Round 1 was shocking. The heads of kings were lopped off like someone screamed Viva La Revolucion! and everyone took it seriously.
Tampa Bay, the best team in the league by a shocking amount in the regular season got beheaded in 4 games by Columbus. Calgary didn’t fare much better, 4-1 against Colorado. Washington, the defending champions, lost in 7 to Carolina. Nashville struggled against Dallas. All the Canadian teams were eliminated and Vegas collapsed in a Game 7 against San Jose, which will go down in the record books.
Controversy galore as a 5-minute major was called on Vegas (it was a minor 2-minute cross-checking call that the refs panicked on with blood on the ice from a head impact) )with 10 minutes remaining in the 3rd. Up 3-0, Vegas let 4 goals in 5 minutes happen. Vegas can be up in arms all they want but the fact is they blew it. They were up 3-1 in the series and SJ rallies back 2 in a row to tie it. Then after turning into swiss cheese for 5 minutes, they managed to tie it 4-4 to force overtime. They had all the time in the world to finish off the Sharks and they didn’t. End of story, end of season.
All the wildcards beat the top seeds, that’s insane.
All the favorites are out except for Boston. They’re the only team left with serious playoff experience and with so many Cup wins, they are the team I really want
I doubt any of these series will be short.