NHL playoff predictions: Panthers vs. Hurricanes, Stars vs. Golden Knights, MVP and Stanley Cup champion

The NHL’s final four is set, with the Panthers and Hurricanes kicking off the Eastern Conference final Thursday night, and the Stars and Golden Knights opening the Western Conference final Friday.

It’s not a conference-championship field many of us saw coming. In fact, none of the 41 members of The Athletic’s staff who voted in our second-round predictions correctly picked all four winners — and only six had more than half.

Will the next round go a bit closer to expectations?

Here are our picks, with analysis, critique and some trolling from senior national writer Sean Gentille, national writer Hailey Salvian, analytics guru Shayna Goldman and NHL betting expert Jesse Granger.

Conference final predictions

Eastern Conference: Panthers vs. Hurricanes

Gentille: More than 40 percent of the voters think this one is going seven games? I can’t tell if that’s a little or a lot.

Goldman: To me, that says we’re all projecting this to be a close series, which … can it please be after whatever we just saw in Round 2?

Granger: The Hurricanes are now the betting favorites to win it all at 2-to-1. That sound you hear is me running to catch back up to the bandwagon after falling off in March. I picked Carolina to win the Cup in the preseason and was on board all the way up until the injury to Andrei Svechnikov. The Canes have proven to be talented and deep enough to overcome that, and more.

Salvian: We all made so much about the injuries in Carolina that we forgot about (1) Rod Brind’Amour and (2) how well this roster is built. That said, we all keep picking against Florida, and the Panthers just keep winning. It should be a fun one.

Western Conference: Stars vs. Golden Knights

Gentille: The overall number for the Stars feels right to me. I know they just had a seven-game series, but they’re really, really hard to pick against, especially if you think (as I do) that the Jason Robertson breakout is imminent.

Goldman: The Stars were one of the quietest contenders entering the postseason, so they absolutely deserve their moment here. But it is a bit wild that there isn’t a little more support behind a Vegas team that took a serious contender in the Oilers — our staff’s top pick to win the Stanley Cup ahead of the first and second rounds. (Says, of course, someone who also picked the Stars here.)

Granger: I think it’s more than a bit wild that Dallas would get nearly 70 percent of the vote, especially considering Vegas is the betting favorite in this series (-140). Dallas did win all three regular-season matchups, but two came via shootout. After these teams were involved in plenty of high-scoring games in their previous series, I expect this one to be much more of a defensive chess match between coaches Bruce Cassidy and Pete DeBoer.

Salvian: I picked Dallas in seven, but Vegas looks like it’ll be a really tough out. They’re a good five-on-five team with a mix of depth and star power. Adin Hill stepped in nicely after Laurent Brossoit was injured, but I do worry about their goalie luck a bit.

Beyond the third round

Stanley Cup champion

Gentille: With the benefit of hindsight, it seems that we, as a staff, were a little too far in on the Oilers.

Salvian: So … 65 percent of our staff chose the Leafs or Oilers to win the Cup before the second round began?

Goldman: Apparently it took two rounds of the Hurricanes crushing it, despite all of their injuries, for us to back them. The Panthers can’t seem to get that same respect, even after taking out Boston and Toronto.

Granger: The Panthers have the best two-round resume of any of these four teams and a red-hot goalie, but it’s still not enough to get more than a handful of votes.

Conn Smythe winner

Goldman: Pretty much every current Conn Smyth candidate besides Jake Oettinger wasn’t someone we expected to be here before the playoffs started. Among the players left, Matthew Tkachuk is still pretty low, but he (and the Panthers) don’t seem to have a problem with being underestimated.

Gentille: Someone else here predicted that Hintz would win the Conn Smythe way back at the start of this. I will not say whom.

Salvian: It was me. #HintzHive!

Granger: Take a look at what Jack Eichel’s doing in the first playoffs of his career. He leads Vegas with 14 points and is third of all players remaining, behind only Hintz (19) and Tkachuk (16). His play away from the puck has been even more impressive. The Golden Knights have outscored teams 10-4 with Eichel on the ice at even strength. If Vegas keeps winning, he’s the current favorite on the squad.

How have we done so far?

First-round series predictions

Here’s how our first-round predictions held up, with the actual result of the series, the percent of voters who picked the right team and the percent who picked the right team and number of games:

And second round:

(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; photos: Ethan Miller, Maddie Meyer and Jaylynn Nash / Getty Images)