Like last season, the panel whiffed on both Conference Final picks, with the majority of writers picking the Hurricanes and Stars. The coin toss turned out to be a much better proposition, nailing both picks.

The Hurricanes and Stars will be watching the Stanley Cup Final on TV, as the Oilers and Panthers battle it out for the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive season. With the two L's, the panel's lifetime record is now 150-95 when it comes to postseason predictions.

Congratulations to Grant Campbell, Puneet Sharma, TJ Branson, and yours truly (Ian Gooding), who correctly picked both Conference Final winners. Puneet is on a two-round winning streak, having also correctly picked all four Conference Semifinal winners.

Here are the picks for the Stanley Cup winner and the Conn Smythe winner:

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.

Most of the writers have picked the Oilers to get their revenge on the Panthers. This matches the betting odds to some degree, where the Oilers are slight favorites. Connor McDavid is the clear favorite to win his second consecutive Conn Smythe, both by the writers and the betting odds.

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.

Ian Gooding is the managing editor of DobberHockey and a regular writer on the daily Ramblings beat, also providing monthly Top 100 Roto Rankings. 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, writing the Ramblings multiple times per week. He also covers DFS for Stokastic and writes for EP Rinkside.

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.

Brennan DeSouza is an associate editor who writes the Ramblings once a week. He had previously covered Injury Ward, Eastern Edge, and Lining Up.

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.

Rick Roos authors the weekly Roos Let Loose column every Wednesday, covering a variety of topics. He is the former Cage Match writer for Dobber Hockey.

Flip Livingstone is the Saturday game picks writer. He is a former NHL writer for theScore with past experience at such outlets as Postmedia, Hockey Night in Canada, and the CBC.

Michael Amato is the Goalie Post editor who provides the latest starting goalie information and writes the Goalie Ramblings. He also covers fantasy hockey for Sportsnet and is the co-host of the Sleepers & Keepers podcast for The Hockey News. 

Grant Campbell keeps an eye on everything Western Conference in the Wild West column every Monday.

Chris Kane writes the Frozen Tools Forensics column on Fridays, emphasizing what he finds on Frozen Tools.

Andrew Santillo checks out what’s coming down the pipe schedule-wise with the Looking Ahead column every Friday, as well as salary cap column Capped on Thursdays. He's a very busy guy, also sharing his DFS picks three days a week.

Ryan Brudner shares his expertise of multicategory leagues in the Geek of the Week column every Sunday. He has also contributed to GoaliePost and has contributed goalie stats to Frozen Tools.

Stas Pupkov dives deep into advanced stats with Analytics Advantage every Thursday.

Puneet Sharma handles the popular Top 10 list every Monday, and he lends his prospects expertise to The Journey every Saturday. Puneet is also a senior writer at Dobber Prospects.

TJ Branson focuses on Eastern Conference teams in the Eastern Edge column. TJ is also a host on the Five Hole Fantasy Hockey podcast.

Logan Clarkson details the key injuries you need to know about every Wednesday in Injury Ward. He has also written for GoaliePost.

Eli Feldman covers line combinations every Tuesday in Lining Up.

Chad Simpson has filled in on a few articles this season, most recently Injury Ward.

Enjoy the playoffs, folks!