Playoff Pool Walkthrough

What you're picking

The bracket is the full NHL playoff tree — 16 teams, four rounds, one champion. Your job is to pick a winner for every series, ideally with the number of games (e.g., "Boston in 6"). Each correct pick scores points, and most playoff pool configurations weight the later rounds heavier — a correct Cup Final pick is worth more than a correct first-round pick, both because there are fewer of them and because they're harder to nail.

The deadline for picks is configured by the pool creator and is almost always set to puck drop of the first first-round game — once the playoffs start, the bracket locks for everyone and the scoring window opens. The scoring window spans the entire playoffs from puck drop of game one through the moment the Cup is awarded; every game in between is potential score-affecting input.

Per-round point values, bonus structures (e.g., extra points for picking the correct number of games), and tiebreakers are part of the pool's configuration. Your pool creator sets them up when the pool is built — see the pool's rules page for the exact values in your league.

Filling out the bracket

Open the Pools page and click the playoff pool you're entering. If you haven't picked yet, the bracket opens to the first-round matchups with all eight series side-by-side.

Pick your first-round winners. For each series, click the team you think will win. If your pool tracks game counts, a second control lets you choose how many games the series will go (typically 4, 5, 6, or 7). Your selections save as you go — you don't need to commit the whole bracket in one sitting.

Project the second round and beyond. Once first-round picks are in, the bracket projects forward — the winners you picked are slotted into the second round automatically. Pick the second-round winners from those slots. Repeat for the conference finals and the Stanley Cup Final. Even though the actual second-round matchups depend on first-round outcomes that haven't happened yet, you're picking against your own projected bracket, which is what every playoff pool does.

Pick a Cup champion at the top of the bracket. This is usually worth the most individual points in the pool, and many pools use it as a tiebreaker if two participants finish with the same total score.

Double-check before the deadline. You can change any pick freely until the deadline lands. After the deadline, your bracket is read-only and your picks are locked.

Watch the bracket unfold. As real series resolve, your bracket page shows you which of your picks are still alive (correctly survived), which have been knocked out (incorrect), and your running total against the rest of the pool. The standings page updates after each round.

How scoring usually works

Most playoff pools weight rounds incrementally: a correct first-round pick might be worth 1 point, a correct second-round pick worth 2, a correct conference final pick worth 4, and a correct Cup pick worth 8. Some pools add bonus points for picking the exact number of games (e.g., "+1 for hitting the series in correct game count"); some have separate categories for "Conn Smythe winner" or "longest series of the playoffs"; some use round-by-round leaderboards in addition to the cumulative one. The exact rule set is your pool's configuration, not a FanPoolHQ-wide default — check the pool's rules tab before you pick.

If your bracket gets knocked out early (you picked all the high seeds, the upsets happened), it's not over — second-chance and round-by-round leaderboards mean you can still claim a slice of the pool standings even when your Cup pick is gone in round one.