Week 8 Results

1) Week 8 is complete. On the day/night we went a solid 9-3 to elevate the season total to 66-31 or a .680 winning %. Like last week, we had a great week BUT lost our 'Lock'  to bring that stat down to 6-2. We will be back at this ofcourse next saturday when another 12 games are scheduled.  Also look for a post concerning teams already becoming irrelevant with only 1/4 of the season complete.
As always, keep it here for all the latest!

Week 8 Picks!

1) Its week 8 of the NHL season. Time for our weekly picks.  Am even dozen games are slated for today/night. Our record through the first 7 weeks is a gaudy 57-28 for a .671 winning %

Philadelphia at NY Rangers: Rangers

Buffalo at Montreal: Habitants ( Lock of the Week)

Washington at Toronto: Maple Leafs

 Ottawa at Tampa Bay: Lightning

 New Jersey at NY Islanders: Devils

 Pittsburgh at Carolina: Penguins

 Columbus at Nashville: Predators

 St. Louis at Minnesota: Blues

 Dallas at Colorado: Avalanche

 Chicago at Los Angeles: Kings

 Calgary at Arizona: Flame

 Anaheim at San Jose: Sharks

At The Quarter Poll-2014 Edition

1) With nearly all teams having now played 20% of their schedules  we decided as we usually do when there is a full NHL season to project (NOT predict) 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. This is NOT a Prediction!! We merely are projecting an 82 game season point total based upon each teams current point total/games played. Although we delineated the top 8, with the new playoff structure, its not a done deal that he 8th seeded team would qualify if the season ended today

2) First in the East:

• Pittsburgh- 118
• Montreal- 115
• NY Islanders- 112
• Tampa Bay- 109
• Detroit- 100
• Boston- 95
• Ottawa- 93
• Toronto- 91

_____________________________

• Florida- 89
• NY Rangers -88
• Washington- 84
• New Jersey- 80
• Philadelphia- 76
• Carolina- 60
• Columbus- 56
• Buffalo- 53

3) Next The West:

• Anaheim- 113
• Nashville- 112
• St. Louis- 110
• Vancouver- 110
• Calgary- 102
• LA-  99
• Chicago- 95
• Minnesota- 93

_________________________________

• Winnipeg- 84
• San Jose- 83
• Dallas- 76
• Arizona- 73
• Colorado- 72
• Edmonton- 53

4) Synopsis East:  Positives: A nice surprise to see the Islanders become relevant in the NY metro area. Hopefully they can keep it up. Detroit playing a top tier team proves they have one of the best coaches in the business! Fla stying in the race, also nice to see. Negatively the demise of Columbus is the most shocking.  Yes, they have had injuries, but to fall out of the playoff race this early?   Changes are coming there for sure. Also Flyers playing mediocre hockey won't be tolerated long. In Buffalo they were supposed to suck, but this bad?  Sorry Ted, we've been big supporters through the years, but unless you can get more out of this collection, your days as a head coach are done! 

5) Synopsis West:  Good surprises: Nashville and Vancouver!  New coaches definitely making a difference. Laviolette typically does well his first season with teams, then his players start to figure out he's just a New England douche and they tune him out. WE can understand why Willie Dejardens was so sought after this past summer. The 'Nucks are playing very well. Additionally who thought Calgary would be here?  We certainly didn't. On the flip side, Colorado has to be the biggest disappointment thus far.  Many (including us) figured they'd  push the big boys for conference supremacy. Now the playoffs are looking quite unlikely! Edmonton, like Buffalo wasn't supposed to win, but come on'. enough already Oil!  How does Dallas Eakins still have a job!?!

Week 7 Results

1) Week 7 is complete. We thought we were in for a nasty day when we lost the 1st 3 games, but we managed to almost sweep the remaining 10, and went a very solid 9-4 on the day/night to bring the season totals to 57-28 for a .671 winning %!  Alas not all good news as we lost our first 'Lock' as the Washington Capitals decided to do a no show against the pathetic Buffalo Sabres at home. The stat for Locks is now at 6-1

2) Look for our popular 'Quarter pole' posting to drop tomorrow morning based upon the standings after today's 4 games.  Trade talks are also heating up as are teams seeing the reality that their season's are already toast.
As always, keep it here for all the latest!

Week 7 Picks

1) We are at the quarter poll of the NHL season. hard to imagine how fast things seem to be flying by here.  We will have our annual season's projection posting early next week of course, but today its all about the picks. A busy day/evening in the NHL as 13 games are scheduled. No word if the sabres were able to dig out of Buffalo to get to DC for tonight's game/ Regardless, we will pick it here any way. Our record coming into tonight's action through 6 weeks is  48-24 for a .667 winning %! 

