Lord Stanley's Pool 2025 - Final Analysis

Another great Cup chase with beautiful hockey is complete. Every year seems to be different, with so many good teams that any of them could win. Except when the result is a carbon copy of the year before. The unpredictablility makes picking your Lord Stanley's Pool entry a shot in the dark, perhaps the reason why most people bet with their heart this year for Toronto or Winnipeg.

It's weird to win my own pool and write about myself, but here we are. Congratulations to Adam Jamieson who finished a strong second by a ten-point margin and cracking the 200-point mark. Daisy Marquez had a huge final night thanks to Sam Reinhart, overcoming a three-point deficit to clinch the third and final prize. Congratulations to the winners! It's nice to win!

Better with age
Dissappointment for Oilers fans and Canadians is understandable, but last year's run seemed more heartbreaking. This year it is clear that the Panthers are the best team, and better than last year. To be the champs, you have to beat the champs, and neither Toronto nor Edmonton could do it. Can Florida do it three years in a row? Or perhaps a better question, if they are third in their division next year, will you pick the defending champs? Most people have slept on the Panthers three years in a row.

Key to the pool
Sergei Bobrobsky was hands down the key to the pool, for the second straight year and for the same reason. He anchored the Cup champ, and if you were picking Bobrobsky it likely meant taking other Panthers. The Oilers trio of McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard were a given of course - you did take them, didn't you?

Skill not a factor
I won the pool this year not by any skill - I rush to put my picks in first every year and never expect to win. I picked Florida because they were the champs and looked stronger, Dallas because they added Mikko Rantanen, and Edmonton because you basically have to pick them. I chalk it up to a good-luck streak that started with my Original Hicks League fantasy championship (my first since 2011), continued with my picking Florida in March Madness, and carried me here. I'll take it! Note, the fantasy league win did take some skill, thank you.

As luck would have it
With all the luck swinging in my direction, I picked eight of nine Dream Teamers with Winnipeg Jet Kyle Connor the only player missed (instead of Dallas' Roope Hintz). Only five points off a perfect entry is the closest ever. The 15-point margin of victory was just two shy of the record 17 by Kevin Pinto in 2021.

Dream Team
Five players return from last year's Dream Team, including Connor McDavid's fourth consecutive, the first player to accomplish the feat (excluding Wayne Gretzky's would-be seven). Leon Draisaitl notches his fourth overall Dream Team appearance. Three stright for Sergei Bobrovsky, Matthew Tkachuk, Evan Bouchard and third overall for Mikko Rantanen.

See Retro Dream Teams here - back to the start of the pool and further back to 1980.