With the exception of the Seattle/Winnipeg makeup game on Sunday, the regular season has ended. Here are your playoff matchups:

Florida vs. Washington

Carolina vs. Boston

NY Rangers vs. Pittsburgh

Toronto vs. Tampa Bay

Colorado vs. Nashville

Calgary vs. Dallas

Minnesota vs. St. Louis

Edmonton vs. Los Angeles

The time is here – it's the moment every hockey fan has been waiting for…

The First Round schedule for the 2022 #StanleyCup Playoffs is set. Find your team, fill your calendar, get your bracket ready and let the mayhem begin.#NHLStats: https://t.co/iobl99wjdo pic.twitter.com/XzIbFnUr40

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 30, 2022

The fun starts on Monday. I'll discuss the playoffs more in tomorrow's Ramblings, and look for the Dobber writers to provide their playoff picks shortly after that.

Today I'll focus on Friday's schedule, which wraps up the regular season for most teams. Like a real hockey game, why don't we start with the national anthem?

MALCOLM SUBBAN JUST CRUSHED THE U.S. NATIONAL ANTHEM! 🤭

The reactions are priceless. pic.twitter.com/cYEOfE7bdw

— NHL (@NHL) April 29, 2022

–

The Florida Panthers have won the President's Trophy with the league's best record. The Montreal Canadiens will finish with the best odds for the lottery draft. Yet in a bizarre role reversal, the Habs won by a score of 10-2. The Panthers rested a whole bunch of regulars again for this game to prepare for the playoffs, and it showed.

Cole Caufield had an outstanding game, recording his first career hat trick to go with a plus-4 with nine shots. After a slow start, the Habs forward finishes his rookie season with 23 goals and 43 points in 67 games. Although Caufield's production slowed down later in the season (aside from this game), you probably already know how his season took off after Martin St. Louis was hired as coach. It's difficult to know what the state of the Habs will be going forward with all the injuries they had this season after a trip to the Stanley Cup Final last season, but Caufield himself has a very bright future.

Goal No. 22 for No. 22! And boy, was it a beauty! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Bj7ZG9IuHL

— NHL (@NHL) April 30, 2022

Mike Hoffman's production has declined over the past two seasons since moving from Florida. However, he finishes the season on a high note with a five-game point streak and goals in four of those games. Hoffman pitched in a goal and an assist with a plus-4 on Friday. Several other Habs finished with two points.

One of those other Habs with two points was Christian Dvorak, who finishes the season with his own five-game point streak and back-to-back multipoint games.

Jeff Petry also has a five-game point streak to finish the season. Over his past seven games, Petry has nine points (2 G, 7 A). He could be moved this offseason, although his $6.25 million contract with three years left might not be ideal for interested teams.  

Hopefully you didn’t look at this matchup and think that Jonas Johansson was in a great spot for a W, because that was sure misleading based on how the Panthers were approaching this game. Johansson was in net for all 10 goals, as the plan was to keep Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight rested for what Florida hopes will be a long playoff run. Can we call this one a really, REALLY bad start, Frozen Tools?

Friday's game aside, The Panthers have been a licence to print money this season.

#FlaPanthers have an NHL-high 335 goals this season. That is the most in a single season since #LetsGoPens had 362 goals in 1995-96.#TimeToHunt pic.twitter.com/HihDpzyITr

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) April 29, 2022

–

If there were a Conn Smythe Trophy for the fantasy playoffs, that award might have to go to Steven Stamkos. The Lightning center finished the regular season with a hat trick, giving him multiple points in each of his last nine games. Over that span he has racked up 26 points – nearly three points per game over the past two weeks!

Stamkos finishes the season with 42 goals and 106 points, which turned out to be his first 100-point season at age 32. He's also reached 40 goals six times. Remember when he appeared in just one game in the playoff bubble when the Lightning won the Cup? It's easy to write players off when they've had significant injuries. Hopefully you didn't trade away Stamkos in your keeper league for that reason.  

–

As I suspected yesterday, many of Boston's regulars did not suit up for their game against Toronto, including Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, and Charlie McAvoy. The Bruins have lost their three matches against Carolina by a combined score of 16-1, so they might want to be careful what they wish for if they were intentionally backing into this playoff matchup. Having said that, the Hurricanes might be without Frederik Andersen, so the Bruins might catch the Canes at the right time.

Toronto rested Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner against the Bruins. Matthews wins the Rocket Richard Trophy with 60 goals, and he also finishes with his first 100-point season.  

