We’ve been running a Stanley Cup playoff predictions contest for the last few years, so now it’s time to see who knows what about the regular season. I didn’t want to overcomplicate this and I also wanted to add an original twist while still working the Florida Panthers heavily into the equation, since this is Litter Box Cats after all… so here goes.
The Information
We are looking for ten pieces of information from you.
A) The First and Last place teams from each of the NHL’s four divisions (so that’s eight selections). Sure, picking the winner is usually the way these things go, but are you also knowledge enough to suss out the league’s bottom-feeders in addition to its powerhouses?
B) The amount of points the Florida Panthers will finish the 2017-18 season with
C) And finally the tiebreaker, the amount of wins the Cats finish the campaign with
Scoring
Team picks: Five points will be awarded for every first place correctly selected and three points will be awarded for every last place team correctly selected.
My opinion is picking the first place teams will be a little more difficult than the last place teams, so I am weighting the points accordingly.
Panthers: If you hit the nail on the proverbial head and correctly call the number of points Florida finishes with, you get will receive ten points.
If you come within 3 points (over or under) of the number of points the Panthers finish with, you will receive five points.
If you come within 4-6 points of the number of points the Panthers finish with, you will receive 3 points.
If you are 7 or more points off from the Cats’ final total…
The maximum amount of points you can garner in the contest is 42.
The tiebreaker will only come into play if there is a tie between multiple contestants.
Enter your picks like this (I’m using what would have last year’s division winners – basement dwellers (these are not my picks) in the comment section. Picks must be entered by 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 4.
Atlantic: Montreal / Buffalo
Metropolitan: Washington / New Jersey
Central: Chicago / Colorado
Pacific: Anaheim / Vancouver
Panthers points: 81 (35 wins)
Let’s get ready to rumble, prognosticators!