1) Not our best night ever, but an improvement over the previous 2 weeks. We went 7-5 on the night to bring our season total to 60-39, or a solid .606 winning percentage. Additionally we won a tough Lock of The Week to bring that total to 6-2.
Look tomorrow for an important post concerning league fiscal health and the possible labour problems it could cause down the road. As always keep it here for all the latest
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Week 8 Picks: Who Would Rick Choose?
1) We take our respectable, yet diminished53-34, or a .609 winning % into this week's slate of a dozen games. We hope to improve after two consecutive sub par weeks.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Happy ThanksGiving
1) On this, Thanksgiving here in the states we wanted to wish all our readers a great holiday and continue to thank God for all the many blessings bestowed upon us.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
SE Division Continues To Suck!
1) With all due respect to our readers who are fans of teams in this division, the lofty pre season expectations for the elevation of the division as the annual door mats of the league has not transpired. In fact it can be argued that it is as bad as ever. We expected so much more. Perhaps we were expecting more than what was possible. As of this writing it appears again that the eventual division winner won't have in excess of 10o points. (Possibly as low as 92)
2)
- Washington Capitals: The 'First Place' Capitals are the only team in the SE that is above .500 (factoring in OT losses, as losses) The Caps are 11-10 with a mere 25 points, but are coming off a third strait loss. Sure they have injuries, but what team at this point doesn't? They probably will eventually win this dregs of a division, but it won't be pretty. They are the best team here. Scarily, from there it gets MUCH worse.
- Carolina Hurricanes, who at 11-11 and 4-6 in their last 10 are the next best team. We expected much more from the 2006 Cup champs and thus far we and their fans undoubtedly are very disappointed in what we have seen. Peter Laviolette, despite his recent mark http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2008/11/congratulations-peter.html is undoubtedly on the brink unless he turns things around SOON! From there the disappointment is even more clear in the next best team in the SE
- Tampa Bay Lightning. They, with their colossally bad 6-14 record have already sacrificed their coach,http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2008/11/mullet-about-to-be-cut.html but continue to suck nonetheless. Many of us saw them as a possible playoff bubble team, NOT a 2009 Draft lottery team. They have way too much offensive talent to be struggling in scoring. They could turn it around, but the hole is already very deep!
- Atlanta Thrashers- probably the only NON-surprise is to see the 'Trash' near the bottom of the heap of the worst division (near the bottom of the entire NHL) They, as mentioned above, are close to being a near certainty to be relocated. They actually have played better 6-4 in last 10, to get to this 'lofty' spot in the standings.
- Florida Panthers- Not a surprise that they are off to a slow start. (But we didn't think they'd be this bad!) They seem to do this every year. No doubt they'll have a great second half then miss the post season by less than a handful of points. http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2008/07/no-mans-land.html They, along with the aforementioned Thrashers are on the precipice of being sold off and moved. Would you pay money to see them?
3) Melrose will probably not be the last management casualty this season in the SE. We SHOULD finally see Don Waddell let go by Atlanta. As we have frequently mentioned, he is the worst hockey executive since Mike Milbury left the scene. After him Jacques Martin in Florida needs to be fired. He has shown no ability to build a team either. His coach, Peter DeBoer we will give the benefit of the doubt, like we do for John Anderson in Florida. As we alluded to we could also see Mr. Laviolette looking for employment before long if things don't turn around. Only in DC(where they fired their coach about this time last year) would we expect to not see any management turnover before the season ends. When all is said and done the division will probably struggle to place more than its mandatory team in the playoffs. The division winner will again probably not exceed 100 points. We expected more, but alas, we guess some things don't change. The SE Division still sucks!
Monday, November 24, 2008
At The Quarter Pole......
1) With nearly all teams having now played 20% of their schedules we decided to project the finals standings. Obviously there is plenty of time for teams outside of the playoffs to get back in, but some trends are clearly becoming evident.2) We merely projected an 82 game season point total based upon each teams current point total/games played. These are NOT Predictions, they are Projections! Also we will place teams in the order that is used for playoff seeding.
First in the East:
Boston-124
Pittsburgh-111
Washington-102
Montreal- 108
NY Rangers- 106
NJ Devils- 98
Philadelphia- 95
Carolina- 94
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Buffalo- 86
Toronto-78
NY Islanders- 74
Ottawa- 74
Tampa Bay- 74
Atlanta- 69
Florida- 65
3) Next the West:
San Jose- 136
Detroit- 133
Vancouver- 109
Chicago-108
Minnesota- 105
Anaheim- 93
Calgary- 90
Nashville- 86
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Columbus- 86
Edmonton- 82
Los Angeles- 82
St. Louis- 82
Colorado- 78
Phoenix- 78
Dallas- 69
4) Also of interest is comparisons with last years http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2007/11/at-quarter-pole.html post. This time last season the Senators and Islanders were in the top 2 in the East!Compare that with now to see how fast things can change. Also the Caps were dead last overall and yet still made the playoffs with 94 points. We understand that with 3/4 of the games remaining the subtle differences of one point or a game or two in hand are magnified, but those are accurate projections, and teams likely needing 90+ points to qualify for the playoffs consistent with past years. It also shows a VERY close race for the final playoff spots in both Conferences. Again, mirroring what we have seen the last few years.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Week 7: Results
1) Another sub par week for us. We went a piss-poor 5-7, to bring our season long totals to 53-34, or a .609 winning %. We lost 3 of the 5 games that went into the extra session. which could have either raised us above .500 for the week, or we could have been even more dreadful. We even suffered our second consecutive "Lock of the Week Loss" bringing that season total down to 5-2.
2) Look for week 8 next Saturday when another dozen contests will be up for grabs. Also look tomorrow for out "Quarter pole" post and see where your favourite might end up come April! As always, keep it here for all the latest!
2) Look for week 8 next Saturday when another dozen contests will be up for grabs. Also look tomorrow for out "Quarter pole" post and see where your favourite might end up come April! As always, keep it here for all the latest!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Picks- Week 7
1) We come into Week 7 of our Hockey Picks with our season total of 48-27 or a .640 winning % on the line with tonight's dozen contests. (Note, there are two afternoon games today)
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