It’s here! Your one and only Free NHL Pool Bracket. Over the next three minutes of your life, you will read about how the bracket works and how you can win money from your friends and colleagues. It’s a very simple system but pay close attention because things could take a sudden turn!
Spoiler. They don’t take a sudden turn.
With the 2016 NHL Playoff Quarterfinal matchups now set in stone, let’s take a closer look at what lies ahead in the hockey world. If you’d like to really get in-depth before making your selections, be sure to check out our NHL Playoff and Stanley Cup odds here.
Free 2016 NHL Hockey Playoff Bracket Pool Pick ‘Em
The Teams
So it goes like this. The top seed in each conference will play the eighth seed, which is also known as the Wild Card 2. The Wild Card 1, also known as the seventh seed, takes on the second best/second seeded team in the conference. Then out of the two divisions in each conference, the teams that finished second and third within their divs will face off.
It used to be a lot easier to understand, but sticking with the leagues need to constantly “fix” things, they decided to change the format a few years ago.
The Rounds
Alright, so in the NHL Playoffs there are four rounds – Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup Final. Each round’s schedule has a 2-2-1-1-1 format. The higher seeded team plays the first two games at home; the next two on the road; the next one at home; back on the road for game six and home again for seven.
Once a team wins their Quarterfinal best-of-seven, they’ll play a Semifinal best-of-seven, conference final best-of-seven and then they enter the Stanley Cup Final best-of-seven.
The Picks
Similar to NCAA March Madness, you want to pick your favorite team to advance to the next round. Yes, some seeds are higher than others. Make sure to really do your research here. At the same time though, upsets happen all the time. Play it carefully but also play it on the edge. An upset pick could win you the whole thing!
The Pool
Print off a heavy number of these brackets and pass them around the office or to your friends and family. You can select which team wins and get a point for each round. You could also write how many games you think that series will have for extra points. You could also add extra points for lower seeded teams upsetting the better club.
It’s your call and it’s your pool! Have fun, drive safe and always tip your waitress. Game On!
