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Frequently Asked Questions
- Top Scorers Pools: e.g. Count only the Top 10 scorers of 12 drafted players.
- Customize Scoring
- Rotisserie Scoring
- Trash Talk: Headlines, trash talk, trade players, change team sorting, manage your team.
- Customize Charts: Each day a unique combination of stats break-downs can be served up.
- NHL Team: Draft, trade and custom score an NHL Team, sometimes called a goaltending team.
- Trade Players: Have newly traded players start at 0 points while keeping the points-to-date of the old player.
- Mini-Seasons: i.e. Oct. 15 through Nov. 15
- Multiple Goal Games: e.g. Points for Goalies who allow 1 or 2 goals a game, or players who score multiple goals.
- Salaries: Salaries, contracts, bonus points.
- Head-to-Head Matchups
- Box Drafts: Poolies select players from lists you create.
- Live Draft: Interactive draft tool!
- Active/Reserve Pools
Set-Up Problems?
- Trouble Initializing your teams / drafting players? Watch the tutorial.
- How can I change my email address?
- How do I change my team's sorting / I picked Player A not Player B / Player X should/should not be a Penalty/Bonehead/etc?
Login/Password Questions
- I've forgotten my Pool Login or Password. What do I do?
- I can't login to my pool or I get the wrong pool when I do login.
More Frequently Asked Questions
Q: One of my players seems to have lost points last night, or a player who did not play last night gained points. What happened?Q: What stat categories can I track?
Q: How much does it cost?
Q: Why would I use this service?
Q: The season is already started, can I still register?
Q: Do I need Java or any other plugins to use this service?
Q: Is this a form of gambling?
Q: When are the stats updated?
Q: What type of pools can be kept track of using this service?
Q: Can we trade players?
Q: Can I compete against other people on the net with this service?
Q: Can I keep track of just my team or do I need to keep track of the whole pool?
Q: My pool involves trades which can result in an un-equal number of players on each team. How do I set that up?
Q: Should I give out the Pool's Password to everyone in the pool?
Q: Once the pool is set up, how do we access our Daily Stats Page?
Q: I'm pretty sure I remember my password correctly, but it isn't letting me login. What's going on?
Q: You are asking for my email address. Are you going to sell this information to anyone or spam me?
Additional and more recent info is available on the What's New page.
Details
Q: How much does it cost?
A: We don't like charging, but web advertising being what it is these days, we have no choice. We charge $1.20 per poolie (minimum $10), up to a maximum of $20 CDN for pools of 20 or more ($30 for 40 or more). We resisted charging for this service years longer than anyone else. We think the charge we have implemented is very modest. There are 3 options for payment. We use PSIGate for credit card payments, or PayPal as an alternative payment option. PayPal has had a number of complaints against it in the past, but has much improved, Google it to find information on PayPal before you use it. The final method is as follows: register a pool up to the point of payment, then use the contact link there to contact us and we can give you instructions on how to pay by cheque and get you going right away. However, we cannot honor any discounts if paying by cheque due to the extra processing needed for cheques on our end.
Q: Why would I use this service?
A: Gloating. Being in a hockey pool isn't about winning money. It's about being able to gloat. Gloat about what a good team you drafted. Gloat about how much you are leading your opponents. Gloat about how you are an All-Knowing, All-Seeing, Hockey Prognastic Genius, while the other guys are barely capable of pronouncing the word `puck'.
The only problem is, what if you're not leading in your hockey pool? Well, you can still have a good night and decimate your opponents, or a strong last 10 days where your team out scored all others, or you may have picked that one dark horse player in the late rounds that turns out to be in the Top 30 scorers. That deserves to be recognized, and with THE Hockey Pool, it is recognized.
You don't have to worry about updating the stats, or waiting until the newspaper comes out. The special daily charts provide you with all sorts of personal, specific to your pool, break-downs in a variety of areas.
We also keep track of the top scoring un-drafted players and goaltenders (if your pool has them) so if your pool involves re-drafts or trades, you have the best information possible about the available players.
Q: The season is already started, can I still register?
A: Yes, you can register any time until the end of the season and see your stats instantly. We keep track of the stats on a day-by-day basis so we are able to show historical stats no matter when you register your pool.
Q: Do I need Java or any other plugins to use this service?
A: No. All you need is a table capable browser. Oh, and the ability to pick a winning team!
Q: Is this a form of gambling?
A: There is no gambling associated with this site what-so-ever. If you decide to gamble within your group on the outcome of the pool, please check your local laws. We provide this hockey statistical analysis service for entertainment only.
Q: When are the stats updated?
A: The stats are updated daily, after the last game of the night or after each game during the playoffs from the official NHL Game Report. We run a conform with the NHL stats again everyday around noon to catch any scoring plays made after the Game Report was published. We publish scoring changes in many places when they occur:
- At the top of the Daily Stats Page.
- On our point re-awards page linked from the top left column of the Daily Stats Page or you can use this link.
- On our Twitter feed
- On our Facebook page
In case of any dispute between sources about a stats total, the NHL.com's stats are used as the final, Official stats.
Q: What type of pools can be kept track of using this service?
