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After a full season of 82 games and 30 teams, the top three teams in each division (Atlantic vs Metropolitan, Central vs Pacific), along with the Minnesota Wild, the Winnipeg Jets (not the team which played from 1972 to 1996), the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Ottawa Senators, amounting to 16 teams.

Starting on April 15, these teams (represented by unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies) will compete in four best-of-7 series. The matchups for round 1, the divisional semifinals, go as follows:

+**Anaheim Ducks (Lyra Heartstrings) vs ^Winnipeg Jets (Cloudchaser) (1)
**St. Louis Blues (DJ Pon-3) vs ^Minnesota Wild (Coco Pommel)
Nashville Predators (Trixie) vs Chicago Blackhawks (Octavia)
Vancouver Canucks (Pinkie Pie) vs Calgary Flames (Spitfire)

**New York Rangers (Rainbow Dash) vs ^Pittsburgh Penguins (Sweetie Drops)
**Montreal Canadiens (Rarity) vs ^Ottawa Senators (Golden Harvest)
New York Islanders (Twilight Sparkle) vs Washington Capitals (Trixie) (2)
Tampa Bay Lightning (Lightning Dust) vs Detroit Red Wings (Derpy)

** Division Champion
+ Top Record in Conference
President's Trophy Winner
^ Wild Card

The team who wins 16 games (4 best of 7 series) will win the Stanley Cup. In this representation, the winning team's pony will become an alicorn.

There are a few special notes here:
1. The Winnipeg Jets will not just play in their first playoff series since their relocation from Atlanta occurred in 2011; it is also their first playoff series since the original team (which played from 1972 to 1996) relocated to Phoenix in 1996 after losing to the Detroit Red Wings.
2. Both teams in this series finished the season with 101 points, and won two of their four games at home. The Capitals won their season series with the Islanders, 6 points to 5, by losing one extra game in overtime, bringing their point total to 101.5 and granting them home advantage in this series. If both teams were tied at exactly 5 or 6 points in the season series, the Capitals would also have home advantage based on total goal differential (+39 to +22). The last time that a playoff series occurred between these two teams was in 1993.
3. The Boston Bruins and the Los Angeles Kings, the regular season and Stanley Cup champions from last season, failed to qualify for the playoffs. The Kings were eliminated when the Flames won their final regular season matchup against them, while the Bruins were eliminated on the final day of the regular season when the Penguins won their final regular season matchup against the Buffalo Sabres, who have the best chance to win the draft lottery.

Upvotes at import: 7 | Stars at import: 5
Posted previously at: 2015-04-12T11:48:17 | Posted previously by: j4lambert