CCHA Pick 'EM - Even though it's the Inaugural Season, We're Back Baby!!!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

CCHA Pick 'Em Playoff Update

Before we get to the info, here's this week's picks (week 13 results are in the previous post):
Week 14 picks
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Now that we’re into the second half of the season it’s time to start thinking about bringin' home the hardware. As mentioned at the beginning of the season there are 3 awards:
o MacNaughton Cup - Goes to the regular season champion as determined by total points
o Bill Beagan Trophy - Goes to the player with the highest points percentage (based solely on picks, no bonus) during the regular season (must participate in 75% of the games to be eligible)
o Mason Cup - Goes to the playoff champion

Playoff Eligibility
This year the top 32 players will make the playoffs. Additionally, the player has to have been fairly active in making weekly picks throughout most of the season. I'm trying to keep this fair for players who've been involved all year while keeping it open for late arrivals who are showing a commitment without writing down a ton of rules. Final decisions are at the discretion of the commissioner.

Playoff Seeding
Matches are head-to-head, single elimination with snake seeding for bracket pairings (1 vs. 32, 2 vs. 31, etc.). Seeding and tie breakers are determined in the following manner based on regular season results:
1) Total Points (including bonus)
2) Points (excluding bonus)
3) Total Points earned during the final 2 (or 3, or 4, or…) weeks of the CCHA regular season including bonuses until the tie is broken. Basically the “hotter” player down the stretch is favored.

Alternates and Forfeits
Players that are outside of the top 32 will be considered alternates in the case that a playoff eligible contestant is unable to participate. Alternates will assume the playoff spot of the contestant they are replacing on a 1-for-1 basis (meaning I’m not going to reseed the entire field at the last second because someone didn’t get their picks in on time). In the case where less than 32 players are eligible, the affected match(es) will be considered a forfeit and the remaining eligible player(s) will receive an automatic bye to the second round.

Playoff Rounds
o First round will be based on the Friday, March 8 CCHA Quarterfinal playoff games with bonuses (4 games total, field reduced from 32 to 16).
o Second round will be based on the Saturday, March 7 CCHA Quarterfinal playoff games with bonuses (4 games total, field reduced from 16 to 8)
o Quarterfinals will be based on the Friday, March 14 CCHA Semifinal playoff games with bonuses (2 games total, field reduced from 8 to 4).
o Semifinals will be based on the Saturday, March 15 CCHA Semifinal playoff games with bonuses (2 games total, field reduced from 4 to 2).
o The championship matchup will be based on the CCHA Championship game on March 21 plus bonuses.

Scoring
o 3 pts for a win, 0 pts for a loss.
o 2-3 bonus questions for each round worth 1-5 points.
o In all cases, ties go to the higher seed.

Good luck!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Week 14 honors go to John J. MacInnes who was the only player to sweep the weekend by picking all 8 matches correctly and now finds himself knocking on the door for a #1 playoff seed. The top of the leaderboard is a little tighter with giwan maintaining the lead he's held since week 1. The opposite end of the field is a race for playoff seeding with Scrum Bucket and our newest entry Maverick2009 working their way past the flotsam of players who threw in the towel somewhere during the season. Looks like the playoff brackets this year will be filled with whoever has been turning in picks down the stretch.

The Battle for the Beagan remains tight. only 1-2 games separates the top 5 contestants with Bronco Hockey Fan maintaining a slight lead.

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Contestant         Pick %
Bronco Hockey Fan   .723
TalonsUpPuckDown    .709
giwan               .702
puckdude40          .672
SweeneyHawksHockey  .672

The way the schedule breaks for week 15, St. Thomas and Mankato have scheduled a home-and-home that starts Thursday night (so get those pics in early). To make a pairwise matchup of #1 vs. #56 slightly more interesting, we'll have to move the line quite a bit. So, picking the Tommies to win on either night is worth triple points this week! That's 9 points for a regulation or OT win, 6 points for S/O win, 3 points for a S/O loss. Also, the bonus is back. We should all strive to be goal oriented.

giwan - I saw your Friday entries were posted after the start of the games but I gave you credit for the Saturday games. If I have this wrong please PM me and we can sort it out.

Week 15 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Reminder there is a Thursday game this week.

