NHL.com has a bracket challenge with the grand prize being a trip to the awards show.
According to an article on CBS, the Penguins and Wild are the top contenders: link
Mrazek starting over Howard. Can’t disagree, but I am amazed the old Man is going with the Kid over the Veteran.
I think it is the best call for now, and a much better call for the future. I have to be realistic about their chances this year, but I think Mrazek is the future, better to start the seasoning now.
Hm, their logic for why you need a good PK sounds backwards to me. The fewer PKs that you face in a game, the less important a PK is. The PK was much more relevant a few years ago when refs were actually calling penalties.
Your matchups:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
- New York Rangers (53-22-7) vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (43-27-12)
The Rangers are the biggest Vegas favourite to win the first round and to be honest it’s not hard to see why; the Penguins backed in, their +11 goal differential was 16th in the league and better than only one other playoff team, and their recent playoff history isn’t filled with glory anyway. New York is superior in basically everything about hockey. Unless Sid the Kid goes insane this is the easiest pick in the first round.
Rick’s Pick: Rangers
- Montreal Canadiens (50-22-10) vs. 7. Ottawa Senators (43-26-13)
A lot of Habs fans are terrified of this matchup and it’s not hard to see why, inasmuch as Ottawa has been playing supernatural hockey for two months; they’re the hottest team in the NHL and just pulled off the greatest regular season comeback in league history. The reality is, though, that Montreal has been basically this good all year, and Ottawa’s recent scoring festival will not easily be continued against Carey Price, who is insanely great. This could be a hell of a series but Les Glorieux are a clear favourite.
Rick’s Pick: Montreal
- Tampa Bay Lightning (50-24-8) vs. 6. Detroit Red Wings (43-25-14)
Honestly, I don’t think Detroit is that good a team. Good on them making the payoffs again, I’m not exactly sure how they keep doing it.
Rick’s Pick: Tampa Bay
- Washington Capitals (45-26-11) vs. 5. New York Islanders (47-28-7)
See, the goddamn loser point. The Islanders had a BETTER record than Washington; they won 47 games and lost 35, while Washington won 45 and lost 37. And yet the Islanders don’t have home ice advantage, because of the loser point, and because for reasons known only to God, the number of games you actually win isn’t part of the tiebreaking procedure. It’s stupid.
Anyway, weren’t the Islanders in first place overall at some point? Or close to it? Actually, yeah - 30-35 games ago they had a better goal differential than they do now, in fact. So unfair or not, it looks like Washington is legitimately a better team. Having said that Washington was incredibly heavy on power lay goals this year, something that often does not translate well to playoffs, so I’m not staking my life on it.
Rick’s Pick: Washington, but just by a little
WESTERN CONFERENCE
- Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks (51-24-7) vs. 8. Calgary Flames (45-30-7)
The team with the worst goal differential in the playoffs? The Ducks, at just +10. I’m not sure how they won 51 games but this is, right off the top, my first pick for upset of the first round. Calgary is a deeper team than they’re given credit for, and my prediction is they’ll shock everyone.
Rick’s Pick: Calgary
- St. Louis Blues (51-24-7) vs. 7. Winnipeg Jets (43-26-13)
It was nice to see Winnipeg overcome adversity, injuries, Evander Kane goes a bit nuts, and being located in Winnipeg to make the playoffs, but it’s going to come to a screeching halt against the Blues, who might be the best team in the NHL. I love everything about St. Louis. I sincerely hope the Jets give the MTS Centre something to go nuts about but this may be my pick for likeliest sweep.
Rick’s Pick: St. Louis
- Nashville Predators (47-25-10) vs. 6. Minnesota Wild (46-28-8)
This is my other major upset guess. Actually maybe it’s a pick’em. These teams are very close; overall I prefer Minnesota, but just having home ice advantage - where they play REALLY well - tips it back towards Nashville enough that I’ve no idea who will win. I’ll pick Minnesota only because Nashville has a lot of players banged up right now, at precisely the time you don’t want that.
