The all new sportsnet memorial cup!

So on Buzzing The Net today it was brought up Sportsnet wants to jazz up the Memorial Cup. A "March madness" style 16 team bracket was brought up.  Interesting.

From Gabriel Beland, translated:"Whenever the content increases, it's great for us. What is good with March Madness in the United States is that it lasts three weeks and several rivalries are born, " said the president of Sportsnet.

The Commissioner of major junior hockey in Quebec (QMJHL) admits that several scenarios are on the table. "We are open to looking at the different possibilities," said Gilles Courteau.

"It is certain that the March Madness format may be considered ... We have to make sure to have some exciting events that will bring good television ratings," Courteau said. (La Presse)

If I were to work on this plan I would take the "final four" from each league plus one wild card to fill out the bracket. Say, the team with the most points who fails to reach the final four.  That would still give the points leader who us upset in round one a reward for doing well.

That's only 15 teams. Well, we'd keep the current idea of letting the host team get a berth.  And if the host team is one of the 15?

Logic would say we'd have 2 wild cards from the host league.

But we're not in a land of logic. We're in my blog.

WELCOME TO THUNDERDOME

I'd give it to the #1 points getting out of all 3 leagues who isn't in the 15 already selected teams.

This will keep everyone on their toes.

Oh wait! Let's invite the USHL champion!

No let's not give their opponent a bye.

Okay so here are our teams:

QMJHL
Val D'or - 76
Baie-Comeau - 93
Halifax - 120
Blainsville-Broisband - 90
WC - Rimouski - 91(4th overall)

WHL
Portland - 113
Edmonton - 103
Kelowna- 118
Calgary - 103
WC - Victoria - 100 (5th Overall)

OHL
Guelph - 90
North Bay - 82
Erie - 106
Oshawa - 90
WC - Sault Ste. Marie -  95 (6th overall, wins tie breaker over Quebec and Medicine Hat as London is host)

Host
London - 103

Seeding the teams is simple. 1-16 (league champs are 1-2-3) and since I'm sure Sportsnet would do it this way we won't re-seed after each round. Don't want to ruin the fun of BRACKETS. Oh what they could do with them. Bracket making show on Sportsnet360 with top Jr experts (and Damien Cox who thinks the league is all 15/16 year olds but hey, they made him their Jr guy.....)

To try and keep the brackets even we'll seed like this:

1/16      2/15

5/12      6/11

3/14      4/13

7/10      8/9

And here they are: (look I did a Photoshop)

1 - Portland vs 16 - North Bay

2 - Guelph vs 15 - Oshawa

3 - Val D'or vs 14 - Blainsville

4 - Halifax vs 13 - Rimouski

5 - Kelowna vs 12 - Baie 

6 - Erie vs 11 - The Soo

7 - Calgary vs 10 - Victoria

8 London vs 9 - Edmonton

Huh. 5/8 first round match ups are between teams from the same league and one bracket is all OHL.  Well advantage to the other two leagues.

So, taking this into consideration I used advanced algorithms and math and stuff to figure out our winners.

or.....I just simmed it in NHL14

So science says that:

North Bay upset Portland 3-1

Kelowna beat Baie-Comeau 3-2

Val D'Or beat Blainsville-Broisband 5-2

Calgary shutout Victoria 2-0

Oshawa beat Guelph 2-1

Erie takes out The Soo 3-2

Halifax blanked Rimouski 2-0

London destroyed Edmonton 5-0

After 1 round we have two champs upset but that was it, the higher ranked seed won out in the other 6 match ups.

Round two:

Oh poor WHL, we hardly knew ye.

In what Spotsnet will hate since half the country just tuned out no WHL teams made it to the final 4.

North Bay continues its cinderella run as #16 beat #5 Kelowna 3-2

Val D'Or walloped Calgary 5-2

Erie broke Oshawa, beating them 5-1

London made mince meat of the moose, also winning 5-1

The Final 4

Au Revoir to the final QMJHL team.

North Bay blanks Val D'Or 3-0

Erie gets a same 3-0 result over London

In the Finals, it's a battle of the OHL.  North Bay gets a second chance at a championship.  The lowest seeded team advances all the way to the finals.  Will their plucky spirit and heart be enough to topple the Mighty McDavid and his band of Otters?

NO

Oh, no, sorry Butler but you lost. Again. Two time loser in one season. Neener-neener.

Congrats to the Erie Otters, winners of the Sportsnet Memorial Cup of May Madness 2014!

Well, I'd watch this tournament over the current set up no problem.  Two games per day, one in the afternoon at 4, one in prime time at 8 for the first round, 1 day break then one game at 8 each day for round 2, another 1 day break, 2 games, 2 day break, finals.

2 weeks of non stop awesome hockey.

Now if only it wasn't on at the same time as the NHL playoffs.

Or on the same channels.

Call me Sportsnet.