Here's a breakdown showing which day the field turns in picks.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

While the league has done a nice job of navigating the Covid waters, it was only a matter of time. Friday's Tech/Northern matchup has been pushed to Sunday. Subsequently, everyone's Friday picks will also move to cover the rescheduled game on Sunday. I'll still try to get week 16 up and running on Sunday but updated standings will be delayed until Monday morning.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Looks like the Covid issues within the NMU team have become severe enough to postpone both contests this weekend. Makeup date is TBD. Subsequently, the bonus for this weekend will be eliminated along with both games. Only 4 games will count for this weekend.

https://ccha.com/news/2022/1/21/mens-ic ... poned.aspx

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The cancellation of the Tech/Northern series this weekend eliminated nearly all the variability between picks this week. For the four remaining games, 27 out of 31 contestants submitted identical picks. Of the remaining 4 contestants, two missed out on Thursday's game, one played the odds and went for the St. Thomas triple play, and one contestant went 4-for-4, picked Ferris State to sweep the Beavers, claimed the maximum 12 points available, and was the week 15 winner. Stick taps and a rousing chorus of hosannas go out to footballguy51 for showing a bunch of hockey fans how it's done in the football world. I have to admit I let out a small chuckle when I saw him pick the Ferris sweep, but footballguy51 definitely has the last laugh on all of us. Congratulations!

Since everyone at the top of the leaderboard posted the same picks, there's no movement in the standings for the MacNaughton or Beagan.

There are now 5 weeks left in the season pending the reschedule of the Tech/Northern series. If you're going to make a move, now would be the time to do so. No bonus for week 16.

Week 16 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Both Michigan Tech/Northern Michigan games have officially been rescheduled. Makeup dates will be as follows:

Tuesday Feb 1 at Tech
Tuesday Feb 8 at NMU

Looks like trouble is a brewin' with the game now scheduled for next Tuesday.  Since nearly half of the contestants have already submitted picks for week 16 we can't include this game in the current week.  Also, since it's unlikely the entire field will have picks turned in by game time Tuesday, it's not realistic to include this game in week 17 either.  Subsequently, the commissioner has decided that the Tuesday, Feb 1 game featuring Northern Michigan at Michigan Tech will be excluded from this year's Pick 'Em contest.  The Tuesday, Feb 8 game will be included in week 17.

​​​​​​​Carry on.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The week 16 tri-winners with 21 out of 24 points were Manurespreader, MTUHuskyGold, and SectionP. No movement at the top of the leaderboard though mikeeddy19 has tied Bronco Hockey Fan and is now knocking on the door for a #1 playoff seed along with John J. MacInnes, Critical Thinker, and Manurespreader.

In the Battle for the Beagan, Bronco Hockey Fan leads by 1 game over TUPD and 2 games over giwan. MTUHuskyGold is 5 games out and will need some help along the way to get back in this thing.

Code: Select all

Contestant          Pick %
Bronco Hockey Fan    .710
TalonsUpPuckDown     .705
giwan                .699
MTUHuskyGold         .672
SweeneyHawksHockey   .671

Week 17 is shaping up to be rather uninspiring based on the matchups so we'll do a St. Thomas 2-for-1 to try and mix things up a bit. Picking St. Thomas to win on either night is worth double points this week! That's 6 points for a regulation or OT win, 4 points for S/O win, 2 points for a S/O loss. The bonus is back for the rest of the year. We are down to 4 weeks in the season.

Week 17 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Bump. Missing 3 regulars.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

While we wait for the results of Tuesday's Tech/NMU game, we'll kick off week 18. Week 17 results will be posted Tue/Wed.

Here's the first Pick 'Em Bracketology sneak peak. Seedings and matchups are based on game results through Saturday/yesterday and do not include this week's bonus or the year end team/goal bonus from week 1. As of now there are 31 regular participants which gives the top seed (currently giwan) a first round bye. Some pretty interesting matchups as things stand now.

Week 18 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Tech's shellacking of an undermanned Northern Michigan team finally brings a close to week 17. And what a week it was with 8 contestants picking up some serious bonus points. Our week 17 winner, who correctly guessed a cool 100 total points (goals and assists) on the week, is Bronco Hockey Fan who, with a total of 27 points, has catapulted into second place in the standings and now sits only two points behind giwan. Other big point earners who charged up the leaderboard include iwearpurple-26, beaverhockeyfan-25 and puckdude40-22. Here's the bonus breakdown:

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Contestant         Points
Bronco Hockey Fan    10
iwearpurple           9
beaverhockeyfan       8
puckdude40            8
potternmu             6
GoNanooks             4
MTUHuskyGold          4
Wi.HuskiesFan         3

While the bonus provided big movement on the leaderboard, everyone chasing the right to Bring Home the Beagan made identical picks so there is no movement in this race.

