So work tonight cut into the possibility that I might enjoy watching Game 1 of the NLCS (I still think that name makes it sound like some lame U.S. intercollegiate league). It and the Pay-per-view nature of tonight's game meant no hockey either. But I did get "the call" around 7:30 tonight excited that I had shot up huge in our buddy league hockey pool thanks to Brian Gionta's hat trick in the Jersey-Toronto game tonight.
So this is the point where if I had any regular readers, they'd say...uh...what hockey pool?
Oh yeah, so I'm in a hockey pool. Unlike baseball pools, this isn't something huge and exciting, and when "Martok" (I'm too lazy to link to a post) needed to use another computer to draft due to internet trouble, I happily lent him mine. (He's the commissioner, and oddly enough this league is worth money: $20 entry fee). It just doesn't capture my imagination quite enough...the computer drafted my team and probably for the better. When I was told that Gionta got a hat trick to catapult me from 11/12 to 6/12, my first question was "er, and who does he play for"?
Turns out I shouldn't have been too excited: there were three natural hat tricks in the NHL tonight. The next came during the San Jose-Edmonton game, where Cheechoo (who, if you remember the playoff chants, "sucks") scored three in a row in response to the Oilers getting a one goal lead. I got the update call after the Oil made it 4-2 on a goal from Lupal, but the next thing I'd heard (this wasn't hard, it later turned out) Edmonton had won. How? Easy: the third (natural) hat trick of the evening, Ryan Smyth getting three goals in 2:01, breaking the 2:18 record of Dr. Wayne Gretzsky. Hemsky scored to put it away as a 6-4 Oilers win. You can read Covered In Oil's review of the game here. Needless to say, I'm no longer 6th place, now down to a realistic 8th (+10 jump in the rotissaire league though).
This is, I suppose, a good time to mention what my team consists of. Again, I will be listing the players in the order they were drafted, their team and position, with the overall draft order shown after in parenthesis:
- Sidney Crosby, C, Pit (8)
- Marion Hossa, RW, Atl (13) ‡
- Chris Pronger, D, Ana (28) †
- Sergei Gonchar, D, Pit (33) ‡
- Brian Gionta, RW, NJ (48)
- Marc Savard, C, Bos (53)
- Mike Richards, C, Phi (68)
- Vesa Toskala, G, SJ (73)
- Marek Malik, D, NYR (88)
- Manny Legace, G, StL (93) ‡
- Mike Modano, C, Dal (108)
- Dainius Zubrus, RW, Was (113)
- Anson Carter, RW, Clm (128)
- Andrew Brunette, LW, Col (133)
- Cory Stillman, LW, Car (148)
- Kyle Calder, LW, Phi (153)
- Fredrik Modin, LW, Clm (168)
- Andy Sutton, D, Atl (173) ‡
- Frantisek Kaberle, D, Car (188)
- Francois Beauchemin, D, Ana (193)
- Daymond Langkow, C, Cal (208)
- Martin Gelinas, LW, Fla (213)
- Mike Johnson, RW, Mon (228)
† a.k.a. "Christie Prongley", see this post
‡ players also on my fantasy hockey team last season
