It had everything: a penalty shot, a 3-0 lead to the good guys, a come-back by the bad guys, the home team going 4-3 down, what looked like a perfectly good Canucks goal being disallowed with 10 seconds to go in the third, the start of a "bullshit, bullshit" chant from the crowd, another Canucks goal with 0.2 seconds left on the clock (and the crowd halfway through the third repetition of "-shit"), overtime, a sudden-death penalty shoot-out, and finally, victory! Oh, and a happy, good-natured crowd, where the Flames fan who shouted "you guys got lucky!" in a SkyTrain station packed with Canucks fans was treated to laughter and slaps on the back, rather than a beating. Quite a shock for an English football fan ;)
And it's still only pre-season!
Prof-like Substance's NFL pool seems to be going well; would anyone care to join me in an NHL version? Let me know in the comments! And please let me know whether you'd be prepared to sign up for a 3rd party site that would do a lot of the work and let us create our own sub-league - it allows pseudonyms, and we used it with great success (and much hilarity) for Euro 2008. I can provide regular updates and graphs.
The season starts in a week or two. GO CANUCKS GO!
UPDATE in response to a question emailed by a reader. I was thinking of using the league run by Rogers Sportsnet. You pick players each week:
"Your fantasy team will consist of 2 Centres, 4 Wingers, 3 Defensemen and 1 Goalie. Each player available to be chosen has been assigned a value between 1 and 10 based on past and predicted performance. Each Week, the challenge is to put together a 10 player team that will score the most fantasy points while not exceeding the of 50."and you can set up your own private league within the larger competition. It's a Canadian site, but from past experience with their football pools, non-residents can play (but may not be eligible for the prizes).
BUT!!! I will offer a first-place prize of my own. Maybe an Amazon voucher, maybe something related to the NHL or the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Winter Olympics.
Hmmmm, how much time can I waste in a given week? It sounds like fun but I'll have to get back to you on whether I can fit it in.
ReplyDeleteOh - count me in! A 3rd party site would be fine by me. Saves on time.
ReplyDeleteProf, well, it all depends on your definition of wasted time. Surely a hockey pool contains something statistics or predictive-model related that you can justify as career or personal development?
ReplyDeleteAlyssa, awesome! I knew I could count on my fellow Canadians!
CAth> I can waste some time on the best game there is :) (next year I figured I might graduate to Fantasy Football league so I might as well practice being in two things online :D )
ReplyDelete3rd party thing sounds like the yahoo thingy? Works for me either way.
great idea!! wooot wooot.
(and don't you just love the response in the cart though? Glad happy sportsmanship ;) )
I'm so in! what esle do you expect from Canadians? We're too polite to beat up the losing teams fan...i'm sure if the game had gone the other way it wouldn't be laughter that guy got..
ReplyDeleteAwesome, that's 4 (and maybe 5) of us already. I'll get this set up some time this week and let you all know (plus anyone else who wants to play, of course!).
ReplyDeleteAll set up - see new post. You have until October 1st to register and pick your first team.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, and may the best blogger win!