In just over a month, 20 teams have been eliminated from the return to play, with just four teams left in the chase for Lord Stanley's mug. There aren't as many predictions to make going forward, but we are back to make them anyway.

Updating the conference semifinal results, the panel majority chose three of the four second-round series correctly. The panel correctly chose Tampa Bay, the NY Islanders, and Vegas. However, the panel majority missed out on Dallas for the second consecutive round. These results place the panel's lifetime record at 104-65 when it comes to postseason predictions.

Multiple writers individually chose three of the four series correctly. However, no writers picked all four series correctly, mainly because of the result of the Dallas/Colorado series. Games picks writer Flip Livingstone was the only writer to pick Dallas over Colorado, and he also did so in the correct number of games (7). This is the kind of counterintuitive, against-the-odds thinking that can pay off.

The coin toss picked two of the four series correctly.

Experts Panel: Playoff Round 2 Predictions

Experts Panel: Playoff Round 1 Predictions

Experts Panel: Western Conference Play-In Picks

Experts Panel: Eastern Conference Play-In Picks

With the Western Conference Final beginning just a day after the Philadelphia/NY Islanders series finale, the panel didn't have much time to make its playoff picks for the conference finals. Regardless, the Dobber writers have submitted their picks for you just in time.

Eastern Conference matchup

Tampa Bay (2, 2) vs. NY Islanders (7, 6)

Western Conference matchup

Vegas (3, 1) 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.

For the coin toss, heads was the higher-seeded team. The default is seven games for each coin toss pick.

The panel majority agrees on a potential Tampa Bay/Vegas final. This was the final that was chosen by Ben Burnett, Ian Gooding, Chris Kane, and Alex MacLean in our 2019-20 Season Predictions from early October. Interestingly enough, it was a more popular prediction before the season than before the playoffs, when no one chose that final matchup. Check back before the Stanley Cup Final to find out if this prediction turns out correctly, and who our panel will predict as the Stanley Cup champion and Conn Smythe winner.

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!