Head Tale

When I was in Calgary, I went in a hockey pool with my cousin and his buddies every year.  The rules we used were fairly standard in that the team you picked at the draft was the team you were stuck with for the year (in retrospect, dropping your lowest scoring player – ie. the guy who got injured in week three – would've been a nice rule to have.  But I'm not bitter about drafting Paul Kariya in 2003.)

But beyond that, this pool had an interesting wrinkle I really liked – instead of everybody paying a set entry fee ($20 or whatever) and drafting who they felt was the best available at the time, you paid $1 per million of salary.  So if you drafted a team like you owed the Rangers or Red Wings of the early 2000's, you were going to put $70 into the pot.  If you worked the draft like a small market Canadian team, you're on the hook for $35 maybe with the chance for a really big payoff.  Instead of drafting someone like Peter Forsberg or Jaromir Jagr in the early rounds, you'd see guys trying to pick sleepers who were on low money contracts and poised to break out for big points (My proudest moment was picking sleeper Jarome Iginla in 01-02 for a buck seventy when he had his big breakout season, scoring 52 goals and 44 assists and jumped to a $5.50 player the next year.) 

Another great memory was when one regular couldn't make the draft when we did it at our place so Shea was enlisted to draft for him.  Using a unique strategy of “picking the most expensive guy available” and/or “picking the guy with the funniest name – ie. Satan, Palffy, etc.”, she ended up winning the guy some cash when he finished in second place! 

So anyhow, that's all a long intro to say that I haven't done a hockey pool in a couple years but was glad to see that Facebook has one.  They're using the “pick one player from a group of six similar players” style of draft which is pretty fun too.  Categories include “Elite”, “Sizzle”, “Fizzle?”, “European”, “Goon”, “Goalie”, etc.  Plus they're allowing four trades throughout the year in case you pick a bum.   (Oh, and they also let you name your team – I'm “Head Tale” – so if you're playing too, feel free to post your team name as a comment so I know whose butt I'm kicking! )

Here are my picks and justifications
Elite – Sidney Crosby
Seemed like a no-brainer.  So far, Crosby = 1 points.  Heatley = 7.  Yep, I have no brain.

Sizzle! – Jarome Iginla
Always a soft spot for “Iggy” but also a considered pick since Iggy was third in points per game average last year and only a big injury kept him from ending up in the top three for league scoring.  Off to his typical slow start but he always seems to pick it up as the year goes on so I remain hopeful and am unlikely to trade him.

Fizzle? – Mats Sundin
I hate the Leafs like any good Canadian outside the greater metropolitan Toronto area should.  But I've always liked Mats Sundin and he's serving me well so far by leading this group.

Expecting Big Things – Marc Savard
Probably my stinkiest pick in the draft.  Made the classic draft mistake of chasing somebody who did something good the year before (Savard put up great numbers of a fairly crappy team) instead of going for somebody with potential for this year – ie. Paul Statsny who is kicking ass so far.

European Flair
I picked the wrong Red Wing – Datsyuk has 2 points, Zetterberg has 8.

Veteran Leaders
Saku Koivu and like a lot of picks, my bias towards Canadian teams is showing (but unfortunately, I didn't pick any of the Ottawa's big three who are totally dominating so far.)

Warhorses
Nik Lidstrom is dominating this group so far.  Yay me!

Future Norris
Dion Phanuef.  Beyond my Flames fandom, this guy almost beat a 20 year old record for goals by a rookie defenceman when he scored 20 in 2005-06 .  Considering how wide open the NHL was in 1998 when Brian Leetch set the record (23), that's pretty impressiv
e!

Goalies
Miikka Kiprusoff and see the last entry for very similar reasoning – Flames fandom + record setting performances.

Goons
Shane O'Brien.  Is there even fighting in the “new” NHL?  This one was a toss-up and also has my least favourite aspect of this pool by far – every PIM gets you a point (the draft we did in Calgary only gave you one quarter of a point as a quality goon should be able to get 400 PIM and a top scoring player will get around 100 points.)  The way it's set-up right now, your whole pool result will be completely dominated by the goon you pick.