The NHL Regular Season is over, so we might as well continue our discussions in a brand new 2025 playoff thread.
Now the REAL excitement begins.
Good luck to everyone and their favourite teams. Except for you Oiler fans. 
GO KINGS GO 
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Agreed. Good luck to everyone and their favourite teams except Oiler fans and Leafs fans. You forgot that last one. 
Good luck to your Kings too, until they meet the Jets. That is a very possible Conference Final this year if our teams can handle their business before then.
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Not unsurprisingly the NHL is once again botching their schedule roll out and channelling their inner CFL in that regard. As of now only two series starts have been announced with Winnipeg/St. Louis and Dallas/Colorado both going on Saturday and only one game start time being provided. The league has had ample time to set this up and I can’t believe that whether Montreal or Columbus made it in could have much of an effect on scheduling as either one would be travelling to Washington.
I am very surprised that the Jets got the Saturday national game over the Leafs, who will apparently be playing Sunday. Maybe moustache man stubbed his toe and asked for an extra day to heal? This is strange not only because there would presumably be many more national TV viewers for the Leafs game than the Jets game, but this also bumped the Saturday concert by Randy Bachman and BTO to Sunday. The Leafs game will also be competing with Easter dinners. So the league bent over backwards to make this happen. A real head scratcher but as a Winnipegger it is good for me.
I will link the schedule below, which currently only shows the two games, but I expect will be updated. The league says the rest of the schedule will be announced today.
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It also might have something to do with the NBA playoffs also starting and the logistics and availabilty of arenas accomadating both NBA and NHL playoff teams .
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Haven’t been following the NBA, whatever that is. 
Didn’t the Raptors miss the playoffs?
I can’t see it having anything to do with the availability of arenas since they just bumped the BTO concert in Winnipeg two days before it was to happen. It has been known for weeks that Winnipeg would be hosting the first game in the first round and also known for weeks or even months that the concert was scheduled for Saturday. I’m sticking with my incompetence theory. Either that or Bettman was waiting for the new dartboard with all the playoff teams names on it which he uses to make the schedule.
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Fixed that for you
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Well wishing Leaf fans good luck in the playoffs has been kind of pointless for the last 58 years. 
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And indeed the same link has been updated, though here in the US the site does not indicate which Canadian media will be covering the games as well.
Down here I will be watching whatever I can on Pirate Sports Network when at home, and at work simply following via some random YouTube channel or via audio only 
, for as many of you know this situation is due to the tragic sinking of the Diablo Macho by a bojack co-worker, for which the first anniversary is coming up in a few weeks.
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Me neither, for since at least 2011 it has been largely hopeless for that steaming hot pile of crap circus of a league with two damn two elephants crapping all over the place, De Facto Commissioner Lebron and his Deputy De Juro Commissioner Adam Silver, and until both gone at long last already six years too late and counting.
The cities or metro areas with teams in both the NHL and NBA playoffs are as follows, and they will schedule their respective games on different nights, regardless of any sharing of venue.
- Denver
- Los Angeles x 2
(generally the Lakers are not scheduled at the same time as the Kings rather than the Clippers, if there is any conflict at all) - Minneapolis
Potentially, for the play-in finals are at hand, Dallas could be added to the list.
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The full schedule is now out except for times for Games 5-7 in each series. More of the same quirks as in recent years. For example the Jets/Blues will have played two games before the Oilers/Kings or the Florida teams have played even one. I see that as an advantage for the Jets/Blues. Not only do they have less time to wait and get rusty between their last regular season game and first playoff game, they should also have more time to rest before the second round.
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and loving it 
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…yeah I know…I felt the same about Dallas back in the Hemsky era…same team in the playoffs year after year…
Good luck to all!
The tough series to pick are Dallas/Avs, IMO whoever wins is second round fodder. Both win with their offence and defence is questionable.
And Sens/Leafs.
As much as there is that well - it was regular season, Ottawa won by more than one goal almost every game. Just can’t shake the feeling the Leafs will get that “oh no not again.” thing going if they fall behind.
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Since the season thread is locked
I’ll put this here
Thursday’s seven-game finale pushed total attendance for the full, 1,312-game regular season to 23,014,458 , surpassing the 23-million mark for the first time and eclipsing the previous high of 22,873,142 set last season. The record figure represents 96.9% of capacity.
…
Good on the Habs for this
The Montreal Canadiens led all clubs in total attendance, with sellout crowds of 21,105 filling Bell Centre for each of their 41 home dates for a total of 865,305.
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Something else to ponder with regards to those border crossings to Buffalo…
@Aerial
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I’ve been to the Key Bank Center in Buffalo many times. I’m not sure what these “extensive renovations needed” are about. It looks like a nice, clean facility. Both inside and out. So I’m not really sure how it’s that outdated after 29 years.
Heck, I remember going to see AC/DC at their old arena (The Buffalo Aud) around 1991. So the Key Bank Center is still relatively “new” to me.
But maybe my standards for new and old are different? I attended 30 years of Tiger-Cat’s games at Ivor Wynne Stadium. Now THAT was an antiquated facility.
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Well lots of talk, extensive talk that is, about the Marlies coming to Hamilton sooner than later in what would be the class of the AHL but maybe, who knows, maybe the Sabres could call Hamilton home and the Marlies end up in Buffalo. I would think Pegula would do anything possible for the Bills with cost overruns for the new Bills stadium happening as I would guess that is his main prize the Bills over the Sabres meaning if he absolutely had to sell the Sabres to get the Bills stadium thingy done within a budget line, he’d do it. Just all my speculation.
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Not that anyone cares but here’s who I’ll be cheering for in the first round:
Edmonton
Montreal
Winnipeg
Ottawa
Colorado
Tampa Bay
Minnesota
New Jersey, I guess?
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The thing about these Pools is that your heart and brain are often at odds.
Most of us picked Toronto in the Pool but will be cheering for Ottawa.
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I once got a big argument with a guy who couldn’t understand that the team I want to win and the team I think will win could be different.
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