Experts

 

The Silver Hammers pretty much led from wire to wire and won the Dobber Experts league by nine points over a game Expert’s Audit. Dobber himself finished third, his best finish ever in this league and pushed Lanky522 down to fourth spot. Angus fell from fifth at the end of January to seventh. The Comish and Third Degree Burns (Chris went AWOL early on) were both relegated.

 

In retrospect, this was likely the worst draft in my (The Comish) long history of hockey pools. I think even autodraft would have saved me (right Notch!? – he was on autodraft for the first 10 or 12 rounds I believe). It was a combination of poor seasons, injuries and bad drafting. Here are my first 15 picks in order:

Malkin, S.Mason, Phaneuf, Lidstrom, Gonchar, Vokoun, Kovalev, Langenbrunner, Booth, M.Michalek, Horton, Briere, M.Ryder, S.Kozlov, Wheeler. Sweet, huh?

Here are everyone’s top five picks at the draft (snake), in order:

 

Pick	Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
1	Youth Injection	Ovechkin	Backstrom(C)	Backstrom(G)	Khabibulin	Spezza
2	The Comish	Malkin	S.Mason	Phaneuf	Lidstrom	Gonchar
3	Silver Hammers	Crosby	Heatley	Miller	S.Weber	D.Boyle
4	Notch	Parise	Zetterberg	Nash	Gaborik	St.Louis
5	Angus	Getzlaf	C.Ward	Ryan	Rinne	Franzen
6	Grizzlies	Perry	Semin	Turco	A.Markov	Toews
7	Dobber	Green	Lundqvist	Lecavalier	Doan	D.Keith
8	Expert’s Audit	Nabokov	Kovalchuk	J.Thornton	P.Kane	Pronger
9	Maaaasquito Bites	J.Carter	Datsyuk	Huet	Emery	Vanek
10	Doulos	Luongo	Iginla	Chara	Price	Cammalleri
11	Lanky522	Brodeur	Fleury	D.Sedin	E.Staal	Morrow
12	Third Degree Burns	Kiprusoff	Thomas	M.Savard	M.Richards	Hossa

 

Angus got hammered with the Getzlaf (although he still had 69 points), Ward and Franzen injuries as did Maaaasquito Bites with Emery and Vanek. There were several poor goaltending choices made early, but the goalies went very fast and there was some desperation in the air.

 

Expert’s Audit got the steal of the draft with his eighth pick (89th overall) taking eventual Art Ross trophy winner, Henrik Sedin. Some of the forwards taken before him included:  Boyes, D.Roy, Kessel, Frolov, O.Jokinen, Pavelski, Kunitz, Lucic, Avery, Elias, Kovalev, Gagne and Setoguchi.

 

Other great late round picks:

 

Youth Injection – Downie (Round 24, 288 overall), Connolly (17, 193)

 

The Silver Hammers – Laich (23, 267), Elliott (22, 262)

 

Notch – Yandle (15, 172), Doughty (12, 141)

 

Angus (outstanding latter half of drafting) – Lombardi (22, 260), Robidas (21, 245), Neal (19, 221), Quick (14, 164), Stastny (10, 116)

 

Dobber – E.Karlsson (21, 247), Theodore (18, 210), Weiss (17, 199)

 

Maaaasquito Bites – Hornqvist (24, 280), J.Johnson (22, 256)

 

doulos – Rask (24, 279), B.Richards (18, 207), Kopitar (8,87)

 

Lanky522 – Anderson (22, 254)

 

The Comish – P.Bergeron (24, 287), Plekanec (22, 263), Enstrom (17, 194)

 

Third Degree Burns – Kesler (18, 205)

 

There were no trades over the last two months of the season.

 

Dobber Experts	G	A	+/-	PIM	PPP	SOG	W	GAA	SV	Total
The Silver Hammers	12	11	8	9	12	12	8.5	10.5	9	92
Expert’s Audit	8	12	7	6	8	7	12	12	11	83
Legion of Dobber	2	10	12	7	3	2	11	9	12	68
Lanky522	9	5	5	5	6	8	10	8	8	64
Youth Injection	7	9	6	8	11	3	7	3	7	61
Grizzlies	11	6.5	10.5	2	10	10	4	1	2	57
Angus Unleashed	4	8	1	11	5	4	8.5	6	6	53.5
Maaaasquito Bites	10	3	3	10	9	11	1.5	4	1	52.5
Notch	5	1	10.5	12	1.5	5	5	5	4	49
Doulos- Hockey Robot	3	4	4	3	7	9	6	7	5	48
The Comish	6	6.5	2	4	4	6	1.5	2	10	42
Third Degree Burns	1	2	9	1	1.5	1	3	10.5	3	32

