Alright folks, it’s regular season predictions contest time again!
The Information
We are looking for twelve 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 knowledgeable 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 2022-23 season with
C) Which team will make the greatest improvement (in points) this season over last season
D) Which team will see the greatest decrease in points this season over last season
E) And finally the tiebreaker, the amount of wins our Cats will 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.
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…
Increase/Decrease: There will be five points awarded for a correct pick in each of these two categories. If there is a tie (say Seattle and Arizona each increase their point totals by 20) then there are two right answers and both selections get awarded points.
* The maximum amount of points you can amass in this year’s contest is 52
** The tiebreaker will only come into play if there is a tie between multiple contestants.
Enter your picks like this (these are not my personal picks) in the comment section. Picks must be entered by 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 11 before the Lightning and Rangers game starts.
Atlantic: Florida / Montreal
Metropolitan: Carolina / Philadelphia
Central: Colorado / Arizona
Pacific: Calgary / Seattle
Panthers points: 122 (58 wins)
Greatest increase: Seattle
Greatest decrease: Toronto
Let’s get ready to rumble, prognosticators!