Round 2

Apparently I was way tad bit off on my mental TV schedule, I thought tonight would be the wrap up of the first round and I guess it was last night. So final results for the first round were as follows;

Philly

Tampa

Washington

Boston

So I  got the Boston/Montreal series wrong, not bad, 75%

In the West not so good

Detriot

Nashville

Vancouver

San Jose

50%, was wrong on LAK again and wrong on Anaheim.

Here is what I have picked for the second round

Vancouver VS LA

Not happening, but I had Van City advancing to the next round so we'll see how it pans out between them and Nashville

Detroit vs Anaheim

Again not happening plus I had Anaheim advancing, so I'm SOL completely. Hoping San Jose wins so we can see which of the two big playoff choking teams crap the bed in the conference finals.

In the East

Washington vs Tampa

Again the underdog strategy is going to kill me but I have Tampa advancing. They still could as I think they got a lot more grit and a lot of veteran talent. Plus they have a couple former Oilers that will be fun to cheer for.

Philly vs Montreal

Not happening, but I do have Philly advancing so there is hope I will come out in the conference finals with atleast 75% percent of my teams

So far 5 points for the first round

Next round I have a possible 3 points to grab.

Going to be tough to win this when the number one guy in pool pulled 8 points out of the first round to start.

Playoff Pool 2010-11 Edition

So last year I had participated in my works bracket playoff pool. I faltered pretty early out of the gate by picking way too many lower seed teams in the west and had too many of my higher seed teams in the East clasp (looking at you Washington). This year I went with a more balanced approach but still got taken in by some lower seed picks.

In the first round my pick in the Eastern Conference looks like this;

Washington over New York 

Finally Washington beat somebody.

Philly over Buffalo

Could this one been any closer??

Montreal over Boston

This was kind of a sentimental pick as I was big Habs fan when I was a kid. They're sticking it out but I don't know if they'll make. Guess we'll find out soon enough

Lightning over Pittsburg

I thought I was being smart on this one, and I really like the Pens, so far its turned around but again have to wait and see what game 7 brings. Could potentially go 100% in this round in the East.


Western Conference

LA over San Jose

Too many Oilers on this team not to pick them. Thought their goaltending would carry them through which is what I thought last year. One of these days we will be talking about LA as a serious contender but not this year.

Anaheim over Nashville

I really thought with Anaheim coming in on such a hot streak they would go pretty deep, but was way off on that. You got to like Nashville's lunch bucket work man like team, reminds me of the Oilers in 06'. I didn't pick Nashville at all but I could now see them being the Cinderella team for this year.

Detroit over Phoenix

I went with Phoenix last year and decided this year I was again favouring the lower seeded teams too much so went with Detroit. What can I say, I at least learned from one mistake. I look forward to picking the Jets next year though.

Vancouver over Chicago

I really didn't want to pick Vancouver and I was very close to regretting it but I couldn't over look their depth and hopefully (playoff pool wise) they will go deep. Otherwise I would have been all on the Chicago bandwagon for this serious.


I can't wait till I can start picking the Oilers for these again....

I'll post my second round picks before it starts...

The Best Oiler Rookie Class - Hockey Card Edition

As I have been adding to my collection of Oiler rookie cards I started to wonder what would be the best Oiler rookie class in regards to Hockey cards. Now it wasn't easy to define what the best class would be based on Hockey cards. Basically came down to three years;

1981 - 82

Anderson, Coffee, Kurri, and Moog

 

2007 - 08

Gilbert, Cogliano, Gagner, and Schremp

 
 

2009 - 10

Hall, Omark, Paajarvis and Eberle

 


Now if we based this on career achievements its a pretty big no brainer the 81-82 Group would rock the other two combined, though the 07 group did have Robbie Schremp.

If we compared based on the combined Beckett value of cards themselves for each group it would be pretty unfair as well considering that 81-82 group only had one card manufacturer. Plus with the short prints of today they are not nearly as rare as some of the rookie cards of today.

All in all I think nostalgia wins the day here. Don't get me wrong the cards being manufactured in this decade are awesome, I love the look, I love the autographs and jerseys but nothing beats old fashioned bubble gum cards. Plus it doesn't hurt that the first group won a bunch of cups.

Maybe in 30 years we will get to look back on the other two groups and wax nostalgic about their careers as well. we can only HOPE