Day Two - Le Piscine Wockey

Far, far from the college hockey venues of America, sitting in a posh loft on the western end of Paris sits an elegant young lady, sipping a martini, watching the sun set behind the Eiffel Tower, quietly laughing to herself as the thought of leading the Wockey Pool crosses her mind.  This woman attended UW-Madison, lived for a while in Boston, yet college hockey only appears on her radar once a year when she placates her cousin by participating in his silly, little Wockey Pool or Le Piscine Wockey as they would call it in France if anyone in France actually cared.  I can see her filling out her bracket now--she picked Ferris State to go to the Frozen Four because she thinks Matthew Broderick is cute.  She chose Union because that's the side she would have supported in the Civil War (the American one--not the French one).  Her name is Elena Luoto Meister.  She knows less about college hockey than you or I.  And she just might end up taking all of our money.

In a day that astonishingly ended with every higher seed winning (the first time that I can recall that happening in Wockey history), It was the savvy bracketeers that selected Union and Ferris State as their Frozen Four participants that are doing well.  In all, 8 brackets paired those two in Tampa, and 7 of those brackets have spots in the top 12 of the pool standings.  On top of that, while no one correctly picked all eight first round results, 8 brackets nailed seven of the games.  Not coincidentally, seven of those brackets hold places in the top eight spots on our standings.  It is with great pride that I share with you that mine is one of the brackets that picked seven of the eight games correctly.  However, shame and humility require that I reveal that my bracket is in 46th place, that my lone wrong pick was Miami, who I had winning the whole thing, that I picked neither Union nor Ferris State to go to the Frozen Four, and that there is no way I can win this thing.  But don't worry about it.  Shame and humility are routine operating drivers for me.

Three points back and tied for second are Aaron Soroka and Chris Goodman.  And in 4th place, we have a 5-way tie with 26 points between Charlie Cushing, Charlie Lentz, Chris Walker (not the bracket that had zero on Friday), Erik Pederson (one of 5 brackets) and Mike Varian.  Rounding out the top ten is a four-way tie with 25 points for ninth place between Ryan Graupmann, Eric Darwitz, Matt Kilby, and Elena's 19-month-old son, Matias Meister.  Read that last part again.  For 193 of you, a 19-month-old French kid is beating you in the Wockey Pool.  How's your life going?

Personally, I'm delighted to see the likes of Chris Walker and Ryan Graupmann up there.  Ryan is the younger brother of Ashley (T-96th place), Chris's longtime girlfriend, and his future brother-in-law, if Chris would just get off his butt and propose already (but I would never say that in a public forum).  On the Wockey Pool's Facebook page, Chris and Ryan bet a case of beer on who finished higher in the standings.  What Ryan probably didn't know was that Chris entered three brackets, and now one of them stands a point above Ryan's.  This may end up being a controversy that runs through that family for years--again provided that Chris actually grows a pair and proposes at some point (but I'll wait to talk to him about that until we have a little privacy).

I'm also quite happy to see Matt Kilby in the top 12.  Six years ago, Matt was one of the original Wockey entrants when the pool only had 16 people.  After his Mom and sister joined the pool three years ago and subsequently kicked his butt, he left with his tail between his legs, vowing never to return to the den of embarrassment known as Le Piscine Wockey.  After years of convincing, prodding, and carried-out physical threats, he's finally back and should be proud that he still has a legitimate chance to place.  Of course, chances are just as good that his dad, Bill Kilby overtakes him and we never hear from Matt again.

And there's a distinct possibility we have a new Wockey master to replace the fallen genius that was Kevin Jewett.  Chris Goodman has three brackets entered--one on behalf of himself, but the others on behalf of his kids, one of whom is Reid.  Reid, a child prodigy by all accounts (which includes only his father's account) finished second in the pool last year.  If the bracket that is currently tied for second is also Reid's, we may need to get a hold of Mensa.  On the other hand, in e-mails with Chris in which I asked about getting some of Reid's buddies to enter the pool, I received this response that makes me think perhaps "luck" runs more in the family than "intellect":
 

"His buddies are all in meth rehab and cant access the Internet because that was how they were lining up their product so they cant register

Next year they can do it if they don't get caught by their parents with the hooker I know they all seem to  have a liking towards"

So.....yeah.  Anyone got a number for child services?

Moving on, I know there's been a little frustration with the standings/results portion of the website.  I apologies for the delay and ask for a little patience as we finalize getting things set up.  Just remember that this is a new site and we're sort of beta testing as we go.  Not all of our experiments are always successful.  Things should be up and running later tonight.  If nothing else, I'll post the static results and updated standings like I did last night.

I hope you're all enjoying the pool.  Today we should have two outstanding matchups with bitter rivals North Dakota and Minnesota playing in St. Paul in the first game and defending champ Minnesota-Duluth facing top seed Boston College in the second.  If you haven't watched any games thus far, I strongly encourage you to check out these two games.  You can watch them on ESPNU or online ESPN3.com (if your ISP provides it).  The games start at 4:30CT.

If you're still in it, good luck to you on the last day of Wockey's first weekend.  And if not, then welcome to the unfortunately large club.  We'll still be Wockeying without winning!