The Sultan of Swank

Well the 5 teams still competing for the last 2 spots look like this... Canadiens - 72 points - 0 games in hand - 33-29-6 - 72.9% Chance Bruins - 70 points - 3 games in hand - 29-24-12 - 62.8% Chance ---- Thrashers - 66 points - 3 Games in hand - 28-27-10 - 22.6% Chance Rangers - 67 points - 1 Game in hand - 29-29-9 - 19.4% Chance Lightining - 65 Points - 3 Games in hand - 27-27-11 - 12.3% Chance I dislike that this season the bottom 2 teams that make the playoffs may be sub .500 teams as currently Montreal is 2 games below .500 and Boston is currently 7 games below .500

I'm happy Toronto limited Boston to only 1 point... but I was hoping for none haha. Habs win, and look pretty dang good doing it. The Gionta-Gomez-Pouliot line is on fire, and pretty much has been since they were put together. Huge win as far as the standings go, 72 points ties Montreal for 6th, which obviously Philly will win at least one of the 3 games they have in hand, but the more important thing is that the 9th place Rangers are now 5 points back of Montreal with only 2 games in hand. ... The one good thing Montreal has going is if they tie for 8th like last season, they'll likely have a higher win total as they've dropped only 6 in OT. ... Edmonton and Boston next before hitting the road again. There's no reason Montreal can't snag 6 of 6 points at home, but as we've seen all season. They'll likely get shut out in Edmonton and lose big to the B's.

So I found this pretty cool site. It projects the percentages of a team making the playoffs based on all sorts of data and a slew of simulations... It's pretty interesting. They do it for all the major sports as well. www.sportsclubstats.com For the east they say Washington is qualified Pittsburgh 100% chance New Jersey 100% chance Buffalo 99.9% chance Ottawa 97.9% chance (14 weeks ago they were 19%) Philly 97.3% chance Boston 62.4% chance Montreal 58.5% chance --- Atlanta 31.4% Rangers 27% Tampa 17.8% Florida 5.8 Carolina 1.8% Islanders 0.4% Toronto 0.0054% Supposedly they have a simulation run the remaining games 25,000,000 times per team to give them their percentages.... I'm not sure if I believe that, but apparently 9-5-1 is Montreal's record 1.4 million out of 25 million times for the most likely record, and 14.6 million out of 25 million times the Habs had a sufficient record to make the playoffs. Obviously Washington had it 25 out of 25 and Toronto(Edmonton's already out, so I'm not picking on ya) they were projected to go 17-0-0 1,320 times, and had a sufficient record to make the second season 1,368 out of 25,000,000 times. I also think it's cool that for every game it shows the effect it will have on the percentages, like if Montreal wins tonight the direct result would be Montreal bumping up to 67% and boston falling to 62.1%, but then if the bruins win, Montreal is down to 56 and Boston up to 69.... Oh my there's too much

Really needed ya to win tonight Toronto...

Well... since Savard is a star, and he got injured, we can expect a suspension around what Lapierre got. Carey Price gives up 3 goals on what? 10 shots in the first. Yanked. Halak comes in, Habs come to life. 2 minutes to play, I was upset that we were gonna lose, I said to myself, if Montreal can score in the next 30 seconds.... maybe... just maybe they can fluke a second one in. Sure enough, with 1:50 or so to play Gionta all alone in front snipes it. Then with 10 seconds to play and Markov in the slot, no denying it... Although Perry's a bitch... but a Gold Medal bitch so no matter what, it's okay with me haha. Hiller forgets that if you slide all the way into your own net with the puck it's a goal. Tomas Plek the Turtleneck goes roofjob for the win and the Habs are in 7th place with 70 points.

Montreal controlled the flow of play for nearly the entire game. They were dominant, got good shots, had a hard forecheck and were strong along the boards. When the Kings scored the 3-2 goal with 7 to play, Montreal instead of doing what they always do, just pray to god that they can withstand the barrage until the end of the game, they went back on the attack and made it difficult for LA to generate enough chances to tie it up. That being said, with Montreal having played so many more games than the teams around them, they really need to string together 4 or 5 in a row and hopefully with that, have Atlanta, Boston or Tampa....not win 4 or 5 in a row haha. Make up some of those lost games.

