Two days ago I decided to wait before releasing my hockey playoffs pool, because the playoff matchups keep changing. Well, it isn’t getting any more clear. This is surely going to come down to the final night of the season.

Here are the movements since Wednesday:

• In the East, Pittsburgh overtook New Jersey for 1st place in the Atlantic Division, which moves them up to the #2 seed, facing Tampa Bay. New Jersey falls to the #4 seed to face Ottawa.
• Over in the West, Detroit beat Nashville to tie them in points, but jump into the #1 seed for now on the basis of having played one less game. Detroit faces Calgary, who continue to have a 7 point edge on Colorado for the final playoff spot. Nashville then drops all the way to the #4 seed to face Dallas.

No real movement yet but we’re still keeping our eyes on Toronto, who used their game in hand on each of the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay and Montreal to earn a point in an OT loss to Atlanta, but still sit in the #9 spot.

Dallas, San Jose and Minnesota remain in the #5, #6 and #7 spots in the standings but are all tied at 98 points a piece so expect lots of fluctuation there.

Okay, I’m going to hold off on the playoffs pool until early next week. Then I’ll roll it out and if people need to change their picks because the seeds change through the week, then that is what will have to be done.

The good thing about the pool design is that members come back each round of the playoffs to make their picks, rather than filling in the whole playoff tree up front (Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final are picked at the same time). This way, it won’t become terribly complicated throwing off the entire playoff tree if the seeds change.

I had another thought… for a Hockey Playoffs Survivor pool. The March Madness Survivor has gone so well, then I thought, “why not for the Stanley Cup too?” Pick a team each round of the playoffs, perhaps one from each conference in the opening round, and see how far someone can make it. Shoot me an email or comment below if you think this is a good idea, or a terrible idea. I’m currently 65-35 it is a good idea.

I have our playoff hockey pool ready to roll… sort of. The ever changing NHL standings are frustrating me because the playoff matchups seem to change every day there are games, especially those involving the Lightning, Canadiens, Hurricanes, Leafs, Islanders, Stars, Sharks and Wild. At least it is only a few teams… (sarcasm).

Based on the standings as of today, here are the opening round playoff matchups:

Eastern Conference

• #8 Montreal Canadiens at #1 Buffalo Sabres
• #7 Tampa Bay Lightning at #2 New Jersey Devils
• #6 New York Rangers at #3 Atlanta Thrashers
• #5 Pittsburgh Penguins at #4 Ottawa Senators

Western Conference

• #8 Calgary Flames at #1 Nashville Predators
• #7 Minnesota Wild at #2 Anaheim Ducks
• #6 San Jose Sharks at #3 Vancouver Canucks
• #5 Dallas Stars at #4 Detroit Red Wings

I hope the Toronto Maple Leafs make it. If they fail to make the playoffs for two straight years, yet at the same time have not made significant long-term moves for prospects and draft picks (Yanic Perrault trade anyone?), this city might go into a deep bout of depression. Yes, more than usual.

The good thing is, after last night’s drubbing of the Hurricanes, it looks like the Leafs have a solid shot. They are 3 points behind the Rangers, and 2 points behind each of the Lightning and Canadiens, but have a game in hand on all of those teams. Currently tied with the Hurricanes and Islanders, the Leafs should be able to separate themselves from those squads, having just beat the Hurricanes and the Islanders seem much less a threat with the loss of goaltender Rick DiPietro. The Islanders deny DiPietro is done for the season.

The Canadiens have a tougher schedule the rest of the way, starting with the Senators and Sabres the next two games, than the Lightning who face the Hurricanes twice, Capitals, Panthers and Thrashers to close out the season. And, the Canadiens and Leafs face off in their final game of the season. It will be difficult for both Canadian clubs to finish in the top 8.

As for the pool, I’m tempted to put it up now with the current playoff matchups and try to start getting people to sign up. The only problem is that as matchups change, then I’ll have to get on people to change their picks, which isn’t ideal. Four games on tonight’s schedule and another 8 Thursday. The playoffs start the week of April 9th. I guess I’ll wait at least a couple more days.

Round 4, a.k.a. The Elite 8, was a messy round for us in the March Madness Pool. We lost 8 total due to 4 picks on North Carolina, 2 on Kansas and 2 on Memphis. That leaves 9 heading into the final 2 rounds, so just when you thought we were going to have everyone coming down to the wire here, we can see it is tough sledding when the choices are limited.

And with the Final Four on tap, a quick glance shows 8 of the 9 alive entries can only have 2 teams to pick from, as they’ve already used 2 of Georgetown, Ohio State, UCLA and Florida. Mike’s entry has 3 choices, having only used Florida so far. Tough to say if that is a blessing or a curse. Florida looks strong, and haysie #1 and Mean Machine are the only ones not to use Florida, so these look to me like the odds on favourites to take the pool. We’ll see.

The next round games are on Saturday March 31 starting at 6:07 Eastern, Georgetown vs. Ohio State. The UCLA vs. Florida game tips off at 8:47. The Final is April 2. We will definitely be doing this pool again next year!

Okay, I’m first to admit that I’ve never been much of a basketball fan. I’ve gone to the occassional Toronto Raptors game. I’ve watched a little bit on TV. It just never did much for me. This might go back to being a below average basketball player myself, which was only exasperated by a poor excuse for a high school coach who never taught me a thing.

That all changed with this year’s March Madness tournament. Now, I likely wouldn’t even be paying attention to the biggest U.S. college basketball event of the year if not for creating the March Madness Survivor Pool, but I have been paying attention and I’ve got to say – I’m impressed with this sport. There have been so many down to the wire finishes, clutch plays and eye popping athletic moves, its hard to take it all in.

I still don’t understand the fouls in basketball. The reach in. A slap here, a slap there. The “loose ball foul”. I don’t understand which team that gets called on. Certainly, I’m still a basketball noob, but a little more watching and I’m sure I’ll start to pick up on these nuances.

As for the Survivor Pool, we started with 25 and lost 1 in Round 1, and 5 in Round 2. Now with the number of games reduced dramatically, and the teams seeded a lot closer together, the choices are getting tough! Not to mention at this point its hard to not think about saving a team for later, the sure death sentence of all survivor pools. I like Georgetown and North Carolina to both win in Round 3 setting up a #1 vs. #2 Regional Final. Which one I like better in that game though, I haven’t got a clue. Flip a coin time…

The Round of 16 is decided in the Champions League, and the results are updated in the pool. We finish our opening round with a three-way tie for first place between andrewg, craigbuckley and Ruthard each with 30 points. Props to johnnyzamps who was the only person to hit 4 of 4 right yesterday and sits just behind the leaders with 28 points.

My personal downfall was backing Celtic, but I couldn’t go against the green and white jersey hanging in my closet. Yep, I let my heart dictate my picks instead of using my head. Predictably, that didn’t work out very well.

Today I will add the next round games to the pool so we can make our picks for those. On to the highlights:

Leg 2 of the first knockout round got underway yesterday. The scores are updated in the Champions League Pool, and overall, a pretty poor showing as far as predictions go. Ten of 21 only hit 1 of the 4 teams to advance. No one scored a perfect 4 of 4. Most people overshot on the goal predictions too, but we did have a few 5 point bonuses for hitting right on the number of goals. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out after today.

At least the predictions weren’t as bad as my indoor soccer game last night. That was down right pitiful. A disgrace. Our worst outing this decade. Hopefully that is out of our system as the playoffs are quickly approaching. Time for some inspiration with highlights from yesterday: