We’re getting close to the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs, and with it, thousands of hockey fans will be involved with fantasy hockey playoff pools. And in this feature story from The Hockey News’ April 16, 1999, edition (Volume 52, Issue 31), longtime fantasy hockey guru Murray Townsend revealed his tips on how to emerge victorious in any hockey pool you’re joining.
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Townsend listed a slew of areas fantasy poolies should keep in mind when picking a team. For one thing, he told readers to project their final four NHL teams and pick players on those teams. In addition, Townsend told potential poolies not to get caught up in areas such as home-ice advantage or the season series breakdown between any two teams squaring off against each other. And when it comes to “sleeper” picks, Townsend advised to train their attention on players who came onto a team late in the season.
“As for sleepers, they aren’t just guys who slept during the regular season and woke up in the playoffs,” Townsend wrote. “They’re usually players who joined their teams late in the year from the minors. Keep an eye out for them.”
SOUND ADVICE FOR YOUR POOL
Vol. 52, No. 31, April 16, 1999
By Murray Townsend
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, this year’s playoff hockey pool feature has gone and done just that. More stats, better insights and even more laughs. All for the same low, low price.
It can be a challenge to come up with different ways of presenting our invaluable stats package, but that’s why we get paid the big bucks. This year, we’re using celebrity sound-a-likes. Honest.
They’ll tell you exactly what you need to know and they sound just like the famous person they’re portraying. But, they’re not.
Here are some things to consider and not to consider when selecting the teams and their players for your pool.
FINAL FOUR by Dick Vitale Sound-a-Like. Ohhhhhh baby, ya gotta love that hockey! But you gotta pick the teams going to the final four if you want to win the pool, baby!
Last year, during April-May-June Madness, the top 15 playoff scorers were all from the last four remaining teams. Figure out your final four and just do it, baby!
HOME-ICE ADVANTAGE by Bill Clinton Sound-a-Like. First, I need to know the exact definition of home-ice advantage. Is it where one team gains an advantage by playing at home? If that’s the case, then no, there is no advantage. Last year, home teams won 41 games and lost 41 games. And if you’re a home team in the seventh game, don’t go lighting up that cigar too early. Since 1995, visitors are 5-4 in playoff seventh games. Now, about the cigar…
SEASON SERIES by Mister Rogers Sound-a-Like. Sometimes, boys and girls, it may seem like a wonderful day in the neighborhood when it really isn’t. So, when you see one team dominating the other during the regular season series, it doesn’t mean a gosh-darn thing. Last year, Edmonton lost five of their six games to Colorado and then beat them in the playoffs. You know, boys and girls, learning is fun and losing teams learn more than winners.
MOMENTUM by John Wayne Sound-a-Like. Yuh know, pardner, sometimes yuh get in the saddle and get to riding as fast as yuh can, but then when yuh need to outrun the bad guys your horse ain’t got nothing left in him. And sometimes yuh’re just riding along nice and easy like, and when yuh need to give the horse a kick, by golly he’s ready to go. So don’t yuh be paying no mind to late-season records down the stretch, yuh hear?
UPSET TEAMS by Barbara Walters Sound-a-Like. Tell me about your childhood. Do you think there’s something to the theory that upset teams are often teams that didn’t make the playoffs the previous season? Is that because Washington didn’t make the playoffs before going to the finals last year? Or because Florida did the same thing two years ago? Do you think there’s also something to looking for a team “on a mission,” say, a club such as Colorado, which got knocked off early last year? If you were a hockey stick, what kind of hockey stick would you be?
SURPRISES by Don Cherry Sound-A-Like. For all you kids out there, I’m gonna tell ya what happens in the playoffs. Teams concentrate so much on checking the opposition’s top line that sometimes second-and third-liners get more chances than they would otherwise. Look at that Matthew Barnaby last season. Gotta love him. Good Canadian boy! Tomas Holmstrom? A Swede-Heart, but I guess he did OK last year.
DEFENSEMEN by Murray Townsend Sound-a-Like. You may not think I’m a celebrity, but my name is at the top of this story and that means I can be anybody I want. Besides, I just wanted to say this one normally. Defensemen tend to score higher in the playoffs than during the regular season. Checking is so much tighter at even strength that a higher percentage of goals are scored on the power play. That means a pointman is usually in on the scoring.
PLAYOFF PERFORMERS AND SLEEPERS by Claude Lemieux Sound-a-Like. Why do I play so much better in the playoffs? I don’t know, but maybe it’s because everybody is always picking on me. What did I ever do to anyone? How do you find the other guys who have histories of playing so well in the playoffs? Don’t know, but I could give you some names. Mark Recchi, Theoren Fleury, and Joe Sakic for starters. As for sleepers, they aren’t just guys who slept during the regular season and woke up in the playoffs. They’re usually players who joined their teams late in the year from the minors. Keep an eye out for them. I know I will.
STRATEGY by Robert DeNiro Sound-a-like. Are you looking at me? Are you looking at me? You’d be better off looking at your pool list, which you should always prepare in advance. Also, it’s important to pick an upset team or two because then you get more of their better players and if that team wins, so do you. Keep in mind that you’re concentrating on mostly just four teams.
Are you still looking at me? Best to look at the following paragraph which tells you how to use the points per game chart on the following pages.
After the playoff matchups are set, go through each series, assigning an average of six games per series. Calculate how many series you think each team will play, multiply it by six and then take that sum and multiply it by each player’s points-per-game to give you a comparative ranking. You should make adjustments for such things as second-half performance, defensemen scoring higher, power-play time and playoff history.
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