Montreal v San Jose was like Slovakia v Finland. Montreal surprisingly was winning till 10 min left in the game and then the better team won. Shit.

I think that may be the case if Toronto gets their hands on Markov.

4 - 1 last night. Great win, one shitty goal given up by Price. 3rd period explosion for the win, I'll take it. Also, I still feel the 2nd for Moore has got to be part of something bigger... 3 hours Pierre... Balls in your court. And I think Burke with the albatross trade of the year giving up 2 firsts and a second, alright so Kessel can score 35 on a good team with 2 of the best passers in the game, but talk about handcuffing your organization as far as growth is concerned, especially when the team is rebuilding.

I'm on reading week this week, I could txt ya anything significant if you want... I'm doing it for a bunch of people so it's just another number on my send list haha

Atlanta bought their games haha. I'm just saying that city size doesn't really have much to do with selection. So despite being the largest Canadian city, when it goes up against other cities, you have to ask what does Toronto offer that is so much better than these other cities... often times they fail at this. I do agree however that with the 2015 Pan Am games it'll help bolster Toronto's bid. I'm not against Toronto hosting a games, but I'm just not convinced of the city.

They probably won't... Quebec City has tried once or twice in the past to get a Winter Games. It's a pretty ideallic location in Canada for it. I find that Toronto gets the shaft constantly because the city doesn't have much charm or character. It's a huge, important, metropolis in Canada but it doesn't get the same praise the way Vancouver or Montreal does, in a way I feel like that's why Chicago got snubbed so hard for the 2016 games, they're a huge, important, world class city... Just like Toronto, but it doesn't have much character beyond prohibition era gangland violence. In any case, it wouldn't be for another 16-20 years or something like that.

Sahyder... I was reading that our next legit bit will be in the 2020's and likely Quebec City.

No no, 2 Golds AND healthcare... it does suck Maec... it does.

Y'know... right before OT I mentioned to my brother that this is all a conspiracy by CTV to have Crosby score the Gold medal winning goal... Conspiracy Proven.

Excellent start. USA trailing for first time in the tourney. Let's see how they respond.

I know it's the excitement for the players, but I wish the whole game is like the first 5 minutes so far.

I thought we had no chance at it. Turning it on now.

I am absolutely thrilled that we're leading in Gold. The most important of all medals. When Canada wins tonight it'll be the best finish of any country ever. Awesome Canada!

I've been using my subs effectively I thought, and I've been adjusting accordingly all season. I'm at the point where I'm trying to buy Michael Owen just because his finish is off the wall.

Alright, so I think I'm starting to get the hang of managing the team, but my tactics suck. I'm running with a 4-4-2 formation, and when I'm the favourite I generally like to play an attacking style, when the underdog I try and go with a Counter style and a high defensive line. My issue is that for the first... 15-20 games, this was working great. As Tottenham, I managed wins against Man U(3-1-0 against them if I include the league cup), Aston Villa, West Ham and Liverpool, but I now haven't won in 8 games(0-6-2), and I can't figure out what to do. I'm drawing against teams like Stoke... it's ridiculous how my scoring dried up and my D became so porus... help?

At this point I think we should just take what we can get.

Alright so I just got the game but I know very little about football. I've started a game as Tottenham, I seem to be doing alright. I'm sitting in 5th with a 12-6-6 record and in the League Cup I upset Chelsea in the quarters and Man U in the Semi's and will likely get trounced by Liverpool in the finals. What I'm having issues with is identifying good players because I'm not sure what ratings are important for each position and that strange octagon thing I don't know how to determine how good they are really. Also, the whole transfer thing. So I buy the right to talk to a player and they negociate a new contract with them? I've noticed that some of my players are offered transfers, and when I deny, because I like them on my team, they get all pissy...

Nah, one was a great goal, the other a 2 on 0. I can't believe that up 4-0 they gave the penalty shot to Crosby. I mean it's fucking Rick Nash! Asides from Iginla, he's been our best forward in the tournament. Sure a lack of goals, but he has the work ethic the whole team needs! Argh, I can't fucking stand Crosby. So Russia v Canada in the quarter finals tomorrow. Canada hasn't beat Russia in the Olympics since 1960... although Canada plain didn't send a hockey team for 16 years but still... 1960. Give'r Canada!