After a four-month layoff, the play-in round and round-robin turned out to be as unpredictable as they could have been.

The panel as a whole took it on the chin as far as majority rankings went, only choosing two of the eight play-in series (NY Islanders over Florida, Vancouver over Minnesota) correctly. Three series in particular hurt the panel, with strong majorities choosing Pittsburgh, Edmonton, and Toronto to advance. The saving grace for the writers is that none of them were defeated by the coin toss, which also guessed only two of the eight winners correctly. That's the kind of play-in that it was.   

Congratulations to Flip Livingstone, who led all writers by correctly picking six of the eight series. That's why he's our game picks writer. You can check out his NHL Picks articles here.

The panel will give it another go today with predictions for the 16-team playoffs, as well as Stanley Cup finalists and winner, and Conn Smythe Trophy winner.

Despite the poor results in the play-in round, the panel's lifetime record is 96-61 when it comes to postseason predictions.

Eastern Conference matchups

Philadelphia (4, 1) vs. Montreal (12, 8)

Tampa Bay (2, 2) vs. Columbus (9, 7)

Washington (3, 3) vs. NY Islanders (7, 6)

Boston (1, 4) vs. Carolina (6, 5)

Western Conference matchups

Vegas (3, 1) vs. Chicago (12, 8)

Colorado (2, 2) vs. Arizona (11, 7)

Dallas (4, 3) vs. Calgary (8, 6)

St. Louis (1, 4) vs. Vancouver (7, 5)

For matchups, the first number shows the rank before the play-in tournament, while the second number shows re-seeding rank.

 

Dobber   Philadelphia in 5 Columbus in 6 NY Islanders in 7 Carolina in 6   Vegas in 4 Colorado in 5 Calgary in 5 St. Louis in 6   Stanley Cup Final: VGK over CAR   Conn Smythe: Mark Stone	Ian Gooding   Philadelphia in 6 Columbus in 7 NY Islanders in 7 Carolina in 6   Vegas in 6 Colorado in 5 Calgary in 6 St. Louis in 7   Stanley Cup Final: COL over PHI   Conn Smythe: Nathan MacKinnon	Mike Clifford   Philadelphia in 5 Tampa Bay in 6 NY Islanders in 7 Carolina in 6   Vegas in 5 Colorado in 4 Calgary in 6 St. Louis in 6   Stanley Cup Final: COL over CAR   Conn Smythe: Nathan MacKinnon	Cam Robinson   Philadelphia in 5 Columbus in 6 Washington in 7 Carolina in 7   Vegas in 5 Colorado in 6 Calgary in 7 Vancouver in 6   Stanley Cup Final: COL over CAR   Conn Smythe: Nathan MacKinnon
Rick Roos   Philadelphia in 6 Tampa Bay in 6 NY Islanders in 5 Carolina in 6   Vegas in 6 Colorado in 5 Calgary in 7 Vancouver in 6   Stanley Cup Final: TB over VAN   Conn Smythe: Nikita Kucherov	Dave Hall   Philadelphia in 5 Tampa Bay in 6 Washington in 7 Carolina in 7   Vegas in 5 Colorado in 5 Calgary in 6 Vancouver in 6   Stanley Cup Final: COL over PHI   Conn Smythe: Nathan MacKinnon	Alex MacLean   Philadelphia in 5 Columbus in 6 NY Islanders in 5 Carolina in 6   Vegas in 6 Colorado in 4 Calgary in 4 St. Louis in 7   Stanley Cup Final: PHI over COL   Conn Smythe: Sean Couturier	Grant Campbell   Philadelphia in 5 Tampa Bay in 6 Washington in 6 Boston in 7   Vegas in 6 Colorado in 5 Calgary in 7 St. Louis in 6   Stanley Cup Final: PHI over COL   Conn Smythe: Carter Hart
Eric Daoust   Philadelphia in 5 Columbus in 7 Washington in 7 Carolina in 5   Vegas in 5 Colorado in 7 Calgary in 6 Vancouver in 7   Stanley Cup Final: COL over PHI   Conn Smythe: Nathan MacKinnon	Flip Livingstone   Philadelphia in 5 Tampa Bay in 7 NY Islanders in 6 Carolina in 6   Vegas in 5 Colorado in 6 Dallas in 6 St. Louis in 7   Stanley Cup Final: COL over CAR   Conn Smythe: Nathan MacKinnon   📢 advertisement:	Aaron Boyle   Philadelphia in 4 Tampa Bay in 6 Washington in 6 Boston in 7   Vegas in 6 Colorado in 5 Calgary in 7 Vancouver in 6   Stanley Cup Final: PHI over VGK   Conn Smythe: Carter Hart	Chris Kane   Montreal in 6 Tampa Bay in 6 Washington in 5 Carolina in 7   Vegas in 5 Colorado in 5 Dallas in 7 St. Louis in 6   Stanley Cup Final: CAR over DAL   Conn Smythe: Sebastian Aho
Mario Prata   Philadelphia in 6 Tampa Bay in 6 NY Islanders in 7 Carolina in 7   Vegas in 5 Colorado in 6 Calgary in 6 St. Louis in 7   Stanley Cup Final: CAR over COL   Conn Smythe: Sebastian Aho	Brennan DeSouza   Philadelphia in 7 Tampa Bay in 5 NY Islanders in 7 Carolina in 7   Vegas in 5 Colorado in 6 Dallas in 7 Vancouver in 6   Stanley Cup Final: TB over COL   Conn Smythe: Brayden Point	Adam Daly-Frey   Philadelphia in 4 Tampa Bay in 6 Washington in 5 Boston in 5   Vegas in 4 Colorado in 4 Dallas in 6 St. Louis in 4   Stanley Cup Final: VGK over PHI   Conn Smythe: Mark Stone	Tom Collins   Philadelphia in 5 Tampa Bay in 6 NY Islanders in 5 Carolina in 5   Vegas in 7 Colorado in 4 Calgary in 5 St. Louis in 6   Stanley Cup Final: CAR over VGK   Conn Smythe: Sebastian Aho
Coin Toss   Montreal in 7 Tampa Bay in 7 NY Islanders in 7 Boston in 7   Vegas in 7 Arizona in 7 Calgary in 7 St. Louis in 7	CONSENSUS   Philadelphia in 5 Tampa Bay in 6 NY Islanders in 7 Carolina in 6   Vegas in 5 Colorado in 5 Calgary in 7 St. Louis in 7   Stanley Cup Final: COL over CAR/PHI   Conn Smythe: Nathan MacKinnon

