The Wheel Of Playoff Fortune

I'm not one who watches a lot of gameshows. Usually, I'm at work when they're on during the day, and the primetime gameshows have been definitely left me wondering how they were green-lit by executives. While I understand that reality television and gameshows are relatively cheap to produce compared to the ratings they may attract, one set of eyes that isn't watching are mine. Sorry, network executives.

When I was younger and home over summer from school, I used to watch gameshows like Family Feud, Jeopardy!, and Wheel of Fortune because soap operas were rather lame to my teenage self. There were challenges that each show presented, and I used to play along in trying to guess the top-six answers, the correct answers, and the word puzzles presented on these gameshows. While they weren't hockey, they filled my needs when it came to my television entertainment as a kid.

I grew up and lost the summers off of school, thankfully, and my tastes for televised entertainment changed. I became more interested in live sports and I certainly watched a ton of hockey. Every year, the Stanley Cup Playoffs would roll around, and sixteens would have an equal chance at winning the Stanley Cup depending on a few breaks, a little luck, a pile of hard work, and an equal amount of skill. It's a little like a gameshow if one were to spin a wheel when trying to determine who will win each and every year.

Obviously, I'm not Merv Griffith when it comes to producing a gameshow, but what if the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs were made into a Wheel of Fortune-style gameshow? You spin the wheel, and the team you land on is your chosen team that will win the Stanley Cup! While I can't lock anyone in on these picks, here's a wheel that will allow you to randomly pick your team!



Ok, so maybe you're looking for something more definitive to help you in choosing the winner of the Stanley Cup. What if, using the same wheel, we eliminated the team you land on, leaving just one team standing at the very end as your Stanley Cup winner? Again, I can't lock you into the team you end up with at the end, but post it in the comments if you want!



None of these spins mean a whole heckuva lot of anything in the grand scheme of things as teams still need to play the games to determine a winner. You could spin sixteen different times on the first wheel and get a different team each time which means nothing more than the odds are accurate. It is a fun way, though, to pick a team and see how far they go.

Give the wheels a spin, and have some fun with this!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!