Mark Humphrey/Associated Press There have already been plenty of surprises in this year's NHL playoffs. And there may be even more in the weeks to come. The No. 1 seeds from each conference—the Tampa Bay Lightning (Eastern Conference) and Calgary Flames (Western Conference)—have been eliminated. Tampa Bay was swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets, while Calgary lost to the Colorado Avalanche in five games. However, only half of the second-round field has been set. The rest will be decided over the next several days. Updated Playoff Standings Eastern Conference Columbus Blue Jackets defeated Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0. Columbus will face winner of Boston-Toronto series. Toronto Maple Leafs lead Boston Bruins 3-2. Game 6 at Toronto, Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, NBC. Washington Capitals lead Carolina Hurricanes 3-2. Game 6 at Carolina, Monday, 7 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network. New York Islanders defeated Pittsburgh Penguins 4-0. New York will face winner of Washington-Carolina series. Video Play Button Videos you might like Western Conference Colorado Avalanche defeated Calgary Flames 4-1. Colorado will face winner of Vegas-San Jose series. Vegas Golden Knights lead San Jose Sharks 3-2. Game 6 at Vegas, Sunday, 7 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network. Dallas Stars lead Nashville Predators 3-2. Game 6 at Dallas, Monday, 8:30 p.m. ET, CNBC. St. Louis Blues defeated Winnipeg Jets 4-2. St. Louis will face winner of Nashville-Dallas Series. Remaining 1st-Round Picture Michael Dwyer/Associated Press By Wednesday night, the first round of the postseason will be over. However, it could also end as early as Monday night, depending on the results of the upcoming Game 6 matchups. On Sunday, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vegas Golden Knights will look to advance to the second round. Each team needs just one more win, and they're both playing Game 6 at home. The Maples Leafs will look to take down the Boston Bruins for their first playoff series win since 2004. "It means a lot to be part of a great franchise," Toronto coach Mike Babcock said, according to NHL.com's Dave McCarthy. "I think we're going in the right direction; I think we've been doing that for three years. We have a chance to build a real good program here. This is all part of that process." Meanwhile, the Golden Knights also hold a 3-2 lead in their series against the San Jose Sharks heading into Sunday's Game 6 in Las Vegas. Last year, Vegas reached the Stanley Cup Final in the first season in franchise history. If the Golden Knights continue to play this well, they could be back there again this year. "We're in a good position and we know that," Vegas forward Max Pacioretty said, according to NHL.com's Danny Webster. "Each game kind of writes its own script. You go up in a game and you play a certain way, you go down in a game, you play a certain way. But at the same time, no matter what the score is, we want to go out there and play the right way every shift." On Monday night, the Dallas Stars and Washington Capitals will also look to notch Game 6 wins and move on to the second round. Like the Maple Leafs and Golden Knights, the Stars will have home-ice advantage. However, the Capitals will have to win on the road, or else they'll be back home for Game 7. In the Washington-Carolina series, the home team has won each of the first five games. After dropping Games 3 and 4, the Capitals bounced back with a big 6-0 win in Game 5. Dallas also has momentum heading into its Game 6 matchup with Nashville. After dropping Games 2 and 3 to fall behind 2-1 in the series, the Stars notched a 5-1 win in Game 4, followed by a 5-3 victory in Game 5.<doc-sep>The Nashville Predators are out. After another 100-point season and a second straight Central Division crown, the Predators are the latest victims of an upset-heavy first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Nashville was taken down in six games by the Dallas Stars, marking the first time the Preds failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs since 2015. Let's take a look at where things went wrong for the Predators. Lack of front-end scoring Coming into this series, we knew that it would be a defensive battle; the Preds finished the regular season ranked 19th in offense and third in defense, while the Stars ranked 28th in offense and second in defense. Still, it was rather surprising how little Nashville got from its top line in this series. The Filip Forsberg-Ryan Johansen-Viktor Arvidsson line combined for just two goals in this series -- a devastating development for a lineup that desperately needed them to carry their weight. Forsberg and Johansen had a goal and an assist each, and Arvidsson was completely blanked through the six games. Nashville has been known to rely pretty heavily on that top line. The trio combined for 17 goals and 39 points through Nashville's 13 playoff games last year. But they were almost completely silent throughout this series, enough so that head coach Peter Laviolette was compelled to split them up in Game 6 -- something that he doesn't typically like to do. The Stars' shutdown line of Radek Faksa, Blake Comeau and Andrew Cogliano deserve a lot of credit for forcing that change. Ultimately, Rocco Grimaldi led all Predators forwards in goals and points (three). No offense to Grimaldi, but that's not exactly ideal. That hideous power play The Nashville power play was absolutely atrocious in this series, going a whopping 0 for 15. The team's struggles on the man advantage aren't exactly a new development considering the Preds finished dead last in the league with a 12.9 percent conversion rate during the regular season. But even with those documented struggles, watching Nashville lay a big fat goose egg on the power play was pretty stunning. Laviolette attempted to make adjustments by moving around some pieces in hopes of catching a spark, but nothing worked. Special teams can often be a difference-maker in the postseason and it was a killer for the Preds, especially considering this was a defensive-minded series and their forward group wasn't producing much at five-on-five. Between the regular season and playoffs, the Predators' power play went just 33 of 270 this season -- a horrifically low 12.2 percent. The Stars' top six I picked the Stars in an upset before this series started because I