First Islanders Goal (FIG) Pick Rules

New to Lighthouse Hockey? An old vet but ready to contribute to the winning culture?

Each game day we have a contest — strictly for sporting reasons, we assure you — that’s simple in nature: Pick who will score the first Islanders goal. You get points for naming the right player, bonus points for getting assists and time of game correct. The points accumulate over the season, after which you can be publicly praised for being the most prescient nut among us.

As you see in the rules below, you don’t have to pick a goal scorer; you can instead pick the Isles to get shutout. Or you can play the field (for lower reward).

You enter your pick for each game in a FanShot we’ll post, like this one for the season opener. Here’s the explanation from our FIGMeister-in-Chief, Mike (ICanSeeForIslesAndIsles):

Rules of the FIG

Hello, fellow FIGMeisters! As we approach Opening Night, it’s time to address the rules for the annual First Islanders Goal competition. For the most part, the rules stay the same, except for one crucial addition. But to refresh your minds (or to introduce the concept to newcomers), here’s what was in place last year:

When to leave your Pick

For each game, a FIG Fanshot will be posted the night before or morning of a game. In the comments for that post, you make your guess as to which Isles player will score the first Isles goal of the game, as well as who gets the assists (if any) and what time of the game the goal will be scored.

Oh, I should note that you have to get your pick in by a deadline. Basically, if the face off is between 7 and 7:30, then your comment must be time stamped by 6:59. It’s always one minute before whatever half hour the opening face off occurs. The Fan Shot post will state the time, if it’s something other than 6:59 (which will be the case for the majority of the games).

How to Register Your Pick

The format of the comment should be as follows, in the subject line of your comment:

• Barzal (Lee, Eberle) 24:16

In that example, Barzal is the goal scorer, Lee and Eberle with the assists. 24:16 would be 4:16 into the second period.

Please put your choice in the SUBJECT LINE. You can put any other anecdote in the body of the comment.

Also please use the goal scorer’s full last name, or the guess will not count, even if you are correct! I find winners by doing a word search for the last name. Moreover, nicknames can sometimes be vague and this is a totally important contest with a very real fake prize at the end of the season so there will be no foul play, or my name isn’t Michael ICanSeeForIslesAndIsles!

Picking a Player Someone Else Has Already Picked

It would also be nice (although not required) if you could first see if anyone else guessed the same goal scorer, and reply to their comment with your own pick of that player, just so everyone who chooses the same player are all grouped together.

Scoring/Points System

If you are correct, you get two points for the FIG. All other points are bonus points and cannot be earned unless you get the FIG right. A bonus point is awarded for each correct guess on the assists, and one final bonus point is given to whomever is closest on the time of the goal. Thus, the most you could gain in a game is five points.

• Choosing one one assist or no assists would get you points, as well, if that’s what happened in the game.
• You could also choose “Shutout” if you think the Isles won’t score (you know, if Mat Barzal is injured). If you choose shutout, you can also guess how many shots on goal the Isles will have. You would get two points for correctly choosing shutout, and one bonus point for being closest on the number of shots on goal.

New Option: Play the Field

***And now the new rule:***

You now can “play the field” like in a horse race. The “field” is defined as any player who hasn’t been chosen by anyone else. So if, for example, Luca Sbisa scores and nobody has him for their FIG, then anyone who chose Field will get two points each. No bonus points for assists, but you can guess closest time and get a bonus point got that too. The format of your guess should look like this:

Field (3:46)

- You will note that “field” and “shutout” can earn you only a maximum of three points, whereas a FIG could get you as much as five. That’s by design, for a few reasons, which I might expand upon in the comments section below.

That’s about it. Let the best Figgin person win!