Perfection...At a Price

The Wockey Pool is many things...a severe detriment to work productivity, a pointless exercise in gambling, a stupid waste of time.  One thing the Wockey Pool is not however is not exciting.  We’re so exciting we could even be considered not not not not exciting.  And we proved it once again in the very first round of games.

In the first game of the tournament, 2nd-seeded Minnesota, a team filled with NHL draft picks took on Yale, a team whose only previous reference to the acronym NHL was this.  Lock it down.  Slam dunk.  Win for Minnesota without question.

Well you know what?  You just got Wockeyed!

Yale takes down Minnesota 3-2 nine seconds into overtime.  Immediately, the Wockey Pool Facebook group blows up with people scorning the Gophers and mourning their brackets.  Out of 200 brackets, 189 are now tarnished.  93 have no hope of winning as they selected the Gophers as their national champion.  One game into the tournament and destruction lay everywhere.  

On top of that, of the 11 brackets that had Yale winning, at least three were chosen at random.  By children.  Seriously.  THIS is why when people say they don’t want to participate because they don’t know college hockey, I have no choice but to respond with this.

Yet through the darkness of the Golden Chokers’ collapse, a beacon of light has shone through for two Wockeyites.  After day one, Erik Pederson, last year’s fifth-place finisher, and Chris Walker, youngest brother of the first family of Wockey, own the two remaining perfect brackets.  Surely these soothsayers must have Wockey wisdom that none of the rest of us possess.  Surely they must study and do research that we workadays don’t have the time for.  In reality, the truth is much uglier than that.

Just as the Yankees win every year because they outspend everyone else, Erik and Chris have chosen to employ the same tactic.  After winning $80 in last year’s pool, Erik decided to spend his winnings on eight brackets this year.  Three of his brackets actually had Minnesota ending up as champion.  Chris, desperate to win this year’s fantastic Wockey Champion prize, entered five brackets of his own.  Diversifying his brackets across the board, Chris has put himself in the rare position of challenging not only for Wockey Champion, but for the loathed Wockey Puckhead as well!  After round one, he along with Jason Kuss (who submitted four brackets himself), Elena Meister, and 2-year-old Colton Sturgis are the only ones still without a correct pick.  Apparently, Colton didn’t get the toddler memo about picking Yale.

Yet things can change quickly in the world of Wockey.  Nothing is ever decided until the final whistle.  With Minnesota out of the way, there isn’t a clear cut number two favorite for champion.  Boston College, Notre Dame, North Dakota, and Quinnipiac have all gotten several votes.  Who will be the next big fish to go down?

One thing we know--one will go down, if not more.  Time will soon tell us who is the next to suffer the ignominious fate of failing at the feet of the Wockey Gods.  Until then, the good news for those who picked the Gophers is that there are several others for you to commiserate with.

Your Weepy, Whoopy, Wimpy, Wockey Wonk,

Alex