Week 12 Picks!

So here's our picks from Week 12...

Game	Suny	Josh	Scott	Chris	Dan
Packers at Lions	Packers	Lions	Packers	Packers	Packers
Dolphins at Cowboys	Dolphins	Cowboys	Cowboys	Dolphins	Cowboys
49ers at Ravens	Ravens	49ers	49ers	Ravens	49ers
Vikings at Falcons	Falcons	Falcons	Falcons	Falcons	Falcons
Panthers at Colts	Panthers	Panthers	Panthers	Panthers	Panthers
Browns at Bengals	Bengals	Bengals	Bengals	Bengals	Bengals
Bills at Jets	Jets	Jets	Jets	Jets	Jets
Texans at Jaguars	Texans	Texans	Texans	Texans	Texans
Buccaneers at Titans	Titans	Titans	Titans	Titans	Buccaneers
Cardinals at Rams	Rams	Cardinals	Rams	Rams	Rams
Redskins at Seahawks	Seahawks	Seahawks	Seahawks	Seahawks	Seahawks
Bears at Raiders	Raiders	Bears	Raiders	Raiders	Raiders
Patriots at Eagles	Patriots	Patriots	Patriots	Patriots	Patriots
Broncos at Chargers	Broncos	Chargers	Chargers	Chargers	Chargers
Steelers at Chiefs	Steelers	Steelers	Steelers	Steelers	Steelers
Giants at Saints	Saints	Saints	Saints	Saints	Saints

Alll of us had similar picks with very few discrepancies. Dan picked the Bucs to beat the Titans, Josh picked the Cardinals to beat the Rams and the Bears to beat the Raiders. I picked the Broncos to beat the Chargers. Chris and Scott made the exact same picks after Thanksgiving, so they're going to end up splitting points. Josh could conceivably win this week, same with me or Dan depending on how it goes. Also, here's the standings.

In first place, Dan is running away with 22.5 points. (Remember, you want the fewest points!) Chris is in second with 29 points. Scott is in third with 31. Josh is right behind him with 31.5 points, and I'm bringing up the rear with 36 points.

In terms of aggregate wins and losses
Josh: 101-43
Chris: 99-45
Scott, Dan, and myself: 96-48 (Dan did not make any picks week 3, so this is kind of a miracle for him)

Saturday Night Forwards - Week 8

This is the first week of comparing forwards. A couple of guys have made some really big jumps, Sidney Crosby hasn't cracked the top forwards rankings yet. However the top line of the Oilers have gone nuts and forced their way into the rankings. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle combined for 23 points this past week, although most of them came from the monster game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Projecting Defensemen

With the first quarter of the season completed, a lot of defensemen are looking like they can put up some monster years. Below are the players listed in terms of Goals, Assists, and Points, and it includes previous years for comparision. As you will notice, the spreadsheet's not pretty, but it gets the job done.

Friday Evening Defensemen - Week 8

I typed up the rankings after I finished the goalie rankings, but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to put in this piece up top. I spent today experimenting with the goalie ranking a bit, anyways, here's some projection numbers I pulled out:

Jason Garrison - 31 goals (proj)
Erik Karlsson and Brian Campbell - 66 assists (proj)
Brian Campbell - 74 points (proj)
Theo Peckham - 172 PIMs (proj)
Dustin Byfuglien - 301 Shots on goal (proj)
Jason Garrison - 16 PPG (proj)
Brian Campbell - 43 PPA (proj)

Anyways... to the rankings...

Thursday Afternoon Goalies - Week 8

So, Happy Thanksgiving, I hope ya'll had a wonderful time. Anyways, I'm late with the rankings no thanks to Black Friday. Good new is though, that the FEDs are done, so that'll be up for sure tomrorow. Also, had to deal with the picks and thanksgiving stuff... long story short, we all got a turkey and sides. Going back to the goalies, you've got your main dish (generally the turkey), you sides (second-tier), the sides you hate (bottom-tier), throw some cider there (fourth-tier, unfortunately, there was no alcohol in my household), and finish off with the pie (third-tier) and "boom" you've got your meal. Putting that in terms of goalies...

