Bracketeering: The 2014 NHL Playoff Pool

By Spezzal Teams Playa

With the enormous popularity of the baseball bracket exercise (sometimes, up to five of you would vote), I figured we'd squeeze as much out of the bracket thing as we could, and continue with an NHL playoff pool. Not since the demise of the Adams, Patrick, Norris and Smythe divisions, in 1993, has the NHL employed a playoff bracket system, where teams are not re-seeded after each round and mixed together by conference.

Apart from the compromise awarded to the NHLPA, where the 4th-seed in each division can be given to a crossover team from the other division within the conference, we are back to the days when you needed to win two divisional series, before playing a team from the other division for the Prince of Wales Trophy or the Campbell Cup. This first year sees Dallas crossing over to compete in the weak-but-top-heavy Pacific Division Playoffs.

We ended up with six entries to this pool, so we'll be able to award three prizes to the winners. First-place will receive $29, with $15 awarded to the runner-up, and the bronze medalist will get his $10 entry fee back. I will be paid $6 off the top, but one of those dollars comes from my own entry fee, so I'm really only raking a fin. Below, you will find each of our completed brackets.

[UPDATE: May 1, 6:00 AM]

After the first round, the only perfect bracket remaining belongs to Westfield Old Devils. His lead is currently only one point ahead of second-place, but he stands to gain more future bonus points than the rest of us, so he is clearly in the driver's seat. That's why it's important that the rest of us not make any more mistakes today, as we make new picks to repair our busted brackets.

Westfield can make changes, too, if he wants, but he might choose to stick to his guns and try for the perfect bracket. Warren Buffet would probably offer him a little pocket money if he went a perfect (15-0) on his April picks.

But for the rest of us, repairs are necessary, so I'll need you all to submit your revised picks for Series #'s 9-15, containing any changes you wished to make for whatever reason, but most importantly, the changes you are forced to make, to correct your already outdated predictions.

Westfield Old Devils can choose to stay the course. [UPDATE, MAY 1, 7:00 PM] He in stead chose to deviate a little:

Barrymore missed picking the Wild, but he can also choose to stay the course. [UPDATE, MAY 1, 7:00 PM] He chooses to keep on truckin':

Stittsville needs to repair his busted bracket and choose a new winner for Series # 12, since Philly can no longer win Series # 12. [UPDATE, MAY 1, 7:00 PM] He chose the Rangers::

Westfield Young Jets needs to repair his busted bracket and choose a new winner for Series # 9 (Chicago vs Minnesota), and for Series # 13 (Western Conference Finals). [UPDATE, MAY 1, 7:00 PM] He made sweeping changes:

Hogtown needs to repair his busted bracket and choose a new winner for Series # 10 (Anaheim vs Los Angeles), and for Series # 13 (Western Conference Finals). [UPDATE, MAY 1, 7:00 PM] He repaired both broken bracket segments:

Franconia needs to repair his busted bracket and choose a new winner for Series # 9 (Chicago vs Minnesota), for Series # 10 (Anaheim vs Los Angeles), for Series # 13 (Western Conference Finals), and for Series # 15 (Stanley Cup Finals), thanks to San Jose's epic choke. [UPDATE, MAY 1, 7:00 PM] He repaired all broken segments of his bracket:

So the score so far is:

1 - Westfield Old Devils - 8 Pts

2 - Barrymore Babymakers - 7 Pts

3 - Franconia Wombats - 6 Pts

4 - Stittsville Two-Putts - 5 Pts

4 - Westfield Junior Jets - 5 Pts

6 - Hogtown Hammers - 4 Pts

Keep in mind that from now on, we will be scoring bonus points for having predicted winners more than two weeks in advance, in addition to the points earned for our current brackets. Those of us who haven't changed our original Cup-Winner pick, stand to catch up quickly at the end, if we chose wisely in April. So even though Westfield Old Devils is still perfect, he is far from having won this pool.

[UPDATE: May 17, 6:00 AM]

After the second round, there are no more perfect brackets intact, but Barrymore still hasn't required any repairs to his bracket.

Westfield Old Devils needed to make his first repairs, and took the opportunity to also make another "elective renovation" to his Central Division bracket segment:

Barrymore had another misstep (or two), but once again, they weren't critical, so he needn't make any repairs yet:

Franconia needed a new Western champion, so he reluctantly chose Chicago:

My own Stittsville squad did not need any changes:

Westfield Junior Jets needed to repair his eastern wing, so he took the opportunity to also renovate the west side:

And Hogtown made repairs to his own eastern wing:

After two rounds, here are the revised standings:

Stittsville Two-Putts: 5-for-8 in round 1 = 5 pts, then 4-for-4 in round 2 = 4 pts, + 3 bonus pts for original Chicago/Los Angeles/Montreal FinalFour picks, for a total of 12 Pts

Barrymore Babymakers: 7-for-8 in round 1 = 7 pts, then 2-for-4 in round 2 = 2 pts, + 2 bonus pts for original Chicago/New York FinalFour picks, for a total of 11 Pts

Westfield Old Devils: 8-for-8 in round 1 = 8 pts, then 2-for-4 in round 2 = 2 pts, + 1 bonus pt for original Los Angeles FinalFour pick, for a total of 11 Pts

Franconia Wombats: 6-for-8 in round 1 = 6 pts, then 2-for-4 in round 2 = 2 pts, + 2 bonus pts for original Montreal/New York FinalFour picks, for a total of 10 Pts

Westfield Junior Jets: 5-for-8 in round 1 = 5 pts, then 2-for-4 in round 2 = 2 pts, + 0 bonus pts for original Colorado/Anaheim/Boston/Pittsburgh FinalFour picks, for a total of 7 Pts

Hogtown Hammers: 4-for-8 in round 1 = 4 pts, then 2-for-4 in round 2 = 2 pts, + 1 bonus pt for original Chicago FinalFour pick, for a total of 7 Pts

2015

Terrebonne

Franconia

Bedlam

Leicester

Bracketeering: Historical MLB Players

by Spezzal Teams Playa

Above, you will find a blank bracket that you can use to predict the winners in our eventual coaches' poll. And don't forget that you can vote already for the 'play-in' matchup between George Davis and John Clarkson, to see who gets the final 16-seed in the Infielders Region.

I highly recommend that you DO NOT try "penning" them onto the .jpg using MS-Paint, but maybe some other photoshop program wouldn't take as long. Here is what took me an hour to "handwrite":

[UPDATE: April 2nd]

The first round of polling now complete, we can see that there were many upsets and several places where my own predicted backet was busted. Here are the results:

[UPDATE: April 8th]

After two rounds, we have narrowed things down to the Sweet Sixteen. My own personal bracket (above) is now thoroughly busted, as Babe Ruth was upset by Ted Williams. Here are the rest of the scores:

[UPDATE: April 10th]

After three rounds, we are down to the Elite Eight, with each "region" pitting its two "best" players against each other. Here is the new bracket:

[UPDATE: April 11th]

After four rounds, we have finally reached the Final Four, with no two same seeds having advanced this far. We are down to a single one-seed (Cy Young), and single two-seed (Rogers Hornsby), a single five-seed (Christy Mathewson), and the nominal Cinderella, Ted Williams, the eight-seed from the Outfielders. Here are the deets:

[UPDATE: April 13th]

Just to wrap things up over here on the blog, we ended up voting, 5 to 1, for Cy Young as the top pitcher, and voted 4 to 2 for Ted Williams as the top hitter. We followed that up with Ted Williams besting Cy Young by 4 votes to 2, to capture the title of Best Baller in Baseball History.

Thanks to all for participating in this lengthy, and not always interesting exercise.