End of 2013 Internal Memo.

From the desk of Commisioner Barry Gettman

To the distinguished league of Governors (except you, Thrilla - you suck). 

The start of the 2013/14 hockeydraft.ca hockey pool has had mixed results. Since moving over from the Yahoo system, league attendance and interest has frankly plummeted and my chances of winning this thing continue to decrease exponentially.

Despite my best efforts, Thrilla has been
in 1st place for most of the year and thereby wins the December award; the opportunity to create or tweek one of the existing rules and a Tim Horton's card in which he is able to put as much money as he wants on it to spend at his desire.

Thrilla's semi-victory party in full swing.

However, despite Thrilla's first-half dominance there have been some bright spots in the formatting and 'create a rule' category. League point leaders have moved from the predominantly dominant Sedin twins/Pittsburgh connection to more unlikely candidates such as Jarome Iginla and current league point leader Chris Stewart.

In all honesty anyone can make that pose.
It's more impressive if the weights were over his head.

Ray Emery's bout of fisticuffs this fall also gave fruit to the 'fightin' goalie' initiative in which any goalie that fights in this league is given a bonus 20 points. Unfortunately that remains Sugar Ray's sole benefit for those teams that gambled early and thought he would be the starting goaltender for the struggling Philadelphia franchise and bring back fond memories of Ron Hextall-like gorilla ape mentality.

He pounded his head right into his body.

The other major change was met with limited success with only 4 teams participating in the 'Sliding Scale Drop-A-Player'. This gave managers the opportunity to drop as many players as their current league rating. The Mighty Pints took full advantage by trading 8 players which has enabled him to move up into 6th place as of the end of the year.

What's new for 2014? 

While it is yet to be determined there may be a return to the Yahoo Fantasy League if the Board of Governors wish to continue in the coming years. The advantages of drafting, trades and full access to injury reports and substitutions may make up for the limited point distribution option which fails to underline the advantages of giving extra points for fighting and hat tricks.

Missing any?

As your league commissioner I always welcome new ideas in how to prevent Thrilla from winning the whole thing. Please forward me any of your suggestions either through here or on the hockeydraft.ca website under trash talk. Thrilla, email me in some way your wish for the New Year and if it's within reason (ie not 'change one of your old rules back') than i'll make it happen.

Friendly reminder for those that have taken too many pucks to the head that the name of the pool is jay royston and the password is mortgages.

All the best in the coming year (except Thrilla).

Barry Gettman