The NHL playoffs only come around once per year and one of the most exciting parts is assembling a bracket to try and predict the result of each match ahead of time. This year, the SHL had 36 participants create their brackets to submit into an intense battle for a glorious reward of 5 Ice Level trading card packs.

As someone who has been watching the NHL playoffs and also somehow remembers their bracket picks despite the horribly broken bracket challenge site, I knew my bracket was doing pretty well and was wondering what my chances of winning are. Now that there's only three series left before one team wins the Stanley Cup, we can follow each of the 8 possible routes and determine which one of us will walk away with those 5 card packs in each scenario. Even though seeing other people's brackets is inconsistent at best, the information about current points, total possible points, and cup champion are all accurate and that's all we need to calculate a winner in each case.

To review the current state of the playoffs, here are the 8 remaining possibilities for how it could end.
1. DAL vs CAR -> DAL WINS
2. DAL vs CAR -> CAR WINS
3. DAL vs FLA -> DAL WINS
4. DAL vs FLA -> FLA WINS
5. VGK vs CAR -> VGK WINS
6. VGK vs CAR -> CAR WINS
7. VGK vs FLA -> VGK WINS
8. VGK vs FLA -> FLA WINS

We can break down the SHL predicted brackets by looking at the potential champions. Predicting the Stanley Cup champion correctly gives the most points by far, so if you get that right you'll definitely earn more points than anyone else. After looking at the champions, we just have to look at total possible points to see if the opponent from the other conference can still be predicted correctly or not. If there's an asterisk next to a team, it means the user didn't actually predict that team to make it to the finals, but they'll still win the bracket challenge in the listed case.

Top Brackets with Carolina winning:
1. Operation Ivy (83 points, 283 total possible points) if VGK vs CAR -> CAR WINS -> 283 points
2. Keven (116 points, 266 total possible points) if DAL* vs CAR -> CAR WINS -> 266 points

Top Brackets with Vegas winning:
1. SpartanGibbles (80 points, 230 total possible points) if VGK vs CAR -> VGK WINS: 230 points
2. SpartanGibbles (80 points, 230 total possible points) if VGK vs FLA* -> VGK WINS: 180 points

Top Brackets with Dallas winning:
1. sköldpaddor (96 points, 246 total possible points) if DAL vs CAR* -> DAL WINS: 246 points
2. sköldpaddor (96 points, 246 total possible points) if DAL vs FLA* -> DAL WINS: 246 points

Top Brackets with Florida winning:
1. sköldpaddor (96 points, 246 total possible points) if DAL vs FLA* -> FLA* WINS: 146 points
2. SpartanGibbles (80 points, 230 total possible points) if VGK vs FLA* -> FLA* WINS: 130 points



As you can see, the 4 people who can still win the bracket are @Operation Ivy, @sköldpaddor, @SpartanGibbles, and @Keven.

It's interesting to see how after 2 full rounds and 12 of 15 series complete, the current standings don't matter too much when it comes to the chances of winning it all.

sköldpaddor and SpartanGibbles each have a 3/8 chance to win, and currently sit 5th and 12th in the standings.
Keven and Operation Ivy each have a 1/8 chance to win, and currently sit 1st and 10th in the standings.

EDIT - Looks like the scenario that actually occurred is the one that I got wrong. For some reason I concluded that nerji and Leafs4Ever had Dallas making the finals instead of Vegas and would have 143 or 134 points to sköldpaddor's 146 points in that scenario. As it turns out, they both had Vegas making the finals instead. Now, if Florida wins the cup against Vegas, nerji would win the challenge.

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