My friends, I am here, today, to bestow the Nation’s praise onto a fine group of fantasy hockey heroes. This group of fantasy heroes opened up their wallets for a chance at glory and prizes, and today is the day where we announce the winners of the NationDrafts playoff pool!
If I had a drum, and the skills required to use it, I would be doing a drum roll right now. There is nothing more exciting than finding out that your brain flexing propelled you to fantasy victory. No longer will anyone Nation citizen be able to say that you fine folks don’t know what you’re talking about when it comes to hockey. Not only are the prizes are awesome, but having bragging rights for life is priceless.

THE STANDINGS…

I want to offer a big Nation congratulations to our winner Tim Sheer and bow to his fantasy wizardry. You are our supreme champion for the 2016 NationDrafts playoff pool, and the winner of a $1000 prepaid VISA! Tim pretty much led this pool from start to finish, and was able to coast to victory without being contested all that much. A slightly less impressive shout out goes to our 2nd place finisher Moose Guy who is now the proud owner of a $500 prepaid VISA, and our third place winner Muffin Box who is the winner of our “mystery prize.” I got to see the mystery prize this morning and it’s pretty awesome – you’ll love it.

PLAYOFF NOTES

With the Stanley Cup landing in Pittsburgh it’s interesting to take a look at the playoff surprises, who succeeded, and who fell flat. Some of our observations include:
  • Jonathan Drouin proved that he may be worth all of the in-season drama after posting 14 points in 17 playoff games, good for 3rd on the team in scoring. 
  • Tampa Bay showed that they had enough depth to reach Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals despite missing their captain, Steven Stamkos. Does that make Stamkos expendable? We shall see. 
  • Who could have imagined that Western Conference juggernauts (Chicago and LA) would get bounced in the first round? Madness.
  • Florida made it’s first trip to the playoffs since 2011-12. Although they were ousted in the first round, their success prompted the ageless wonder Jaromir Jagr to sign a one-year contract carrying a $4MM cap hit for the 2016-2017 season. 
  • San Jose and St.Louis may have finally shaken the label of being choke artists after advancing past the first and second rounds. Although, San Jose’s lack of offence received a lot of heat in the Cup finals, the fact that the Sharks made the finals will surely receive a soft cheer from fans in between the sobs of bitter defeat. 
  • The Rangers, Wild, Flyers and Red Wings added participation badges to their respective trophy cases. 
  • Justin Shultz is a Stanley Cup Champion. 
  • Calgary did not make the playoffs (just a reminder).
Feel free to post your own playoff thoughts in the comments.

THANKS AGAIN!

Lastly, I want to give a shout out to everyone that put their money where their where there mouth is and entered the NationDrafts playoff pool. Entering the NationDrafts pool helps us raise money for Earth Group, have some fun, flex your hockey IQ, and chirp each other. Regardless of where you finished in the pool, you can feel good knowing that you contributed to a great cause. From this blogger to you – I tip my cap. 
If you could see me now you would see me tipping my cap to all of our top 20 winners! We will be contacting all the prize winners shortly to make arrangements for your free stuff.