Pinza Playoff Pool Preview #3 - How Many Games?

Hi friends. This is the final preview for the Round 1 grid of the Stanley Cup Playoff Pool. 

If you're joining me for the first time in this space, welcome! I've recently come back to this little blog and re-discovered a real joy for writing. To stay in the habit, I'm focusing on one of my hobbies (two, actually), and launching a new pool for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Proceeds will go toward scholarships for students at Chabot College (where I work) who are transferring to university. To learn more about the pool, start with this entry. 

And if you know about the pool and are ready to start, do the Venmo ($20 plus whatever else you'd like to donate toward scholarships), download the form, and post your grid in the comments or send via What'sApp or email it to me: coach.pinza@gmail.com  

All right, now the hockey talk:

Playoff Series Matchups

In order to predict which of the eight first-round playoff series will be the longest, we should probably check in on the standings and see who's set to play whom. (Again, for those new to hockey/the NHL, every single playoff round is a best-of-seven series of games. First team to four wins moves on.)

There continues to be quite a bit of movement, even as we are approaching the final three or four games of the season, which ends April 18. (Playoffs begin on April 20.) So everything that follows is a snapshot through games played on April 11.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

In the Central Division, Dallas is one win away from clinching the division, which would also lock in a Colorado-Winnipeg series. Both of these teams have the exact same record right now, but Winnipeg has the first tie-breaker -- more wins without overtime. (aka "Regulation Wins" - more on overtime coming later)

For the Pacific Division, Vancouver and Edmonton are in a tight race for division, and they play each other tomorrow, April 13. Vancouver does have the lead in the standings right now; whoever wins the division most likely plays Nashville.

A bit further back, Vegas and Los Angeles are jostling to match up with either Dallas or the 2nd place Pacific team.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Boston, Florida, and Toronto are all vying for the top spot in the Atlantic division. The two runners-up will play each other; Tampa Bay will probably play the winner. Boston currently leads the race; Toronto is a bit of a long-shot to end up on top.

Finally, in the Metropolitan division, the New York Rangers are sitting on top with Carolina still close enough to maybe overtake them in the final week of the season.

What follows is a five team race to decide who plays each of them:

The NY Islanders are currently in the lead among the five; they would face the runner-up in the division (currently Carolina).

Pittsburgh is about a game-and-a-half behind the Islanders; they would face the division champion (Rangers as of now).

Detroit, Washington, and Philadelphia are all a 1/2 game behind Pittsburgh. On tie-breakers, Detroit sits behind the other two, who play each other next Tuesday. Pittsburgh also plays the Islanders on Wednesday.

So right this second, your playoff series are these (team on the left has home ice and would host the first two games plus Games 5 and 7, if needed):

  

Sample Grids for the Pool: Who Plays (and Wins) in Overtime?

Detroit and the Islanders are tied for the most overtime goals scored this season with nine apiece.

The Islanders are also second in the league for most overtime games played, but here again, you need nine different teams in your first-round grid, so the next team best team (Toronto) moves into that corner square.

Since the trade deadline on March 8....

There are many ties to note here:

Most goals scored: Vegas and Colorado both have 3.

Fewest goals allowed: Four teams in the East have not allowed any; Boston and Toronto could have been listed in that row. Colorado and Los Angeles are the only Western teams with zero goals allowed.

Most games played: Pittsburgh's overtime win last night put them into a tie with Edmonton (five games apiece). Nashville is part of a crowd of teams with four games each; Colorado and Vegas are part of that group.

A final note: overtime rules are different in the regular season and the playoffs.

In the regular season (which is how the grids above are calculated), teams only play five minutes of overtime. If neither team scores, they go to a shootout.

In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there are no shootouts. Teams play full, twenty-minute periods of overtime - whoever scores a goal in overtime wins. Overtime periods are added until someone wins, no matter how long it takes. The longest two playoff games in NHL history, both in the 1930's, had six overtime periods - the equivalent of almost three full games! 

This is a key point for the playoff pool: "longest series" will be judged by the number of game minutes total in the series. Thus, if a series includes six games, but one of those games had four overtime periods, that would potentially be a longer series than another matchup that had seven games but no overtime periods. 

6 games x 3 periods = 18, plus 4 overtime periods = 22 periods. 

7 games x 3 periods = 21 period.

However, this also depends on when the goals were scored in the overtime periods. We'll be calculating down to the minute, so the scenario gets trickier when you factor in whether the teams played all of each overtime period.

So think about the matchups, and consider which two teams you think will need the extra time to decide a winner. 

Good luck!