The Non-Devils 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Open Post

Earlier today, the New Jersey Devils were eliminated by the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games in their round series matchup. Our favorite team is no longer in the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, I can understand that you may still be interested in the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. The quality of hockey is high. The stakes are massive. The intensity is real. Plus, whoever succeeds may inadvertently provide the template that other teams may try to follow for future seasons so they may succeed as well. This can be a style of play, a power play formation, and/or type of player. Those other teams could be the Devils.

Therefore, these games may be worth watching. So this is an open post to discuss these other games.

The good news is that there are no rivals in serious threat of going deep. As of this writing, the Second Rate Rivals are still on the brink of elimination against Pittsburgh. You may dislike Tampa Bay intensely after the Devils’ first round loss and you may dislike Boston simply for Marchand. Those two will play each other in the second round provided that the B’s do not bottle it against Toronto (Boston is up 3 games to 1 right now). Somebody will advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, somebody will suffer elimination.

Elsewhere in the East, I don’t know how many Devils fans really don’t like Washington or Columbus, but the Caps are up 3-2 in the series and they have a tradition of failing the second round to uphold. So there’s that.

Over in the West, Vegas and San Jose swept their first round series and will play a sure-to-be fun second round series soon enough. Winnipeg won their first series in a long, long time for that series (and the first time for their franchise; Atlanta will not be forgotten). The only first round match-up still open is Nashville and Colorado. Again, Nashville has Colorado on the brink but they aren’t done yet.

Anyway, this is the place to discuss all playoff games that does not involve the Devils. The rules? They remain.

The Rules: The rules remain the rules even as this is a non-Devils playoff game open post. Please keep your comments clean, legal (read: no streams, no links to streams, no asking for streams, no streams, no streams at all), and all about the game itself. Other scores are OK, but let’s make sure the comments here are primarily about the playoff games. Also, let’s respect each other, there’s no need for drama or unwelcome nature of any sort. This is a gamethread, let’s focus on the games. Thank you for reading.