Lyle Fitzsimmons@@fitzbitzIncluded Columnist IIIApril 9, 2024Postseason Bracket Predictions 11 Days From the 2024 NHL Playoffs
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Scott Audette/NHLI by means of Getty Images
The NHL’s late season is, in a word … fluid.
4 groups were within 5 points of the lead in the league standings– and the Presidents’ Trophy that eventually features it– getting in Monday’s video games, while the chase for the 3 non-clinched wild-card slots consisted of 7 more within the very same margin.
And though groups in New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville and Vegas had ownership of the sought after “manage their own fate” expression as the night’s shortened two-game slate began, there’ll definitely be considerable paradigm shifts within 24 hours.
This makes the difficulty of forecasting simply who’ll be included throughout 8 first-round series in the upcoming playoffs an overwhelming one. It’s specifically the kind of job the B/R hockey group revels in, which was all the timely required for the personnel to reconvene and map out who’ll be matched with whom when the postseason puck drops on April 20.
It’s the 2nd go-round for our bracket-focused crystal ball and we’re hoping the fine-tuning work given that recently’s effort will correct the kinks. Have a look at what we created this time and drop an idea or 2 of your own in the remarks.
Atlantic Division: Boston Bruins vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
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Mark LoMoglio/NHLI through Getty Images
What a distinction a week makes in the Atlantic Division.
7 days earlier, the Florida Panthers were 2 points off the speed of the Boston Bruins however still appeared to be the group that had actually lived at or near the top of the NHL standings all season, which triggered us to recommend they ‘d get rid of the little margin and surface.
Nowadays, not a lot.
The Panthers were a completely pedestrian 1-1-1 throughout 3 video games while the Bruins were winning 3 straight by a 10-3 margin, extending their department result in 5 points and searching for all intents and functions as if it’ll be them and not Florida that snatches the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed and with it an assumed battle with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Disallowing a substantial late rise, the Lightning are locked into 4th in the Atlantic, where they track the third-place Toronto Maple Leafs by 4 points. They’ve currently clinched a playoff area, nevertheless, and their nine-point lead for the very first wild-card area leaves their opening-round challenger– probably whoever wins the Atlantic– as the only sticking around secret.
For the record, they’ve played the Bruins 4 times this season, splitting a set of policy video games and winning when each in overtime and a shootout.
Atlantic Division: Florida Panthers vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
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Gavin Napier/Icon Sportswire by means of Getty Images
There are a great deal of factors to think in the Florida Panthers.