 

Pro – Wales Conference

 

Like The Silver Hammers in the Experts League, the Woodbridge Wild led pretty much cover to cover. Smack Attack and $_$joos were in the mix all year, but just didn’t have the horses to overtake the Hammer. Thunder Bay Moose gained three positions from the end of January to finish in fourth. Omnium Gatherum lost four places and finished in eighth. Duballstar014 gained two spots over the last two months of the season to avoid relegation.  The Usual Suspects and Wookie Overdrive are relegated to the Entry leagues.

 

Here are everyone’s top five picks at the draft (snake), in order:

 

Pick	Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
1	Omnium Gatherum	Ovechkin	J.Thornton	C.Ward	Cammalleri	Huet
2	Duballstar014	Malkin	J.Carter	Phaneuf	Varlamov	Morrow
3	Usual Suspects	Crosby	Nash	Lecavalier	S.Weber	Rinne
4	The jobbers	Heatley	Datsyuk	S.Mason	D.Boyle	Doan
5	Hockeyislife’s heros	Luongo	St. Louis	Miller	Spezza	Tanguay
6	$_$joos	Lundqvist	Iginla	E.Staal	Vokoun	Marleau
7	Thunder Bay Moose	Nabokov	Fleury	P.Kane	Vanek	Lidstrom
8	Smack Attack	Brodeur	Kovalchuk	Semin	M.Savard	Pronger
9	St.John’s Capitals	Kiprusoff	D.Sedin	Emery	Alfredsson	M.Richards
10	Wookie Overdrive	Getzlaf	Backstrom(G)	Price	Gagne	Setoguchi
11	Sweet Pete	Parise	Perry	Zetterberg	Gaborik	Toews
12	Woodbridge Wild	Thomas	Green	Chara	Backstrom (C)	Backes

 

Henrik Sedin was taken by hockeyislife’s heros in the seventh round (84th overall). He also snagged Fisher with his 23rd pick, 292 overall.

 

Other great picks for their round:

 

joos – Yandle (25, 319), Karlsson (20, 254), Enstrom (16, 202), B.Richards (14, 176)

 

Smack Attack – J.Johnson (21, 269), Plekanec (19, 243), Theodore (16, 200), Stastny (9, 113)

 

St. John’s Capitals – Halak (25, 322), P.Bergeron (22, 277), Ehrhoff (21, 270), Elliott (17, 218)

 

Wookie Overdrive – Anderson (15, 193), Kopitar (8, 94)

 

Sweet Pete – Penner (24, 301), Laich (20, 249)

 

Woodbridge Wild (had a wicked second half of the draft) – Rask (24, 300), Robidas (23, 299), Downie (22, 274), Neal (21, 273), Doughty (19, 247), Connolly (18, 222), Stamkos (15, 195), D.Keith (8, 92), Bryzgalov (7, 91)

 

There were two trades to report since the last update:

 

Feb. 5

The Usual Suspects received L-Avery NYR (dropped 11 Feb)

Woodbridge Wild received D-Demers SJ

 

Feb. 6

St. John's Capitals received C-Savard,M Bos

Smack Attack received G-Emery Phi

 

Dobber Pro Wales	G	A	+/-	PIM	PPP	SOG	W	GAA	SV 📢 advertisement:	Total
Woodbridge Wild	13	13	12	13	13	13	9	9.5	7	102.5
Smack Attack	12	12	9	11	11	11	10	11	8	95
$_$joos	10	11	6	9	12	10	6.5	9.5	13	87
Thunder Bay Moose	7	5	13	2	4	6	13	7	12	69
St. John’s Capitals	3	10	4	3	10	4	11	12	10	67
Sweet Pete	11	9	11	10	7	12	2	2	2	66
hockeyislife’s heros	4	6	2	7	5	3	12	13	11	63
Omnium Gatherum	9	8	10	8	6	5	5	8	3	62
the jobbers	6	7	5	12	8	8	4	3	5	58
Duballstar014	8	4	7	4	9	9	3	4	4	52
The Usual Suspects	5	3	8	5	3	7	6.5	6	6	49.5
Wookie Overdrive	2	2	3	6	2	2	8	5	9	39

 

**There was a dummy team for the commish (The Comish) to oversee the league, hence the 13 points for category leaders and no single pointers.

