The Dobber Hockey experts weigh in with their playoff picks.

One of the most important factors in building a good playoff pool squad is in filling out a quality bracket. Having a feel for which teams will go far will help dictate your strategy heading to the draft table. Obviously, you want to avoid picking players off of teams eliminated in the opening round.

Over the past six seasons the Dobber Hockey Experts’ Panel is 61-29 for picking playoff series outcomes. Of course, we also picked a Blues-Rangers Stanley Cup final last year, so we aren’t perfect but on a series to series basis we are doing a successful job. Here are our picks for this season:

Eastern Conference:

Expert	WAS v PHI	PIT v NYR	FLA v NYI	TBL vs DET
Dobber	WAS in 4	PIT in 5	NYI in 5	TBL in 7
Laidlaw	WAS in 5	PIT in 5	FLA in 4	DET in 6
Gooding	WAS in 6	PIT in 7	FLA in 5	TBL in 7
Daoust	WAS in 6	PIT in 6	NYI in 7	DET in 6
Campkin	PHI in 7	PIT in 6	NYI in 6	TBL in 4
Collins	PHI in 7	PIT in 5	FLA in 6	TBL in 7
Coretti	WAS in 5	NYR in 6	FLA in 7	TBL in 5
Da Costa	WAS in 5	PIT in 5	FLA in 6	DET in 5
LeBlanc	WAS in 6	PIT in 5	FLA in 6	TBL in 5
McMillan	WAS in 5	PIT in 6	NYI in 6	TBL in 4
Robinson	WAS in 6	PIT in 7	FLA in 5	DET in 6
Roos	WAS in 5	PIT in 5	FLA in 4	DET in 6
Schmidt	WAS in 5	PIT in 7	FLA in 5	DET in 7
Consensus	WAS in 6	PIT in 6	FLA in 6	TBL in 7

The Consensus was heavy for Washington, Pittsburgh and Florida but the Tampa Bay-Detroit series is a real toss up.

Western Conference:

Expert	ANA v NAS	LAK v SJS	DAL v MIN	STL v CHI
Dobber	ANA in 6	SJS in 5	DAL in 7	STL in 6
Laidlaw	ANA in 6	SJS in 6	DAL in 6	STL in 7
Gooding	ANA in 6	LAK in 7	DAL in 5	CHI in 6
Daoust	ANA in 6	LAK in 7	DAL in 6	STL in 7
Campkin	ANA in 6	LAK in 5	MIN in 7	STL in 7
Collins	ANA in 5	SJS in 7	DAL in 5	CHI in 6
Coretti	ANA in 5	SJS in 6	MIN in 7	STL in 7
Da Costa	ANA in 6	LAK in 7	DAL in 5	CHI in 7
LeBlanc	ANA in 6	LAK in 7	DAL in 5	STL in 7
McMillan	ANA in 5	SJS in 6	DAL in 7	STL in 7
Robinson	ANA in 6	SJS in 7	DAL in 5	STL in 7
Roos	ANA in 6	SJS in 7	MIN in 6	STL in 7
Schmidt	ANA in 6	LAK in 7	DAL in 5	STL in 7
Consensus	ANA in 6	SJS in 7	DAL in 6	STL in 7

Literally no one stuck their neck out for Nashville. While most favoured Dallas and St. Louis, no one expects the Blues to handle the Blackhawks in a short series. The battle of California was heavily split with the Sharks having a narrow edge from the panel.

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Cup Final:

Expert	Cup Final	Cup Winner	Conn Smythe	Top Scorer
Dobber	ANA v WAS	Washington	Ovechkin	Ovechkin
Laidlaw	ANA v WAS	Washington	Ovechkin	Kuznetsov
Gooding	LAK v WAS	Los Angeles	Doughty	Ovechkin
Daoust	LAK v PIT	Los Angeles	Doughty	Crosby
Campkin	LAK v PIT	Pittsburgh	Crosby	Crosby
Collins	ANA v PHI	Anaheim	Mason	Giroux
Coretti	STL v NYR	NY Rangers	Lundqvist	Brassard
Da Costa	CHI v WAS	Chicago	Kane	Kane
LeBlanc	ANA v WAS	Washington	Kuznetsov	Kuznetsov
McMillan	ANA v WAS	Anaheim	Getzlaf	Getzlaf
Robinson	ANA v WAS	Washington	Holtby	Kuznetsov
Roos	SJS v PIT	San Jose	Thornton	Pavelski
Schmidt	ANA v WAS	Anaheim	Getzlaf	Ovechkin
Consensus	ANA v WAS	Washington	N/A	Ovechkin

A Ducks-Capitals final is heavily favoured though there was love for nine different finalists. The only thing for certain is no one likes the Atlantic Division.

Top Scorers:

Expert	Second Scorer	Third Scorer	Fourth Scorer	Fifth Scorer
Dobber	Backstrom	Getzlaf	Kuznetsov	Kesler
Laidlaw	Ovechkin	Getzlaf	Crosby	Perry
Gooding	Backstrom	Kopitar	Kuznetsov	Kane
Daoust	Letang	Kopitar	Kessel	Carter
Campkin	Malkin	Letang	Kopitar	Doughty
Collins	B. Schenn	Getzlaf	Perry	Vatanen
Coretti	Tarasenko	Stepan	Stastny	Getzlaf
Da Costa	Kuznetsov	Panarin	Ovechkin	Backstrom
LeBlanc	Perry	Backstrom	Kopitar	Tarasenko
McMillan	Backstrom	Silfverberg	Crosby	Kessel
Robinson	Ovechkin	Getzlaf	Backstrom	Benn
Roos	Crosby	Thornton	Letang	Barkov
Schmidt	Getzlaf	Backstrom	Kuznetsov	Perry
Consensus	Getzlaf	Kuznetsov	Backstrom	Perry

With a Ducks-Capitals final favoured, naturally the panel leaned towards players off those teams.

Best of luck in all of your playoff drafts and if you haven’t yet, pick up the Dobber Hockey Interactive Playoff Draft List.

4 Comments

Derek Rupert 2016-04-11 at 21:51Log in to Reply

You guys are still on boudreau and ovechkin? Caps lose in the 1st round behind Ed Snider driven Flyers team.
Derek Rupert 2016-04-11 at 21:51Log in to Reply

Kings over Panthers
Jeremy Campbell 2016-04-12 at 08:38Log in to Reply

Liking these predictions! I just loaded up on Caps, Kings, and Panthers last night in my playoff draft so I hope that works out! Bring on the playoffs!!
Mabus 2016-04-12 at 16:14Log in to Reply

Consensus of a number of experts almost always looks like the favorites.

I’ll head another route and say that fenwick close is the best predictor of playoff success, so I’ll use only this metric and guess that the first round winners will be PHI, PIT, FLA, TB, LA, ANA, STL and DAL. I will also use the same metric to say that we’ll be seeing a PIT/LA final. Picking against Chicago and in favor of an injured TB team is scary, but I’ll go with the numbers in this instance.

UPCOMING GAMES

Nov 21 - 19:11	WSH	vs	COL
Nov 21 - 19:11	CBJ	vs	T.B
Nov 21 - 19:11	OTT	vs	VGK
Nov 21 - 19:11	DET	vs	NYI
Nov 21 - 19:11	BOS	vs	UTA
Nov 21 - 19:11	N.J	vs	CAR
Nov 21 - 20:11	STL	vs	S.J
Nov 21 - 20:11	CHI	vs	FLA
Nov 21 - 21:11	CGY	vs	NYR
Nov 21 - 21:11	EDM	vs	MIN