You could trust the panel with your first-round picks this season, as they collectively went 7-for-8 in picking a winner. The only series the majority of Dobber writers got wrong was Boston over Toronto, which could have possibly gone either way because it went to overtime in Game 7.

This was not the year that a random coin toss had better results than writers' picks. The lack of major upsets in the first round probably had something to do with it. All of the winning teams registered at least 104 points during the regular season. As well, eight of the top nine teams in the overall standings have advanced to the second round (Winnipeg is the only exception).

Congratulations are in order for Mario Prata, who correctly picked all eight series in the first round! Stas Pupkov and yours truly were right behind with seven correct picks, while numerous other writers finished with six correct picks.   

The panel's lifetime record is now 137-87 when it comes to postseason predictions.

For the coin toss, heads was the higher-seeded team. The default is seven games for each coin toss pick, as well as for any writers who replied only with series winners. 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.

Also note that the picks for the Rangers/Hurricanes series were made before Sunday's Game 1. We could not release this article until the Stars/Golden Knights had been completed on Sunday evening.

Strong Favorites

All but one writer picked the Panthers to advance past the Bruins, all but three writers picked the Oilers to knock out the Canucks, and all but four writers picked the Hurricanes to defeat the Rangers. You can probably figure out reasons for that. If we can provide reasons to pick the underdogs, how about the following:

Boston and Florida were separated by only one point during the regular season. As well, the Bruins won all four of the head-to-head matches (two of the wins came in overtime). Don't forget that the Bruins will also be looking for revenge after the Panthers' surprising series win last season after the Bruins took a 3-1 series lead.

Vancouver finished five points ahead of Edmonton while also winning all four of their head-to-head matches. Granted, three of those games were early in the season before the Oilers made their coaching change, while the Oilers were without Connor McDavid for the other game. In other words, don't expect the Canucks to sweep this series.

The Rangers took Game 1 of their series, a game that was played before Game 7 of the Dallas/Vegas series. Since you might be curious by now how their season series went, it was 2-1 for the Rangers.

Too Close to Call

A total of 10 writers picked the Stars, while seven writers picked the Avalanche. This series of Central Division powers might be the most likely to go seven games, as the panel was basically split between picking this series to finish in six and seven games.

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 the latest writer to join the editing team, as he now also 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 started as the Saturday game picks writer and is now taking on Eastern Edge and the Top 10 list as well. 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.

Ben Gehrels pens the weekly prospect column The Journey that can be found here every Saturday. He is also an associate editor at Dobber Prospects.

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 has also contributed to Goalie Post.

Peter Ryell provides you with what you need to know about line combinations in Lining Up.

Brad Hayward provides tons of tips to help you win your daily fantasy leagues on Saturdays.

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

Blake Creamer brings his medical knowledge and sense of humor to Injury Ward every Wednesday. He also hosts the Apples & Ginos Fantasy Hockey Podcast.

Stas Pupkov dives deep into advanced stats with Analytics Advantage, a new column for the 2023-24 season.

Enjoy the playoffs, folks!