UEFA Champions League

With a bit more down time, I can discuss other sports that also interest me, and perhaps you the reader as well. So here's a breakdown of UEFA's Champions League Qualifying with only 1 game left in the group stage. Also, the team in third place will enter the Europa League in the round of 32. The last place team is done

Group A
Matches:
Manchester City vs Bayern Munich
Villarreal vs Napoli

Qualification:
Bayern Munich has qualified for the round of 16 will be seeded
Napoli qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Napoli wins
-Napoli draws and Manchester City draws
-Napoli loses and Manchester City draws or loses

Manchester City qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Manchester City wins and Napoli draws or loses

Villarreal cannot qualify

Group B
Matches:
Inter vs CSKA Moscow
Lille vs Trabzonspor

Qualificiation:
Inter has qualified and will be seeded in the round of 16

Trabzonspor qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Trabzonspor wins
-Trabzonspor draws and CSKA Moscow draws or loses
Lille qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Lille wins
CSKA Moscow qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-CSKA Msocow wins and Lille and Trabzonspor draw

Group C
Matches:
Benfica vs Otelul Galati
FC Basel vs Manchester United

Qualification:
Benfica has qualified
Benfica will be seeded if:
-Benfica wins
-Benfica draws and Manchester United draws
Benfica will be unseeded if:
-Benfica draws or loses and Manchester United wins
Manchester United will qualify and be seeded if:
-Manchester United wins and Benfica draws or loses
Manchester United will qualify and be unseeded if:
-Manchester United wins and Benfica wins
-Manchester United draws and Benfica draws
Basel will qualify and be seeded if:
-Basel wins and Benfica draws of loses
Basel will qualify and be unseeded if:
-Basel wins and Benfica wins
Otelul Galati cannot qualify

Group D
Matches:
Ajax vs Real Madrid
Dinamo Zagreb vs Lyon

Qualification:
Real Madrid qualifies and will be seeded:
Ajax qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Ajax wins
-Ajax draws
-Ajax loses and the difference between Lyon's winning margin and Real Madrid's winning margin is less than 7 goals
Lyon qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Lyon wins and Ajax loses and the winning margin of Lyon's win and Real Madrid's win is 7 goals or greater
Dinamo Zagreb cannot qualify

Group E
Matches:
Chelsea vs Valencia
Genk vs Bayer Leverkusen

Qualification:
Bayer Leverkusen has qualified
Bayer Leverkusen will be seeded if:
-Bayer Leverkusen wins
-Bayer Leverkusen wins and Chelsea and Valencia draw

Bayer Leverkusen will be unseeded if:
-Bayer Leverkusen draws or loses and Chelsea and Valencia do not draw
Chelsea qualifies and will be seeded if:
-Chelsea wins and Bayer Leverkusen does not win
-Chelsea draws 0-0 and Bayer Leverkusen loses
Chelsea qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Chelsea wins and Bayer Leverkusen wins
-Chelsea draws with no goals scored
Valencia qualifies and will be seeded if:
-Valencia wins and Bayer Leverkusen does not win
-Valencia draws with at least 1 goal scored and Bayer Leverkusen loses
Valencia qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Valencia wins and Bayer Leverkusen wins
-Valencia draws with at least one goal scored and Bayer Leverkusen wins or draws
Genk cannot qualify

Group F
Matches:
Borussia Dortmund vs Marseille
Olympiakos vs Arsenal

Qualification:
Arsenal has qualified and will be seeded

Marseille qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Marseille wins
-Marseille draws and Olympiacos draws or loses
-Marseille loses and Olympiacos loses
Olympiacos qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Olympiacos wins and Marseille draws or loses
-Olympiacos draws and Marseille loses by at least 2 goals
Borussia Dortmund qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Borussia Dortmund wins by 4 goals or more and Olympiacos loses

Group G
Matches:
APOEL vs Shakhtar Donetsk
Porto vs Zenit St. Petersburg

Qualification:
APOEL has qualified
APOEL will be seeded if:
-APOEL wins
-APOEL draws or loses and Zenit and Porto draw
APOEL will be unseeded if:
-APOEL draws and Zenit wins
-APOEL loses and either Zenit or Porto wins
Zenit qualifies and will be seeded if:
-Zenit wins and APOEL loses
Zenit qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Zenit wins and APOEL wins
-Zenit draws
Porto qualifies and will be seeded if:
-Porto wins and APOEL loses
Porto qualifies and will be unseeded if:
-Porto wins and APOEL wins or draws
Shakhtar Donetsk cannot qualify

Group H
Matches:
Barca vs BATE Borisov
Viktoria Plzen vs AC Milan

Qualification:
Barca qualifies and will be seeded
AC Milan qualifies and will be unseeded

Saturday Night Forwards - Week 7

Here's the first edition of Saturday Night Forwards. Here's the top 75 forwards.

