Stanley Cup
Playoffs
The Wild and Stars open their first-round series on Saturday. Stacy Revere / Getty Images
The NHL playoff bracket got finalized Thursday night, the final night of the regular season, when the Edmonton Oilers easily beat the Vancouver Canucks 6-1 to clinch second place in the Pacific Division and a first-round matchup against the Anaheim Ducks, which will start on Monday.
The postseason will begin Saturday in Raleigh, N.C., where the Eastern Conference’s top seed, the Carolina Hurricanes, host the Ottawa Senators at 3 p.m. ET. That will be followed at 5:30 p.m. ET by the marquee first-round matchup between the Minnesota Wild and the Dallas Stars, two of the top three teams in the Western Conference standings. The teams split the regular-season series 2-2, with the Stars winning the most recent matchup, a 5-4 thriller on April 9.