The updated scoreboard now reflects tie breakers. Week 18 is well underway. With playoffs just around the corner, be sure to get those picks in!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

With 21 points the week 18 co-winners were mbeneke and iwearpurple who, with this performance, has cracked the top 4 and now holds a grip on a #1 playoff seed. Stick taps go out to giwan and iwearpurple who each correctly picked the winners of all 6 games this week. The bonus results were 11 away goals, 28 home goals, and zero one-goal games with the points payouts as follows:

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Contestant        Away Home 1-Goal Total
Critical Thinker    4    0    0     4
Icd80               3    0    1     4
John J. MacInnes    2    1    1     4
Soulbeaver          4    0    0     4
<3_Blizzard         3    0    0     3
BGSURICK            3    0    0     3
GoNanooks           3    0    0     3
iwearpurple         3    0    0     3
Manurespreader      3    0    0     3
mbenecke            3    0    0     3
puckdude40          3    0    0     3
TalonsUpPuckDown    2    0    1     3
Atanarjuat          0    2    0     2
Footballguy51       0    1    1     2
MTUHuskyGold        2    0    0     2
Scrum Bucket        2    0    0     2
giwan               1    0    0     1
Maverick2009        1    0    0     1
potternmu           0    0    1     1
SweeneyHawksHockey  1    0    0     1

With two weeks left, the Battle for the Beagan is turning into a 3-person race.

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Contestant         Points %
Bronco Hockey Fan   .720
TalonsUpPuckDown    .715
giwan               .710

The bonus for the last two weeks will be the same and is one you've recently seen. The standings below reflect the current playoff seeding.

Week 19 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The winner of the CCHA Pick 'Em's penultimate week was our lone Miami Stater, SweeneyHawksHockey who, with 24 points on the week, rock-n-rolled his way from fifth into second place and likely secured a coveted first round seed. Four contestants collected bonus points, stick taps go out to beaverhockeyfan who correctly picked that there would be 132 total points on the weekend. Here's how the bonus paid out:

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Contestant           Points
beaverhockeyfan        10
SweeneyHawksHockey      7
Critical Thinker        6
Scrum Bucket            2

I should point out that with this bonus performance beaverhockeyfan claims the award for the highest number of bonus points on the year so far with 39.

There was no movement in the Battle for the Beagan this week as all three contestants posted the same picks. Bronco Hockey Fan still clings to a one game lead.

During the week I'll repost the standings to include the year end bonus and will throw in another bracketology update for good measure.

This is it gang, the last week of the season is now upon us. Pick your favorite cliché and saddle up. Gut check time. Leave it all on the ice. No regrets. All in. Win one for the Gipper. Toledo sucks.

Week 20 picks
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[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Final week of the regular season, here's the first thread bump. The table below shows the current playoff seeding with the yearly bonus applied. For those scoring at home, Minnesota State scored 9 goals (twice!) this season.

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 Playoff                    Team/Goal   Team/Goal    
  Seed   Contestant           Bonus       Points     Total
-----------------------------------------------------------
    1    giwan                MNST/5        3         354
    2    TalonsUpPuckDown     MNST/8        4         346
    3    SweeneyHawksHockey    BSU/7        0         346
    4    Bronco Hockey Fan                  0         342
    5    iwearpurple          MNST/8        4         342
    6    Critical Thinker      MTU/7        0         337
    7    Manurespreader        MTU/8        1         332
    8    John J. MacInnes      MTU/8        1         330
    9    beaverhockeyfan      MNST/8        4         329
   10    MTUHuskyGold                       0         327
   11    puckdude40                         0         323
   12    Icd80                              0         321
   13    mbenecke             MNST/9        5         319
   14    Deejpuck            MNST/156       3         318
   15    potternmu             NMU/9        2         316
   16    gochiefs             MNST/8        4         316
   17    njmav1               MNST/8        4         311
   18    Soulbeaver           MNST/8        4         310
   19    GoNanooks             NMU/8        1         308
   20    mikeeddy19            NMU/9        2         308
   21    BillyLP              MNST/9        5         305
   22    SectionP             MNST/9        5         299
   23    <3_Blizzard                        0         299
   24    Wi.HuskiesFan                      0         299
   25    Atanarjuat           MNST/9        5         284
   26    Footballguy51        MNST/7        3         284
   27    Hockey John          MNST/8        4         276
   28    BGSURICK             MNST/8        4         263
   29    jpfalcon09           MNST/8        4         232
   30    Redridge             BSU/10        1         208
   31    Scrum Bucket                       0         169
   32    dgulbrand                          0         109
   33    Stauber1             MNST/8        4         105
   34    Maverick2009                       0          95

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Final thread bump of the year: bracketology update. Includes the year end bonus.