Maggie the Macaque Picks the Winners

I’m a little embarrassed by how much I enjoy the idea of a monkey picking the winners for the NHL playoffs:

In 2003, she quickly became a hero in the hockey world, picking the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to reach the Stanley Cup Final with the spin of a wheel. Having picked other big winners through three rounds of the playoffs, Maggie enjoyed new-found fame as the sport’s wisest prognosticating primate.

I like it because she immediately follows the human prognosticators on the show, and so the whole thing pokes fun at the somewhat silly idea of the sports pundit.

Maggie has made a couple of controversial picks in the first round: Tampa Bay over Ottawa (I’m cheering for the Senators, so I hope that doesn’t happen), and Colorado over Dallas. That said, there are always upsets in the first round, so you never know. The monkey might not be nuts bananas crazy.

UPDATE: After the first round, Maggie did as well as two of the four pundits.