 

Pro – Campbell Conference

 

This Conference was all about Chicleteur’s steadiness. He was never worse than second in the monthly standings. He took over the lead at the end of January and never looked back. Second place Crazynuck battled Chicleteur for top spot the entire season and was never lower than fourth in the monthly rankings.

 

At the end of November update, Zorro was third, but ended up finishing ninth. A similar fate befell playmaker26, who went from fifth to 11th when the music stopped. Conversely, Loki (tenth) and Fergie’s Leafs (11th) were near the bottom of the standings at the end of November and ended up third and fourth respectively! Way to battle guys.

 

The race to avoid relegation turned out to be more intense than the race for promotion. Only half a point separated ninth from eleventh. After all was said and done, 87flyer and playmaker26 are relegated, playmaker losing the tiebreaker (goals) to smoothfun.

 

Here are everyone’s top five picks at the draft (snake), in order:

 

Rd	Team	1	2	3	4	5
1	Metaldude26	Ovechkin	S.Mason	D.Boyle	M.Savard	Doan
2	Rattus rattus	Malkin	Varlamov	Emery	Marleau	A.Markov
3	Crazynuck	Crosby	Backstrom(G)	Semin	P.Kane	Rinne
4	Chicleteur	Luongo	J.Carter	Nash	St. Louis	Vokoun
5	UW on the UP	Nabokov	C.Ward	Phaneuf	Gonchar	Pronger
6	Loki	Fleury	Backstrom(C)	Lidstrom	Miller	Vanek
7	Sentium	Parise	Perry	Zetterberg	Gaborik	M.Richards
8	Fergie’s Leafs	Lundqvist	Kiprusoff	Lecavalier	D.Sedin	Kovalev
9	Smoothfun	Green	Kovalchuk	C.Mason	Huet	Streit
10	87flyer	Getzlaf	Thomas	E.Staal	Hiller	Cammalleri
11	Zorro	Iginla	Datsyuk	J.Thornton	S.Weber	Alfredsson
12	Playmaker	Brodeur	Heatley	Chara	Spezza	Price

 

Henrik Sedin was taken by Crazynuck in the seventh round (82nd overall). He also took Wolski (24, 309), Yandle (20, 257), Theodore (19, 238), Connolly (18, 231) and Enstrom (16, 205).

 

Other great picks for their round:

 

metaldude26 – Downie (19, 235), Stastny (12, 156)

rattus rattus – B.Richards (15, 184), D.Keith (8, 103)

Chicleteur – Plekanec (25, 317), Anderson (19, 239)

UW on the UP – Kesler (19, 240), J.Johnson (18, 229), Neal (16, 203)

Loki – Miller (4, 46)

Sentium – Robidas (25, 320), Bryzgalov (12, 149)

Fergie’s Leafs – Halak (21, 269), E.Karlsson (19, 243)

smoothfun – Stamkos (10, 121)

87flyer – Rask (25, 323)

Zorro – Penner (25, 324), Laich (23, 298), Quick (14, 171)

playmaker26 – Doughty (13, 169)

 

There was one trade to report since the last update:

 

Feb. 13

Loki received C/R-Pavelski SJ

Sentium received C-Dubinsky NYR/G-Giguere Tor

 

Dobber Pro Campbell	G	A	+/-	PIM	PPP	SOG	W	GAA	SV	Total
Chicleteur	12	12	5	8	10	11	13	10	13	94
Crazynuck	11	13	12	11	11	9	10	3	8	88
Loki	10	10	11	2	7	4	12	11	11	78
Fergie’s Leafs	8.5	6	6	4	3	10	11	13	12	73.5
rattus rattus	5	11	9	13	12.5	8	7	6	2	73.5
Sentium	8.5	2.5	10	9	2	13	9	8	6	68
metaldude26	4	7.5	7	12	9	2	5	5	10	61.5
Zorro	6	9	8	10	4.5	7	4	2	9	59.5
UW on the UP	2	5	2	7	4.5	12	7	9	7	55.5
smoothfun	13	4	13	3	6	3	3	7	3	55
playmaker26	3	2.5	3	5	12.5	6	7	12	4	55
87flyer	7	7.5	4	6	8	5	2	4	5	48.5

**There was a dummy team for the commish (The Comish) to oversee the league, hence the 13 points for category leaders and no single pointers.