The National Hockey League made their return to play on Saturday afternoon in Edmonton and Toronto, Canada who are the hub cities and bubbles for what turns out to be a 24 team tournament to start things.
The first game of qualifying round games and first game to hit the ice was in Toronto between the 11th seed New York Rangers and the 6th seeded Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina took a 1-0 series lead with a 3-2 win, with all qualifiers being a best of five. In Edmonton, the 12th seeded Chicago Blackhawks upset the host team in the 5th seed Oilers 6-4. Back in Toronto, the 7th seeded New York Islanders stopped the 10th seed Florida Panthers 2-1, and in another big upset the 12th seeded Montreal Canadiens shocked the 5th seed Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in overtime. In the last game of the day, the 8th seeded Calgary Flames beat the 9th seed Winnipeg Jets 4-1. All winners of the best five advance to the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
On Sunday in both Toronto and Edmonton more qualifying round games take place, as well as round robin games between the top four seeds in each conference. The round robin teams have already secured a spot in the first round, and simply will be playing for seeding to decide matchups. Qualifying games Sunday has 6 seed Nashville against 11 Arizona, 7 seed Vancouver against 10 seed Minnesota, and 8 seed Toronto against 9 seed Columbus. The round robin games have the Boston Bruins facing the Philadelphia Flyers and the Colorado Avalanche taking on the defending Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues. The Washington Capitals take on the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Dallas Stars face the Las Vegas Knights in the other round robin games on Monday. The only teams not competing due to records are the Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils, Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks.
