'Pledge & Play' Playoff Challenge Chat Thread *Spoilers*

Post by **Minstrel** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 2:14 pm

The Recording thread is for posting teams ONLY.

Any questions/comments about the game go here. This includes the usual banter we have about our teams in the Challenge 'Chat' threads.

munky · Post by **munky** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 4:18 pm

I assume a donation to the Canadian Cancer Society/Foundation is OK? Or does it have to be American?

Post by **Minstrel** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 4:57 pm

No, it doesn't have to be American

Unfortunately it is a very non-discriminating disease that knows no borders

The ACS stuff is just the info that I have most easily at my fingertips and I know they have a lot of good options for donating easily

For those of you who would like a few non-online options you can try this link:

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/DON/DON_1 ... _Phone.asp

I called their 800 number they have listed there 1-800-ACS-2345 which is a 24/7 hotline and asked about good non-credit card/web options if international folks would like to still doante to the ACS and this is the address of the National Office:

American Cancer Society
1599 Clifton Road, NE
Atlanta, GA 30329
USA

They said the best option would probably be an international money order which you could get from your bank; just ask them what would be best for sending a donation to the United States and I'm sure they can advise you. You write them a check for the amount and fee, my bank charges like 50 cents or something, and they give you the money order which you can then keep your copy of and mail it to that address

In any case just let me know what you're pledging so we can keep the total tally page up to date

flea · Post by **flea** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:04 pm

Unfortunately we have something in common Ministrel.

My father lost his fight to cancer also, but its now 4 years ago. I sadly know too much how u feel and I miss my dad every day since that fatal 16th of November 2001. In his case he had cancer to the gut (spelling, searched it on the net and that came out, sorry) and he had it all spread around when we discovered it. The cancer took him away in only one month.

Sorry guys, its probably not the best place to write this stuff, but I had to put it out since I still have a hard time thinking about this.

Greets

Post by **Minstrel** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 6:53 pm

I'm very sorry to hear of your loss as well, it is a devestating way to lose a loved one.

I say I felt like the coyote in the cartoons who is running and then looks down to realize there is no ground any more... and then *pooof* We werre working together one month and my the time we would be sending out bills for that month's work he was gone

So I wish I didn't know how you feel but like you said, unfortuantely I do.

If you could make a pledge that would be great but I'd like you to be able to play in honor of your father so go ahead and pick and post a team

Thanks for sharing with us, I know it's hard. I hope I haven't kind of made the place a bummer by trying to do something like this but as you can attest, it's good to feel like you've done what you can to help since the loss is such a helpless feeling. Good luck in the contest!

Post by **Minstrel** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:03 pm

If you'd like to play please go to the Knowledge Base and select your team. You can post it in the Competitions Forum. If you can make a pledge that's great, it doesn't have to be monetary. As I've said elsewhere if you're for example a smoker and would pledge to quit that's worth more than any monetary sum actually. Same for if you could volunteer a day at any local charity you want.

As I said in the email consider what you might spend this Saturday going out with friends. Consider staying home and enjoying being with your family instead and putting the money you might have spent as a pledge to charity. I don't want this to be a downer thing, I want it to be a positive thing. So if you can make any kind of pledge let me know via message but in any case feel free to pick and post your team so we can have fun with the game

I will be attending the charity event that inspired this contest tonight:

http://www.chicagoblackhawks.com/commun ... League.asp

So, I won't be around from around 3pm US Central time to around midnight so go ahead and pick and post your team if you'd like to play.

flea · Post by **flea** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:43 pm

Thanks for your kind words Minstrel

Of course I will participate!!! Right now I have to run, but as soon as I will come back I will pick my team and make a pledge too (I think its worth it). I also collaborate with a cancer foundation here in Spain because sadly I have a lot of experiences with this tremendous disease.
Unfortunately the cancer has taken away lots of members of my family....the last one was my cousin of 36 years who just had a son of 6 months....and only 9 months later also his father (well, in his case it was cancer togheter with the pain I suppose). And this are only the last cases of cancer in my family, sadly.
So unfortunately I know too much about this disease and I will participate in your good work.

Thanks and see u soon

Post by **Minstrel** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 8:25 am

I always enjoy this event with Blackhawks Charities I work at every year but this year was pretty special. The charity helped by our event is the Fighting Blindness League and due to increases in funding and being able to bring on their own dedicated researchers and scientists they've made amazing strides in addressing diseases that cause blindness (they had a lot of updates for us since we had no event last year as there was no playoffs...).

They've advanced so far that they have restored, via gene therapy, the vision to canines who had Retinitis Pigmentosa and they are just weeks from the second phase of testing the same techinque on humans now! This is literally curing a major cause of blindness; it's amazing!

It's very touching yet heartbreaking to hear the stories of families who suffer from these diseases so it's great to see n the 10 or so years I've been working with this event how far they've come.

We did very well this year with our auctions and draft event; including a live auction in which Hockey USA donated a game worn jersey from the recent World Cup signed by Scott Gomez that brought in over a thousand dollars

We were graced by both members of the Blackhawks commentary tandem Pat Foley and Troy Murray who was wearing his Stanley Cup ring from his time in Colorado. We also had two Hockey Hall of Famers in attendance hanging out with us; Stan Mikita and Denis Savard. Very cool.

