After being accurate on six of the eight first-round playoff series, the panel did not fare as well in the second round. Colorado was the only winner picked correctly, with favorites Florida, Carolina, and Calgary all now eliminated. At least the panel was also right on the length of the Colorado – St. Louis series (six games).   

No panelist correctly picked all four second-round playoff series, which would have been difficult to do with multiple underdogs coming out on top. However, all of Eric Daoust, Brad Hayward, Mike Amato, and Rick Roos correctly picked the winning team from three out of the four series. Daoust and Hayward are the top prognosticators of the playoffs with correct predictions in 10 of 12 playoff series.

The 2021-22 Conference Final series:

(M2) NY Rangers vs. (A3) Tampa Bay

(C1) Colorado vs. (P2) Edmonton

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

The panel's lifetime record is 121-78 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, the Avalanche are favored by all but two panelists. 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.

The writers are also ready to jump back on the Tampa Bay bandwagon after they were the underdogs against their cross-state rivals. All but one writer is picking the Lightning. The Rangers were also not favored to defeat the Hurricanes, which could factor in. The fact that the Bolts have now won 10 consecutive playoff series should also weigh heavily.

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 on Saturdays.

Will McLean and Shawn Wilken recently joined the DobberHockey team as bets/props writers.

Enjoy the playoffs, folks!