Written by Scott on Thursday, June 11th, 2020
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Another day where I couldn’t find anything to tip and I didn’t even have time to. Before I could even begin them I had an emergency at work which required my immediate attention. Now that that has been dealt with I can write something.
First I need to thank Graeme who seems to have no trouble writing and tipping on any sport. Soccer, Wrestling and even Table Tennis and Beer Pong its just nuts. He has been picking up the slack for me during this shit we are going through and I need to thank him and start to do more on my end.
For today’s article I’ll go the teams that get a bye in the first round in the Eastern Conference. These teams haven’t played in a while so anything can happen.
First Round Bye Teams Eastern Conference
Usually the top 2 teams in the Conference would take on the two wild card teams. Now they are taking the top 4 teams whoe will skip the play-in round and play one game against each other.
So the Bruins, Lightning, Capitals and Flyers are the four teams that sit atop the Eastern Conference standings heading into the postseason and will play each other once.
At the end of the round-robin tournament between the top four teams, the win-loss records of those teams after the three games will determine the 1-4 seeding entering the Round of 16, with regular season points percentage acting as a tiebreaker if needed.
Boston Bruins: The Bruins were 8 points ahead of 2nd place Lightning in the East and 6 points ahead of the Blues in the League. It must annoy them to not be guaranteed home ice advantage throughout the whole playoffs. But this years playoffs will be different and home ice won’t have the same advantage that it used to. Games will be played in one of two Hub Cities in front of no fans. The Bruins were by far the best team in the league this season so as long as they can have good results in the round robin they are still the team to beat.
Tampa Bay Lightning: The Lightning will be looking to avenge their embarrassing postseason from last year. And I wonder how they would react if they get a chance to face the Blue Jackets at some point in these playoffs. But this team is still stacked and when you have Stamkos, Kucherov, Point, Hedman and Vasilevskiy they should get some strong results. Again after last years ass kicking they took they are a team to be feared.
Washington Capitals: The Caps are only 2 years away from winning the Cup and the team remains mostly the same. One thing that may hurt the Caps is that they aren’t getting any younger. But despite his gray hair, Ovechkin can still go on a tear. Carlson was having an incredible year and Holtby having his pending UFA status up in the air and wanting to prove he’s worth getting resigned the Caps have the pieces to do some damage.
Philadelphia Flyers: This team was a surprise this year. The quietly climbed the standings despite looking and playing at times like a playoff bubble team. But the have all sorts of youth on their roster they also have some great veterans to help guide them. Giroux, Voracek and van Reimsdyk will help carry the young stars like Konecny, Patrick and Laughton. With no home ice and all teams being off for some time the Flyers could surprise everyone and come out of the round robin as the top seed.
Who do you think will come out of the round robin as the top seed? Me personally I have to think its the Bruins. They were so good this year and I think they will want to show eveyone why the were the top team heading into the break and regain the top spot.