 

For the coin toss, heads was the higher-seeded team. I defaulted to seven games in each coin toss pick.

Favorites

The panel went with the following favorites (round-robin teams), listed by strength of preference in terms of votes:

Vegas (over Chicago) / Colorado (over Arizona)

Philadelphia (over Montreal)

Tampa Bay (over Columbus)

St. Louis (over Vancouver)

No writers chose either Chicago or Arizona to win their series. Colorado finished 18 points ahead of Arizona, while Vegas finished 14 points ahead of Chicago (although the Blackhawks had one game in hand). Even with the Blackhawks and Coyotes playing must-win series, picking an upset here would be a reach.  

Upset specials

The panel likes the following play-in teams to pull off the upset, listed by strength of preference in terms of votes:

Carolina (over Boston)

Calgary (over Dallas)

NY Islanders (over Washington)

Teams that did not perform well in the round-robin tournament were more likely to be considered for an upset. The Bruins went 0-3 in the round-robin while the Hurricanes swept the Rangers, so the panel hardly factored in Boston's Presidents' Trophy win from back in March.   

Stanley Cup winner

The panel likes Colorado to win the Stanley Cup, with Nathan MacKinnon the only Conn Smythe Trophy winner from that team. Philadelphia and Carolina were in a dead heat to represent the Eastern Conference, as they received the same number of votes to both win the Stanley Cup and finish as the runner-up.

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.

Cam Robinson is the managing editor at DobberProspects and, along with Ian Gooding and Mike Clifford, collaborates to Daily Ramblings. He is a regular guest on Vancouver sports talk radio.

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.

Adam Daly-Frey checks out what’s coming down the pipe with the Looking Ahead column every Friday.

Alex MacLean authors the salary cap column Capped, which can be found here every Thursday.

Grant Campbell writes the weekly Wild West column every Monday.

Brennan DeSouza writes the weekly Eastern Edge column every Tuesday, and gives us the latest injury information every Wednesday.

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

Chris Kane writes the Frozen Pool Forensics column on Fridays.

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.

Steve Dotzel provides tips to help you win your daily fantasy leagues on Saturdays.

Enjoy the playoffs, folks!