2nd round coming!

COL, CBJ, STL, NYI all say “get in line”

Pretty much. Although NYI was also close to the top at the regular season.

I expect the STL DAL to be a great series just like 2016!

Same here. That year we lost it because our goaltending was so bad. But this time the situation is different.

Yeah but coming into this season who would have predicted any of the teams who are already in round 2 except for STL though half way through the year you’d be laughed at for suggesting that one, 2019 cup really is anyone’s

Which makes it even more interesting

It would be insane if all 4 wild card teams make it through.

Imagine the Stars with Erik Karlsson + a 2nd Center this summer ?

It'd be amazing, but the upcoming expansion draft would make it impossible to hold...we'd lose someone extremely important then.

Yeah Karlsson Klingberg Lindell, do Heiskanen has to be protected ?

Yes if he plays two full seasons, which he certainly will...

Kotkaniemi will play 2 seasons & doesn’t need to be protected. Maybe Im wrong

Well according to expansion draft faq from this site he needs to be protected. The expansion draft is in 2021, and every player that are under contract in 2020-21 and plays over 40 games that year or has played over 70 games the year before that and the said year must be protected. So yes, Kotkaniemi must be protected.

People sleeping on Carolina, if they knock the caps off, people know the can pull the magic horse shoe out

Every game has ended up as a home-win in that series, so I'm a little skeptical on CAR chances. Ofc if they can drop Caps it'd probably be the 2nd biggest surprise out of these playoffs after that CBJ sweep.

Carolina have won all 4 of the last game 7's they played, (these are just the ones I remember, there were the ones in the 02 run to the finals as well) Washington have a history of choking, let's see

I'm rooting for all the underdogs, although I fear that Carolina's challenge is too big this round. If they had played the Caps after winning a round, they might have just that little bit extra confidence they need to pull it off.

Maybe in previous years, but they won the cup last year ...

They weren't considered one of the cup favourites going into the playoffs though, were they?

So, are you cheering for Vegas or San Jose? Who's the underdog in that series. That one was getting basically 50/50 votes.

Look at PIT-DET 2009 SCF, VAN-BOS 2011 SCF, WSH-NYR 2013 1st round, COL-MIN 1st round 2014, etc. We see this a lot where the home team wins the first 6 and then the road team wins game 7. Only time in this decade I remember the home team winning every game in a series is 2016 SJS-NSH, round 2. And it happened in the 2003 SCF (NJD-ANA).

Just past history though. This series is a completely different series. I'm curious to see what happens game 7.

Las Vegas. Because that pairing (Colorado vs. Las Vegas) automatically moves the Ducks' and Kings' second first-rounders one position up unless St. Louis or Toronto win their second-round series.

Especially because of how much they are all underdogs. Last year, none of them made it to round 2, but the only big underdogs in the WCs were NJD and COL. LAK was probably the favourite against VGK and CBJ was a bit of an underdog but they weren't a big underdog. 2017, NSH and TOR were big underdogs, and maybe CGY. But the Rangers weren't really.

This year, Columbus, Dallas, Colorado, and Carolina were all big underdogs going into the series. If they all move on to round 2 that would be 4 big upsets in round 1. And i mean actually big upsets. Not like St. Louis over Winnipeg which isn't really an upset (and wouldn't be if Winnipeg had won, either).