One of the things that really stood out watching the end of the first round the past few days (not including last night's Dallas Stars/Vegas Golden Knights Game 7) was that some teams exhibited a rather high quality of play and others… did not.

Obviously, the teams that won their series in four or five games were able to just toss their opponents aside with ease, but the thing is, that accounts for all but three series. I was interested to see how things would play out over the course of Game 1 for the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers because, before yesterday, neither had played in at least five days. Likewise, you have to consider how much rust will come into play when, say, the Florida Panthers take on the Boston Bruins, who aren't getting nearly as much time off. To a lesser ext