The panel went 1-1 on the conference final picks, correctly choosing Carolina over Montreal while missing out on Vegas's unexpected four-game sweep of Colorado. The panel's lifetime record is now 159-101 when it comes to postseason predictions.

Congratulations to Garrett Finlay and Stas Pupkov (and our trusty coin), who correctly picked both Conference Final winners. Garrett is on a two-round winning streak, having also correctly picked all four Conference Semifinal winners as well.

None of the writers picked a Carolina/Vegas Stanley Cup Final at the start of the playoffs. However, Alex MacLean, Andrew Santillo and Dobber himself picked that very matchup in our Season Predictions before the regular season started.

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 used to break potential deadlocks and 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 into who will win the series.

The prediction of Carolina to win matches what numerous NHL betting sites have listed, including ESPN Futures and FanDuel. Both of those sites have listed Frederik Andersen as the second-most likely player to win the Conn Smythe behind fellow former Leaf Mitch Marner (FanDuel), but the panel is going with Andersen instead.

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 has also written 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.

Puneet Sharma is also an associate editor who also writes the Ramblings once a week. He has covered both the Top 10 list and The Journey in the past. Puneet is also a senior writer at Dobber Prospects.

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 DobberHockey.

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 has also co-hosted the Sleepers & Keepers podcast for The Hockey News. 

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

Lucas Main keeps an eye on everything Western Conference in the Wild West column every Monday. He shifts over to line combinations on Tuesdays with Lining Up.

Andrew Santillo shares salary cap league thoughts in Capped on Thursdays. He's a very busy guy, also sharing his DFS picks two days a week.

Ryan Brudner covers what you need to know about NHL betting in his weekday article Puck Picks. He has also written the Geek of the Week column, has written for GoaliePost, and has contributed goalie stats to Frozen Tools.

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

Mike Ouellet focuses on Eastern Conference teams in the Eastern Edge column. He also writes for GoaliePost.

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

Caleb Desjardins authors our popular Top 10 column. He also checks out what’s coming down the pipe schedule-wise with the Looking Ahead column every Friday.

Victor Nuno shares his extensive prospect knowledge in The Journey every Saturday. Also known as the Fantasy Hockey Doctor, Victor is also the co-host of the Fantasy Hockey Life podcast and is an editor for DobberProspects. 

Garrett Finlay writes for GoaliePost, and he also creates videos for several DobberHockey writers.

Enjoy the playoffs, folks!