Islanders Ping Pong Championship Rules Explained & Predictions

In the NHL bubble, the Islanders had a ping pong tournament on their off day. We’ll go through the rules and predictions.

After a 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers, the New York Islanders took their talents to the ping pong table in the NHL bubble. During Game 1, Anthony Beauvillier mentioned that the team was playing ping pong and the social team ran with it.

20 Islanders made up the bracket and competed for the championship “Boys of the Isle Champion” in a four-group stage.

Here are the rules:

In this tournament, there were four groups. Group 1 was J.G. Pageau, Anders Lee, Ilya Sorokin, Ross Johnston, and Semyon Varlamov. Group 2 was Mathew Barzal, Devon Toews, Noah Dobson, Michael Dal Colle, and Matt Martin.

Group 3 was Brock Nelson, Anthony Beauvillier, Leo Komarov, Cal Clutterbuck, and Andrew Ladd and Group 4 was Josh Bailey, Adam Pelech, Casey Cizikas, Otto Koivula, and Jordan Eberle.

Each player in each group had to play every guy in a best of 3 to 11. The top two seeds from each group advanced to the tournament. In tournament play, it was bumped up to a best of three playing to 21.

The Islanders missed a massive opportunity not streaming this or at least giving us an update on the bracket! Based on each group, I’ll make my predictions.

Group 1

I feel like the goalies would have an advantage in this game, you know the whole hand-eye coordination thing, but also I feel like Anders Lee is someone who is good at those unique games (he does have a Kan Jam tournament every year).

In group one, I’ll have Sorokin as the one seed and Lee as the two with Varly narrowly missing out and two poor performances from Pageau and Johnston keeping them out of the tournament.

Group 2

No goalies in this group, so I feel like this one was much more wide open. I’m going to take Matt Martin and Noah Dobson. I feel like Matty, like Lee, is one of those guys who is dominant in ping pong, Kan Jam, Spike Ball, Cornhole, etc.

As for Dobson, he just spent quarantine with the Seidenberg family. I’m sure those kids had him playing pong on a daily basis.

Martin will be the one seed, and Dobber (awful nickname) will be the two.

Group 3

This one is an easy one for me. Clutterbuck and Ladd are advancing here. Both guys are in there 30’s now but they’re like that older cousin who comes to the BBQ and joins you guys in the beer pong tournament and tells you how good he was at this in 2006.

Clutter as the one seed, Ladd as the two.

Group 4

I think this is definitely the weakest group of them all. I’m going to take Eberle as the one seed, he’s good at guitar so he has to be the guy who is just naturally good at everything. As the two, I’ll take Otto Koivula. He’s quiet but I feel like he’s sneaky good at this kind of stuff.

Bracket Predictions

Tough draw for Matt Martin going up against Anders Lee in round one that’s a great matchup, as well as Eberle vs Ladd on the other side. The second-round matchup of Clutter and Ladd is also a stellar matchup before the final.

I give a slight edge to Cal Clutterbuck but you best believe that series would be an entertaining one to 21. I need an update on this Boys of the Isle Championship and I need it now, but for the time being these predictions and projections will have to do.