1.   Thomas Vanek
2.   Phil Kessel
3.   James Neal
4.   Steven Stamkos
5.   Claude Giroux
6.   Marian Gaborik
7.   Tyler Seguin
8.   Daniel Sedin
9.   Joe Pavelski
10. Marian Hossa
11. Kris Versteeg
12. Joffrey Lupul
13. Patrick Kane
14. Jason Pominville
15. Jamie Benn
16. Patrick Sharp
17. Ryan Smyth
18. John Tavares
19. Anze Kopitar
20. Corey Perry
21. Teemu Selanne
22. Johan Franzen
23. Brad Marchand
24. Jonathan Toews
25. Max Pacioretty
26. Vincent Lecavalier
27. Nicklas Backstrom
28. Ryan Callahan
29. Loui Eriksson
30. Alex Ovechkin
31. Henrik Sedin
32. Ryane Clowe
33. Tomas Fleischmann
34. Tomas Plekanec
35. Patrick Marleau
36. Jaromir Jagr
37. Jeff Skinner
38. Jason Spezza
39. Milan Lucic
40. Milan Michalek
41. Patrik Elias
42. Evander Kane
43. Stephen Weiss
44. Craig Smith
45. Scott Hartnell
46. Radim Vrbata
47. David Clarkson
48. Milan Hejduk
49. James van Riemsdyk
50. Joe Thornton
51. Logan Couture
52. Patrice Bergeron
53. Alexander Steen
54. Ray Whitney
55. Evgeni Malkin
56. Mike Richards
57. Jordan Staal
58. Shane Doan
59. Martin St. Louis
60. Brandon Dubinsky
61. Zach Parise
62. Dustin Brown
63. Vaclav Prospal
64. Danny Briere
65. Simon Gagne
66. David Backes
67. Derek Roy
68. Patric Hornqvist
69. Brad Richards
70. Olli Jokinen
71. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
72. Dany Heatley
73. Rick Nash
74. Matt Duchene
75. Justin Williams

More to come next week, expect to see better players move in next week

Friday Evening Defensemen - Week 7

Here we are again, the first ranking of Defensmen for this hockey season. Although this was released on a Saturday, I'll try better to release it on Fridays in the coming weeks... anyways, here's the top 50 defensemen projected for the rest of the season.

1.   Zdeno Chara
2.   Sheldon Souray
3.   Shea Weber
4.   Erik Karlsson
5.   Dustin Byfuglien
6.   Nicklas Lidstrom
7.   Dan Boyle
8.   Kris Letang
9.   Kyle Quincey
10. Alexander Edler
11. Ryan Suter
12. Dion Phaneuf
13. Marc-Andre Bergeron
14. Jason Garrison
15. Brian Campbell
16. Dennis Wideman
17. P.K. Subban
18. Kevin Shattenkirk
19. Mark Streit
20. Dmitry Kulikov
21. Keith Yandle
22. Sami Salo
23. Jack Johnson
24. Ian White
25. John-Michael Liles
26. Duncan Keith
27. Sergei Gonchar
28. Niklas Kronwall
29. Dan Hamhuis
30. John Carlson
31. Mark Giordano
32. Grant Clitsome
33. Brent Burns
34. Christian Ehrhoff
35. Johnny Boychuk
36. Alex Pietrangelo
37. Kimmo Timonen
38. Yannick Weber
39. Ryan McDonagh
40. Matt Carle
41. Chris Progner
42. Joe Corvo
43. Kevin Bieksa
44. Dan Girardi
45. Marc-Edouard Vlasic
46. Ryan Wilson
47. Jay Harrison
48. Nick Leddy
49. Steve Montador
50. Shane O'Brien

These are the initial rankings, but expect the bottom 8 to be consistently changing as players go up and down, I don't expect much change on top unless some injured players come back and play well. Expect the Forward Rankings to be out in a couple of hours!

Week 11 Picks!

Back by popular demand!

Game	Suny	Josh	Scott	Chris	Dan
Jets at Broncos	Jets	Jets	Jets	Jets	Jets
Bengals at Ravens	Ravens	Ravens	Ravens	Ravens	Ravens
Jaguars at Browns	Browns	Jaguars	Browns	Browns	Jaguars
Panthers at Lions	Lions	Lions	Lions	Lions	Lions
Buccaneers at Packers	Packers	Packers	Packers	Packers	Packers
Bills at Dolphins	Bills	Bills	Bills	Bills	Dolphins
Raiders at Vikings	Raiders	Raiders	Vikings	Raiders	Raiders
Cowboys at Redskins	Cowboys	Cowboys	Cowboys	Cowboys	Cowboys
Cardinals at 49ers	49ers	49ers	49ers	49ers	49ers
Seahawks at Rams	Seahawks	Rams	Rams	Rams	Seahawks
Titans at Falcons	Falcons	Falcons	Falcons	Falcons	Falcons
Chargers at Bears	Bears	Bears	Bears	Bears	Bears
Eagles at Giants	Giants	Giants	Giants	Giants	Giants
Chiefs at Patriots	Patriots	Patriots	Patriots	Patriots	Patriots

The rest of Dan's picks will be in when he feels like sending them to me, in the meantime, the rest of my crew still has an opportunity to change picks until Sunday. I will go back over thanksgiving and update the standings.

EDIT: Dan got his picks in at 12:56pm on Sunday