Well, that was a fun way to welcome back hockey wasn’t it? In the NHL’s first ever postseason Qualifying Round, chaos reigned supreme and lower seeds vanquished higher seeds in both hub cities. Not just lower seeds, but the lowest seeds possible in both conferences advanced. First it was Chicago knocking off Edmonton and then it was Montreal delivering an early exit to Pittsburgh.
Did we learn anything from the play-in round? That five-game series in the age of parity are absolute crapshoots. The only series that really saw a talent mismatch was Carolina and New York. The Hurricanes were just too much for the Rangers and it showed on the ice.