Thursday, August 17, 2006

THE HOCKEY NEWS ULTIMATE POOL GUIDE

It is the time of summer when the year books and pool guides hit the newsstands. After work today I purchased the new Hockey News Ultimate Pool Guide. On page 6 I found some more bold predictions from THN (different pundits from the yearbook obviously.) These guys could even be crazier than the Yearbook projectors!
They choose to predict occasional wack because year to year they find themselves being really far off on some of them. They are saying that last season they predicted 20 teams within 3 spots of their final position, and 9 teams only one spot off from correctness. Not bad, but these guys are supposed to be experts aren't they? Check out what these Nostradamus' came up with..

WESTERN CONFERENCE....................EASTERN CONFERENCE

  1. Anaheim.................................................Ottawa
  2. Calgary...................................................Carolina
  3. San Jose..................................................Buffalo
  4. Nashville.................................................NY Rangers
  5. Minnesota...............................................Tampa Bay
  6. Detroit.....................................................New Jersey
  7. Dallas.......................................................Atlanta
  8. Los Angeles.............................................Philadelphia
  9. Vancouver...............................................Montreal
  10. Columbus.................................................Pittsburgh
  11. Phoenix....................................................Boston
  12. Colorado...................................................Toronto
  13. Edmonton.................................................Florida
  14. Chicago......................................................NY Islanders
  15. St. Louis....................................................Washington
On top of all that, they even got ballsy and predicted the Stanley Cup winner: Calgary Flames over the Buffalo Sabres. Hmmm.. They think Jarome Iginla will win the Conn Smythe, Eric Staal will win the Hart, Sydney Crosby will win the Art Ross, Kipper for the Vezina, Niedermayer for the Norris, and Malkin will win the Calder.
I should mention that THN has a love affair with Jarome Iginla, and has a big article on him, talking about how he needs to and will improve this season. Sure he'll improve, he has Alex Tanguay to play with instead of Tony 'hands of shite' Amonte!
So far, THN gives Edmonton no love. It's not like losing Pronger is going to sink their ship. The Oiler defense isn't that bad still. This year they'll have Roloson for the whole season, which is an improvement from the goalie graveyard Edmonton was for the first 3/4 of last season.
I sure wouldn't put Pittsburgh at 10th, and Atlanta at 7th in the East. Wow, put the crackpipe away! I won't even start with Florida!
This magazine has got me excited for the season and hockey pools once again.
As mentioned before, I think a bunch of us bloggers need to organize a pool this season. We can do it through the Yahoo Sports Fantasy pool, which done through an online draft. Fun stuff. I'll get more into that later.
I see Reality Check at Eyes for the Prize has his predictions up. Go check it out and badger him!

2 Comments:

At August 17, 2006 at 7:49 a.m. , Blogger Temujin said...

he has Alex Tanguay to play with instead of Tony 'hands of shite' Amonte!

Well whaddya know, we agree!

So far, THN gives Edmonton no love. It's not like losing Pronger is going to sink their ship. The Oiler defense isn't that bad still. This year they'll have Roloson for the whole season,

Edmonton deserve less love than another certain hockey team I will not mention. Do you really think Roloson's 38 year old body will play the entire season? I'd be surprised if he does! Injury time, my friend.

 
At August 17, 2006 at 10:01 a.m. , Blogger Sean Zandberg said...

Roloson won't play a 70-game season no doubt. But remember Markannen is beginning to establish himself, as he had a great finals. The Oils are not in trouble this year at all IMO.

Just imagine how good Ovechkin is. He gets over 100 points with a bum Halpern and Zubrus on his line! Iginla has no excuses.

Speaking of the Flames, I wonder how Matt is doing. Matt, are you there?

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home

Waiting For Stanley was created in June 2006.