Alright Florida Panthers fans, sucks we didn’t make the postseason, but the time has come to for you to make your selections for another edition of the Litter Box Cats playoff predictions contest.
The contest is done round-by-round and there is an overall winner at the end of the playoffs, so make sure to get in at the beginning if you want to have a chance at ending up top Feline come July.
We will again use the confidence pool set-up.
If you didn’t play last year or you’re unfamiliar with confidence pools, you will select each team to win the series as per usual. There will be point values (8-1) for how confident you are that each team will win. For example, the team you’re most confident in (i.e. Carolina over Ottawa) will get 8 points if they win the series, then the team you think has the second-best chance of winning (i.e. Winnipeg over St. Louis) will get 7 points if it wins its series, and so on and so on. The series you think is the toughest to pick (like Dallas-Minnesota) should be your 1-point series. So, a raw total of 36 points is up for grabs during the first round. Capeesh?
I am going to keep the bonus point in place for picking the series-winner in the correct amount of games to add a little more variance to the scoring.
Here are the eight series (in case you’ve somehow missed it) for the opening round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs:
Atlantic Division
Buffalo Sabres vs. Boston Bruins
Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Montreal Canadiens
Metropolitan Division
Carolina Hurricanes vs. Ottawa Senators
Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Philadelphia Flyers
Central Division
Colorado Avalanche vs. Los Angeles Kings
Dallas Stars vs. Minnesota Wild
Pacific Division
Vegas Golden Knights vs. Utah Mammoth
Edmonton Oilers vs. Anaheim Ducks
Please enter your picks in the comment section mirroring the example below. The tiebreaker will be the total goals scored in the Buffalo-Boston series. Remember, there is a round-by-round winner and an overall winner at the end, so even if you don’t enter or do too hot in the first round, get or stay in the game. May the force be with you!
Example Picks (these are not my picks)
8-point series: Avalanche (6)
7-point series: Sabres (6) total goals: 33
6-point series: Hurricanes (5)
5-point series: Golden Knights (7)
4-point series: Oilers (7)
3-point series: Penguins (5)
2-point series: Lightning (5)
1-point series: Stars (7)
Please get your picks in by the start of the first playoff game (Hurricanes–Senators) at 3 p.m. on Saturday.