We have become more active on our Facebook page. I find it's easier to post things there than on my blog, so you may find things there that don't appear on the blog. You can visit our page here.

Feel free to post any questions or comments on our wall.

Also - we have a Facebook plugin that allows you to view your pools and trash talk right from your Facebook account. You can get it here and check out a sample below.

Do your regular season pool standings depress you?

Are you so far behind that your pool is no longer fun?

Challenge a few buddies to a mini-pool and put some excitement into the second half of the season.

What's a mini-pool?

A mini-pool is a hockey pool that you run with a few buddies in order to track some challenges made over a few beers. It has all the same features as a regular pool (trash talk, nightly updates, etc) but it's just smaller. And only $5.

For example. Say your "Canuck-hater" buddy thinks Vancouver will collapse down the stretch? Tell him to put his money where his mouth is and create a mini-pool. He can pick any 4 players from his beloved Red Wings and you can take any 4 from the Canucks? Whoever gets the most points from now until the end of the season is the winner.

Or, if you're from the east coast, you could challenge your buddy in Calgary to a "who stinks up the second half the least" pool. You get Grabovski, Kessel and the Leafs' second-half points. He gets Iginla, Tanguay and the Flames' second-half points.

Because you can track any NHL statistic at Armchair Pools and player's points can be effective dated, the possibilities for a mini-pool are endless. The only restrictions on a mini-pool is that you cannot have more than 20 players total in your pool. So 5 poolies with 4 players, 10 poolies with 2 players, etc ...

How do I create a mini-pool?

If you're new to Armchair Hockey Pools, you can get started here. Otherwise login to your Armchair account and create a new pool from your myPools page.

Make sure to type 'mini' in the coupon code box when creating a pool so that you are only charged $5 . Like all pools at our site, there is a free trial period. Mini-pools have a one week free trial.

And if you get stuck, just send an email to support@armchairpools.com. We will help you get your pool going quickly.

You've probably seen the highlight reel shootout goal by Oiler rookie Linus Omark. Spin-o-tama, fake, then five-hole to beat Tampa goalie, Dan Ellis. But have you heard about the reaction from the Tampa players and Dan Ellis?

"It's embarrassing for him," Ellis said. "You come into a league, a respectful league like this, and you try a little move like that. It's not a very classy thing. That's just the kind of person he is."

Wait a second Dan. He did more than "try" his little move on you. He scored. Which (correct me if I am wrong) is the goal of the player on the shootout. What am I missing?

Alex and Norm weigh in below ...

With the highly anticipated return of Dany Heatley to Ottawa tonight, we turn you over to Alex and Norm for their predictions of fan reaction.

The first episode of the Alex and Norm Alex and Norm debate their hockey pool sites. A challenge is made, but can Norm follow through?



Check out other episodes in this series as they are released on our YouTube channel

Chris Pronger costs his team an overtime win by "pulling an Avery" while screening Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff. Check out the video here. And if you're so inclined - Pronger's reaction post game.

Alex and Norm weigh in with their thoughts below:

If you live in the Toronto area, check out this contest at The Hockey Card Show.

When you link your poolies to your pool, they get sent an email with all the information they need to log into Armchair Pools. Unfortunately, some email services like to gobble up these messages and stuff them into spam folders. There's a few ways around this.

1. Tell your buddy to look in his junk mail or spam folder. A lot of times the email will just be sitting there ready to be opened.

2. If your buddy still can't find the email, send him another one. Paste his invitation link into an email from your own personal account so that it doesn't get treated like spam. You can find his invitation link by clicking the little screen icon on the row with his name.
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3. Don't even bother with email accounts. Get your pool admin to setup your public pool page that anyone can bookmark and navigate to. More info on that here.

Are you tired of having to login to your hockey pool every morning? No problem. If you have a pool at Armchair Hockey Pools, you don't have to.

Just click the 'Stay Signed In' box next to the login box the next time you sign in. Once you've done this, you will remain logged into the site until you specifically hit the logout button.

