NHL Picks/Props

After a decent start to an already riveting 2011-2012 campaign, taking two thirds of my choices, I’m looking to maintain or dare say increase that pace! Last Saturday’s trip into Boston made for quite the visit. I witnessed the defending champs in all their glory, taking the Leafs to school with TD BankNorth Arena chanting in unison “Thank You Kessel!!” with feverish aplomb. (Insert “Aren’t you a Leafs homer?” comment here..shhhh.)

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Short intro this week, as time has become quite valuable these days.  Last week started out 2-4, while Thunder cracked .500 at 3-3.  I was a few minutes away from getting the Washington-Carolina tie.  Damn those PP’s in overtime really hurt!  Anyways, it’s another week, we are a few games into the season and hopefully we can start finding some successful trends to run with towards some money.  Hope everyone enjoys another night of 28 teams in business.  So grab a cold one and let’s get on with it.

Almost a perfect game for Anthony last week!  Unfortunately he was trying to give the Leafs a pity point, by calling the game a tie with the Wings winning the shootout.  Oh well, I’ve been burned by the pity point before.  That’s why this week I’m giving the Leafs two of them, haha.  Last time I only managed two winners, however it was close to being a perfect week.  Just had the wrong team scoring in a shootout/overtime in three of the losses and I was 34 seconds away from the tie I had called in the CLB-MIN game.  Oh well, Thunder managed to capitalize picking four winners and improving her record to 11-13, while mine drops to 9-15.  Time for redemption and a perfect week could pull me to .500 to end the season.  Here goes:

We’re in the stretch run now!  Although it may not officially be playoff time just yet, it certainly feels like it with more intense races to get into the dance than we’ve ever seen before, involving more teams still fighting than accustomed to.

Commissioner Bettman wanted parity, and boy did he ever get it. With under three weeks left in the season, by my count, only five teams are legitimately out of the chase. This weekend’s matchups provide plenty of meaningful games, with each passing day intensifying the grind that much more. Come the official 1^st puck drop of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, almost all of the top 16 will be more than ready, having being forced into playoff atmosphere games for the better part of a month already! Now without further ado, let’s get to it.

Since the format change I’ve managed to tie my mutts after three Saturday’s, as we share identical 7-11 records.  You could say I have nine wins since I did have the Sharks and Hawks winning, but in a shootout. It’s amazing what you’ll try to squeeze out of a losing record! On a positive note, I’ve gone from one win, to two, and last week saw four winners.  Could have been six for six, but Boston let me down in overtime, and even though I knew the Hawks would win for some reason I thought the Leafs would manage to get a point.  Oh well.  Some great playoff races are happening around the league and many hearts will be broken. Quite a few games on the schedule so let’s get right to it.

Greetings Hockey Fans! After a rough Saturday night two columns ago where my streak of continually improving on my prior week’s record ended, I rebounded quite nicely choosing four of six winners two weeks ago. (Although I went five for six (83%), if you count my selection of the Bruins in SO, despite them getting the job done in regulation.) I also wanted to give Marty a standing O for his dead-on call last weekend of the Oilers impending repeat whipping of the Avs. He even nailed the score! Anyhow, here’s to a 3^rd straight impressive week from the Dobber 6-Pack Saturday night crew!

I’d like to give props to Anthony for picking four winners last week, including the BUF/DET shootout game.  The week before that I struggled to come away with two victories while my own dog beat me with three winners.  Another strong performance like that and I foresee a visit to the pound in the near future. It’s time to bounce back in the face of adversity (have more wobbly pops?), or something like that.  Anyways let’s get to the action as we have a real mixed bag, with some great match-ups for teams looking to squeeze into the big dance, and some meaningless bottom dwelling games as well.