Over the past few days you’ve heard pundits bemoaning the qualifying-round format robbing the playoffs of superstar players, and that’s certain to continue over the length of the post-season. Teams that possessed the most exciting players in the league had done enough to qualify for the typical 16-team playoff format, but were forced to jump through more hoops to make the official playoff round to make up for the fact that teams didn’t get a full season to prove themselves.
Several teams were worried that upsets were possible in this tacked-on round to the usual proceedings, and sure enough the two worst teams in the pool — the 24th-ranked Montreal Canadiens and 23rd-ranked Chicago Blackhawks — not only knocked off teams that finished fifth in their respective conferences, but evicted All-Star forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Connor McDavid, and Leon Draisaitl from the bubbles as well.