Lord Stanley's Pool 2009 - Final Analysis

With a thrilling end to a Stanley Cup Final Game 7, the Pittsburgh Penguins captured the trophy and its captain became the youngest ever to lift the cup for his team. Minus one last-second diving save, the championship could very well have been Detroit's and we would have had different winners of the pool.

Many people leaned heavily on Red Wings and Penguins in their picks, but less so than last year. This created an opening for other contenders and resulted in a fair amount of change on the leaderboard right through to the end. Indeed, the winner only had three players in the finals but managed to hang on. Congratulations to Mike Walsh ($1110) who managed to hang on after an enormous second round, despite having three fewer players than his fellow contenders in the last two rounds. This is an extremely unlikely win and the first time since 2003 that a winner had only three players in the last round while competitors had more.

Li Tan ($555), the significant other of last year's winner, was charging forward and closing the gap but ultimately finished two points short, for second place. Karen Savoie, who was a contender last year when she needed the Pens to win, shares third place with Ryan Slack, who would have won had Detroit been the victor. Karen and Ryan split the $185 third prize. Honourable mention and tough luck goes to Jerome Brouard, rounding out the top five for the second straight year.

If Detroit had won the pool, we would say that you needed accuracy - in particular six players from Detroit and Pittsburgh and the correct Cup pick - to win the pool. However since not many picked the Pens to turn the tables, the result was actually wide open. Mike Walsh only picked Penguins, and no Red Wings, but loaded up with excellent picks from Washington and Anaheim. The unusual scoring pattern of the playoffs did the rest. But six players from the Red Wings and Penguins certainly would get you in the running - and after the way the Penguins finished the season and the Wings played all year, hindsight suggests a no-brainer in picking these two teams for the rematch.

It's awfully hard to consistently finish near the top of a pool of this size. Therefore kudos should go out to the following people. Aside from Ryan Slack and Karen Savoie, both in the top ten last year and in the money this year, there are two who performed exceptionally but with no podium recognition. Jerome Brouard has had two straight top five finishes - fifth this year and tied for fourth last year. Scott Hamilton has played in three pools and was top 15 in all three - 5th in '04, 13th in '07, and 12th this year. Well done.

Evgeni Malkin's 36 points was the highest playoff point total since Wayne Gretzky had 40 points in 1993, and the first skater to hit 30 points since the pool began. This is just the second time that a goalie did not have the pool's highest point total - the other when Eric Staal edged Cam Ward 28 points to 26 in 2006.

Given that the same two teams were in the finals the past two years, there are a lot of repeats on the 2009 Dream Team. Returning from last year are Osgood, Gonchar, Malkin, Crosby, and Zetterberg. Denied for the second year in a row due to the pool limit of three players per team is Lidstrom, who led defensemen with 16 points. Kris Letang, with 13 points, was also denied, in favour of Brent Seabrook. Filling out the dream team are Franzen, Ovechkin, and Getzlaf.

Goalie
Chris Osgood, Det, 27 pts. (7 picks)
Defense
Sergei Gonchar, Pit, 14 pts. (16 picks)
Brent Seabrook, Chi, 12 pts. (no picks)
Forwards
Evgeni Malkin, Pit, 36 pts. (70 picks)
Sidney Crosby, Pit, 31 pts. (65 picks)
Henrik Zetterberg, Det, 24 pts. (69 picks)
Johan Franzen, Det, 23 pts. (10 picks)
Alexander Ovechkin, Was, 21 pts. (122 picks)
Ryan Getzlaf, Ana, 18 pts. (6 picks)
Team: Pittsburgh, 10
Dream Team Score: 216 points
Winning Score: 180 points

The pool was off to a blazing first half due to second round scoring gone through the roof. Second-round and cumulative-after-round-2 high scores were shattered by many people. But a very short round three and low scoring in the final prevented a record final score. The cumulative high score ending round 4 was tied, but that entry didn't get the bonus points to tie the final high score (as the winner did last year). Here is the full list of records for this pool:
- Forwards High: 136 - Ryan Slack, Peter Holland (prev: 135, 2008)
- Highest round 2 score: 78 - Mike Walsh (prev: 56, 2001)
- Highest cumulative score after round 2: 135 - Mike Walsh (prev: 107, 2001)
- Highest cumulative score after round 3: 155 - Mike Walsh (prev: 151, 2001)
- Highest cumulative score after round 4 (excluding bonus): 177 (tied) - Ryan Slack - Largest margin of defeat (last:first): 150 (30-180), Hanna-Marea Kennedy : Mike Walsh (prev: 147, 2008)
- Maximum score (Dream Team): 216 (prev: 205, 2002)