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.