The NHL has started playoffs - the most exciting time of the year. This year, just like any other year, there are some favourites to win Lord Stanley’s mug such as the Colorado Avalanche, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, the Boston Bruins and the Carolina Hurricanes. Of course, there are upsets and surprises, and this year has been filled with upsets. Fans all over the globe were shocked when, in 5 of 8 series, the underdog team took the win, such as when the Winnipeg Jets swept the Edmonton Oilers, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost in game 7 against the Montreal Canadians after the Maple Leafs held a commanding 3-1 series lead and the New York Islanders defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins in only 5 games while keeping two of the Penguins' top scorers (Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel) to only a combined 2 goals (1 goal each). Even the underdog teams that wouldn’t typically prevail made it into a close series. The Minnesota Wild were supposed to lose in game 4 or 5, but instead were brought into a tight game against the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The Nashville Predators were eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in game 6, but even though it was not as tight of a series, they made the playoffs just by the hair on their chin. They eventually had to face the division champions and still made it an interesting series. The only series that held no surprise was the Colorado Avalanche vs the St. Louis Blues. In this series, the president’s trophy winning team (the team with the most points at the end of the regular season) swept the St. Louis Blues in a short 4-game series, even outscoring the Blues 20-7.
In the second round, the upset teams will start to match up against each other to see who can claim the division title. In the North division, the 4th seed Montreal Canadians will play the 3rd seed Winnipeg Jets. In the Central division, the 1st seed Carolina Hurricanes will face the 3rd seed and defending Stanley Cup champions: the Tampa Bay Lightning. In the West division, two of the top contenders will face off the 1st seed and Stanley Cup favourites, Colorado Avalanche will play the 2nd seed Las Vegas Golden Knights. In the East division, the 3rd seeded Boston Bruins will battle the 4th seed New York Islanders in what should be a tight series.
In this round, there are favourites, but as you can see it doesn't always end up as expected. There could be upsets and the least favoured team could be lifting the Stanley Cup in a few short weeks.
Now that round 2 is over more underdog teams have surprised even more people, in this round all four underdog teams took the win in their series. The New York Islanders defeated the Boston Bruins in only 6 games winning the series 4-2 after the Bruins won game 1 in a commanding way, 5-2. The Bruins were thinking it would be a walk in the park but only 5 games later they met their demise. The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the division champions the Carolina Hurricanes in a quick 5 game series and fight to win their second stanley cup in the same amount of years. The Montreal Canadians made a very surprising series against the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets were the favourites to win this series. Many people believed it would be a blowout win for the Jets but when it came time to play Montreal was not going to back down from the fight. The Canadians took a quick lead in the first game and kept it up since then. They have not been trailing in a game in almost 438 minutes, that is 22 periods or 7 games and 1 period. The last series played was the Colorado Avalanche against the Las Vegas Golden Knights. These 2 teams finished highest in the entire NHL this regular season both with 82 points in only 56 games. The only reason Colorado finished higher was because they had 6 more goals than Vegas. This highly anticipated series was an eye catcher for everyone. In game 1 Colorado defeated their rivals in an embarrassing fashion 7-1 and kept their momentum going into game 2. They were not able to win in that way again but they still took a 3-2 win in overtime leading the series 2-0. After game 2 the 5 year old daughter of the Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, Scarlett Fleury gave her dad a letter. In that letter she told her dad how proud she was of him, that she made him very happy and that in her heart she knew he was the best goalie in the world. After that letter the entire series changed Fleury played the best hockey of his life and Las Vegas went on to go on to win the next 4 games winning the series 4-2 and in doing so clinching their spot in the semi-finals.
Round 3 is going to start on June 13th and with every passing moment come more and more predictions and possibilities. Will the Canadians shock yet another team and make it to the finals and be the first Canaidien team to win the Stanley Cup since 1993? Will the Tampa Bay Lightning remain champions? Will the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup only 4 years after their inauguration into the NHL? Or will the New York Islanders win their 5th Stanley cup and their first since 1983? There are so many questions all of which will be answered in a couple short weeks.
In this round the Canadians a team that was not even supposed to make playoffs not the only canadien team left will play one of the best teams in the NHL the Vegas Golden Knights. On the other side the New York Islanders, an underdog team that was not supposed to last 4 games now in the 3rd round will play the returning champions the Tampa Bay Lightning. My predictions for the remainder of these playoffs are that: the Golden Knights will beat the Canadians in 6 games. After that the Lightning will beat the islanders in only 5 games. I believe that the Golden Knights will play the Lightning in the finals which should be a close 7 game series that the Las Vegas Golden Knights will win their first ever Stanley Cup.
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