Attention Poolies -- It's Playoff Time

The regular season is over and the Stanley Cup playoff matchups are set. (Also, the Flyers are screwed six ways from Sunday. And Eddie Guardado has apparently won the Masters.) Herewith, your brackets:

EAST
1. Boston
8. Montreal

2. Washington
7. New York*

3. New Jersey
6. Carolina

4. Pittsburgh
5. Philadelphia

*Don't tell me I need to specify.

WEST
1. San Jose
8. Anaheim

2. Detroit
7. Columbus

3. Vancouver
6. St. Louis (!!!!)

4. Chicago
5. Calgary

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How the pool works
The scoring seems needlessly complicated, but it's battle-tested -- I think this is year 9 we've used some variation of it.

1. For each series, predict a result, eg, "Carolina in 6"
2. If you predict the outcome exactly, you get 7 points for picking the winner and 7 bonus points (representing the maximum 7 games of the series).
3. If you miss the number of games, deduct 1 bonus point for each game you're off.

Example 1: You picked Carolina in 6 and Carolina won in 5. You get 7 points plus 6 points for missing the overall result by a single game.

Example 2: You picked Carolina in 6 and New Jersey won in 5. You get 0 points to start 'cause you missed the winner and you get 7 - 4 = 3 bonus points, essentially for picking the results of 3 games right (2 wins for NJ, 1 for CAR). See diagram at right -- start with your prediction and deduct 1 point for each spot you move to reach the actual result.

To prevent the poolies who flub the first round from totally falling out of the running (and thus neglecting to send in picks for subsequent rounds), in the Conference Finals and Cup Finals the point totals double to 14. If you never picked against the team that wins the Cup, that's an additional 14 bonus points.

All comers invited -- tell yer friends. More to come...

(In-house note -- Snizza and Matty, please use the label below for everything you POOOAST!!! regarding the pool)

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