Not as close as people think.

I heard PPV wasn't working for some who bought the fight. Mayweather fighting all these non-boxing shmucks is a scam, but good for him. If you're going to be paid millions to dance for a couple of rounds I'd do it too.

between Montreal and Tampa*

:P

Mark my words.
It will not be one of those teams.
The favourites/presidents trophy/defending champs rarely win.

Of course, knowing how I predict things, we will be seeing a tampa colorado finals.

Tampa is going to win this round as they’re the dominator of this series. They have a reputation of spanking the Bruins and Isles. After that it’s either Montreal (who will get beat when facing a real opponent), and one of Colorado or Vegas, who both of them got beat by Dallas, which Tampa dominated Dallas last year.

I don't want to face the Isles. I thought they were the toughest team we faced last year, and we were close to going to a game 7.

even colorado who has a wagon this year isnt going to be able to compete with tampas 99m cap hit. almost a 17m cap hit difference between the 2 teams. thats a joke. every single fan of every single team and every other team should be beyond irate at the nhl and tampa for allowing this to happen. for faster reference of the difference that 17m is Point, Palat, and Gourde make a combined 17.2m they should be missing almost a full line of players from their depth right now.

Yeah that playoff no cap rule is stupid. It would actually show how good a team is fair and square if there was the same cap in the playoffs that there is in the regular season.

Looking at your Stanley Cup favourites discussion from above, it seems you’ve pinpointed a Tampa beats Colorado final. While I do think Tampa and Colorado will play in the finals and have been on a collision course for 6 months now, in no way will Tampa dominate Colorado. Colorado hasn’t looked good the last 2 games, but anybody who saw the St. Louis series knows what they are capable of. It’s a simple flip of the switch. That’s it. The switch flipped. You lost. Try again next year I guess. If that Colorado team comes back, you can expect them to beat Tampa

Colorado was the team most of you hyped up now all of the sudden Tampa is unbeatable. The best series of this round is Bruins Isles and whoever wins that one is going to be very difficult to beat

Well Tampa's unbeatable because they're over the cap also i Tampa overpowers either Bruins or NYI to go to the finals

17m is Kucherov Point and Coleman pretty much...

Tampa will beat the bruins of the isles....

I think there should be a max cap for playoffs but should be around like 5mil over normal cap not unlimited

Make it like a flex cap only for the playoffs ...17m is crazy though...

just kind of making a joke of a hard cap league when one of the teams has a full 2nd line worth of offensive players+ over the cap of almost every other playoff team.

Their reputation means absolutely nothing.

Teams almost never repeat. I see nothing in the lightning that is better than the 2016-17 pens.

Reputation means nothing, but when you're beating up two of the best teams in the NHL it's a pretty good look.

Saint Louis wasn't even a playoff team they weren't good this year. Colorado is having troubles with Vegas imagine what Tampa is going to do to them.

Tampa have the stars, grit, elite defense, elite goaltending, and the will to win.

Why would I do that lol

Remember when Pittsburgh had a reputation of beating Washington?

Prediction for tonight:

NYI 100-0 BOS

Serious prediction:
WPG 1-4 MTL

Edit: That's for the game tonight, not the series.

Colorado is having troubles with Vegas because they are, I would say, both top 3 teams (along with Tampa). I don't know about you, but to me Vegas>Carolina.

Also I think you are sleeping on the Bruins and Isles. These teams are the literal definition of playoff built teams. I would not be surprised to see either win the cup. Actually, I think one of these teams will win it.


He gets it.

Habs are also a playoff built team technically but they probably won't beat Avs/Vegas

I'm just saying that this Tampa team is out for blood, and they won't stop until they get to the cup.