Pick your game. Make five calls. Be right in front of your friends.

It takes a minute before the game and gives you something riding on every shift after that.

Before puck drop

Tonight's questions are up by the morning of game day. Open the app, and your club's game is right at the top, with the rest of the slate underneath. Tap a game and you get five cards, one at a time:

1. Game Winner: who you think wins, and who you want to win.
2. Game Shape: how the whole game plays out. High-scoring? Close?
3. Player Spotlight: one player to back. Who scores first, who plays the most, who lays the most hits.
4. Matchup: one player from each side. Pick who does more.
5. Club Challenge: a Yes or No on one team hitting a number.

Every card comes with one clue called Worth knowing: a single true fact from recent games that's there to help, not to hand you the answer. If you know hockey, you'll have your own take anyway. If you don't, you're never guessing blind.

Change anything until the puck drops. Picks lock just before the scheduled start. See all five cards.

At puck drop

Until the puck drops, nobody can see anyone else's picks, so nobody can copy the smart one. Once the game starts, everyone's calls come out together. That's usually when the argument starts.

Running late? You can still make your picks after puck drop and follow along with everyone else. Late picks just don't count toward your Hockey IQ.

During the game

Watch hockey. Puck Party isn't something you stare at for three hours. Your calls are in, and every goal, hit and shift matters a little more than it did. As the game goes, your calls settle, and you can see how they're doing.

After the final horn

Your card comes back graded: what you called, what happened, and a Called it on every one you got right. If the league corrects a result later, like a goal being credited to someone else, your card updates and says so.

Over the season

Every call you make before puck drop feeds your Hockey IQ: the share of your calls that come true. It's the number that settles who in your group actually knows hockey, and there are boards for your friends, your fanbase and the whole league.

With your crew

Start a team for your group chat, your beer league or your family, and send one link. Your one set of picks counts in every team you're on, so being in four groups costs you nothing extra.

Where it runs

Puck Party starts on the web, built for your phone's browser, so there's nothing to download from an app store. Sign in with Google or an email code, no password. Native iPhone and Android apps come later.

Free, and nothing to buy

There's no money in Puck Party. Nothing to put in, nothing to take out. You play for a record and the right to bring it up for a month. More on that.