Postseason Bracket Predictions 6 Days from the 2024 NHL Playoffs

Maybe all we needed was a little tune-up.

Though it'd only been a handful of days since we'd gotten a readout from the blocker-shaped forecasting device, the B/R hockey team decided to haul the thing into the shop to make sure all systems were functioning before we went at it again.

So here we are with a third and final guess at what we think it'll look like when the NHL's annual race to 16 springtime wins–also known as the playoffs–gets started with the first set of puck drops on Saturday night.

Three of the eight matchups have changed since our last try, so take a look at what we came up with this time and drop a thought in the app comments.

We didn't have this one on our initial try in March, but we brought it into the fold come April, and we're sticking with it even though there's still work to do.

The Maple Leafs haven't won a non-COVID-addled division title since the 1999-2000 season, when they captured the old Northeast and finished five points ahead of the Senators on the way to a first-round tournament matchup.

The gap between them was precisely doubled entering Sunday's games, but we'll go ahead and re-pull the trigger on a first "Battle of Ontario" series since 2004 and just the fifth since Ottawa's franchise rejoined the league in 1992.

Toronto has won all four so far, but it's just the opposite when it comes to the teams in the 2024-25 regular season, during which the Senators won all three games by a combined score of 9-3.

Unfortunately for the Leafs fans out there, that's what we're focused on.

Prediction: Senators in 6

If you're a betting person, this could be considered an indicator.

The Lightning and Panthers have played three postseason series in the springs of 2021, 2022 and 2024, with the winner advancing to the Stanley Cup Final each time.

So when they lock horns for a fourth time later this week, which will happen unless the Toronto Maple Leafs crash and burn between now and Saturday, it's hardly hyperbolic to suggest the winner automatically becomes an Eastern favorite.

There's little to glean from how they've played lately, given that each had won five of its last 10 entering Sunday, and they'll meet one last time on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena in Tampa for what'll be the Lightning's penultimate game and Florida's finale.

Given that the Panthers are the reigning champs, we're with them until proven otherwise.

Prediction: Panthers in 7

If you entered the season seeing the Capitals as the runaway top seed in the Eastern Conference, go ahead and take a bow. Because we certainly did not.

Washington has been playing like a powerhouse since the opening face-off and hasn't sloughed off for any appreciable amount of time until recently, with a 4-5-1 run over their last 10 entering Sunday that included an ugly 7-0 loss to Columbus.

Alex Ovechkin didn't play in that one as a measure of playoff preparation, though, and there's zero reason to believe he and the Caps won't be ready for what'd be their second all-time matchup with the Canadiens after a seven-game loss in 2010.

The first one was a significant upset given that Montreal finished 33 points behind the Presidents' Trophy winners and rallied to win the series from 3-1 down, but we're not expecting the newly-minted all-time goals leader to let it happen again.

Prediction: Capitals in 5

There have been seismic shifts in some of the would-be first-round series.

But the opening salvo matching the Hurricanes and Devils has stayed steady.

Carolina has been far enough behind first-place Washington and New Jersey far enough ahead of the flotsam and jetsam in pursuit of third that they've pretty much been on a collision course for a month or so.

That's presumably good news for the Hurricanes, who'd earned 11 of a possible 20 points through their last 10 games entering Sunday and could get ready for the Devils as they complete their season with trips to Montreal and Ottawa.

New Jersey, meanwhile, should get a spike from the return of injured defenseman Dougie Hamilton, but a three-game skid entering the final week–in which they've scored four goals while allowing 12–is far from the best preparatory news.

Prediction: Hurricanes in 5

OK, we're finally conceding on this one.

After two weeks of feeling bullish on the Dallas Stars to overtake the Jets and thrust themselves into the Western Conference's 1-8 series, reality has taken over and it'll officially be Winnipeg taking on whichever team grabs the second wild-card slot.

And after weeks of suggesting the Blues would finish out their torrid run and jump past the Minnesota Wild, we're backing off and going with St. Louis, which trails Minnesota by a point with each team having a single game left to take eighth.

The Blues won the lone past playoff meeting in 2019, in six games on the way to a Stanley Cup, and there were plenty of parallels to that run this season, given a 12-game win streak and an in-season coaching change. But three straight subsequent losses, including a 3-1 loss at Winnipeg in which they managed just 15 shots, have dulled the enthusiasm a bit.

A good series? Yes. But a big upset? Not so much.

Prediction: Jets in 6

One good turn deserves another, no?

As we mentioned, we'd gone through two forecasts with an idea that Dallas would surge past Winnipeg and into the Central driver's seat, but it didn't happen.

So that means it's the Stars and the Colorado Avalanche in a tantalizing first-round matchup that'll eliminate one of the top three teams on the most recent DraftKings listing of favorites to win this year's Stanley Cup.

It'll be the seventh time they've met in the playoffs and second in two seasons after Dallas eliminated Colorado in six games before losing to Edmonton in last spring's Western final. The Avalanche haven't beaten the Stars in a postseason setting since winning a first-round series against them back in 2005-06.

But while neither team had exactly torn up April (Colorado was 3-3-0 entering Sunday to Dallas's 1-3-2), the Avs have been slightly better and they'll have several days off before the tournament starts. Add the fact that they beat the Stars twice in three games and scored 13 goals doing so, and we've heard all we need.

Prediction: Avalanche in 7

The Golden Knights weren't exactly starved for good news, but they got it.

Having the St. Louis surge slowed down just in time to keep the Blues in the West's eighth spot means Vegas now draws the seventh-seeded Wild.

And while that doesn't look as good when it comes to the standings, it's a whole lot better in terms of the matchup, which the Pacific champs dominated to the tune of a 3-0-0 sweep with a significant plus-8 goals differential (12-4).

It'll be a four-year reunion in terms of playoff history, dating back to the 2021 series that was the teams' only previous meeting. Vegas hung on to win that one in seven games after frittering a 3-1 lead, and, even though Minnesota's optimism is spiked by the returns of Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek, this one shouldn't be as close.

Prediction: Golden Knights in 5

It may not be the best, but we've certainly saved the most recognizable for last.

The Kings and Oilers are locked in for a fourth consecutive first-round meeting, with the only mystery being whether Edmonton will be able to reel in Los Angeles in time to seize home-ice advantage against the league's best home-ice team.

It may not matter given the M*A*S*H unit makeup of the Oilers these days, with the apparently long-term absence of Mattias Ekholm and the scoring gap left by an injury to MVP candidate and goals leader Leon Draisaitl, who has not played since April 3.

Meanwhile, the Kings have been the West's best team (5-1-0) in April while allowing two goals or fewer five times, including a shutout of Edmonton that guaranteed no worse than a tie in a season series that ends on Monday night in Alberta.

Bottom line: If L.A. doesn't win this one, there might really be a curse.

Prediction: Kings in 5