St. Louis at Ottawa:  Senators

Montreal at Boston: Bruins

 Buffalo at Washington: Capitals (Lock of The Week)

 Detroit at Toronto:Maple Leafs

 Minnesota at Tampa Bay: Lightning

 Pittsburgh at NY Islanders: Islanders

 Columbus at Philadelphia: Flyers

 Florida at Nashville: Predators

 Los Angeles at Dallas:Stars

 Carolina at Colorado: Avalanche

 New Jersey at Calgary: Flames

 Chicago at Edmonton: Black hawks

 Arizona at San Jose: Sharks

"Loonie" Will Determine Cap?

1) The dirty little secret that few, if any were talking about until recently is the direct and significant tie the NHL revenue windfall had to do with the elevation of the Canadian dollar.  We at Fauxrumrs have been WAY out in front of this for years! Here is a post SIX YEARS ago on this very subject:
http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2008/10/significant-shrinkage.html

2) Although that 'shrinkage was only minimal and temporary, and largely mitigated by other "revenue  enhancements" like 50 out door games a season. The current downward tregectary of the 'Loonie' appears to be a more permanent situation, and as a recent article sited here suggests:--->
 http://metronews.ca/voices/how-to-roll-canadian-investment-advice/1175200/bad-news-for-the-loonie-the-canadian-dollar-plunge-will-likely-continue/
it could go back to where it traditionally has been, in the 80% range. FAR from its al time high of $1.10 from 7 years ago.  It could even plummet to .70 or lower!!

3) So I'm sure more than one of you are asking, "why should we care about Canada's currency value"?  Simple.  If teams north of the border are getting revenues locally with a depressed currency, BUT have to pay players in US dollars they are at a 10-20% disadvantage over their US counterparts and that translates into LESS revenue. Less revenue= smaller salary cap/payroll!  For the past 18 months we were hearing that the new TV deals along with out door games, etc would help to sky rocket the cap ceiling to as high as 80 or even 90 million in 3-4 seasons or less  The current cap is 69 mil. Which is already less than most thought it was going to be only 6 months prior! 

4) Our sources within the league and elsewhere tell us its very likely that due to the CN dollar plunge that the cap will remain  essentially stagnant for the next season or two.  A FAR cry from what we were hearing only a short 12 months ago. GM's across the league felt that the belt tightening they had to endure post Bettman lockout #3 would ease and they could start to spend more easily. I'm sure big spending teams like Chicago, NY and Philly are none too happy. With the Towes/Kane insane deals (10.5 mil each) set to commence next year its possible the Hawks will again have to shed payroll, ala the Leddy trade earlier this fall.  They aren't alone there!

5) The other potential fallout is expansion. We wrote recently that Quebec would be a no brainer to expand to. They have a ready made arena soon to be ready and a rabid fan base eager for a return of NHL hockey. BUT, a plunging loonie would make that less profitable, and less attractive to the league in general. Would the expansion fee be in CN or US dollars?  You can bet it would be in green backs, so the potential owners would be defacto penalized 10-20% on a franchise fee, as opposed to a Vegas or Seattle franchise.  Also existing smaller market teams, already struggling, like the Oilers, Jets, and Flames would have their bottom lines cut by the continued exchange rate disrepency. Might we see a return of The NHL's small market assistance plan, known as the

Canadian Assistance Plan [CAP]? If that happens, one insider told us, you can bet things are getting very bad and contraction, NOT expansion might be necessary. We are NOT anywhere near that....yet!

Week 6 Results

1) Week 6 is complete. We had an outstanding day/night, going an impressive 10-2!  That brings our season-long total to 48-24 for a .667 winning %!  We doubt we'll be able to maintain that pace all season, but we'll give it a shot!   Also we kept our 'lock' pick record unblemished. Now at 6-0!  We of course will be right back here next Saturday for week 7 when a whopping 13 games will be on the NHL docket!
We are planning a post this week concerning next year's salary cap and the Canadian dollar situation/implications!
As always, keep it here for all the latest!!

Week 6 Picks

1) As we roll towards the NHL quarter poll we enter week 6 of the NHL season.  As we had last week, 12 games are to be decided today/night.  We bring our 38-22 for a .633 winning % record into the day and try to improve on it with the following picks.


Carolina at Boston: Bruins  (Lock of the Week)

Minnesota at Dallas:Stars

Anaheim at Los Angeles: Kings

Toronto at Buffalo: Maple Leafs

Philadelphia at Montreal: Habitants

NY Islanders at Tampa Bay: Lightning

Colorado at New Jersey: Avalanche

Rangers at Pittsburgh: Penguins

San Jose at Columbus: Blue Jackets

Winnipeg at Nashville: Predators

Washington at St. Louis: Blues

Ottawa at Calgary: Flames

Holy Hossa! Six More Years!?!

