With the regular season winding down, we are seeing 16 teams (including the Red Wings) beginning their preparations for long playoff runs. Scouts are being deployed to all areas of the country to size up possible first round opponents, players are practicing with a new spring in their step, and fans are giddily awaiting April nights of watching 7+ hours of intense hockey.
In case you haven’t noticed, we here at WIIM are competitive guys: we love to win, and we love to turn everything into a contest. Earlier this year we launched the first ever WIIM Prediction Contest, and we are coming down the wire in that. We are going to continue that in the playoffs for Wing games, but we wanted to give you, the readers, a chance to show how much you think you know about the rest of the NHL.
In honour of the NCAA tournament that just concluded (as an aside, I don’t follow college basketball at all, but how about the UConn women losing?), we’ve decided to launch the First Annual WIIM Bracket Contest. Your task is simple: pick every round of the playoffs, right up to and including the Stanley Cup Finals. We want you to pick the team that is going to win and how many games it will take, and you will earn points by round. Now, since this is a Wing blog and I expect 98% of you to pick the Wings to win the Cup (as you should), we are going to give you the opportunity to earn some extra points with some player picks. Here is how the scoring will work:
First round correct pick: 1 point
Second round correct pick: 2 points
Third round correct pick: 5 points
Finals correct pick: 10 points
If you pick both the team and the number of games correctly, you will double the points for that round (for example, if you pick the Wings over the Flyers in 4 in the Finals and that happens, then you will get 20 points). However, we also want you to pick the following:
Conn Smythe Winner: 5 points
Leading scorer (by points): 5 points
Goaltender with the lowest GAA: 5 points
We will be putting up a document where you can enter your selections once the matchups have been determined. As with any contest, there will be prizes, the least of which is our undying respect (and other stuff, since that first prize isn’t worth a ton).
However, if there was something else you all wanted to use as criteria for gaining points, let me know: I’m willing to expand the categories. Fire away in the comments and have some fun.
