Name - Position - Team

1 Markus Naslund LW Van

2 Jerome Iginla RW Cal

3 Joe Thornton C Bos

4 Ilya Kovalchuk LW Atl

5 Martin St. Louis RW TB

6 Joe Sakic C Col

7 Todd Bertuzzi RW Van

8 Dany Heatley RW Ott

9 Sergei Gonchar D Pit

10 Marian Hossa RW Atl

By the way, Sidney Crosbie didn’t make it to the Top 100… Another observation - apart from Crosbie, there are many big-star snipers in Pittsburgh (Lemieux, LeClair, Recchi, Palffy, etc.), but it was defensman Gonchar whom Tony put in his top 10%. Very, very interesting (by the way, we like Gonchar too...).

See the whole Top 100 at:

http://www.fantasyhockeycafe.com/2005/player_rankings_top.php

Stan & Helen

Looking For Hockey Pool Draft Cheat Sheets?

2005-10-01T00:25:00.000-07:00

Fantasy Hockey Café prepared interesting player rankings for 2005 that could serve as the office hockey pool cheat sheets. Fantasy Hockey Café staff asked eight hockey pool experts to share their cheat sheets and combined those sheets into the player rankings. Average ranks were calculated, indicating the average of the scores assigned to a player by each fantasy hockey expert (for this calculation, both the highest and lowest individual score were disregarded).

The players were ranked in these five categories (obviously, the lower the rank, the better - use the players with LOW rank as early in your hockey pool as possible):

C RW LW D G

Below we show the first five players in each of the categories. You can see the whole Fantasy Hockey Café 2005 Player Rankings here: http://www.fantasyhockeycafe.com/player_rankings.php

Centers Avg Rank:

Joe Thornton 1.50 - 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 (these are the ranks given by each of the 8 experts)

Joe Sakic 2.33 - 1 7 2 2 4 1 2 3

Peter Forsberg 3.67 - 4 1 4 5 3 3 3 36

Mats Sundin 5.33 - 5 4 3 3 7 6 7 12

Vincent Lecavalier 5.83 - 3 9 8 7 2 4 8 5

Right Wings Avg Rank:

Jarome Iginla 1.67 - 1 1 1 1 4 2 1 7

Martin St. Louis 2.67 - 2 3 6 2 1 1 6 2

Marian Hossa 3.33 - 3 5 3 5 3 3 2 3

Milan Hejduk 4.33 - 4 4 4 6 5 5 4 4

Todd Bertuzzi 4.83 - 5 6 2 3 2 8 5 36

Left Wings Avg Rank:

Markus Naslund 1.33 - 3 1 1 1 1 2 1 2

Ilya Kovalchuk 2.17 - 2 3 2 2 4 1 3 1

Rick Nash 3.33 - 1 2 6 4 2 4 2 8

Alex Tanguay 4.50 - 7 7 3 3 6 3 4 4

Keith Tkachuk 5.17 - 4 10 4 5 3 6 5 7

Defensemen Avg Rank:

Sergei Gonchar 1.00 - 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Chris Pronger 2.33 - 2 2 2 5 2 4 2 2

Scott Niedermayer 4.50 - 4 6 6 4 4 2 4 5

Rob Blake 4.67 - 3 8 2 3 8 3 22

Wade Redden 7.33 - 7 8 11 10 5 6 8 4

Goalies Avg Rank:

Martin Brodeur 1.33 - 2 1 1 6 1 2 1 1

Marty Turco 2.83 - 3 2 2 3 2 5 2 9

Miika Kiprosoff 3.33 - 7 3 4 4 3 3 3 3

Roberto Luongo 4.17 - 1 4 6 7 4 1 4 6

Evgeni Nabokov 6.50 - 6 9 7 2 5 7 5 10

Note:
Scoring categories are: goals, assists, g ame-winning goals, power-play points, +/-, PIM, wins, shutouts, save percentage, GAA.

Use those predictions and rankings as the tips for your office hockey pool draft. Once again, we've found this excellent ranking of the hockey players prepared by Fantasy Hockey Café here: http://www.fantasyhockeycafe.com/player_rankings.php

Good luck!

Stan & Helen

Tips That Will Help You Win Your Hockey Pool

2005-09-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

Daryn Duliba wrote a great article that will help you draft like a pro in your ice hockey pool. He gives a lot of tips that he and other smart hockey pool experts use every year. So if you want to win the office pool this year, listen to what Daryn says…

Here are just few of the less obvious tips that can make the difference for you in this year's office hockey pool draft:

Look for the players that will exceed their point totals of last year (well, this is obvious to the seasoned “poolers”, but it’s a good starting point…).
Look for the players in their third or fourth year – they may have a breakout season (sophomores usually have so called “rookie slump”).
Best hockey pool candidates - the young players in their third or fourth season, excellent players that were injured last year and players who are in brand-new positive situations (e.g., Bertuzzi)
Never pick a rookie. Sidney Crosby will probably be the exception to the "no rookie" rule, but may also be another Alexander Daigle.

Using your top 300 scorers list for your hockey pool draft. Go down the entire list and highlight the players that you believe will make the greatest improvement over last season. Scratch the players who have injuries, holdouts, etc.

Two interesting less known fantasy hockey tips – choose a high-scoring player going from a very defensive team to one that plays a more wide-open style and a good player playing on a bad team (e.g., Doan in Phoenix).

Power forwards are not recommended – they are prone to injuries and spend a lot of time in the penalty box.

If your hockey pool is one that picks goalies, pick a goalie that plays behind a very strong defense.

Finally, two more obvious hockey pool tips: look for players with passion (they play well every year – e.g. Sakic vs. Jagr or Bure) and don’t pay too much attention to pre-season scoring statistics.

You can read that whole Daryn’s excellent article – “How to Win Your Hockey Pool” by going to:http://www.e-sports.com/articles/818/1/How-to-Win-Your-Hockey-Pool

Good luck in your hockey pool draft!

Stan & Helen