NHL PLAYOFFS: West best Dallas vs. defending champion Vegas headlines 1st
All eight first-round matchups in the NHL playoffs are set after the last day of the regular season flipped two of the biggest series in the West.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights will open against West top seed Dallas. Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers will face the Los Angeles Kings, a team they’ve defeated each of the past two years in the same round.
In the East, the Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers begin their championship pursuit against Washington. Cup favorite Carolina faces the New York Islanders in the first round, but any of nearly a dozen teams could win it all.
A glance at the first-round series (times Eastern):
RANGERS vs. CAPITALS
Game 1: Sunday at New York, 3 p.m.
New York was the best team in the league. Washington needed to win its regular-season finale to get into the playoffs, doing so with an unusual empty-net goal.