The Stanley Cup Final is upon us. But before we dive into the predictions, let's recap the semifinals.

As you might guess, the panel correctly selected Tampa Bay but missed out on Montreal (as many have throughout the playoffs). Tom Collins was the only one of the 16 writers who dared to pick the Canadiens in the last round, and he also correctly predicted they'd win in six games! Collins was also the only writer to go 2-for-2 in the last round, also picking Tampa Bay. The coin toss was also correct on both picks.

The panel's updated lifetime record is now 113-73 when it comes to postseason predictions.

As you probably already know, the Stanley Cup Final has Tampa Bay (3rd, Central) facing off against Montreal (4th, North). Only one panelist (yours truly, Ian Gooding) correctly predicted one of the Stanley Cup finalists (Tampa Bay) in our Playoff Round 1 Predictions. Dave Hall, Chris Kane, and I all picked Tampa Bay to go to the final in our 2020-21 Season Predictions from back in January. So like many seasons before, there have been plenty of surprises in this year's playoffs. No one will have a correct Conn Smythe winner from before the playoffs started.

Below are our writers' picks for the 2020-21 Stanley Cup winner, along with their predicted Conn Smythe winners.

Although Montreal received more votes than they did before the semifinal, Tampa Bay was still considered the favorite by the majority of the writers. The Habs have not been a favorite in any round, so they probably shouldn't be here either in spite of an impressive playoff run. Perhaps that would be different (or at least closer) if they were facing the Islanders instead of the defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning.

No surprise that Brayden Point is the Conn Smythe favorite here. He is the playoff goal-scoring leader with 14 goals, which includes a nine-game goal streak that was snapped in a low-scoring Game 7 with the Islanders. Carey Price receives an honorable mention here, particularly among those picking Montreal to win.

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 Stanley Cup Final, folks!