Monday, January 30, 2017

If the All-Star Game Was a Mini-Game...

The 3-on-3 tournament format for the NHL All-Star Game is a complete hit.  I think we can all agree, more or less, that this edition of the tourney was even better than the last one, as the scoring was through the roof, including a couple of games where the winning team reached 10 goals.

Of course, there are going to be some detractors and critics to the game, but I still think those people want too much or expect too much from a game that literally means nothing.  It's so weird.  I think this is a great form of entertainment and when Alex Ovechkin is blocking shots in the final game with only minutes to go, you know there is something to this game.

So, for all intents and purposes, the All-Star Game doesn't have any value in the hockey pool this season, but one of these years, the mini-game might pop up on the wheel after a draft, so it's a good thing to get a good feel of the game.  Normally, I would think you would try to pick players that would be good for the All-Star Game, regardless, but some names you probably wouldn't even think would be heading to the mid-season classic.

Player Name Team GP G A W SO P Draft
Cam Atkinson MET 2 3 2 0 0 5 Cam Wagner
John Tavares MET 2 2 3 0 0 5 Stuart Greenley
Justin Faulk MET 2 1 4 0 0 5 Eric Wheeler
Johnny Gaudreau PAC 2 2 2 0 0 4 Tony Dourado
Bo Horvat PAC 2 2 2 0 0 4 John Swan
Connor McDavid PAC 2 2 2 0 0 4 Stacey Campbell
Nikita Kucherov ATL 1 2 2 0 0 4 Brian Towers
Cam Fowler PAC 2 1 3 0 0 4 Benson Greenley
Drew Doughty PAC 2 1 3 0 0 4 Clayton Corley
Jeff Carter PAC 2 1 3 0 0 4 Marcin Gieldowski
Vincent Trocheck ATL 1 1 3 0 0 4 Marcie LaPorte
Braden Holtby MET 2 0 0 2 0 4 Jeremy Dieser
Wayne Simmonds MET 2 3 0 0 0 3 Kristy & Don
Joe Pavelski PAC 2 2 1 0 0 3 Grant Saskiw
Taylor Hall MET 2 1 2 0 0 3 John Swan
Ryan Kesler PAC 2 1 2 0 0 3 Marcie LaPorte
Seth Jones MET 2 2 0 0 0 2 Stacey McDonald
Alex Ovechkin MET 2 1 1 0 0 2 Ryan Miller
Sidney Crosby MET 2 1 1 0 0 2 Brenda & Seward
Brent Burns PAC 2 1 1 0 0 2 Marcie LaPorte
Victor Hedman ATL 1 1 1 0 0 2 Stuart Greenley
Mike Smith PAC 2 0 0 1 0 2 Marcie LaPorte
Tyler Seguin CEN 1 0 2 0 0 2 Brian Towers
Auston Matthews ATL 1 1 0 0 0 1 Scott Gilmore
Erik Karlsson ATL 1 1 0 0 0 1 Dale Bradley
Jonathan Toews CEN 1 1 0 0 0 1 Derek Wilton
P.K. Subban CEN 1 1 0 0 0 1 Eric Wheeler
Vladimir Tarasenko CEN 1 1 0 0 0 1 Derek Bell
Martin Jones PAC 2 0 1 0 0 1 Wes Moroz
Shea Weber ATL 1 0 1 0 0 1 Marcin Gieldowski
Kyle Okposo ATL 1 0 1 0 0 1 Wes Moroz
Brad Marchand ATL 1 0 1 0 0 1 Cam Wagner
Ryan McDonagh MET 2 0 0 0 0 0 Derek Wilton
Sergei Bobrovsky MET 2 0 0 0 0 0 Mike Somerville
Frans Nielsen ATL 1 0 0 0 0 0 Dale Bradley
Carey Price ATL 1 0 0 0 0 0 Benson Greenley
Tuukka Rask ATL 1 0 0 0 0 0 Troy Berkley
Duncan Keith CEN 1 0 0 0 0 0 Stuart Greenley
Ryan Suter CEN 1 0 0 0 0 0 John Swan
Patrik Laine CEN 1 0 0 0 0 0 Scott Gilmore
Nathan MacKinnon CEN 1 0 0 0 0 0 Clayton Corley
Patrick Kane CEN 1 0 0 0 0 0 Clayton Corley
Devan Dubnyk CEN 1 0 0 0 0 0 John Swan
Corey Crawford CEN 1 0 0 0 0 0 Marcin Gieldowski

The Metropolitan Division were our outright winners in the tournament, as they defeated the Pacific Division in the final game, 4-3, in a much tighter game than the first two games to decide our teams in the final.

The social media voters ended up giving the MVP nod to Wayne Simmonds of the Metro Division, but as we can see in the table above, Cam Atkinson was the best player, by pool standards and he earns our MVP honour for the games.

If this celebration was a mini-game in the pool, Marcie would finally have her money back, as her team dances around a number of other mini-games and the overall points race.  Her team had four players playing in the tourney this year and her side finished with 3 goals, a win and 11 points overall, beating both Stuart and John S. by 4 points.

24 of 25 teams had players in the All-Star celebration and 22 of those 24 teams ended up with points, but it was a pretty broad range of scores at the end of the day.  Who would have thought that Atkinson or Justin Faulk would be atop of the scoring ranks in this game?

And what the hell is wrong with the Central Division?  They've crapped the bed two years in a row...

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