Well, another Covid disrupted regular season is all but over and the postseason is due to begin on the 2nd of May. Sixteen teams will compete for the Stanley Cup this season with the top 3 teams in each of the two conference divisions being joined by 2 wild card teams to make up each side of the bracket.
Whether having half of the teams making the postseason is too many is a debated point, however, it sure does keep the regular season interesting right to the death. The final brackets are pretty much settled, however, if the need arises we will update them before the start of play.
As it stands the seedings are as follows…
Eastern Conference
Metropolitan
1 Carolina Hurricanes
2 New York Rangers
3 Pittsburgh Penguins
Atlantic
1 Florida Panthers
2 Toronto Maple Leafs
3 Tampa Bay Lightning
Wild Cards
WC1 Boston Bruins
WC2 Washington Capitals
Round One Bracket
A1 Florida Panthers vs. WC2 Washington Capitals
A2 Toronto Maple Leafs vs. A3 Tampa Bay Lightning
M1 Carolina Hurricanes vs. WC1 Boston Bruins
M2 New York Rangers vs. M3 Pittsburgh Penguins
Florida is the no 1 seed and gets the supposedly easiest draw. The second seed Carolina may feel slightly aggrieved at getting Boston as the Bruins look like finishing with a better record than the Penguins!
There looks like being a few close games however our final predictions are:
Florida 4-3 Washington
The Capitals won one of their regular-season meetings and lost one in OT. This should be a close and exciting series
Carolina 4-1 Boston
The aggregate score in the three regular-season meetings is 16-1 to the Panthers. Anything can happen however it looks like they have Boston’s number.
Tampa Bay4-3 Toronto
The regular season finished 2-2 but Tampa beat the Maple Leaves 8-1 on the 21st of April and looks to have both the momentum and confidence bourne of a team looking to make it three on the bounce.
Pittsburgh 4-3 Rangers
The NY Rangers had the better of the regular season however their recent win was far less clear cut than the 3-0 score would suggest. Their Goaltender made 30 stops and the final goal was into an empty net. There is usually one surprise result and this is ours.
Western Conference
The Avalanche are, as most expected the No1 seed, closely followed by the season’s surprise team the Calgary Flames. Dallas is not officially in yet but it would take a minor miracle for them to miss out. Whatever their tenure in the postseason should be short!
C1 Colorado Avalanche vs. WC2 Dallas Stars
C2 Minnesota Wild vs. C3 St. Louis Blues
P1 Calgary Flames vs. WC1 Nashville Predators
P2 Edmonton Oilers vs. P3 Los Angeles Kings
Our final predictions are…
Colorado 4-2 Dallas
The Avalanche lost to Dallas in their last meeting in February however despite a penchant for an occasional bad loss they should be too strong over a seven-game series.
Calgary 4-3 Nashville
This one should be one of the best series of round one given their three regular-season games were either settled in OT or via a Shoot-Out. The Predators won the first two but Calgary finally got that monkey off their back with a thrilling 5-4 win in Nashville last night. Momentum is with the Flames.
St. Louis 4-3 Minnesota
This one could go either way however the Blues have won their three regular-season meetings, all be it in OT twice.
Edmonton 4-2 LA Kings
The Kings gave the Oilers a bit of a drubbing back in December, however, Edmonton has won the last three meetings. They are in good form too having won 5 out of six including wins against Colorado, Dallas Pittsburgh & Nashville.
So if we are correct we can look forward to an all Canadian Round two with the Flames facing the Oilers.
How did our pre-season predictions go? Well, we swallowed the puck big time on picking the Islanders to go a long way but otherwise not too bad as you can see here.
