SPORTS PICKERNHL Pick'em Pool Tips: Overtime, Back-to-Backs and the Stanley Cup Bracket
Hockey is the pick'em sport where the favorite loses most often. A hot goalie can steal any game, which makes NHL pools close and keeps the standings tight all season.
Expect upsets
Because single games are so unpredictable, a straight pick'em pool rewards consistency over time more than any one great week. A confidence pool works especially well: put your high numbers on the games you trust and protect yourself from the upsets you know are coming.
Overtime and shootouts count
Every NHL game has a winner. In a pick'em pool, whoever wins the game wins the pick, whether it ends in regulation, overtime or a shootout.
The puck line
If you run the pool against the spread, hockey's version is the puck line, usually 1.5 goals. The favorite has to win by two or more to cover, which turns a lot of one-goal games into a different result.
Watch the back-to-backs
Teams playing the second night of a back-to-back often start their backup goalie. Letting picks lock at each game's start gives people time to see the goalie news.
The Stanley Cup bracket
The playoffs are the best two months in hockey. Run a bracket where you pick every series, with later rounds worth more, and use the Final's clinching game as the tiebreaker.
See how an NHL pick'em pool works, or start yours.
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