With An Asterisk

The HBIC Playoff Pool is, like the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, one round from being complete! One player has led wire-to-wire thus far while no one has yet to throw caution to the wind and try to double-up a pile of points. This might be the round that someone does, though, as they look to get into the top-five point earners overall. After all, if this series goes seven games and one guesses all the goal-scorers correctly, one can only earn a maximum of 26 points. If you're more than 26 points out of the prizes, why not toss caution to the wind, right?

If you check the leaderboard, Andy S. still leads the pool in total points. There were some changes in the top-five, but there is an asterisk on that. One of the leaders in the previous round somehow corrupted his spreadsheet so that I cannot open it with multiple programs! I've sent an email back to him to find out if he can resend the spreadsheet, and I'll be looking at it with a very close microscope. Needless to say, if there are a lot more right than what we had discussed earlier in the round, that asterisk will certainly be enforced. Heavily.

Round Three was led by an impressive 19-point effort turned in by Matt H. Matt jumped back into the prizes with his outstanding round, but he was almost overtaken by Mike J. who turned in an 18-point third round. And the third entrant who gets a shout-out is Tyler J. who turned in a 17-point performance which pushed him back into the prizes. Well done, gentlemen, on a great third round!

Matt also was the only person who, had he risked the points, would have doubled those points risked as he called the New York-Tampa Bay series entirely correct. In saying that, he grabbed seven points in calling all seven games right, added another two points off the Tyler Johnson Game Two game-winner, and had the series correct for another five points. All totaled, Matt picked up 14 points in this series on his way to the top score in the round! Well done, Matt!

The Anaheim-Chicago series seemed to cause a number of entrants problems. Lots of people predicted the series would end in six games - a fair assessment - while no one had the alternating games trend in their predictions. In saying that, only one entrant hit double-digits in points in this round. Scott M. correctly called the winning team in Games Two, Five, and Seven for three points. He also called the Ryan Kesler game-winner in Game Five. And because he called Chicago in seven games, he added another five points. When the dust settled, Scott picked up a solid ten points in this series!

And so we're down to one series to settle everything. Do you risk a pile of points? Do you play it straight and hope to get into or stay in the top-five? Will anyone overtake Andy S. in the standings?

Round Four of the HBIC Playoff Pool is open! Download the spreadsheet here for Round Two! Fill it out and send it back to me WITH YOUR NAME AS THE NAME OF THE EXCEL DOCUMENT AND R3 AT THE END(ie. TeebzR4.xlsx) to this email address only!

Click here to download if you missed the link above.

You have until the puck drops series on Wednesday to fire in your picks. Determine whether or not you're going to risk it or not by checking the leaderboard to see where everything has settled!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!