Sterling Predictions: Final Results
The Silver Seven staff made some predictions in the pre-season. How did they fare?
At the start of every season, the Silver Seven staff make some predictions about the upcoming Senators season. At the end of the season, we look at what we said at the start of the season and tallying up the answers and arbitrarily assign points. So who came out on top tonight?
The Ottawa Senators led the league in minor penalties in 2013-14 with 379 (22 more than the next team, the Philadelphia Flyers). Will Ottawa finish the season in the top-3 for minor penalties taken in 2014-15? Bonus: How many minors will the Sens take?
At the mid-way point, it was very close, with Ottawa just sitting outside of the top three. Since then, it changed significantly. The Senators finished the season with the 14th most minor penalties, and a grand total of 290.
Ian and I were the only ones to pick "no". Nobody gets the bonus - though Ian was the closest with 316.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, nkb slightly edges out Ross for the worst guess with 374. He would have been right with that guess on Arctic Ice Hockey though.
The reader poll picked Top-3 at 58%.
How many games will Craig Anderson play this season? How many will he win?
Injury derailed Craig Anderson's season initially, and Andrew Hammond kept it derailed until the third game of the playoffs. The end result was 35 regular season games started, and 14 wins.
I'll give Amelia the point for the starts, with this surprisingly solid explaination:
Andy will play 39 and win 20. He'll get injured and loose the starter's job.
She wisely didn't mention who he would lose the job to, nkb and Ary...
Nobody gets the bonus points, though Amelia was closest on that as well.
Michaela takes the title for worst prediction on this one. 60 games and 32 wins were both the furthest off.
Only 24% of readers in the poll picked the 35+ option.
Who will score more points this season, Zack Smith or Patrick Wiercioch? Bonus: how many games with Wiercioch play for Ottawa this season?
This wasn't even close, even accounting for Smith missing a large number of games to injury. The final tally was 13 for Wiercioch and only 3 for Smith.
Everybody picked Patty W except for our esteemed leader, Amelia. Sorry boss!
For the bonus points, Wiercioch played in 56 regular season games. Amelia redeems herself by coming closest with 55.
Who did the worst? I'll leave that up to the good reader - Michaela predicted a full 82. Nkb predicted 78 - but only 20 for Ottawa.
69% of readers got this one right by picking Wiercioch.
Full Smith-Wiercioch Predictions
Who will score more goals: Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, or Curtis Lazar? Bonus: how many will each player score?
This one ended up being a lot closer at the end than it was at the mid-season. Back then, Hoffman was on pace for 28 goals, Stone 20 and Lazar only 2. Hoffman finished with 27, Stone 26 and Lazar way back at 6.
Ross and Adnan were the only ones to pick Hoffman, with almost everyone else picking Stone.
Nobody really came close to Hoffman's projected total, with Ross coming the closest at 19. NKB was the closest on Stone, guessing 20. Absolutely nobody came close on Lazar, mostly picking 0, 1 and 2.
I take the worst on the chin for goals scored - I predicted five goals for Hoffman. Amelia was the only one to pick Lazar.
The readers largely went with Stone, only 13% took Hoffman.
Full Rookie Scoring Predictions
Which player will be the biggest surprise, good or bad?
Absolutely nobody picked Andrew Hammond. Not the writers, not the readers, probably not even Andrew Hammond.
Since he wasn't even remotely on the radar, I'll give half a point to Nkb for picking Stone.
Peter, Ian, Michaela and myself all picked Cowen. Whoops!
The readers weren't much better, with the most popular choice being Alex Chiasson.
What will Ottawa's record be in 2014-15? In what place will the Senators finish?
This one definitely changed a lot since the mid season check-in. Back then, the Senators were on pace for a 34-32-16 record, good for 84 points and likely an 11th place finish in the Conference.
That late season run changed that significantly, though. The final record was 43-26-13 and 99 points. That put them fourth in the division, seventh in the conference and 13th overall.
Amelia came the closest on this one, with her prediction of 43-29-10.
For the ranking, Ary gets it with horrible hedging of "one of the wild card spots", despite being in a tie for the furthest off on the record with Ross. Mrs. O was the furthest with that part, picking 10th in the East.
The readers mostly picked the typical bubble range of 90-94 points. 29% picked the right range of 95+.
Final Score
With a total of 12 points up for grabs, none of us did very well overall. But your winner is...
Amelia! She takes the title this season with a whopping THREE points.
Ian, myself, Adnan, Ross and Ary come in next with two points. Nkb sits on his own with 1.5 points. Mrs O, Michaela and Peter round everything out with one point each. Nobody got blanked.
At the opposite end, Michaela was the furthest off four times with a double-whammy on the Anderson question. Nkb and myself really blew it twice, with Amelia, Peter, Ian, Ary, Ross and Mrs O all with a single "whoops" point.