Hockey Survivor Recap

Well that was short and sweet, wasn’t it? After a disastrous fourth week in the first ever regular season Hockey Survivor Pool, in which we lost 13 of 18 alive entries on a five different teams, the final five headed into the next week each wondering how long it would take to dispose of the other four.

Not long. Three picked the Los Angeles Kings to knock off the Nashville Predators, in an early game even, 4:00 Eastern, but the Kings dropped 3-1 to the Preds. We bid goodbye to darosa7, John and NickyJ.

Okay then, arseneau and Jmoore are the last two standing. arseneau is looking good picking the Detroit Red Wings to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs. Sure it is Hockey Hall of Fame celebration weekend in Toronto, but of the five inductees, three were former Red Wings – Luc Robitaille, Brett Hull and of course longtime captain Steve Yzerman. Note all three played together on the 2002 Stanley Cup Champion Red Wings squad. Sure the Wings would be “up” for this game against the lowly Leafs? Ugh… Wings lose 5-1.

And that brings me to Jmoore. Jmoore didn’t make a pick this week. Per the rules, when an entry does not make a pick by the deadline, then a pick is assigned based on the alphabetical order of teams by city and then team name (so Islanders would come before Rangers). First up for a default pick, the Anaheim Ducks. Was Anaheim playing that weekend? Yes. Did Jmoore use them yet? No. Anaheim it is!

Anaheim was taking on the Phoenix Coyotes, which based on the season so far was not going to be a walk in the park. Anaheim started the season slow, but they had started to turn it around. Would they come through? Yep. They built a 4-0 lead, just about let it slip away in the third period, but held on for a 4-3 win and survivor pool win for Jmoore.

Interesting enough I still haven’t heard back from him. I wonder if he knows he won?

All in all, I think that went pretty well. It was a little shorter than I would have hoped, but it made constantly checking the NHL scores on Saturday nights via the iPhone a necessary if not agonizing experience. I’m willing to roll the dice again, are you?

I’ve set up Hockey Survivor II at the website, and we’ll kick off this pool next weekend, Saturday November 21st. The first game that day starts at 4:00 Eastern. Same format, everyone starts with a clean slate. Get over to the website to sign up, and I’ll get on Iain and John to keep posting their top three survivor picks as well for some extra informed opinion on the matter.

Thanks for participating, and hope to see you in the sequel.