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Stanley Cup playoffs: Who to watch and what to expect
Global News
The chase for the Stanley Cup is back underway, with the NHL's top 16 teams left to duke it out through four gruelling rounds.
The chase for the Stanley Cup is back underway, with the NHL’s top 16 teams left to duke it out through four gruelling rounds.
It’s also arguably the most wide open the post-season has been in years, if not decades. Nearly everyone who qualified has a chance to win it all, with no prohibitive favourite as the first round begins on Saturday:
In the East: The New York Rangers vs. the Washington Capitals; the Carolina Hurricanes vs. the New York Islanders; the Boston Bruins vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs; and the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. the Florida Panthers.
In the West: The Dallas Stars vs. the Vegas Golden Knights; the Winnipeg Jets vs. the Colorado Avalanche; the Vancouver Canucks vs. the Nashville Predators; and the Edmonton Oilers vs. the Los Angeles Kings.
Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov go into the playoffs after becoming just the fourth and fifth players in league history to record 100 assists in a season. Toronto’s Auston Matthews scored 69 goals, the most of any player since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96, and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and the Rangers’ Artemi Panarin each had MVP-calibre seasons.
While McDavid, Kucherov, MacKinnon and Panarin are in their primes, there are plenty of old guys to root for who haven’t yet won the Cup, from Dallas’ Joe Pavelski to Carolina’s Brent Burns.
The betting favourites to win the Stanley Cup are Carolina, Florida and Dallas (in order), according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
The playoffs begin April 20 to open three rounds of seven-game series before the final starts in early June. If the final goes the distance, Game 7 could go as late as June 24.