It is that time of year again when the best of the best play to win the Stanley Cup. The NHL has 16 teams that play in a series of rounds to win the championship title. Starting on May 2, 2022, teams will begin playing their 5-7 games for the first round to see whether they advance to the next round. 

On May 2, the Boston Bruins play the North Caroline Hurricanes for the first round. Another game is Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Toronto Maple Leafs. The third game is St. Louis Blues vs. Minnesota Wild. The last game on May 2 that completes the first half of the 16 teams is Los Angles Kings vs. Edmonton Oilers. 

On May 3, the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. New York Rangers. The second game of the evening is Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers. The third game of the night is Nashville Predators and Colorado Avalanche. The final game that concludes the first game for all teams in the first round is Dallas Stars vs. Calgary Flames. 

All of these opponents play five to seven games, and the team to have the most wins will move on to round two. The best of four will move on to round two. The home team will host games 1, 2, 5, and 7. The away team will host 3, 4 and 6. 

With every team fighting to advance to the championships, they have to win 4/7 games. On May 2, 2022, half of the teams played their first game of the first round. 

To start, the Bruins had traveled to North Caroline to play the Hurricanes. The final result of their game was Hurricanes had won 5-1. 

In the second game of the night, the Maple Leafs had swept the Lightning off their feet with a win of 5-0. 

The night’s third game was the Blues facing the Wild, with a win from the Blues 4-0. 

The night’s final game and most definitely the closest was the Kings vs. Oilers. With the Kings leading 2-0, the Oilers had come back to tie it 3-3 by the end of the 2nd period. With four minutes left in the last period, the Kings had scored, allowing them to win 4-3. Cole Johnson (10) expresses, “I was so happy to see the Kings make it to playoffs, and I was happy to see them win.” 

On May 3, 2022, the other half of the teams fought for the championship. The first game was a tight game between the Penguins vs. the Rangers; and their score was a 4-3, and the Penguins won. 

The second game was the Capitals vs. Panthers, and the Capitals won 4-2

The third game was Predators vs. Avalanche. The Avalanche swept the Predators on their feet and won 7-2.

The final game to conclude the first game of round one was Stars vs. Flames, which was a 1-0 game since the first period with the Flames winning. 

This is just the beginning for some teams, and after a while, we will see who wins the Stanley Cup.