Hey folks, we're back for another year of calling the winners for each round of the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs. Each year, the members of the DobberHockey Panel (made up of DH writers) have their ups and downs with making calls on each series. As a group, though, the Panel’s consensus picks are pretty good. After eight years of doing this, the Panel’s record is 81-38.

In today's Round 1 installment: On top of the predicted winners for the initial round of play, our Panel went a little beyond with early prognostications on the Stanley Cup Final matchup, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner, the postseason's Top 5 scorers, and, of course, this year's Cup champion.

Here are the Round 1 matchups:

Eastern Conference
Tampa Bay Lightning (A1) vs New Jersey Devils (WC2)
Boston Bruins (A2) vs Toronto Maple Leafs (A3)
Washington Capitals (M1) vs Columbus Blue Jackets (WC1)
Pittsburgh Penguins * (M2) vs Philadelphia Flyers (M3)

Western Conference
Nashville Predators (C1) vs Colorado Avalancxhe (WC2)
Winnipeg Jets (C2) vs Minnesota Wild (C3)
Vegas Golden Knights (P1) vs Los Angeles Kings (WC1)
Anaheim Ducks (P2) vs San Jose Sharks (P3)

* Defending Stanley Cup champion
 

By the way, if you're in a playoff pool and you're in need of a great player list, check our annual Playoff Draft List. It's customizable based on your picks, or you can just roll with Dobber's very own picks. Your choice! Pick it up here!

As for the panel's picks: Let's just say that the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins garnered only two votes to three-peat. The Predators won the popular vote with six in total, which would make it the franchise's first-ever Cup. The Jets, Canada's great white hope with a few mentions, the Bruins and the Lightning are also in the mix for Lord Stanley's shiny mug. The spectacular Golden Knights didn't receive any Cup-winning votes but did receive a nod as a Cup Finalist. Individually, Preds' Pekka Rinne looks to bring home the Conn Smythe Tropy, while Bruins' Brad Marchand aims for the postseason's version of the Art Ross Trophy as top scorer.

Agree? Disagree? Comments?

About the panel …

Dobber launched this website in 2005 after he was the fantasy hockey columnist for The Hockey News website, The Fantasy Sports Network, and a contributor to The Forecaster. DobberHockey has since grown into the Dobber Sports Network and has work can be found across the Internet, including on Sportsnet.

Steve Laidlaw is the managing editor of DobberHockey. His work can be followed through our regular-season Ramblings, as well as on Sportsnet.

Ian Gooding is an associate editor of DobberHockey and a regular writer on the daily Ramblings beat. He also contributes to many other sites, including Sportsnet.

Mike Clifford is an associate editor of DobberHockey and contributor for Rotowire and other fantasy hockey ventures.

Mario Prata is the manager of special projects and marketing for Dobber Sports. He is also a co-founder of the famous The Sports Forecaster magazine.

Cam Robinson is an associate editor at DobberProspects and, along with Ian Gooding and Mike Clifford, collaborates to Daily Ramblings throughout the summer while Steve Laidlaw is on leave.

Eric Daoust manages our valued Frozen Pool section.

Tom Collins writes the weekly Top 10 column that can be found here every Monday.

Rick Roos authors the weekly Cage Match column every Wednesday.

Adam Daly-Frey checks out what's coming down the pipe with the Looking Ahead column every Friday.

Adam Mark is our resident prognosticator, penning the weekly Saturday NHL Picks column.

Alex MacLean authors the salary cap column Capped, which can be found here every Thursday.

Brennan Des writes the weekly line combinations column every Tuesday, and gives us the latest injury information every Wednesday.

Brad Phillips, also a senior writer with DobberProspects, pens the weekly prospect column The Journey that can be found here every Saturday.

Chris Liggio writes the Frozen Pool Forensics column on Fridays.

Cameron Metz pens the Eastern Edge column that's published on Tuesdays.

Christopher Kane writes the weekly Wild West column every Monday.

Enjoy the playoffs, folks!!