Lord Stanley's Pool 2013 - Final Analysis

In a year when most of the favourites survived for most of the pool, it is remarkable how dramatic these playoffs were, from round one right through to the final minute of the Cup-clinching game. It made for a very interesting pool, and one that had its own drama and a lot of competition right to the end.

With the four previous Cup winners in the final four teams (and the fifth - Detroit - the last team out in round 2), we had many entries in the pool fully stocked into round three. This made the final two rounds close with the leaderboard changing nearly every game. But... as exciting as it was, it had to come to an end - and it did so in spectacular fashion, with a probable game seven erased in the space of 17 seconds with Chicago's two quick last-minute goals.

A record 72 entries picked the correct Cup champion, and it lifted Marie Loop into first place by a single point. Marie hung on despite only having three players in the final round to win the pool in her second time playing. Congrats! Second place, also by a single point over the pair in third, was Jacqui Snow. Jacqui was one of the 16 original members of the pool back in 1998, back when the late Al Palladini won $8 for his third place tie. Third place went to Aron Slipacoff and Brandon Poitras, who were on the warpath in the final round and nearly overtook Jacqui and Marie even though they didn't pick the Hawks to win. Aron has been in every pool since 2002 while Brandon's in his second pool this year. Also in the running until the final games was 5th place Evan Hoey, who had the win locked up should Boston have won.

It certainly gets harder every year to win the pool, with a growing number of entries. But the task is the same, and this year there was room to manoevre to get your entry onto the podium. The winning entry (as well as 2nd) remarkably did not have any Boston players - and the top Bruins forwards had barely an impact on the standings. You certainly needed to have all nine players from the final four - Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, and LA - and you ought to have picked either Tuukka Rask or Jonathan Quick. From there, you needed a decent combination of forwards to carry you to the top.

For the first time ever, the player with the most picks in Lord Stanley's Pool has won the Conn Smythe Trophy. Patrick Kane had 186 picks to lead all players and turned in a Dream-Team-worthy performance on his way to playoff MVP. Perhaps surprisingly, this has never happened before - and the only other time a position-leader won was when Scott Niedermayer, the top-picked defenseman and second-most overall, won the trophy for Anaheim in 2007.

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 30. And unlike other years, this list would not have been scoffed at if it was your team at the start. Only Bryan Bickell would have raised any eyebrows, or perhaps Slava Voynov as the only King.

Despite the quality of these players - and with all four of the teams being recent Cup champs - it is surprising how many first-timers are listed here, while their previously recognized teammates took lesser roles. Marian Hossa has made the list numerous times, Evgeni Malkin twice, and David Krejci and Patrick Kane once each. Rask, Letang, Voynov, Lucic, Horton, Bickell, and Sharp are all here for the first time.

Zdeno Chara would be another first-timer on the list except for the three-players-per-team rule that knocked him off.

See all dream teams here.

Goalie
Tuukka Rask, Bos, 29 pts. (16 picks)
Defense
Kris Letang, Pit, 16 pts. (113 picks)
Slava Voynov, Los, 13 pts. (3 picks)
Forwards
David Krejci, Bos, 26 pts. (6 picks)
Milan Lucic (1 pick) OR Nathan Horton (2 picks), Bos, 19 pts.
Patrick Kane, Chi, 19 pts. (186 picks)
Bryan Bickell, Chi, 17 pts. (0 picks)
Patrick Sharp (11 picks) OR Marian Hossa (35 picks), Chi, 16 pts.
Evgeni Malkin, Pit, 16 pts. (121 picks)
Team: Los Angeles, 10
Dream Team Score: 181 points
Winning Score: 145 points

A low first-round standing doesn't usually mean you're out of the running. This year six entries made the journey from the bottom half of the pool into the top 20. Most notably Evan Hoey climbed from 167th to finish 5th, Gabe Pretto started in 203rd and made it to 8th, and Scott Poitras made the long journey from 230th to finish 13th (after peaking at 9th). Congrats to these folks and it just goes to show you... never give up hope until you're out of players!

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 the award involved surprisingly overlooked players - certainly not flashes-in-the-pan. The top scorers in the playoffs were from Boston but they were ignored for other popular Bruins. Milan Lucic was picked only by Dave Quist and finished tied for second in scoring (19 pts), with Hindsight Award runner up Nathan Horton, picked by two players - Richard Ciano and Noah Bloedow. The best player that nobody picked was Dream Team member Bryan Bickell (17 pts), who turned out to be a better pick than teammate Jonathan Toews.

This year's goalie battle promised to be a memorable one and it was. With numerous goalies picked in meaningful quantities, any one of them could have an impact. Jonathan Quick (21 picks, 25 pts) had such a big lead after two rounds that he looked like the key to the pool on his own. In the end, it was Tuukka Rask (16 picks, 29 pts) who came from behind to take the top pool player honours. Meanwhile Cup champion Corey Crawford (21 pts), the co-favourite with 56 picks was third but had a respectable showing. The other co-favourite, Marc-Andre Fleury (8 pts), started off well (pool-points-wise) but flamed out and surpassed by Tomas Vokoun (no picks, 11 pts). A half-dozen other goalies had decent numbers as well.

We didn't set nearly as many records this year than last, but that is a good thing as most of last year's were futility records. We hit a few mosts and a few leasts. Here are the ones we set:
- Most entries: 247
- Number of Cup Champ picks: 72
- Most entries unscathed after Round 2: 13
- Least Points, as well as cumulative lows for Rounds 2, 3, 4: 20 (David Schamma)
- Round 1 Low: 14 (Richard Ciano)
- Forwards Low: 14 (David Schamma)

See all pool records here.