NHL Playoffs Bracket 2024: What Are the First Round Series in Stanley Cup Playoffs?

Following a six-month grind, the NHL's 2023-24 normal season is finished. Presently, the tomfoolery truly starts.

The Stanley Cup end of the season games field and matchups are set and postseason play starts Saturday. The Vegas Brilliant Knights will begin their title safeguard Monday with a rematch of last year's Western Meeting last.

There's a ton of natural faces this year, with three groups that didn't partake in barely a year's ago's postseason in the current year's field (Washington, Vancouver, Nashville).

The primary round will see three season finisher rematches from last year, however there are different matchups of groups with late postseason history including the third release of the Clash of Florida in the last four seasons.

New York Rangers (Metro 1) vs. Washington Capitals (Wild Card 2)

The Officers won the Presidents' Prize as the best group in the association this season while the Capitals slipped into the postseason brandishing the most terrible objective differential by a season finisher group in many years (- 37).

The Officers had five players record a greater number of focuses than the Capitals' driving scorer (Dylan Strome, 67 focuses), including Artemi Panarin, who completed fourth in the association scoring race with 120 places.

It's a confuse on paper, however the Capitals truly do have one of the association's more underestimated goalies in Charlie Lindgren and a center that has a lot of season finisher experience. There's a lot of bad blood between these establishments that split their season series.

Carolina Hurricanes (Metro 2) vs. New York Islanders (Metro 3)

The Storms and Islanders are meeting in the principal round for the second sequential year. Carolina, which recorded north of 110 focuses for the third back to back prepare, stirred things up at the exchange cutoff time a bid to at last forward leap to the Stanley Cup Last.

The greatest name the Typhoons brought in was Jake Guentzel, a demonstrated season finisher entertainer from the Pittsburgh Penguins, and he's fit in pleasantly with 25 places in 17 games. The Islanders won 10 of their last 13 games to flood into the end of the season games. They made a middle of the season training change, getting Patrick Roy.

Florida Panthers (Atlantic 1) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (Wild Card 1)

The Lightning dispatched their in-state rival in 2021 and 2022 in transit to the Stanley Cup Last. However, the Jaguars are the safeguarding Eastern Gathering champions and have home ice subsequent to winning the division.

The Lightning brag three 40-objective scorers, including NHL focuses pioneer Nikita Kucherov (144 focuses). The Jaguars have the NHL's second-driving objective scorer in Sam Reinhart (57 objectives) and a lot of diligence with Matthew Tkachuk driving the way. There could be a ton of firecrackers in this one.

Boston Bruins (Atlantic 2) vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (Atlantic 3)

The Bruins and Maple Leafs are meeting in the end of the season games for the third time in seven seasons. While the vital pieces in Toronto are generally something similar from those 2018 and 2019 matchups, featured by 69-objective scorer Auston Matthews, the Bruins never again have long-lasting stalwarts Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara, who gave the Leafs a difficult situation in postseasons past.

Boston, which dropped its last two rounds of the standard season to bobble away the division title, actually has one of the game's best hostile players in David Pastrnak (110 focuses, fifth in the NHL), strong protective profundity and the best goalie pair in the association.

Dallas Stars (Central 1) vs. Vegas Golden Knights (Wild Card 2)

Records: Stars (52-21-9, 113 focuses); Brilliant Knights (45-29-8, 98 focuses)

Game 1: Monday, 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

These groups combat in the Western Gathering last season, yet this year one will be returning home early. The Stars have noteworthy equilibrium, with nine players recording somewhere around 50 focuses. They supported their blue line in front of the cutoff time, getting Chris Tanev. Goalie Jake Oettinger's numbers plunged this season, however he shut solid.

Vegas did what Vegas does at the exchange cutoff time, stacking up with enormous moves for defenseman Noah Hanifin and forward Tomas Hertl. Those moves, obviously, were made conceivable to some extent because of one more serious injury endured by skipper Imprint Stone. Will the essence of the Brilliant Knights have the option to return for the end of the season games?

Winnipeg Jets (Central 2) vs. Colorado Avalanche (Central 3)

Records: Planes (52-24-6, 110 focuses); Torrential slide (50-25-7, 107 focuses)

Game 1: Sunday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN 2

This is an exemplary strength versus strength series. The Torrential slide sport the NHL's best offense, with likely MVP Nathan MacKinnon (140 focuses) driving the way. The Planes have the NHL's best guard backstopped by Connor Hellebuyck, who will probably be granted the Vezina Prize for best goaltender indeed. Which wins out?

Vancouver Canucks (Pacific 1) vs. Nashville Predators (Wild Card 1)

Records: Canucks (50-23-9, 109 focuses); Hunters (47-30-5, 99 focuses)

Game 1: Sunday, 10 p.m. ET, ESPN

These groups are both season finisher newbies this year. The Canucks burst out of the door and generally traveled to their most memorable division title beginning around 2013.

They bring a strong combo of top of the line hostile expertise (J.T. Mill operator, defenseman Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson all cleared 89 focuses) major areas of strength for and with the as of late returned Thatcher Demko.

The Hunters' re-visitation of the postseason was a long way from sure until they ripped off a dash of 18 games without a guideline misfortune that traversed the finish of February and practically all of Spring coming after administration dropped an arranged outing to see U2 at The Circle in Las Vegas.

Nashville got a profession season out of forward Filip Forsberg (48 objectives, 94 focuses) and another champion mission from chief Roman Josi (85 focuses).

Edmonton Oilers (Pacific 2) vs. Los Angeles Kings (Pacific 3)

Records: Oilers (49-27-6, 104 focuses); Lords (44-27-11, 99 focuses)

Game 1: Monday, 10 p.m. ET, ESPN2

For the third continuous year the Oilers and Rulers are getting down to business in the primary round. It was a captivating season for the Oilers. A fierce 3-9-1 beginning got mentor Jay Woodcroft terminated and the group went to Kris Knoblauch behind the seat. They moved to a 46-18-5 imprint the remainder of the way, featured by a 16-game series of wins.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are first in line of best players on the planet, yet there's strain to win with the two stars thriving. The Lords began hot then cooled extensively to the point that mentor Todd McLellan got terminated at the Elite player break. Jim Hiller dominated and figured out how to settle the boat to the point of getting L.A. back to the end of the season games.

Might the Rulers at any point pull off the furious and acquire their first season finisher series triumph in quite a while? They're bold protectively (third in objectives against) yet their offense is center of-the-pack. It would be an extraordinary time for Pierre-Luc Dubois to wake up after an extremely frustrating first season in L.A.