anticipated that their top line would outperform Nashville's and carry them to victory. And while Dallas' top line was certainly superior and sometimes flat-out dominant, it was really the entire top six that ran the show. Much of the Stars' offense comes with that top line of Jamie Benn-Tyler Seguin-Alex Radulov. They had a great series, accounting for six goals (and picking up six points apiece) in the six games. The trio was especially dominant in a pivotal Game 5 in Nashville, where they just straight-up dunked on the Predators' defensive corps. But the guys on Dallas' second line consistently came through as well. Jason Dickinson, Roope Hintz and Mats Zuccarello combined for seven goals in the series, giving the Stars some of the secondary scoring that they lacked during the regular season. (Only one Stars forward outside of the top line finished with double-digit goals for Dallas.) The mid-season addition of Zuccarello is paying dividends, as he's been producing and acting as a spark plug for the Stars' secondary unit while in the lineup. Ben Bishop is a Vezina finalist for the third time in his career. Throughout this series, he did an excellent job of showing us why. Bishop was rock solid between the pipes, stopping 206 of 218 shots against for a save percentage of .945 and a goals against average of 1.90. He also had a high-danger save percentage of .939. It wasn't exactly a case of running into a hot goaltender, as Bishop has been one of the league's best goalies all season, leading the league in save percentage with a .934 mark. On the other side, Pekka Rinne wasn't nearly as good. He wasn't Nashville's biggest problem, but Rinne finished the series with a .905 save percentage, which is disappointing for a guy we've seen carry the Preds early in past postseasons. Rinne was pulled once during the series, after giving up four goals (three on the power play) on eight shots in the first period of Game 4. It's hard to point fingers at Rinne considering how many issues the Preds had across the board, but the Stars undoubtedly had the goaltending advantage in this matchup. Dallas' blue line play As this series progressed, Dallas' defense -- especially its top pairing of Esa Lindell and John Klingberg -- held strong and did a great job of limiting the opportunities that Nashville was able to muster in the offensive zone. Specifically, the Stars did a solid job of keeping Nashville's slot opportunities at a minimum, instead forcing the Predators' shooters to work from the outside. Klingberg also provided significant contributions on the offensive end, tallying six points -- including the series-clinching overtime goal in Game 6. Between Dallas' defensive stinginess and Bishop playing at the top of his game, it was very difficult for the Preds' offense to get anything going at certain points during this series.<doc-sep>
Gerry Broome/Associated Press The first round of the NHL playoffs comes down to this—a Game 7 matchup between the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals in Washington on Wednesday night. The winner of that game will win the first-round series and secure the final spot in the second round, where it will face the New York Islanders. In the first round of the playoffs, there has been quite a bit of excitement, including both No. 1 seeds getting eliminated by the No. 8 seeds. The Tampa Bay Lightning were swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Calgary Flames lost to the Colorado Avalanche in five games. The excitement has continued in recent days. Most notably, the San Jose Sharks won back-to-back overtime contests in Games 6 and 7 to come back and eliminate the Vegas Golden Knights. Here's everything you need to know about the current state of the NHL playoffs as the beginning of the second round nears. Video Play Button Videos you might like Bracket Eastern Conference Columbus vs. Boston N.Y. Islanders vs. Winner of Washington-Carolina series Western Conference Dallas vs. St. Louis Colorado vs. San Jose Stanley Cup Championship Odds Boston 47-10 San Jose 11-2 N.Y. Islanders 13-2 St. Louis 13-2 Washington 15-2 Columbus 15-2 Colorado 19-2 Dallas 10-1 Carolina 22-1 Odds via OddsChecker Stanley Cup Playoffs Schedule Guide (All Times ET) First Round Wednesday, April 24 Game 7: Carolina at Washington, 7:30 p.m., NBC Sports Network Second Round Thursday, April 25 Game 1: Columbus at Boston, 7 p.m., NBC Sports Network Game 1: Dallas at St. Louis, 9:30 p.m., NBC Sports Network Friday, April 26 Game 1: Colorado at San Jose, TBD Rest of schedule still to be announced. Bracket Breakdown Three of the four division winners from the regular season have already been eliminated from the playoffs. In addition to the Lightning and Flames, the Nashville Predators also lost their first-round series, falling to the Dallas Stars in six games. It's possible that none of the four division winners could make it to the second round if the Hurricanes upset the Capitals on the road Wednesday night. Among the teams still in the postseason, the Boston Bruins had the most regular-season wins at 49. They'll look to avoid being upset in the second round by the Blue Jackets, who are the second wild card in the Eastern Conference despite having only two fewer regular-season wins than the Bruins. The Avalanche had the fewest regular-season points among playoff teams with 90, but they'll look to build off the momentum from their first-round series victory over the Flames. They're playing the Sharks, who won't have much time to rest before Friday's series opener as they just won Game 7 of their first-round series against the Golden Knights on Tuesday night. The St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars each won their first-round series in six games, and now the Central Division foes will go head-to-head in the second round. The Islanders are the only team in the second round that doesn't know its next opponent. If it's the Capitals, then New York coach Barry Trotz will be going up against the team that he led to the Stanley Cup a season ago. "If it happens to be Washington, then they're the opponent," Trotz said, according to the Washington Post's Scott Allen. "The bonds that I have with the people on the other side, that is undeniable when you win championships. ... That doesn't go away, but when you drop the puck, it does go away. It does. Yeah, there's things that you remember and all that, but trust me, I'm going to want to beat them as bad as they want to beat me."