1) That's the response we got when we reminded Chicago Black hawk fans that their (once-?) super star under achieving Slovak forward has an additional 6 seasons AFTER this one with his 5.25 cap hit. Thus far he has a whopping 2 goals and 7 points in 15 games. Now to be fair few Hawks are tearing up the score sheet, and Hossa has probably paid for his deal with his post season heroics, helping Chicago greatly to win 2 Cups in his 5+ seasons. However, we live in a 'what have you done for me lately?, world and no team can thrive having one of its offensive leaders score (protracted over 82 games)7 goals/25 points!

2) It is always difficult to tell what is a slump and what might be age-related decline. In this case its way too early to tell, but at 36, with lots of miles on him, it wouldn't be premature to make that part of the discussion. Especially if this 'slump' continues. Thankfully  for the Hawks he is one of the few who doesn't have a no movement clause and with the front loaded deal paying him 7.9 mil this year but only 1 mil the last 4 years of his 12 year contract he might be movable for a team looking to add salary cap without salary!

3)  It will be interesting to see how the next few months play out here. One Eastern scout says that his team would be very interested in adding Hossa despite the current slump as long as the asking price wasn't too ridiculous. It would be unusual for a Cup contending team to off load salary before the playoffs, but it may be a wise choice with the Towes/Kane contracts coming on line next season for the Hawks to make some space available to fill the roster and maybe get something decent in return for Marion.

Free to Blog? Thank A Vet!!

1) As we like to remind readers: "Besides:

• Ending Communism


• Ending Slavery


• Saving the world from Totalitarianism Fascism and Terrorism
  

War never solved a thing?!?"

Week 5 Results

1) Week 5 is complete.  For the day/night we went a solid 8-4 to bring the 5 week totals to 38-22 for a .633 winning %. Additionally we got our 'Lock' correct to bring that stat to 5-0.   We of course will be back at it again next Saturday when another 12 games are scheduled.  Additionally look for a possible post about some serious trade discussions going on.
As always, keep it here for all the latest!!

Week 5 Picks

1) The 5th Saturday of the NHL season is set for today where a full dozen games are scheduled. Thus far through the first 4 weeks of picks we are 30-18 for a .625 winning % 


Calgary VS  Florida: Flames

 Pittsburgh VS Buffalo: Penguins  (Lock of The Week)

 Toronto VS NY Rangers: Maple Leafs

  Montreal VS Minnesota: Habitants

 Winnipeg VS Ottawa: Senators

Tampa Bay VS Columbus: Lightning

 Philadelphia VS Colorado: Avalanche

 NY Islanders VS Arizona: Coyotes

Washington VS Carolina: Capitals

Nashville VS St. Louis: Blues

 San Jose VS Dallas: Sharks

 Los Angeles VS Vancouver: Kings

On Very Thin Ice?

1) That's the word on the street concerning Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Todd Richards Of course its not surprising seeing that Ohio's team is quickly falling out of the playoff race and its only early November!  Originally when we rated the coaches in the most jeopardy Richards wasn't in bad shape to start the season. (a 3 out of 10)  However we wrote last month that "there are now expectations so if they falter Todd could be the scape goat"   

2) Our sources in Columbus tell us that team president John Davidson is getting antsy seeing what he (and most) believed to be an up and coming team that was sure to be in the top 8 in the East quickly becoming irrelevant and losing with regularity. Yes, they have suffered several significant injury issues, but many teams have as well and they aren't fading like the Jackets. 

3) An already fragile fan base will erode further and be difficult to recoup if the team falls into a season long abyss. Therefore if the team doesn't make an abrupt turn around in the next week or two, Richards will be replaced.  Which begs the next question, who would be his successor? Ron Wilson is the name we keep hearing

Week 4 Results

1) Week number four is complete. For the day we went a decent but ordinary 7-5 to bring the season totals to 30-18 for a .625 winning %. We also maintained our perfect 'Lock' record, at 4-0 on the young season. Look for the next installment of our picks next Saturday when another 12 games are on the NHL docket.
As always keep it here for all the latest!

Week 4 Picks

1) The 4th Saturday of the NHL season is set for today where a full dozen games are scheduled. Thus far through the first 3 weeks of picks we are 23-13 for a .639 winning %

Boston VS Ottawa: Bruins

 Pittsburgh VS Buffalo: Penguins (Lock of the Week)

 Toronto VS Chicago: Black Hawks

 Tampa Bay VS Washington: Lightning 

 Florida VS Philadelphia: Flyers

New Jersey VS Columbus: Devils

 Winnipeg VS NY Rangers: Rangers

 Carolina VS Arizona; Coyotes

St. Louis VS Colorado: Blues

Minnesota VS Dallas: Stars

 Vancouver VS Edmonton: Canucks

 San Jose VS NY Islanders; Sharks