Rick’s Pick: Minnesota
- Chicago Blackhawks (I closed the standings screen) vs 5. Vancouver Canucks
Oh, man, this could be bloody and awesome… but let’s be honest, Chicago’s way better and, again, the Canucks are just a hard team to believe in.
Rick’s Pick: Chicago
The first tie breaker is the number of games won, excluding the shootout. The Islanders have two more overall wins but they won seven shootouts and the Caps only won five shootouts. That pushed it to head-to-head and the Caps earned more standings points in those games.
Still, why have the shootout if you are only going to count it part of the time.
RickJay, how do you envision a Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks series going?
Rickjay, I think you got your Western Conference matchups screwed up.
So the Kings didn’t make the cut for the playoffs this year, huh? Bummer. I actually enjoyed seeing their runs to the title in 2012 and 2014 (and this coming from somebody who normally HATES all things L.A. when it comes to sports). Guess they’ll have to try to continue their “win it every other year” thing in 2016…
Huh. you’re right. I went off the standings, and they’re… wrong, somehow.
Chicago will beat Nashville.
St. Louis will beat Minnesota.
Calgary will beat Vancouver.
You can’t go off of the conference standings anymore because the playoffs are mostly “divisional” now. I say mostly because the wildcard teams can cross over to the other division. You can even have a “double switch” as it were and have a wildcard team from the Atlantic play in the Metro bracket and vice-versa.
I love my Pens, but I cannot see them winning the Cup this year. In fact, I’m amazed we even made the play-offs. It’s an uphill climb without Dupuis alone – now without Letang, the very idea is just mind-boggling.
(I’m disappointed that they can’t put up the big screen outside Consol this year, due to construction. I was planning on going. :()
It’s only now I remembered Max Pacioretty is hurt. If his injury keeps him out that swings the series away from Montreal and to Ottawa, albeit slightly.
Montreal isn’t good at scoring goals even WITH Pacioretty, and without him they run a real risk of having Price play great and still losing.
Bummer for Minnesota. I was reading elsewhere the other day that ever since the Wild acquired a certain goalie mid-season that they’ve been nearly unstoppable.
We’ll see. Minnesota was one of my pre-season dark horses. I kind of wish I put some money on them back then. They were looking pretty formidable the end of last season and with Devin Dubnyk in the net, it should prove to be a hard-fought series. I’m feeling pretty nervous about the Blackhawks. They have the talent, but with Kane being out for so long, they still have to get through the Predators (which I think they can do) and then either the Blues or Wild (which I’m less optimistic about). Stanley Cup hockey is tough! If the Hawks don’t get through, I want to see the Wild take it all.
Yay! The Sharks disappointed their fanbase extra early this year, letting me concentrate on the NFL Draft. Have fun chasing the cup, everybody else. 
Since the Wild acquired that certain goalie (first appearance was January 15), the records of the Western playoff teams are:
Team Win Loss OT Points
Minnesota: 28 - 9 - 3 = 59
St. Louis: 24 - 11 - 4 = 52
Vancouver: 25 - 14 - 2 = 52
Calgary: 23 - 12 - 4 = 50
Anaheim: 24 - 14 - 1 = 49
Winnipeg: 21 - 12 - 5 = 47
Chicago: 20 - 15 - 4 = 44
Nashville: 18 - 16 - 6 = 42
I also wonder how shoot out record effects the playoffs. Some teams got a lot of points out of the shoot outs, which don’t exist in the playoffs.
‘Save Bracket’ always complains
Pick the winner of each matchup - done
length of each series in the first round - done
total goals in stanley cup final - done
The popup keeps asking for more. It won’t matter. My pick is below.
Islanders beat Blackhawks 
I maybe rooting for Chicago this year so they can have the ODD year Cups.
Rangers in 5.
Ottawa in 7.
Capitals in 6.
Tampa Bay in 5.
Ducks in 6.
Minnesota in 7.
Chicago in 7.
Vancouver in 7.
…