Thomas Drance

It's like, it looks pretty open right now, but if we get to the conference final and it's Tampa versus Carolina.

Would that shock anyone?

Well, I mean, Carolina's got to be heavily favored to get through the Metro.

Yeah.

You know, and I mean, I think Ottawa's the biggest threat to them, depending on exactly how it goes down with Boston and Ottawa here.

We got Ryan back.

But the...

Yeah, so, I mean, like, yeah, I think Carolina's in a very good spot to return to the conference final.

And then, you know, Tampa's got a harder path because I do think there's been a more material changing of the guard in the Atlantic with the rise of the Habs and the Sabres, both of whom feel meaningfully ascendant.

Ryan, the overall flow in the NHL the last few seasons has been toward...

You know, there might be parity in terms of which teams make the playoffs or even win the division year to year.

But as the playoffs go along, the heavyweights kind of reveal themselves.

And every year it's Florida or Tampa and Carolina or used to be the Rangers, but no more.

Or Dallas or Colorado or Edmonton or Vegas, right?

Like those have basically been the only eight teams that have reliably qualified for the conference final this decade.

Montreal once and they did it in the West somehow.

Do you expect sort of the changing of the guard that you're referring to to actually play out in terms of how the first two rounds go?

Like, do you think there's teams that have an opportunity to really hang with those big boys in the biggest games of the year?

Ryan, I like to think about something in the playoffs where it's like this notion of

Truth serum being applied to every team as we go along, right?