–

With a goal and an assist on Friday, Fabian Zetterlund finishes the season with a three-game point streak and 14 shots on goal over that span. Zetterlund scored 24 goals and 52 points in 58 AHL games, so he may be ready for a full-time roster spot with the Devils next season. For more on Zetterlund, see his Dobber Prospects page, recently updated by former Journey writer Hadi Kalakeche.  

Michael Rasmussen scored a goal and an assist in the Red Wings' 5-3 win over New Jersey. He also finished the season on a high note, scoring goals in three of his past four games. The 6-6 Rasmussen has more value in bangers leagues, as he finishes the season with 142 hits and 66 penalty minutes.  

–

It didn't help the Golden Knights playoff chances, but at least Jack Eichel finishes the season on a positive note. Eichel scored a pair of goals and an assist and six shots in Vegas's 7-4 win over St. Louis. I wrote more about Eichel and his team yesterday describing what went wrong and what to possibly expect going forward.

Mark Stone scored a goal! It was his first in 10 games. With injuries, his last goal prior to this game dates back to February 1.

–

With both John Gibson and Anthony Stolarz injured in the same game, the Ducks were forced to go the EBUG route. That meant it was all up to Tom Hodges to man the crease for Anaheim in the third period, complete with the Stars mask and equipment!

Our man in the cage right now.

Go get 'em Tom! pic.twitter.com/v3PH1Z138v

— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) April 30, 2022

Hodges made two saves and allowed the go-ahead power-play goal to Jason Robertson, who has scored on many NHL goalies this season. The Stars scored an empty-net goal to preserve a 4-2 win.

–

J.T. Miller was on a 100-point crusade in the Canucks' final game in Edmonton. Although he scored a first-period goal, Miller ended up just shy of 100 points, finishing the season with 99. All in all, it was a career season for Miller, not only in points but also in goals (32), shots (206), power-play points (38), and faceoffs won (666!) He finished as a top-10 scorer and appears just as valuable in multicategory leagues. Since Miller has one year left on his contract, the Canucks might look to trade Miller if their contract offers don't appeal to him. His trade value will be sky-high, and the Canucks have holes to fill.

The Oilers rested Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in this game. Not surprisingly, McDavid wins the Art Ross Trophy with 123 points, while Draisaitl finishes second in the Rocket Richard Trophy race with 55 goals.

–

Seattle's goaltending was thought to be their strength entering their inaugural season, yet Chris Driedger and in particular Philipp Grubauer have been a drain on fantasy teams. It wasn't bad on Friday, as Driedger posted his first shutout as a member of the Kraken. Driedger stopped all 24 San Jose shots he faced in earning his first quality start in four tries. If you are playing fantasy hockey until the bitter end, it is not known who Seattle's starter will be for their finale on Sunday in Winnipeg.

It's easy to assume that Brent Burns might lack durability because he is now 37 and has logged a ton of minutes throughout his career, especially with San Jose. However, when I was going through Burns's stats recently, I found that he has not missed a regular-season game since the 2014-15 season. Burns is still over 300 games behind Keith Yandle and Phil Kessel, so I wouldn't expect him to really challenge for the consecutive games-played record.

–

If you were paying attention to the Predators/Coyotes game, you would have noticed Nashville race out to a 3-0 lead before you could click the refresh button on your game ticker (within the first three minutes) and a 4-0 lead before the game was seven minutes old, chasing Karel Vejmelka from the net. It appeared that the playoff matches were solidified at that point because there's no way that lowly Arizona would come back from a 4-0 deficit, right?

Ok so the Coyote have now tied it at 4!!! https://t.co/m60iAV3i1U

— David Amber (@DavidAmber) April 30, 2022

And then Shayne Gostisbehere scored his second goal of the game. His first goal of the game so happened to be his 50^th point of the season, making my bonkers prediction come true!

Shayne Gostisbehere hits 50 points playing in the desert

— Ian Gooding (@Ian_Gooding) September 27, 2021

Now watch me go 1-for-8 in my first-round playoff predictions, after I put more careful thought into those than I did into that tweet.

Credit where credit is due, though, Gostisbehere received an opportunity in Arizona that he wouldn't have received with most other teams. The fact that Jakob Chychrun got off to a slow start and then was injured probably helped Ghost's stock. Chychrun is a strong candidate to be traded during the summer, which could help sustain Gostisbehere's value in Arizona.

Gostisbehere also finished the season with three consecutive multiple-point games (7 PTS over that span), so until recently it appeared he might not get to 50. Needless to say, he's been better than expected for fantasy teams this season. But with scoring up, you could probably say that about a lot of players.

–

Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding for more fantasy hockey.