As the majority of series ended, the playoffs appeared to going perfectly to form as far as the favorites winning (Carolina, Toronto, Dallas, Vegas, Edmonton). Then Sunday hit with the two major Game 7 upsets of Florida over Boston and Seattle over Colorado. A minor upset of the Devils over the Rangers on Monday resulted in the panel finishing with a 5-3 record in the first round. The panel’s lifetime record is now 129-81 when it comes to postseason predictions.

Frozen Tools Forensics author Chris Kane was the panel's clear first-round winner, correctly selecting seven of the eight series winners. Kane was one of just two of the 17 respondents to pick Seattle over Colorado. No other panelist made more than five correct picks.

With Conference Semifinal games starting on Tuesday, here are the panel's picks without further ado.

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.

Note that the number of games is the average number of games picked by the panel and does not factor in who will win the series.

Strong Favorites

Toronto, Dallas, and Edmonton are all clear favorites in their next series. In other words, the panel doesn't expect the magic from either Florida or Seattle to carry over. Even though Vegas has home-ice advantage, the panel still much prefers Connor McDavid and company to advance to the Conference Final for the second consecutive season.  

Too Close to Call

The Carolina/New Jersey series was easily the closest of the four second-round series. A track meet of teams in red and black uniforms could go the distance in what could be a fun series. 

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.

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.

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.

Brad Hayward also picks DFS players twice a week. 

Enjoy the playoffs, folks!