March for the Cup is where you will vote on hypothetical playoff matchups in a bracket style setup mimicking the NCAA basketball tournaments. Here is the setup.

I’m going to seed all 31 teams based on the current overall standings with one play in game because of the odd number of teams. You will have a chance to vote on who you think should win the matchup. I’ll give some brief overviews and you’ll use those and your own intuition to make your selections. The results will be hidden until the next blog when the results are revealed. We will go round by round until we have a winner. Who knows? Maybe our selection will be the only winner this season.

This is all hypothetical. However you want to analyze things, go for it. If you want to assume every team has full health, go for it. Anything goes in the Coronavirus era of hypothetical playoff hockey.

The results are in and we have ourselves the Conference Finals matchups for the Mario Lemieux Division. Here are the results

(2) St. Louis Blues vs (15) Winnipeg Jets



The defending Stanley Cup Champions are off to a great start. They beat the Jets on the way to their title last year. Will history repeat itself?

I voted for the St. Louis Blues

(7) Pittsburgh Penguins vs (10) Dallas Stars



Pittsburgh will have their hands full in the next game when they take on the St. Louis Blues. The voter objectivity will be put to test for that matchup.

I voted for the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Dallas Stars

(3) Colorado Avalanche vs (19) Nashville Predators



Not a huge surprise here the Avalanche are an up and coming powerhouse while the Predators seemed destined for the twilight of their run.

(6) Philadelphia Flyers vs (11) Carolina Hurricanes



The Flyers always had an uphill battle in this hypothetical tournament being run by a Penguins writer. However, this is a dignified loss to a quality opponent. At least they didn’t lose to the Ducks in round one.

I voted for the Carolina Hurricanes due to them being at full health. They are one of the strongest teams in the league with Hamilton leading the way on the back end.

Here is a look at the updated bracket



We have our final four on this side of the bracket and it is (2) St. Louis, (3) Colorado, (7) Pittsburgh, and (11) Carolina. Those are four good teams.

Next blog will have voting for 2nd round of the Jaromir Jagr Division. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading!

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