Every Eastern Conference team wrapped up the regular season by Wednesday, and the Western Conference wrapped up last night. The regular season is over, the first round is set, and the playoffs begin tomorrow.
The very first game of the entire postseason: Game 1 between the Carolina Hurricanes and our New York Islanders. That means the whole hockey world will be watching and fawning over the Canes and tut-tutting about the Islanders. Just the way we like it.
Last year, some pundits gave the Islanders a chance to upset Carolina, who were without Andrei Svechnikov and Max Pacioretty and going up against Ilya Sorokin coming off a Vezina-caliber season.