It is the time of summer when the year books and pool guides hit the newsstands. After work today I purchased the new Hockey News Ultimate Pool Guide. On page 6 I found some more bold predictions from THN (different pundits from the yearbook obviously.) These guys could even be crazier than the Yearbook projectors!They choose to predict occasional wack because year to year they find themselves being really far off on some of them. They are saying that last season they predicted 20 teams within 3 spots of their final position, and 9 teams only one spot off from correctness. Not bad, but these guys are supposed to be experts aren't they? Check out what these Nostradamus' came up with..
WESTERN CONFERENCE....................EASTERN CONFERENCE
- Anaheim.................................................Ottawa
- Calgary...................................................Carolina
- San Jose..................................................Buffalo
- Nashville.................................................NY Rangers
- Minnesota...............................................Tampa Bay
- Detroit.....................................................New Jersey
- Dallas.......................................................Atlanta
- Los Angeles.............................................Philadelphia
- Vancouver...............................................Montreal
- Columbus.................................................Pittsburgh
- Phoenix....................................................Boston
- Colorado...................................................Toronto
- Edmonton.................................................Florida
- Chicago......................................................NY Islanders
- St. Louis....................................................Washington
I should mention that THN has a love affair with Jarome Iginla, and has a big article on him, talking about how he needs to and will improve this season. Sure he'll improve, he has Alex Tanguay to play with instead of Tony 'hands of shite' Amonte!
So far, THN gives Edmonton no love. It's not like losing Pronger is going to sink their ship. The Oiler defense isn't that bad still. This year they'll have Roloson for the whole season, which is an improvement from the goalie graveyard Edmonton was for the first 3/4 of last season.
I sure wouldn't put Pittsburgh at 10th, and Atlanta at 7th in the East. Wow, put the crackpipe away! I won't even start with Florida!
This magazine has got me excited for the season and hockey pools once again.
As mentioned before, I think a bunch of us bloggers need to organize a pool this season. We can do it through the Yahoo Sports Fantasy pool, which done through an online draft. Fun stuff. I'll get more into that later.
I see Reality Check at Eyes for the Prize has his predictions up. Go check it out and badger him!