This means, each time you go to www.armchairpools.com, you will be taken directly to the myPools page where you can pick a pool to view. If you want to be even more efficient, just bookmark your pool's standings page so you can return directly to your pool every time.

Armchair Pools supports trades and other transactions in all of our hockey pools.

With our poolie to poolie trade feature, you can let teams in your pool make trades on their own. Poolies receive trade requests from other poolies and can either accept them, or hold out for a better offer. Accepted trade offers go through an approval process that is completely customizable.

Teams in your pool can also be in charge of dropping and picking up players as well as bench moves.

Of course, if the administrator wants, he can use the Manage Roster screen to take complete control of all the pool's transactions.

If you're interested in checking it out, look under Pool Settings -> Transaction Settings for a list of settings and options. Don't have a pool? All of our pools come with a 3 week trial, so just create one here and try it out. You can always email us at support@armchairpools.com if you have questions.

If you are just starting your hockey pool now, welcome to the site!

By default all of your players will receive points retroactive to the start of the season. If you want them to get credit for only points scored after a specific date, use the Manage Roster screen under the Trades menu. Also make sure that your Point Calculation Method under the Transaction Settings is set to 'Recognize effective dates'.



And if you have any problems getting your pool setup, just fire us an email at support@armchairpools.com.

Now that the season is underway and your pool has been created, the fun part begins.

So how can you and your poolies track your pool?

There are 2 ways to view a pool you have created at the Armchair Pools website.

1. Log in.
If your poolie has an account at Armchair Hockey Pools, they can login and view the Pool Standings. For those poolies obsessed with stats, there is a detailed standings page in addition to our main standings page. We also update stats throught the night and you can track your pool's progress throught the night on our Nightly Standings page.

2. View your pool's public page.
If your poolies don't have an account, don't want an account, or just can't be bothered with emails and passwords, that's ok. Just make your pool public and send out the URL to all your poolies. The pool's public standings page can be accessed by anyone. No login is required and poolies can bookmark it so it's easy to find again.

The public page can be setup by the administrator under the Pool Settings -> Basic Settings as fast as it takes to type a unique pool name and hit save.

Login to our Facebook application and send some special smack emotes. Some examples below.

Well, in light of the MacIntyre-Ivanans spectacle, I thought I would repost ....

The first organized indoor hockey game was played at McGill University in 1875. They used a flat block of wood as a puck and goals were fashioned from two poles with flags on the end. People crowded around the ice surface to watch as there was no official seating. According to the Montreal Gazette, the final score was “two games to the single” and spectators were “well satisfied with the evening's entertainment”.

At the end of the game, a brawl broke out between the hockey players and a local skating club upset about damage to the ice. According to the Kingston Daily British Whig "shins and heads were battered, benches smashed and the lady spectators fled in confusion."

And so hockey was born. Fortunately, Tonya Harding was not around in the early days of hockey and brawls with ice skaters were not common. However, fighting within the game did become a common occurrence. The lack of rules in early hockey promoted the use of intimidation and violence as a successful strategy for winning games. In order for a team to compete in this environment, it became necessary to employ enforcers - players whose main job was to fight and protect the skilled players.

Flash forward to the present. 135 years later. The game has evolved considerably. The wood block has been replaced with a vulcanized rubber puck and sticks with flags have been replaced with proper hockey nets. Recently, we’ve even been smart enough to sit the spectators behind safety netting

But as far as fighting and violence go, we’re still playing in the 19th century.

Despite the fact that we have plenty of rules (the NHL rulebook boasts 87 multi-part entries) and the ability to enforce them (every NHL game is staffed by 4 on-ice officials backed up by a team of video replay judges), we have been unable to eliminate fighting from the game of hockey.

Why?

Because we continue to cling to this old school belief that fighting and the role of the enforcer is essential to keep cheap shots to a minimum and protect the skilled players. Unfortunately, this belief could not be further from the truth. The concept that violence leads to more violence is well studied and widely accepted. The notion that it somehow does not apply in hockey is absurd.

