I still like Carolina and Florida to win their series in the East, which was my prediction before the playoffs started. I'm still pretty firm on Edmonton getting to the WCF and I picked Colorado before the playoffs to beat the Stars in R2. I think it will be a great series and I hope I'm ultimately proven wrong. I think the Dallas-Colorado winner makes the Finals. Initially, I picked Carolina to get win the East. I think I might pick Florida now if I could do things over.
At any rate, here's what I'm thinking: Avalanche in 6, The Oil in 6, Carolina in 7 and Florida in 6
Here's some interesting info from The Athletic:
Goldman: I guess almost blowing a 3-1 lead in Round 1 for the second straight year can knock down some confidence around a team. Honestly, though, this feels like it’s less about Boston and more about how dominant Florida has been all season on both ends of the ice.
Salvian: The Bruins won all four regular-season meetings against the Panthers this season but clearly come in as the underdogs in this series. Jeremy Swayman can win the Bruins a few games in Round 2, but if they can’t get more offense going against a deep Panthers team than they did against the Maple Leafs, they aren’t going to be moving on. I’m hoping this one goes the distance, though. Who doesn’t love a revenge storyline?
Gentille: This feels about right. I’ve always liked the idea of Carolina winning a long series here, and Sunday’s result didn’t change that.
Salvian: This series feels like a toss-up for me, and the split of the vote would show our colleagues, somewhat, agree. I picked the Hurricanes in seven because this is the deepest they’ve been in this current window of contention. But the Rangers showed in Game 1 they can make this series a battle, and if Igor Shesterkin can outplay Freddie Andersen, this should be a good series.
Goldman: Something about the series length feels right based on everyone’s votes, too. If the Rangers are going to do it, Game 7 on home ice makes sense versus the Canes closing it out at home in six.
Gentille: You’d think more folks would be anticipating a hangover for the Stars. Their series against the Golden Knights was epic, and they’re not going to get much time to recover.
Salvian: I hate that this isn’t the conference final. I’m not ready to say goodbye to the Avs or the Stars. The West is unforgiving this year. I just hope everyone has fun.
Goldman: The most important thing about this series is that we all expect it to go long. Round 2 is already shaping up to be more exciting than the first.
Goldman: This voting feels a little lopsided for a series that could be legitimately interesting — but it’s also hard to see how a Thatcher Demko-less Canucks stop Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, as good as Arturs Silovs was in Round 1.
Salvian: Six percent seems low to me. Silovs showed he could get the Canucks to the second round, but the Oilers offense is going to be a different kind of test for a goalie with 12 games of NHL experience (nine regular season, three playoffs).