Lord Stanley's Pool 2012 - Final Analysis

There are some years when the favourites win, and lots of people stay in the running in the pool. Then there are years like this. The 2012 playoffs were not alone in seeing heavily-favoured top seeds going down - it happened in 2010 - but there has never been a year when so many, or rather ALL, of the favourites going down. After teams like Pittsburgh, Vancouver, Boston and others went down in round 1, second-tier favourites such as St. Louis and Nashville should have carried the torch but then they too fell, in round 2. We set some amazing futility records this year.

The pool can't control the outcome on the ice, and a huge number were left without players after the first round. Nevertheless, we still had great competition at the top of the pool, some people climbing the standings and making great gains, and in the end an exciting finish that was as close as Lord Stanley's Pool has ever been.

The Los Angeles victory and Jonathan Quick's performance in particular were just enough make the difference in the outcome, with both poolies who picked that team - two of the three who picked Quick - lifted to the top of the standings. Janine Webster won by a single point over a second-place tie between Brendon Pretty and Stephen Craig. Stephen picked the Devils to win and didn't have Quick but he was the only poolie to select three Kings and three Devils. Only one point separated the top three and the results among them were in flux until the final goal. Congratulations to the winners.

Also in the running until the final games were 4th place Blair Phillips, with three Kings and an inspired pick of Phoenix goalie Mike Smith, and 5th place Sophie Wexler, also with three Kings but needing the Rangers to have advanced instead of the Devils.

Janine Webster's winning entry in the pool certainly comes at an opportune time, with she and fellow poolie Stefano Pileggi tying the knot just last week. Pool winnings of $1,398 is a nice honeymoon bonus. And if Janine gets to gloat over her hockey pool prowess, well, I'm sure Stefano can live with that. Congrats to the happy couple.

The key to winning this year's pool was not quite so exact as it has been in past years. No need for the perfect entry of six finalists and three semi-finalists - just the chutzpah to take a longshot with a real shot. LA players were absolutely key, Jonathan Quick in particular a definite help, and a bit of craziness to pick one or more Devils at the same time wouldn't have hurt. Sure enough, people fitting the criteria this year were few - and they are all found at the top of the standings.

The best picks possible under the rules of the pool, the dream team is what you should have known all along and entered on April 10. Of course looking at this list, it's definitely not a strategy most would have thought advisable. Three each from LA and New Jersey - the finalists - plus a couple Rangers and first-round star Claude Giroux would have won the pool. Giroux is one of the few to ever make it from teams knocked out in round 2. Drew Doughty, despite being the top defenseman, does not make it because the limit of three Kings is already filled.

Only one player has been on the Lord Stanley's Pool dream team before - Brad Richards in 2004 - while Zach Parise was on the Shoot for Gold (Olympic pool) team in 2010. See all dream teams here.

Goalie
Jon Quick, Los, 31 pts. (3 picks)
Defense
Bryce Salvador, NJD, 14 pts. (0 picks)
Daniel Girardi, NYR, 12 pts. (0 picks)
Forwards
Dustin Brown, Los, 20 pts. (3 picks)
Anze Kopitar, Los, 20 pts. (8 picks)
Ilya Kovalchuk, NJD, 19 pts. (42 picks)
Claude Giroux, Phi, 17 pts. (28 picks)
Zach Parise, NJD, 15 pts. (21 picks)
Brad Richards, NYR, 15 pts. (64 picks)
Team: Los Angeles, 10
Dream Team Score: 173 points
Winning Score: 123 points

A low first-round standing doesn't usually mean you're out of the running - indeed, last year 14 of the top 20 were in the bottom half of the pool after round 1 and only one of the top 20 started in the top 50. This year it was harder to make those journeys but four of the top 10 made it from 100th or worse after round 1. Most notably Brendon Pretty climbed from 172nd to finish 2nd, while Judah Gould started in 206th after the opening round and managed to break the top 10.

There are always some pleasant surprises in the playoffs, obscure players who shine and often return to obscurity the following season. The Hindsight Award, given to the best pick made by only a single person, is the opposite of the Biggest Bust. This year it was a battle of seldom-picked goalies; Jonathan Quick was picked three times and was the pool's top player with 31 points, but the best single pick was Blair Phillips' smart choice of Phoenix goalie Mike Smith, who tied for second with 25 points. The best players that nobody picked were Devils Travis Zajac and dream-team defenseman Bryce Salvador, both with 14 points.

The records set this year, as you might expect, were mostly in the futility department. While there were some categories that were near-misses (ie. lowest leading / cumulative score for each round), here are the ones we set:
- Forwards Low: 16 (Cyril Beaman)
- Defense Low: 1, (five entries)
- Most entries: 233
- Dream Team Points (Lowest): 173
- Most picks eliminated in round 1 (number / percentage): 1352 / 64.47%
- Most Cup picks eliminated in round 1 (number): 161
- Worst single-team round 1 upset (number of picks / Cup picks / % of Cup picks): Pittsburgh 491 / 101 / 43.35%
- Most entries wiped out (0 players left) after round 1: 26 / after round 2: 87 / after round 3: 179
- % of entries wiped out (0 players left) after round 1: 11.15% / after round 3: 76.82%

See all pool records here.