So while Don Cherry and other old timers spout anecdotal evidence that is entertaining to listen to, the reality is that allowing fighting in hockey does nothing to deter the headshots, the cheap shots or the stick work. In fact, allowing fighting in hockey only serves to create an atmosphere that promotes violence and disrespect for a fellow player’s physical well being.

In the March 2007 article entitled “Taking fighting out of hockey would be wrong”
Scott Morrison, Managing Editor for Hockey with Rogers Sportsnet summarized the old school mentality perfectly when he wrote the following:

“How do you legislate hits to the head out of the game, but still allow punches to the head in fights? Simple. Re-declare fighting part of the game”.

Essentially what Mr. Morrison is saying is that if every time a hockey player threw an illegal elbow to the head, someone would just punch him the head, he’d eventually stop throwing elbows.

This is similar to saying that if I smack my son for biting my daughter, he will eventually stop biting her. Now I personally know that this does not work. In fact, what has happened is that my daughter has started smacking and biting my son, my son smacks me when I tell him to turn off the TV and my wife has suggested I try alternate means of discipline.

Take from that what you will.

A more hockey-relevant example of enforcement gone awry is the all too familiar Steve Moore/Todd Bertuzzi incident. In a game in March of 2004, the Vancouver Canucks were seeking payback against Colorado Avalanche player Steve Moore for a previous cheap hit against Canucks captain, Marcus Naslund. Early in the game Steve Moore answered a challenge by Vancouver’s Matt Cooke and was punched in the head a few times. Now if Mr. Morrison’s logic is correct, Steve Moore now knows not to throw cheap hits, the case is closed and we can all go back to playing hockey.

Unfortunately, that’s not exactly what happened.

What happened was more violence. Brad May attacked Peter Worrell, Rob Blake punched Jarko Ruutu, my son bit Wade Brookbank and mayhem ensued. In the end, Steve Moore’s career was over, Todd Bertuzzi was facing criminal charges and my wife has suggested the league try alternate means of discipline.

Fortunately, I think eventually they will.

After bench clearing brawls (remember them?) became the rage in the 70’s, it took until 1987 to institute Rule 72 – an automatic 10 game suspension to any player leaving the bench during an altercation. In the 22 years since the inception of Rule 72 there has only been a single bench clearing brawl. It took another 5 years for the league to equate sudden attacks on other players with serious injury and instate the instigator penalty. It took the Broad Street Bullies what seemed like a decade (but in fact was only two seasons) to ban Cooperalls for looking bad and being dangerously slippery.

So despite what pro-fighting advocates will tell you, rules can be used to deter, rules can be used to enforce, and one day rules will be used to remove fighting from our game of hockey.

Lets just hope we don’t have to wait another 135 years.

If your pool to allow poolies the ability to change their picks, make sure you remove this ability pretty darn soon. Otherwise your poolies will be able to log in and change their picks at any time!

And if you are not an admin, but notice you can change your picks, you may want to send a friendly reminder to your admin. Unless , of course, you need to "freshen up" your roster first.

To lock your standard draft pool, go to [Pool Settings] -> [Basic Settings] and set 'Pool Lock' to 'On'

To lock your box pool, go to [Pool Settings] and set 'Pool Lock' to 'On'



If you have any questions about this, leave a question on this post, or email support@armchairpools.com.

Isn't it great!

We've loaded our first game. Carolina beats Minnesota and all the Havlat fans are already getting excited. My sleeper pick of Brian Rodney got no points and I think it's going to be a long pool season for me.

If you're curious as to how your teams did, check out the Nightly Standings link on the Pool Standings page. It will display player points and "up to the game" pool standings. We officially calculate the complete pool standings page every night at midnight.

If you're a pool admin and your pool is officially underway - don't forget to make sure your pool is locked. Otherwise poolies can go in and make changes.


..... awkward pause .....


Yeah, I know Rodney's a 3rd line defenseman. It was a panic pick. Give me a break.

Darcy Tucker announced his retirement yesterday.

“It’s been in the works the past couple of weeks,” Tucker said. “I wouldn’t say it was overly difficult, every player has to go throu

Whatever Tucker. No one cares. Just please shut the door on the way out.