The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs are complete. Eight teams remain in the hunt for the Stanley Cup, and for our experts, it's time to face the music: How do our playoff predictions stand up after Round 1?
NHL playoff predictions: How did our experts fare in Round 1?
Let’s look back and see how our first round playoff predictions match up with reality.
Ezra Shaw
Nobody got every series correct, but five of us picked five of the eight first-round series correctly, including Adam Gretz, who nailed four of those series predictions down to the precise number of games. Andrew Berkshire, the only Canadian on the panel, finished in last place with his first-round predictions, guessing only two series correctly, neither of which were picked with the right number of games.
Here are the results. Underlines mean the number of games were correct. Bold means the correct team was chosen.
| First Round | Travis | Ted | Evan | Adam | Eric | Pat | Andrew | Bruce |
| BOS vs. DET | BOS in 6 | BOS in 7 | BOS in 5 | BOS in 6 | BOS in 6 | BOS in 5 | DET in 7 | DET in 7 |
| TB vs. MTL | TB in 7 | TB in 6 | TB in 6 | TB in 5 | TB in 6 | TB in 6 | TB in 6 | MTL in 6 |
| PIT vs. CBJ | PIT in 6 | PIT in 6 | PIT in 7 | PIT in 6 | CBJ in 6 | CBJ in 7 | CBJ in 6 | CBJ in 6 |
| NYR vs. PHI | NYR in 6 | NYR in 7 | NYR in 5 | NYR in 7 | NYR in 5 | PHI in 7 | NYR in 5 | NYR in 7 |
| ANA vs. DAL | DAL in 7 | ANA in 5 | ANA in 6 | DAL in 6 | ANA in 7 | ANA in 6 | DAL in 7 | ANA in 5 |
| SJ vs. LA | LA in 7 | SJ in 7 | SJ in 7 | LA in 7 | LA in 6 | SJ in 5 | SJ in 7 | SJ in 7 |
| COL vs. MIN | COL in 5 | COL in 7 | COL in 7 | COL in 7 | COL in 6 | COL in 5 | COL in 5 | COL in 6 |
| STL vs. CHI | CHI in 6 | CHI in 6 | CHI in 6 | CHI in 6 | CHI in 5 | CHI in 7 | CHI in 5 | CHI in 7 |
| Results: | 5/8 (3 perfect) | 5/8 (2 perfect) | 5/8 (3 perfect) | 5/8 (4 perfect) | 5 for 8 | 3/8 (2 perfect) | 2 for 8 | 4/8 (1 perfect) |
As for our Stanley Cup picks, everybody but Bruce, Andrew and Evan have their predicted Cup winner still alive in the playoffs. That trio all picked the San Jose Sharks. Poor Sharks.
Here are our full predictions, if you’re interested in seeing how we’ve chosen the whole 2014 postseason to play out.
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