Unlike certain past seasons, there were no major surprises in the first round. That showed in the panel's results, as it correctly picked the winner from six of the eight first-round playoff series. Only Carolina over Boston and St. Louis over Minnesota were not chosen by the majority of the panel. The panel had predicted a seven-game result for both of those series, so there was no overwhelming favorite in either series.

This first round may be remembered most for its five Game 7s. The panel came up just short of that number, predicting four Game 7s. Three of those series durations were accurately predicted, result aside (Carolina/Boston, Pittsburgh/NY Rangers, Toronto/Tampa Bay).

No panelist correctly picked all eight playoff series, which is not something we would expect given the odds to do so. However, all of Eric Daoust, Scott Royce, Brad Hayward, and myself (Ian Gooding) correctly picked the winning team from seven out of the eight playoff series.

The 2021-22 second-round series:

(A1) Florida vs. (A3) Tampa Bay

(M1) Carolina vs. (M2) NY Rangers

(C1) Colorado vs. (C3) St. Louis

(P1) Calgary vs. (P2) Edmonton

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

The panel's lifetime record is 120-75 when it comes to postseason predictions.

For the coin toss, heads was the higher-seeded team. The default is seven games for each coin toss pick, as well as for any writers who replied only with series winners. The coin toss results aren't counted among the aggregate results – they are just there to embarrass any of our writers if needed. 

Not surprisingly, Colorado was favored by all but one panelist. That should not be a surprise, as they were the panel's Stanley Cup favorite to start the playoffs, as well as the team with the best odds at many betting sites.

All of the series have a clear majority in terms of a winner. Interestingly enough, the average for all series is six games.

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.

Michael Amato is the Goalie Post editor who provides the latest starting goalie information and writes the Goalie Ramblings.

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.

Chris Kane writes the Frozen Pool Forensics column on Fridays.

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

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

Andrew Santillo checks out what’s coming down the pipe schedule-wise with the Looking Ahead column every Friday.

Jamie Molloy authors the salary cap column Capped, which can be found here every Thursday.

Peter Ryell provides you with what you need to know about line combinations in Lining Up.

Steve Dotzel provides tons of tips to help you win your daily fantasy leagues on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Brad Hayward also picks DFS players on Tuesdays.

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.

Vlad Zorila also makes game picks.

Enjoy the playoffs, folks!