And The Winner Is...

The celebration officially began today with the Bruins stepping off the plane and greeting the hundreds of fans that had assembled at the airport to welcome home their hockey heroes. Parades will take place in Boston to honour their heroes, and it's pretty amazing to think about all the success that Boston has had with their four major sports teams. Over the last decade, each of them has brought home their respective championship trophy at least once, and there's no reason to think that it can't happen again next season for the Bruins.

From four successful teams, we move to four successful rounds, and we can officially crown a winner in the 2011 HBIC Playoff Pool! Dan F. has emerged as the winner as he grabbed six points in the Stanley Cup Final to vault ahead of Ryan J. who he shared the lead with after the Conference Finals. Dan F. had himself a pretty solid run in these playoffs as he was continually near the top of the leaderboard, and the win will allow him to have the first choice in this year's spoils. Congratulations Dan, and I'll be in touch soon!

The winner of this round, however, grabbed an impressive 12 points! Corey D. was that competitor, and he called the entire series correctly! He had the winning team in each game right, and, as a result, grabbed an extra five points for calling the winning team in the right number of games! Way to go, Corey! I was extremely impressed!

Since there were no ties this year, the tie-breaking rules didn't come into play. Therefore, the seven people who finished atop the leaderboard will qualify for prizes unless they decline a prize. But really... who turns down free stuff? Here are those seven people who I will be contacting.

1. Dan F. (WAS) - 86
2. Ryan J. (VAN) - 83
3. Justin S. (BOS) - 81
4. Matthew S. (DET) - 80
5. Bryan J. (MTL) - 78
6. David F. (VAN) - 77
7. James H. (VAN) - 76

And with the HBIC Playoff Pool now being complete, we begin the summer as we await for training camps to open in September. I will be doing a different summer project this year, and we'll open that work next week. If you're fan of one of the recurring segments on HBIC, you'll probably appreciate this project.

Of course, I'm always looking for your opinions as well, so if you feel like you want to write about anything that's going on in hockey, feel free to scribble your thoughts down and send them here. I'll be happy to feature your piece on HBIC, and you'll get top billing for that day. So if you have the itch to write, get scratching and start writing!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!