At least one series in the first round of the NHL playoffs is going to go the distance. Anaheim and Detroit are poised for a Game 7 battle on Sunday night, and three more series are getting set for a Game 6.
All four playoff teams from the NHL’s Northeast Division are playing each other in the first round of the playoffs and both series are now on the brink of ending. The Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators each got Game 4 wins that gave them 3-1 series leads. TheSportsNotebook’s review of each NHL playoff series will begin with these two matchups
Every first-round series in the NHL playoffs has completed three games and two of them are four deep, but only might end in elimination over the course of the next two nights. That’s San Jose-Vancouver, where the Canucks stand on the verge of yet another playoff flameout. The self-induced failure of Vancouver will lead our overview of all eight first-round matchups and an assessment of where they stand.
Chicago and Pittsburgh are the heavy co-favorites for the Stanley Cup and each has responded differently in its first two games. The Blackhawks are in command, the Penguins are facing a challenge and both will be in the NBC spotlight on Sunday afternoon when the postseason’s sequence of Game 3s begins at noon EST. We’ll start with these two teams and then move through the other six NHL playoff matchups.
The St. Louis-Los Angeles series, along with Anaheim-Detroit—the only other first-round pairing to have already played two games—will lead our discussion, and we’ll then sweep through the other six matchups.
The NHL playoffs begin Tuesday night. Today’s NHL analysis will preview the four first-round matchups in the Eastern Conference, starting with one point that summarizes each series in a nutshell and then moving into fuller analysis.