An Update On Copper & Blue’s Playoff Pool

With the first round of the NHL playoffs in the books, this seemed like a good time to look in on our hockey pool and update everyone on the leaders and point out which commenter teams are hammering the columnist teams.

First off, the top five teams, along with those entries submitted by the writers here:

• 1. gooilers82 – 135 points
• 2. jjwiens57 – 133 points
• 3. sumitt.87 – 131 points
• 4. Rampage – 128 points
• 5. Scott Reynolds – 127 points
• 11. Jonathan Willis – 117 points
• 21. Benjamin Massey – 108 points
• 23. Derek Zona – 107 points
• 31. Bruce McCurdy – 99 points

I’m sure nobody is surprised to see that Scott Reynolds drafted the best team of any of us writers to date, although he’ll be hurt by the four Capitals on his team not going to the second round. He’s not alone there; all of us writers (and the majority of the pool, for that matter) have lost either four or five guys entering the second round.

This is where our pool’s fearless leader, the noble gooilers82, takes a big edge going forward. He stocked up on Red Wings and Penguins, and only lost one player (Alexander Ovechkin) en route to the second round. He’s going to be tough to catch.

On the other end of the spectrum, the splendidly named ‘For the Love of Weir’ applied Alexander the Great’s "Fortune favours the bold" maxim and will have little to show for it. Already at the bottom of the pool, this disciple of Stan made the gutsy decision to stock up entirely with Washington Capitals, a decision that may have some second round ramifications.

Washington seemed like a safe bet entering the playoffs – most of us staked a big chunk of our team on the likelihood of their success – and the only consolation for those of us who did is that we’re far from alone, and most teams (again, excepting our fearless leader) are going to be handicapped by the same amount.

But that’s not the thought I want readers to leave with. No, the most important thing about this update is that I’m 10 points ahead of Derek.