Remember when many of us thought that the play-in round teams were at an advantage from already playing more important games than the round-robin teams? Well, it turns out that only two play-in teams (Vancouver, NY Islanders) are still remaining in the playoffs. The first round of the "actual" playoffs didn't see the widespread number of upsets that many were expecting. Maybe there is an advantage to playing round-robin warmup games after all.

So even though the first round of the playoffs unexpectedly (mostly) went according to plan, this round turned out to be a better showing for the panel than the play-in round.

After the majority of the panel only chose two of the eight play-in series correctly, the panel majority chose five of the eight first-round series correctly. The panel correctly chose Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, NY Islanders, Vegas, and Colorado. However, the panel missed out on Boston, Dallas, and Vancouver. The panel's lifetime record is 101-64 when it comes to postseason predictions.

Experts Panel: Playoff Round 1 Predictions

Experts Panel: Western Conference Play-In Picks

Experts Panel: Eastern Conference Play-In Picks

The coin toss provided exactly the odds that a coin toss should, picking four of the eight series correctly.

Congratulations to Brennan DeSouza, who led all writers by correctly picking seven of the eight series. His only whiff was on the Boston/Carolina series. Brennan writes two articles for Dobber Hockey (see below), so you know that he is dedicated to studying hockey.

With Round 2 beginning just a day after Round 1 concludes, the panel didn't have much time to make its playoff picks for the conference semifinal. Regardless, the Dobber writers have submitted their picks for you.

Eastern Conference matchups

Philadelphia (4, 1) vs. NY Islanders (7, 6)

Tampa Bay (2, 2) vs. Boston (1, 4)

Western Conference matchups

Vegas (3, 1) vs. Vancouver (7, 5)

Colorado (2, 2) vs. Dallas (4, 3)

For matchups, the first number shows the rank before the play-in tournament, while the second number shows re-seeding rank after the play-in tournament.

Dobber NY Islanders in 6 Tampa Bay in 7 Vegas in 5 Colorado in 4	Ian Gooding Philadelphia in 7 Tampa Bay in 7 Vegas in 6 Colorado in 5	Mike Clifford NY Islanders in 7 Tampa Bay in 7 Vegas in 5 Colorado in 5	Cam Robinson NY Islanders in 6 Boston in 7 Vegas in 6 Colorado in 6
Rick Roos NY Islanders in 7 Tampa Bay in 5 Vancouver in 6 Colorado in 5	Dave Hall Philadelphia in 7 Tampa Bay in 6 Vegas in 6 Colorado in 5	Alex MacLean Philadelphia in 7 Tampa Bay in 6 Vancouver in 6 Colorado in 5	Grant Campbell Philadelphia in 6 Tampa Bay in 6 Vegas in 5 Colorado in 6
Eric Daoust Philadelphia in 6 Tampa Bay in 7 Vegas in 5 Colorado in 6	Flip Livingstone NY Islanders in 6 Boston in 7 Vegas in 6 Dallas in 7	Aaron Boyle Philadelphia in 7 Boston in 6 Vegas in 6 📢 advertisement: Colorado in 5	Steve Dotzel Philadelphia in 6 Boston in 6 Vegas in 5 Colorado in 6
Mario Prata NY Islanders in 7 Tampa Bay in 6 Vancouver in 7 Colorado in 5	Brennan DeSouza NY Islanders in 6 Tampa Bay in 7 Vegas in 7 Colorado in 6	Adam Daly-Frey Philadelphia in 6 Boston in 7 Vegas in 4 Colorado in 4	Tom Collins NY Islanders in 6 Boston in 6 Vegas in 5 Colorado in 5
	Coin Toss NY Islanders in 7 Boston in 7 Vancouver in 7 Dallas in 7	CONSENSUS NY Islanders in 7 Tampa Bay in 6 Vegas in 5 Colorado in 5

Note that the writers selected their picks prior to puck drop of Game 1 of the Colorado/Dallas series, even though you may be reading this after the games start.

For the coin toss, heads was the higher-seeded team. Each coin toss pick was defaulted to seven games.

Every remaining team was chosen by at least one writer, although some teams were clearly chosen more than others.

Favorites

The panel went with the following higher-seeded teams, listed by strength of preference in terms of votes:

Colorado

Vegas

Tampa Bay

Upset specials

The writers were actually evenly split on who would win the Philadelphia/NY Islanders series. Ultimately, we're going to go with a consensus pick for the Islanders in 7, given that those who selected the Isles selected them to do so in an average of slightly fewer games (6.375 to 6.5). In other words, this one is practically a dead heat. If you're looking for an underdog to bet on, the defensive-minded Isles might be your best bet.

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.

Ian Gooding is the managing editor of DobberHockey and a regular writer on the daily Ramblings beat. He has also contributed to many other sites, including Sportsnet, Today's Slapshot, Kukla's Korner, and fantasyhockey.com.

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

Cam Robinson is the managing editor at DobberProspects and, along with Ian Gooding and Mike Clifford, collaborates to Daily Ramblings. He is a regular guest on Vancouver sports talk radio.

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.

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 Roos Let Loose column every Wednesday. He is the former Cage Match writer for Dobber Hockey.

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

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

Grant Campbell writes the weekly Wild West column every Monday.

Brennan DeSouza writes the weekly Eastern Edge column every Tuesday, and gives us the latest injury information every Wednesday.

Dave Hall pens the weekly prospect column The Journey that can be found here every Saturday. He has also contributed to Dobber Prospects.

Chris Kane writes the Frozen Pool Forensics column on Fridays.

Flip Livingstone is our Saturday game picks author. He is a former NHL writer for theScore with past experience at such outlets as Postmedia, Hockey Night in Canada, and the CBC.

Steve Dotzel provides tips to help you win your daily fantasy leagues on Saturdays.

Enjoy the playoffs, folks!