Canes Country’s 2019 Playoff Pick ‘Em: Final Standings

Wednesday night, not long after the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup and ended 52 years of heartache, becoming the final team of the six from the 1967 expansion to be crowned NHL champions, my phone buzzed.

It was a text from Brett: “Idk how the points shake out, but I may have just won the overall CC playoff pick ‘em. What’s my prize?”

I had to be the bearer of bad news on not one, but two counts. One: CC staff isn’t eligible for prizes, so he doesn’t win a thing for winning the pick ‘em. That is, if he did win...

...which led me to count two: he didn’t.

Congratulations to ptblespaul, the winner of this year’s CC Playoff Pick ‘Em with 49 points thanks to a perfect pick of Blues in 7 in the final round. He topped Brett by three (who did finish second, which ain’t bad), and since staff can’t win, that means the second prize goes to the third place finisher, charlestoncane with 45 points.

ptblespaul is an appropriate winner given the circumstances of the Blues winning the Cup after being left for dead: 11 points out of the lead after the first round, he used an incredible second round where he correctly predicted winners and series length for three of the four series to rocket into the ranks of the contenders, then was one of six entries who took Blues in 7 in the final to win the crown.

It was a good year for the commenters, who took seven of the top ten spots. We had 94 commenters pick at least one round, which is one of the higher numbers we’ve ever had - thanks, Hurricanes!

Here is how the final standings look:

If you’d like to see the entire spreadsheet with everyone’s picks from all rounds, you can find it here. I’ll be in touch with the winners to distribute your prizes.

Thanks to everyone for playing and we’ll see you next year for another edition!