A: Your pool can be a straight draft with only one owner of each specific player, or a box draft where multiple owners can have the same player. It is all up to you, the pool administrator. You enter your pool's teams, if those teams have the same players, the stats service will still work perfectly. Of course some of the charts we produce are less relevant for drafts with multiple owners of the same player, so your pool administrator can customize which charts are displayed each day.
You can have all drafted players totals count towards your team's total score, or you can limit the total to only include the top scorers (ie. Only the top 10 of your 13 players count towards your total points). See this document for more information on this feature.
You, as pool administrator can trade players between teams or replace players by using your pool login and password, and editing the players on the respective teams. This gives you a lot of power over your pool, but we count on your friends and co-workers to keep you in line. (They won't be too happy if you try to trade Sergei Fedorov to your team in exchange for Tie Domi without the other party's consent.)
We can track active/reserve roster pools. More information.
Q: Can we trade players?
A: Yes. Click here for more information. And also see: My pool involves trades which can result in an un-equal number of players on each team. How do I set that up?
Q: Can I compete against other people on the net with this service?
A: Not yet. Our service currently keeps track of an existing pool which you can run with your friends and/or co-workers. You serve as the administrator for the pool. Once your group has choosen it's players (in what ever way you see fit), you set up the teams for each "owner" of a team.
Q: How do I change a player from, say, VYACHESLAV KOZLOV to VIKTOR KOZLOV?
A: If the player's last name is a common one in the NHL and you accidentally selected the wrong one on the Edit Team page, simply erase the entire name, re-enter the name as if it was the first time (i.e. just enter the last name, stop at the first space) and press update again.
Q: Can I keep track of just my team or do I need to keep track of the whole pool?
A: At the moment you need to keep track of the entire pool. If you specify that there are 12 owners in your pool, you must enter all 12 teams.
A great deal of the entertainment from this service comes from seeing the headlines, charts and comparisons which are generated each morning, and for these to work, the service needs to see how your team is doing compared to everyone else's team. If your pool is too large to enter, you could always enter a sub-set of the teams. But if you don't enter all of the teams, how will you know when you're winning?
Q: My pool involves trades which can result in an un-equal number of players on each team. How do I set that up?
A: There are a number of possible ways:
- Best Method: Register your pool with the minimum (initial) number of players, then Trade Players to the teams that have extra drafted players.
- Alternative Method: Register your pool with the maximum allowable players on a team, for example, if you drafted 22 players but due to trades a team can contain up to 30 players, you would specify 30 players in the appropriate field on the registration page. Then, when inputting the teams, fill out the 22 drafted players. THE Hockey Pool does not like blank player fields so the remaining 8 (30-22) players must be filled in. Fortunately, there is a player named "No One" in the database who will never have any points. Set any extra players to this player. When trades occur, replace the player "No One" with the traded player, and continue to enjoy your stats.
Q: Can I change the number of Owners or Players once I have registered?
A: Yes. On the Admin page, go to Change Number of Owners/Players. You can change the number of Players drafted at any time
NOTE: Now that this is a pay per poolie service you cannot INCREASE the number of owners if you paid for less than 20 owners. If you paid for more than 20 owners, you can change the number of owners at any time. If you paid for fewer than 20 owners and need to increase that number, please contact us and we'll get you set up. For the World Cup or any other flat-fee seasons, you can increase or decrease the number of owners at any time.
Q: Should I give out the Pool's Password to everyone in the pool?
A: No. Giving out the Password is a good way to create chaos. The Password is used to prevent anyone but you from changing the players on the teams and performing any other maintainance tasks. The other people in the pool do not need the password to access the Daily Stats Page.
Q: Once the pool is set up, how do we access our Daily Stats Page?
A: Simple. Go to:
http://www.TheHockeyPool.com/cgi/DailyStatsPage.cgi?Pool=[your_Pool_Login_goes_here]
For example, if your Pool Login is ThemGoons, you can access:
http://www.TheHockeyPool.com/cgi/DailyStatsPage.cgi?Pool=ThemGoons
Of course, it is much easier to bookmark the page.
Q: I'm pretty sure I remember my password correctly, but it isn't letting me login. What's going on?
A: It could be a few things;
- The upper and lower case-ness of your Pool Login and Password matter (ie. "themgoons" is different from "ThemGoons") . Be sure that you have the case correct.
- Spaces are considered part of the password so if you have placed a space before or after the password, or if you have placed a space before or after your login ID, this may cause the login to fail.
- If you have not accessed your pool for over two months, we have compacted it to save space. If it has been 3 months since you accessed your pool, we have deleted it completely.
- Contact us if you still can't login in properly. We'll try to rectify the problem as soon as possible.
Q: One of my players seems to have lost points last night, or a player who did not play last night gained points. What happened?
A: The NHL stats are official, but can still change; the NHL reviews scoring plays made during the week and may re-award goals and assists based on video, interviews with players, coaches, etc. If the NHL does re-awards points, your players may experience point changes (positively or negatively for you) even if they didn't play last night.
Q: You are asking for my email address. Are you going to sell this information to anyone or spam me?
A: No, your email address is used soley to insure the integrity of the registration process. We find junk email to be offensive and would never subject anyone to this indignity for the sake of a few bucks. We will never disclose your email address to anyone else. Beware because other Pool sites do not make this claim.
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