NHL PLAYOFFS, UPCOMING NFL DRAFT, AND MORE

The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are underway as the first games of each series started this weekend. We have seen a plethora of up and coming teams in the playoffs that will compete for their first Stanley Cup in years. The NFL Draft beings on Thursday, April 25th where we will see players like Caleb Williams, and Marvin Harrison Jr.'s lives change forever. College softball and baseball has continued their season with conference tournaments taking place within the next month for both sports! As you can see, there is much overlap in this time of the year, which makes for a lot of content in my sports blog!

Pictured: NHL Playoff Bracket
NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS
The NHL is my personal favorite professional league and this season has been nothing short of exciting. As a Blackhawks fan, even though we didn't perform well, I am happy with the production with our up and coming stars. This can be said for a lot of team and I am so happy to see the turnover of teams who had dynasties in the 2010s. Like I mentioned, I am biased and I loved the 2010s for hockey BUT there were 4 teams that really dominated that era (Bruins, Penguins, Kings and Hawks) and now it is exciting to see new teams in the mix. After the first game of each series has been recorded, here are the results:
Within the western conference, it was a battle this season. My favorite series to watch so far is coming from the Winnipeg Jets and the Colorado Avalanche. I would love to see the Winnipeg Jets win this series and go far within the playoffs. In an age where the goaltending has been insanely good, I love to see a high scoring game with the caliber that both of those teams displayed in that Game 1 of the series.
In addition to that, I love Artemi Panarin and the New York Rangers and would LOVE to see them win the entire thing, however there is always that curse of Presidents' Trophy winners not making it far in the playoffs. The last NHL team to do so was the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2012-13 lockout season. All in all, I am just excited to watch some good hockey be played within the next few weeks!

MY PICKS FOR FIRST ROUND

Dallas v. Vegas: Stars in 5

Winnipeg v. Colorado: Jets in 7

Vancouver v. Nashville: Canucks in 6

Edmonton v. Los Angeles: Oilers in 5 

Florida v. Tampa Bay: Panthers in 5

Boston v. Toronto: Bruin in 7 

New York v. Washington: New York in 5

Carolina v. New York: Hurricanes in 6

IN OTHER SPORTING NEWS

- NFL Draft begins with round one on April 25th with the overall first pick, by the Chicago Bears, projected to be QB Caleb Williams out of USC

- Bradley softball won their fifth MVC series of the season as they continue the push to the MVC playoffs, which will be hosted by ISU on May 8th to 12th. 

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Who do you think is going to raise Lord Stanley's Cup come the end of the playoffs?







Comments

  1. Jacob MorrellApril 24, 2024 at 4:22 PM

    Caleb Williams better be the guy. Based on the arguments that I've seen, he's going to have it rough. Bears fans were so attached to Justin Fields it's insane. In order to make them come around, Caleb doesn't have to be better than Fields. He has to be better than what those people think Justin could have been, which is a much higher bar. The way that some people have talked about Fields, they see him as future all-pro, so unless Caleb does that, he won't win over these Bears fans, and they'll keep arguing that the Bears should have stuck with Fields until the end of time.

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