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Parity appears to be the name of the game this year, or in more exciting language: it's anybody's to win! Not that the dominant teams in the past few years were necessarily the team to win. But there is no major consensus this year and that means any number of entries could stay competitive well into round three and beyond. No single team being eliminated will devastate the pool, but you still want to have picked the teams that go the distance.
Eight teams were both picked ten or more times for the Cup and over ten per cent possible player picks. The Presidents' Trophy winners New York Rangers are the top team with 79 Cup picks and 447 players, but at only 54.6% of possible picks, they have the lowest percentage of picks of any leading team in the history of the pool.
Chicago, St. Louis, and Tampa Bay are also contenders while Anaheim and Montreal are also strong - the Habs, despite having less players picked, are third in Cup picks. Even Washington and Ottawa have enough support to have an impact.
At the bottom of the list, Pittsburgh is the only team without a Cup pick - a definite fall from grace for that team. But even though they are last, they still have over 3 per cent of player picks, when no other last place team has ever had more than one per cent.
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| Rick Nash is the surprise leader in player picks. |
There has been a tradition in Lord Stanley's Pool that the forward most likely to get Hart or Lester Pearson Trophy honours for the regular season also gets the most picks in the pool. Not necessarily this year though. Rick Nash certainly had an excellent season, but he isn't in the talk for NHL MVP - and many would be surprised to learn - as was I - that he is the top pick. Nevertheless, as the top producer for the top team in the pool - the New York Rangers - Nash leads the pool with 148 picks. At 54.2% of possible entries he has the lowest ratio of any top pick in the pool's history.
Steve Stamkos is second among forwards with 138 picks (50.6%) followed by Ryan Getzlaf (117 picks), Jonathan Toews (116), and Vladimir Tarasenko (116).
Sixteen forwards were picked by at least ten per cent of the pool, making a nice spread of players to impact the pool standings.
Henrik Lundqvist is the top goalie with 100 picks (36.7%) and with a reasonable margin over second place Carey Price (60). These two already had a similar battle, in the 2014 Shoot for Gold pool where King Henrik and Price were again 1-2 - and were 1-2 in the results as well.
Beyond them, only Corey Crawford (in fourth with 20 picks) has regularly seen pool action while Braden Holtby (19) had some picks in 2013. Ben Bishop (27), the Hamburglar, Andrew Hammond (13), Frederick Andersen (9), and others down the list are new.
More impressive is the list of top goalies who didn't make it into the playoffs - Rask, Quick, Niemi, Luongo, and others - along with Fleury, who suffered the same dropoff as others from Pitts.
Montreal's PK Subban (88 picks, 32.2%) has made the jump to #1 on the defense list after being fourth and sixth the previous two years. Others returning to the top five include Duncan Keith (76, 27.8%), last year's top D pick landing second for the third time, and Alex Pietrangelo (39 picks) in fifth for the third time. Keith Yandle (63) is a major player for the first time while Erik Karlsson (41) has seen gradually improving numbers.
Sidney Crosby never seems to get the respect he deserves in Lord Stanley's Pool. Injured at the height of his dominance and then overshadowed at times by Evgeni Malkin or Alex Ovechkin, Crosby only managed to be the top pool pick for the first time last year after being runner-up three times. This year Sidney has been reduced to just 15 total picks, surprisingly low for someone leading the regular season scoring race until the final day.
I went with my heart in my picks, taking Ottawa all the way because why not. But in reality I do expect the Habs to go pretty far. So in these predictions I will contradict my picks. My predictions mean absolutely nothing of course, as past pools will show, so without further ado:
Montreal, Rangers, Tampa Bay, Islanders, Chicago, Anaheim, Calgary, Minnesota.
Here are the most common players in this year's pool.
F:
Rick Nash, NYR (148 picks)
Steven Stamkos, Tam (138)
Ryan Getzlaf, Ana (117)
Vladimir Tarasenko, StL (116)
Jonathan Toews, Chi (116)
Patrick Kane, Chi (87)
D:
PK Subban, Mon (88)
Duncan Keith, Chi (76)
G:
Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (100)
Last year:
F:
Sidney Crosby, Pit (145 picks)
David Krejci, Bos (129)
Ryan Getzlaf, Ana (90)
Corey Perry, Ana (83)
Patrice Bergeron, Bos (66)
Patrick Kane, Chi (63)
D:
Duncan Keith, Chi (102)
Zdeno Chara, Bos (73)
G:
Tuukka Rask, Bos (122)
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| NY Rangers | 447 | 79 |
| Chicago | 340 | 41 |
| St. Louis | 302 | 30 |
| Tampa Bay | 296 | 25 |
| Anaheim | 251 | 18 |
| Montreal | 228 | 36 |
| Washington | 187 | 15 |
| Ottawa | 90 | 12 |
| NY Islanders | 56 | 1 |
| Winnipeg | 51 | 3 |
| Nashville | 47 | 4 |
| Calgary | 41 | 3 |
| Vancouver | 38 | 3 |
| Minnesota | 29 | 2 |
| Detroit | 27 | 1 |
| Pittsburgh | 27 | 0 |
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