UPDATED VERSION: June 1, 2021

This is an updated version of the article that originally ran on May 30, when the Montreal/Toronto series had still not been decided. With Game 7 of that series now in the books, this version now includes the playoff predictions for all four quarterfinal matchups, including the Montreal/Winnipeg series.

Overall, the panel managed to predict five of the eight series winners correctly (Colorado, Vegas, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Boston). The panel missed out on the NY Islanders, Winnipeg, and Montreal. The panel's updated lifetime record is 111-69 when it comes to postseason predictions.

With Montreal upsetting Toronto in Game 7 on Monday, Rick Roos narrowly missed out on going 8-for-8 on his picks. However, Roos and Tom Collins each picked seven of the eight series correctly, with Habs fan Collins one of three writers to correctly choose the Canadiens. A few other writers went 6-for-8 on their picks.

For matchups, the number shows the seeding within the division.

East

Boston (3) vs. NY Islanders (4)

Central

Carolina (1) vs. Tampa Bay (3)

West

Colorado (1) vs. Vegas (2)

North

Winnipeg (3) vs. Montreal (4)

Dobber   Boston in 7 Tampa Bay in 6 Colorado in 6 Winnipeg in 6	Ian Gooding   Boston in 7 Tampa Bay in 7 Colorado in 6 Winnipeg in 7	Mike Clifford   Boston in 6 Tampa Bay in 6 Colorado in 6 Winnipeg in 7	Alex MacLean   NY Islanders in 6 Carolina in 7 Colorado in 5 Winnipeg in 5
Steve Dotzel   Boston in 7 Tampa Bay in 6 Colorado in 6 Montreal in 7	Dave Hall   NY Islanders in 7 Tampa Bay in 7 Colorado in 6   Montreal in 6	Ryan Sheppard   Boston in 5 Tampa Bay in 6 Colorado in 5 Winnipeg in 6	Grant Campbell   NY Islanders in 6 Tampa Bay in 6 Colorado in 6 Winnipeg in 7
Rick Roos   Boston in 7 Tampa Bay in 6 Vegas in 6 Winnipeg in 5	Flip Livingstone   NY Islanders in 7 Tampa Bay in 6 Vegas in 7 Winnipeg in 6	Scott Royce   NY Islanders in 6 Carolina in 7 Colorado in 6 Winnipeg in 6	Chris Kane   Boston in 6 Carolina in 7 Colorado in 6 Winnipeg in 6
Mario Prata   Boston in 6 Tampa Bay in 7 Colorado in 6 Winnipeg in 6	Brennan DeSouza   NY Islanders in 6 Carolina in 7 Colorado in 6 Montreal in 7	Logan Doyle   Boston in 6 Tampa Bay in 5 Colorado in 7 Winnipeg in 5	Tom Collins   NY Islanders in 6 Tampa Bay in 6 Colorado in 5 Winnipeg in 6
Coin Toss   NY Islanders Carolina Vegas Montreal	CONSENSUS   Boston in 6 Tampa Bay in 6 Colorado in 6 Winnipeg in 6

For the coin toss, heads was the higher-seeded team. The coin toss results aren't counted among the aggregate results – they are just there to embarrass any of our writers if needed. 

Even though Colorado and Vegas have seemed destined to meet in the playoffs for the past two seasons, the Avalanche seem to be the overwhelming favorite. All but 2 of the 16 participating writers picked Colorado to win. Perhaps their four-game sweep of St. Louis combined with the Golden Knights needing the full seven games to surpass Minnesota factors into the decision, as the Avalanche will be more well-rested. Colorado's home-ice advantage also helps here.  

Even though Carolina finished five points ahead of Tampa Bay in the regular season, the Lightning are considered a somewhat strong favorite over the Hurricanes. Two reasons that Tampa Bay is likely being picked here: 1) They are the defending Stanley Cup champions, and 2) the addition of Nikita Kucherov. Although Carolina looked like the better team against Nashville, the last four games of that series all went to overtime, making it seem like the Hurricanes couldn't quite put away the pesky Predators.

The NY Islanders/Boston series might be the closest of them all, even though Boston took Game 1 by a score of 5-2. Barry Trotz's Islanders have now won a playoff series in three consecutive seasons, playing a defensive style that becomes increasingly effective during the more tight-checking playoffs. The Bruins are still picked to be the favorite, with those picking the Bruins split between six and seven games. Since the Bruins won Game 1, let's go with six games here as well.

The ink is barely dry on Montreal/Winnipeg as a series and our writers have already predicted the Jets as the winner. Since they made their series predictions using two different scenarios (if Montreal wins/if Toronto wins) while the first-round series was still underway, would they pick Montreal if they had a do over? No one has reached out to the editor about this, so he’ll have to assume that the panelists still like the Jets for the amount of rest they had. The winner of the North Division will have a very tough test in the next round, though.

The winner of WPG/MTL will play winner of COL/LV in semi final.

— David Amber (@DavidAmber) June 1, 2021

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.

Alex MacLean is an associate editor and writes the Ramblings once a week. He was previously the author of the Capped column and also contributes salary cap league rankings.

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.

Logan Doyle 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 does double duty, as he 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 tons of tips to help you win your daily fantasy leagues on Saturdays.

Ryan Sheppard provides you with what you need to know about line combinations in Lining Up.

Scott Royce gives you the fantasy hockey Geek of the Week every Sunday.  

Enjoy the playoffs, folks!