News / Sports
NHL Playoffs Start Tonight with Eight Teams Skating Towards the Stanley Cup
After a grueling 82-game regular season the NHL playoffs have arrived and there are 16 teams alive and kicking, all with plans to hoist the Stanley Cup when the final horn sounds. The quest begins tonight for eight those teams with the Eastern Conference featuring a single match-up while the Western Conference offers a trio.
In the Eastern Conference match-up the Ottawa Senators will play host to the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7:00 pm ET. The Penguins led the season series 3-1 with two of those wins coming in a shootout. Pittsburgh won twice on Ottawa’s ice, most recently on April 5. Both teams finished with 105 points but home-ice went the Senators way after capturing one more victory than the Penguins.
The San Jose Sharks will travel to the Nashville Predators in a Western Conference playoff match-up set to begin at 8:00 pm ET. While not exactly limping into the playoffs, Nashville struggled towards the end of the year after being near the top of the Western Conference for much of the season. After going 5-3-2 over their last ten the Predators dropped to the fourth seed and will face a Sharks squad that has gone 7-1-2 in their last ten. Nashville went 3-1 against San Jose this season including two wins at home, one of those wins, a 5-0 drubbing.
Dropping the puck at 10:00 pm ET will be the host Vancouver Canucks taking on the six seeded Dallas Stars. The Stars are another team playing strong hockey entering the playoffs. In their last ten Dallas has gone 7-1-2 with road wins over Detroit and Nashville on back-to-back nights. Vancouver and Dallas split the season series 2-2 with each side winning twice on their own ice. Each of the four regular season match-ups ended 2-1.
The Anaheim Ducks will face-off against the seven seeded Minnesota Wild in the final match-up of the night at 10:30 pm ET. Anaheim is coming into the playoffs with a 5-3-2 record over their last ten while the Wild played strong to earn their ticket, going 7-1-2 over ten. The Ducks won both their meetings in Anaheim while the Wild did the same in Minnesota. All four contests were decided by a single goal.
