Sneezl

For hockey pool fans who come to their fantasy drafts prepared, ’tis the season for pre-draft homework.

Who would you take if you get the #1 pick? Who will be your #3 defenseman? Who’s the top available goalie?

Since every pool has its own scoring system and guessing the future is impossible, we can’t give a perfect picklist. But, that won’t stop Sneezl from trying anyway…

2010-2011 Fantasy Hockey Top 10 Picks: Forwards

1. Alex Ovechkin
2. Sidney Crosby
3. Joe Thornton
4. Steven Stamkos
5. Henrik Sedin
6. Daniel Sedin
7. Nicklas Backstrom
8. Martin St. Louis
9. Evgeni Malkin
10. Dany Heatley

People will sit around and debate the order of this list more than any other, but Ovechkin has to be near the top of nearly everyone’s list. Rather than debate it here, just be happy if you get any 3 of these guys on your team.

Fantasy Draft Top 10 Defensemen

1. Mike Green
2. Dan Boyle
3. Drew Doughty
4. Sergei Gonchar
5. Tomas Kaberle
6. Chris Pronger
7. Duncan Keith
8. Mark Streit
9. Zdeno Chara
10. Dion Phaneuf

With the offensive powerhouse in Washington, Mike Green again should go #1 among D-men.

2010-11 Hockey Pool Top 10 Goalies

1. Roberto Luongo
2. Ryan Miller
3. Jimmy Howard
4. Marty Turco
5. Mikka Kiprusoff
6. Cam Ward
7. Marc-Andre Fleury
8. Martin Brodeur
9. Ilya Bryzgalov
10. Jonas Hiller

Goaltending skill is not the right question when picking a fantasy draft goalie - its all about the # of games they’re going to play and how many games the team will win.  Not many goalies regularly play over 65 games, and not all of them are on teams that win 65% of their games.

2010-2011 Fantasy Hockey Top 10 Picks: Enforcers

1. Colton Orr
2. Ian Laperriere
3. Zenon Konopka
4. Matt Carkner
5. Jared Boll
6. George Parros
7. Cam Janssen
8. Zack Stortini
9. Dan Carcillo
10. Steve Downie

As a dark horse to win this category, Zack Stortini of Edmonton will have the most work to do protecting 3 rookies at once.  He may not be the biggest heavyweight, but he’ll have to drop the gloves every night if no-one else on the Oilers does.

2010-2011 NHL Rookies Top 10

1. Jordan Eberle
2. Taylor Hall
3. Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson
4. P.K. Subban
5. Tyler Seguin
6. Nazem Kadri
7. Brayden Schenn
8. Tyler Ennis
9. John Carlson
10. Mikael Backlund

Aside from being highly talented, the reason 3 Oilers top this list is that they’ll all be getting powerplay opportunity and top-6 forward minutes.  The only real question is, “which will finish 1-2-3?”

John Carlson could score 50 points if Washington’s goalies play well enough that they can gamble on his untested defensive abilities.

Click Here for the $4 Secret
That Will Win Your
2010-2011 Hockey Pool!

(Each of the picklists above is in descending order of choice.  Remember: have fun and don’t gamble!)

Good luck with your drafts!

The minister asked if anyone in the congregation would like to express Praise for answered prayers. A lady stood up and walked to the podium.

She said, “I have a Praise. Two months ago, my husband Fred had a terrible golf cart wreck and his scrotum was completely crushed. The pain was excruciating and the doctors didn’t know if they could help him.” You could hear a muffled gasp from the men in the congregation as they imagined the pain that poor Fred must have experienced.

“Fred was unable to hold me or the children,” she went on, “and every move caused him terrible pain. We prayed as the doctors performed a delicate operation, and it turned out they were able to piece together the crushed remnants of his scrotum, and inserted 20 loops of thick, tough titanium wire throughout it to hold it in place.”

Again, the men in the congregation were unnerved and squirmed uncomfortably as they imagined the terrible surgery performed on Fred. “Now,” she announced in a quavering voice, thank the Lord, Fred is out of the hospital and the doctors say that with time, his scrotum should recover completely.” All the men sighed with relief. The ashen-faced minister rose and tentatively asked if anyone else had something to say.

A man stood up and walked slowly to the podium. He said, “I’m Fred.” The entire congregation held its breath. “I just want to tell my wife that the word is ’sternum’.”

I just spent the afternoon comparing a pair of BX8a’s versus HS80m’s and the conclusion was simple: I now own a pair of Yamahas.

This is as unpaid as a review gets, by the way

Simply put, the Yamahas are better.

The boxes are roughly equal in the bass end in terms of frequency response and woofer flappage (there’s some on both if you push them right). But since the Yamahas have a variable low cut filter switch, they win in the low end.

Its in the higher mids and high end that the Yamahas really showed their superiority. Comparing the two sets side by side with a Korg SV-1, it sounded like the M-Audio’s were playing through a thick cloth or as though my ears were full of wax. By contrast, the Yamahas were clear, revealing all kinds of detail that was completely invisible on the BX8a’s.

Now, don’t get me wrong - I tried out a lot of other monitors in the price range and the BX8a’s were still preferable to many others (like smaller Yamahas, Dynaudio, Behringer, Yorkville, KRK).  But comparing 8″ boxes side by side, the price difference for me completely disappeared once I heard them both in action.

If you’re considering getting a pair of BX8a’s, I’d recommend that you spend some time comparing these side by side too. Monitor selection on a budget is more art than science, but I’d say that you owe it to yourself to compare 8″ apples to apples before taking the cheaper BX8a’s home.

This site has non-stop fart sounds that’ll make your guts spill with laughter!

 www.FartCracker.com

Good old farts…