The NHL 2017 Playoffs start with a bang.
After an NHL regular season that began in early October and lasted 82 strenuous, taxing games, the 2016-2017 playoffs began on April 12, 2017. Sixteen out of the thirty teams in the National Hockey League had enough points to make the playoffs, meaning they won enough games both in regulation and in overtime to beat their division opponents. In the metropolitan division, the number one through three seeds were the Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Columbus Blue Jackets and the wild card slot was occupied by the New York Rangers. The Atlantic division top slot was occupied by the Montreal Canadians, the next by the Ottawa Senators, and the third seed slot by the Boston Bruins. The wild card slot was filled by the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Central Conference playoff ranks were filled by the Chicago Blackhawks, the Minnesota Wild, and the St. Louis Blues while the Pacific playoff spots were filled by the Anaheim Ducks, the Edmonton Oilers, and the San Jose Sharks.
The first games started on a Wednesday night, with matchups of six different teams facing off. Pittsburgh and Columbus provided a fast-paced, heavy hitting game that Columbus dominated early on but was quickly taken over by the Penguins offense in the second. The third period was the only time out of the sixty minutes that Columbus got onto the scoreboard, and the rest of the period was dominated by the Pittsburgh defense and their seasoned goaltender, Marc André Fleury, stood tall to give the Penguins the 3-1 home ice win. The St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 2-1 in overtime and the Wild’s forward Zach Parise netted a shot with 21 seconds left in the game to tie it up. This goal served as redemption for Parise after he inadvertently stopped his own teams shot from finding the back of the net earlier on in regulation. Meanwhile, in Canada, the Edmonton Oilers lost a 2-0 lead at home in a loss to the San Jose Sharks in their first appearance in the playoffs since drafting young sensation Connor McDavid. The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadians by two goals in Montreal, with franchise icon Henrik Lundqvist leading his team to a win with the first shutout of the playoffs. The Ottawa Senators Bobby Ryan starred in their matchup against the Boston Bruins but fell to Boston after they scored a goal late in the third period.
Each matchup is a best of 7 game series, with the winner moving on to the second round. The team that manages to beat out the rest of their division will go head to head with the winner of their opposing conference, and the winner of the best of 7 Stanley Cup Final will be crowned the 2017 Stanley Cup Champion.