The bracket for the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs is (nearly) complete.
The Eastern Conference first-round matchups locked into place Thursday night as most teams completed their regular season schedule. The playoff picture in the West may not be fully complete until Friday, when the defending champion Colorado Avalanche take on the Nashville Predators in the final game of the 2022-23 NHL regular season.
Here’s a look at every first round playoff series that is set in stone (with team seeds in parenthesis).
(This post will be updated)
Boston Bruins (Atlantic 1) vs. Florida Panthers (Wild Card 2)
The Bruins (65-12-5) enter the playoffs having completed the best regular season of all time by wins (65) and points (135). That, of course, puts a lot of pressure on them to perform. They will look to avoid the fate of the 2018-19 Lightning, who lit up the NHL with a then record-tying 62 wins only to be swept in the first round. Boston will play last year’s Presidents’ Trophy winners, the Florida Panthers (42-32-8), who rallied for a playoff spot after an uneven season under first-year coach Paul Maurice.
This rematch of last year’s seven-game first-round series has been inevitable for months. The Maple Leafs (50-21-11) are making their seventh straight playoff appearance, but they have not won a series since 2004. They swung a big trade before the deadline, acquiring 2019 Conn Smythe winner Ryan O’Reilly, with the hopes of changing that. Tampa Bay (46-30-6), meanwhile, has been stumbling its way into the postseason, but it would be foolish to count the three-time defending Eastern Conference champions out.
Carolina had an uneven close after it lost dynamic forward Andrei Svechnikov for the season due to injury. Still, the Hurricanes (52-21-9) are the Metro champions for the third straight year. Standing in their path as they begin what they hope is a deep playoff run is the Islanders (42-31-9). New York could be a tough out. Ilya Sorokin is one of the best goalies in the NHL, and the Islanders’ core has plenty of postseason experience after back-to-back final four appearances in 2020 and 2021.
The longtime rivals get reacquainted in their first playoff series since the 2012 Eastern Conference final. This was a breakout year for the Devils (52-22-8), who have only made the playoffs once since they fell to the Kings in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final. They broke the franchise’s all-time points record while Jack Hughes, the No. 1 overall pick in 2019, put together the best offensive season in team history. The Rangers (47-22-13), looking to build on last year’s conference final appearance, picked up a pair of stars at the trade deadline in Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NHL standings, Stanley Cup Playoffs bracket: Every first round series
