Evgeni Malkin was picked 133 times, a pool record.

Opening Analysis
Will the west be won? Poolies are betting heavily on the Western Conference to produce the Cup-winning team again this year. They are particularly expecting San Jose, with 71 picks, to come out on top, followed by Detroit, 43, and Anaheim, 23. In the East, Montreal also had 23 picks while Pittsburgh had 15. In all, Western teams were picked 141 times to the Eastern teams' 49.

Despite San Jose's clear edge in Cup predictions, they are only third place in the number of player picks. Strangely, Pittsburgh has more player picks with only 15 Cup predictions than San Jose does with 71. Pittsburgh also has significantly more player picks than Montreal, which has 23 Cup picks.

The pool apparently wants the "easy points" expected from Crosby and Malkin (and to a lesser extent Ovechkin from Washington) without holding out much hope for Pittsburgh to win. Is this a good strategy? Historically, it has not been.

MVP importance waning?
Quite often in past pools, the expected Hart Trophy winner as the league's MVP has been the most popular pick. However, last year Sidney Crosby came third and this year, Alexander Ovechkin is only in eighth, with 90 player picks. Instead, it's Ovie's rivals Evgeni Malkin (133 picks) and Sidney Crosby (124) with the most picks.

Again this year three defensemen form the bulk of of the picks at that position. Nicklas Lidstrom (as usual) with 113, Brian Campbell (80), and Sergei Gonchar (65) are far ahead of the nearest competitors. Last year's defence leader Scott Niedermayer was reduced to 14 picks this time around.

Goalies 1A and 1B
Poolies gave Evgeni Nabokov (83 picks) the clear edge in the goaltending category, reflecting San Jose's contending status. After him, Carey Price is next with 30 picks, while Jean-Sebastien Giguere has 24. Pittsburgh and Detroit's goaltending, on the other hand, did not warrant many picks, despite being Cup contenders. Detroit's platoon situation (third time in four seasons) limited them to 15 picks (Hasek, 9; Osgood 6) while Marc-Andrew Fleury was taken only five times.

Series predictions
My predictions mean absolutely nothing, as past pools will show. So without further ado:
Montreal, Pittsburgh, Washington, NY Rangers, Nashville!, San Jose, Anaheim, Minnesota.

Common Player Card:
Here are the most common players in this year's pool.

F:
Evgeni Malkin, Pit (133 picks)
Sidney Crosby, Pit (124)
Joe Thornton, San (122)
Henrik Zetterberg, Det (118)
Pavel Datsyuk, Det (108)
Alexei Kovalev, Mon (94)
(Ovechkin, Pit - 90)
D:
Nicklas Lidstrom, Det (113)
Brian Campbell, San (80)
G:
Evgeny Nabokov, San (83)