NHL Playoff Bracket Challenge

Every year, my family likes to take part in a challenge to see who can create the most correct bracket for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Unfortunately, some of my family members tend to struggle with the official website, so I've taken to creating my own playoff tracker.

I set up a bracket, which auto-populates series winners. This allows for me to track every person's bracket submissions, and compare how their brackets match the actual performance of NHL playoff teams.

The points for the challenge are as follows:

• Each correct Round 1 series is 10 points

  • If a person correctly guessed both the series winner and the total number of games, they receive an additional 3 points per series

• Each correct Division Final series is 25 points

• Each correct Conference Final series is 50 points

• Guessing the correct Final winner is 100 points

• If needed, the tiebreaker goes to the person who guessed closest to the actual number of goals in the final series

As of 4/22/2026, the first round is ongoing. Thus, no submission has received any points.

As of 6/30/2026, the Stanley Cup was awarded to the Carolina Hurricanes. Below, see the updated bracket and the final submission points. Congratulations to Matt, who has won for the second year in a row.

© Lily Stensland