Week 11: Welcome to the playoffs

Welcome to Ellie’s NHL team playoff series!

As we all know, probably too well, good things must come to an end and so must this blog journey I have been on to find a NHL team.

During the past 11 weeks (again, giving and taking some off time over the holidays) I have done various things – watched games, documentaries, highlights, followed teams on Twitter, talked about NHL and teams with friends, taken various quizzes – to whittle down my NHL team preferences from 30 to 12.

Grassroots’ producer and LA Kings fan, Michael (the man who, amongst a million other things, creates the podcast each week) came up with an awesome way for me to wrap up this blog series – play them off against each other.

In the next five weeks – yes, only 5 weeks to go – I’ll be pitting teams against each other in playoffs style to come to a decision as to which side will be mine.

And in true NHL playoff style, I’ll be giving four teams wildcard spots. And I’ll need your help on this one – who do you think I should give a second chance to?

So, how will this work?

This week I’ll reveal each of the match ups, two of the four wildcard teams and some of the criteria or ‘things’ (for a lack of a better word) I’ll be considering/judging each match up on.

If you have a suggestion as to what I should take into consideration for each match (for example who has the better goalie, best hair), let me know.

As for the other two wildcard teams – I’ll be asking you who they should be. Once you have advocated for a team and there are two clear winners I’ll put them in the mix and pit them against each other next week.

 

The matchups:

 

Detroit Red Wings V Montreal Canadiens

Tampa Bay Lightning V Columbus Blue Jackets

Washington Capitals V Philadelphia Flyers

Pittsburgh Penguins V Chicago Blackhawks

Calgary Flames V San Jose Sharks

Vancouver Canucks V LA Kings

Wildcard matchup 1: New York Rangers V Boston Bruins

Wildcard matchup 2: ?

 

 

Criteria

So far my criteria is:

Hilarity of player names
X Factor
Logo
Atmosphere
History
Social media
Mascot
Culture

As mentioned, I need your help on two things going into my playoff series next week.

1. Which two teams do you think I should give a wildcard spot to (and I would love to know why) and;

2. What other ‘things’ do you think I should take into consideration when pitting the teams against each other?

Comment with your suggestions on the blog post, the Grassroots Sports Facebook page or tweet Ellie @e1mawa.