TheSportsCampus

Sixteen teams qualify for the NHL Playoffs, eight from the Eastern and eight from the Western conference. The three division winners in each conference earn the conference's top three playoff seeds. All rounds of the NHL Playoffs are best of 7 games. We're down to the final two teams!

The conference finals didn't live upto the billing as both series ended fairly quickly. In the East, Montreal's fairytale story ended with a crash when they had trouble beating Philly's backup goalie Michael Leighton, who surrendered just 2 goals in his 4 wins against them while recording 3 shutouts. Halak's stellar play came to an end as did the Canadiens hopes of advancing to the Stantley Cup.

The West was even more one sided as the Sharks had hardly any contributions from its top line and lost 4 games in a row after  plenty of rest. Untested Blackhawk goalie Antti Niemi was solid putting up amazing numbers - 1.67 goals against average and .949 save percentage in the series. Dustin Byfuglien led the way for the Hawks scoring 3 game winning goals playing on a line with Patrick Kane and 22-year-old captain Jonathan Toews.

The finals pitts Philidelphia's size against Chicago's speed. Look for Chicago to win the series easily, in no more than 5 games.

Playoffs Schedule: Stanley Cup Final

Chicago Blackhawks vs. Philadelphia Flyers

Game 1 - Sat. May 29, Philadelphia @ Chicago, 8pm EST on NBC, CBC, RDS
Game 2 - Mon. May 31, Philadelphia @ Chicago, 8pm EST on NBC, CBC, RDS
Game 3 - Wed. Jun 02, Chicago @ Philadelphia, 8pm EST on VERSUS, CBC, RDS
Game 4 - Fri. Jun 04, Chicago @ Philadelphia, 8pm EST on VERSUS, CBC, RDS
Game 5* - Sun. Jun 06, Philadelphia @ Chicago, 8pm EST on NBC, CBC, RDS
Game 6* - Wed. Jun 09, Chicago @ Philadelphia, 8pm EST on NBC, CBC, RDS
Game 7* - Fri. Jun 11, Philadelphia @ Chicago, 8pm EST on NBC, CBC, RDS

*If necessary

Schedule produced using NHL.com