Post by **Minstrel** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:41 pm

I hope people continue to consider making a bit of a sacrifice to help others in need and make a pledge, even if you can't act on it until summer for example...

Simply put though the more people the more fun so I've opened the contest to anyone who would like to enter a team; the prizes will remain only for those who have made a pledge though. You have until Monday at 7pm Central time to pick and post your team. More details in assorted messages here and in the Knowledge Base.

Post by **Minstrel** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 5:18 am

Press coverage!! Yeah baby!

Our event is going to have a little piece on the weekend extended news wrapup show. They even teased the feature going into each commerical break and the first even showed yours truly running our draft board

Just checked out my tivo... and they interviewed both Stan Mikita and Denis Savard, told about our event including showing our guests making picks, pouring over their draft materials, checking out our auction items and then did a nice interview with our local family who are chairpeople on the commitee whose 9 y.o. son is blind. Hopefully that will garner us some extra response for the event next year as people remember that come playoff time they should join us

Post by **Minstrel** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:05 am

Okay, we're officially rolling with the game now as we have everyone's teams. Check out the last message in the recording thread for more "What now" info, but you'll begin to see stats and standings listed in the 'Game Rosters' Section of the Knowledge Base.

We can use this thread for chatting about our teams and how great/poorly our selected players are doing like we do for Challenge Chat threads

noctambulist · Post by **noctambulist** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 1:10 pm

Those of you who picked John Madden totally cashed in last night. A hat trick with two shorties.

hluraven · Post by **hluraven** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 2:27 pm

Can this go in the Hockey talk forum, I recorded the games and haven't seen them yet, so I'm trying to avoid finding out what happened.

Thanks

Post by **Minstrel** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 5:20 am

Well, it really does need to stay in the competitions forum because it's a game, even if it is based upon actual playoff games. In this case it's just the nature of the beast. To talk abut the game we'll be talking about the playoffs...

I'm not sure what kind of non-playoffs game result including type talk there could be in this one; so I think you'll have to just wait until you have caught up before checking in.

When we start posting stats for teams (as soon as I finish the supporting database I'm using for it...) I will revive the game announcements thread and make it a no-spoiler game update thread that will just be used to post a list of what team has what points when we update between rounds and if I need to make game realted announcements. That's about all the "shielding" we can really provide for people who don't want to know game results though.

hluraven · Post by **hluraven** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 9:37 am

Fair enough, just means I'll probably not look here until after the playoffs, as I always record games and never watch live.

noctambulist · Post by **noctambulist** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 1:04 pm

Hey Minstrel, any idea when you will have the database up and running to check our players' scores?

Post by **Minstrel** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 1:12 pm

Actually I'll be posting them later today once I input people's stats (by that I mean the hockey players not the game players, I have that part done already). I'll actually be able to post everyones teams with players/points/totals etc after each game from then on as I've made things more complex to allow me to update things more often

Once I get the first chunk from games that have occured already it won't be as much time to get things updated after games.

At this point I think I'll probably give each team their own page in the KB

But we'll see when I actually start outputting stuff

noctambulist · Post by **noctambulist** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 1:20 pm

Awesome, I can't wait to see it.

noctambulist · Post by **noctambulist** » Mon May 01, 2006 12:37 pm

Dang, just 3 points out of third place. I knew my Nashville goaltenders were a risky pick, but I had to go with at least one dark horse in the list. I thought they might rally around the loss of Vokoun and step it up, but nope. At least they won't give me any more negative points.

Post by **Calv** » Mon May 01, 2006 12:55 pm

Minty must have done some errors whilst calculating the scores, I'm not first

Post by **Minstrel** » Mon May 01, 2006 7:54 pm

Calv wrote:Minty must have done some errors whilst calculating the scores, I'm not first

Hmmm I'll try to sort that out next time

I'll post team pages later today in the KB once I figure out the best formatting. I'll add in each game day from now on.

Just for the record nobody selected Havlat, Liles, Redden or Pronger

Guess we shoulda

A quick note on the relation of goalie points to player points; the points are set so that a team recieves aroudn the same points for a forward scoring a hat trick as for a goalie recording a shutout... of course I set those as I knew it was this year not 2004. In 2004 there were fourteen shutouts in the first round; this year? Three I think it is

Post by **inSTAALed** » Mon May 01, 2006 8:05 pm

Haha, woo!

3rd!

Post by **Minstrel** » Thu May 04, 2006 10:59 pm

Allright everyone;

the Leader Board post in the Announcements thread has been updated to show point totals for teams through the first round!

It's still anyone's ballgame!

Flea made ground on everyone as he's the only one with Chris Drury who finished off the Philly series with a 2g(1 on the PP)/2a +4 performance. You'll be able to check out more things like that when I get the team pages posted later today. They will be in the Knowledge Base Section.

Post by **inSTAALed** » Fri May 05, 2006 12:08 am

Minstrel wrote:You'll be able to check out more things like that when I get the team pages posted later today. They will be in the Knowledge Base Section.

Hooray

noctambulist · Post by **noctambulist** » Thu May 25, 2006 1:13 pm

Any idea when we might see updated scores? I'm curious how much further I've plummeted in the standings.

'Pledge & Play' Playoff Challenge Chat Thread Spoilers

'Pledge & Play' Playoff Challenge Chat Thread Spoilers