Wings Nation Bracket Challenge – Round 1 Update

The first round of the 2017 NHL Playoff’s concluded Sunday night with a Game 6 overtime victory for the Washington Capitals. There were no game 7s and two series sweeps, including our former rival and the top-seed Chicago Blackhawks. There were a total of 42 games played over the two and a half week period and 18 of them required overtime (two of those needed multiple overtime periods).

Now that the quarters are over, let’s have a look at the rankings in our Wings Nation Bracket Challenge.

There are a lot of ties, so I could really only show the top-5 here. ChiJeep2 currently leads the charge with 70 points, but they chose the Oilers to win the Cup so expect them to fall soon. Brian G.1 and Scot G.1 are on the heels of #1 with 69 points (nice). Finally, rounding out the top-3 is a 5-way tie featuring zetterbeard, RedWinger25Y, I have no idea what I’m doing, johnxjohn, and ImEatingSalsa. Kudos to three of those five picking the Caps and I have no idea what I’m doing here, who clearly has no idea what s/he’s doing here with the Habs pick.

Personally, my bracket isn’t doing too bad. I picked Minnesota, Montreal, and Boston to get out of the first round, which they obviously didn’t. Other than that, though, it’s holding up. The shitty thing about losing out on both Montreal and Boston is that half of my Eastern Conference Final bracket is already wrong, but I guess 3 for 4 in the Conference Finals is not too shabby. I’d say my chances are still good of taking the #1 spot.

Speaking of the #1 spot, I promised a prizing update at the end of the first round. It’s now confirmed that the winning bracket in our Wings Nation Bracket Challenge will receive a Red Wings mug for your coffee needs, a Jimmy Howard plush doll for your voodoo needs, and a $100 promo code to NationGear.ca! I don’t have pics of the Wings swag yet as in the shipping phase of the order, but I will be sure to include them in the Round 2 update.

Also – after seeing how many brackets are tied at the end of the 1st round, I feel the need to re-state the fact that we are only giving out one prize. If there is a tie for first place, we will hold a random draw for the eligible brackets to determine who will be taking home the prize.

If you want to check to see where you’re ranked, click here and find your bracket name. How are you feeling about your bracket so far? Have you changed your mind about who you think will win the Stanley Cup? Sound off in the comments below. My money’s still on the Caps.

The second round kicks off with Nashville vs. St. Louis and Edmonton vs. Anaheim on Wednesday night followed by Pittsburgh vs. Washington and New York vs. Ottawa on Thursday night. Good luck to you all!