Possible NHL Regular Season Pool

I think it might be too late for this year, but I'm looking for some feedback on whether anyone might be interested in participating in an NHL Regular Season Pool in the same sort of format as this pool. Some preliminary thoughts are:

• Entry Fee: $30.00 CAD for the whole season
• Limited to 5 games per week selected (mostly) at random
• Weekly prizes as well as aggregate prize for the regular season
• NO playoff portion to the pool (at least until I figure out how it should work)

So what do you think? Is this something that you or your friends might be interested in playing? Is there something you would like to see done differently? Do you have any suggestions for how to handle the playoffs?

Please add your thoughts by replying in this message thread. Thanks.

Bob

Possible playoff format for the pool might be:

• Treat each of the playoff rounds (i.e.: Rounds 1 & 2, Conference Finals, and Stanley Cup Final) as a "week".
• For each "week" consider each series as a single game, where you select the winner and total number of goals scored.
• The playoff prize would be awarded to the players that had the best aggregate score, similar to the way it is done for the NFL Pool.

One problem with this is that there are eight series in the first round.

Another option is that each series is entered separately and is considered as a single game. Then the prize is awarded based on the best aggregate score of all of the series.

I love the idea and would participate

Looking forward to it and the random picks should be limited the 7 Canadian teams, till the playoffs.

And I'm not sure why having eight selections in the first round is a problem. After the first round it keeps dropping down to 4, 2 and 1, where the first round really becomes the differentiator. You can make this happen, Bob, you have the technology.

We can still start it for this season, it will just have to be a shorter season.

the random picks should be limited the 7 Canadian teams, till the playoffs.

That's certainly possible, but I was thinking more along the lines of what I've done for the NFL Pool where I tried to get (as much as possible) the same number of games for every team. That way, no matter who you cheer for, your team is still in the list somewhere. I may get similar coverage by basing first on the Canadian teams, so it might not be an issue. I just haven't gotten that far yet.

And I'm not sure why having eight selections in the first round is a problem. After the first round it keeps dropping down to 4, 2 and 1, where the first round really becomes the differentiator.

I agree that we need to include the games from all rounds for determining the playoff prize winners. The problem with the 8 selections in the first round is that 5 selections per week is the maximum that has been hard-coded into the system (based on a maximum of 5 games per week in the CFL). To try to shove all 8 into one "week" would require significant changes to the database structure and the code for the site.

There are other problems with the current playoff model based on each round being a "week", because in the NHL a playoff round can start (requiring that the selections for that round are locked in) before all series from the previous round are complete. That means that you would need to lock in your selections before knowing who the participants were. That's just doesn't work.

I might be able to do it by treating each conference (i.e.: Wales and Campbell) separately until the Stanley Cup finals, but I need to confirm that the teams are "conference locked" right from the first round.

The alternative that I'm considering (most likely) is to treat each series as a separate selection "week", and adjusting the selection due date for each series based upon the date of the first game of that series, once both participants have been determined. I think that allows the greatest flexibility to cover overlapping playoff rounds and different start dates for the various series. The only major change I would need to make is in the selection and results reports.

I'm in ..........

Count me in....just need the rules to be clear for this southerner

if you're looking for an 8th team, do the 7 Canadian teams and the TB lightning ;-)

I would love it!

I agree that we need to include the games from all rounds for determining the playoff prize winners. The problem with the 8 selections in the first round is that 5 selections per week is the maximum that has been hard-coded into the system (based on a maximum of 5 games per week in the CFL). To try to shove all 8 into one "week" would require significant changes to the database structure and the code for the site.

Bob, would you be able to have two-4 game selections for the first round of the playoffs? This would eliminate the one eight game selection. Just a thought?