Unocal

It's up to Philly to save us from another insufferable Heat/Celtics rerun

So much for 'Chicago beating Pittsburgh and putting FLA in the playoffs is going to cost them the #1 pick" That game decreased their lottery odds by 25 percent......... and it somehow didn't matter

Since when did NHL expansion teams stop having to pay their dues? Like what changed with the expansion drafts after OTT in the mid-90s?

What fans? The ones that only show up in the playoffs?

Oh come on. Florida's goaltending tandem was skewered all year until Bobrovsky for the first time in eons actually remembered how to stop a puck

Well looks like the NBA is gonna get their dream matchup: KD vs LBJ/Warriors

Now he's REALLY over the moon.

Looks like Gary Bettman's going to get what he wants- another sunbelt hockey deep playoff run to grow the game.

To think the Panthers LITERALLY only made the playoffs because Pittsburgh lost to Chicago..................... That game also dropped Chicago's lottery odds (and the Bedard sweepstakes are tomorrow night) If the Blackhawks lose the lottery tomorrow, the butterfly effect of that game is going to be talked about for a while

EDM and VGK should have played last night. TOR/FLA and VGK/SEA should be playing tonight. The 2nd round scheduling is absurd. To think last year round 1 EVERY series was every other day with no 2 day breaks in between games.

If you're Gary Bettman, how do you feel about the prospect of a Stanley Cup Final in Sunrise?

So far looks like these Panthers are the reincarnation of 2021 MTL (Down 3-1 round 1, win 2 OT games, seemingly cannot be stopped)

The Vegas Golden Knight statistically are a wild team: 14th in goals scored, 11th in goals against, 9th in goal differential, no 30 goal scorer or players with 70 points And yet they have home-ice throughout the West despite stats that are not as good as some WC team They aren't a goal scoring juggernaut ala Edmonton, nor do they compensate defensively ala Carolina How are they doing it?

Gary Bettman's perfectly balanced vision

And yet after the 3-1 comeback, you know Bettman is going to be crowing thatthe NHL belongs in South Florida

Round 2 if there was reseeding BTW it would look literally different from this one: FLA/CAR TOR/NJD SEA/VGK DAL/EDM

Give the Devils their due Literally

I just feel that too much chaos might be too much of a good thing, like having ice cream for dinner every night of the week.

The NHL regular season apparently might as well be preseason

The better teams did not win last night.

Not all the time, but once in a blue moon. Last Stanley Cup Final with the two best regular season teams was 2001. That's a LONG time ago. I just don't subscribe to the idea that playoff hockey is ONLY exciting because of chaos and unpredictability.

Too much chaos is too much of a good thing. We haven't had a chalk Cup Final since 2001. God forbid ONE year we don't get chaos overload.

I don't want to say that the NHL regular season is a waste of time, but.......... these 2nd round matchups just feel random as hell. Maybe it's the lack of reseeding Vegas/Edmonton AKA 1 vs 2 in the 2nd round should be the conference finals.

That 2019 Bruin team had the easiest road to a Cup Final (2 Wild Cards and the Leafs) and somehow couldn't make it over the finish line