from Travis Yost of TSN,

With 1,271 regular-season games in the books, it’s time for the real fun to begin.

Saturday’s slate of games wrapped up the 2018-19 regular season, so we now turn our attention to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As is tradition, we will preview each of the eight first-round series by conference, paying specific attention to the statistical strengths and weaknesses of the respective participants.

I’ve broken out performance across key performance indicators over the last 25 games of the regular season for every series. Then, I calculate the advantage/disadvantage from the home team’s perspective – the higher the relative percentage, the bigger the gap between the two teams. I’ll include the usual key performance indicators, the lineups coaches have been utilizing since the trade deadline concluded (blue: increasing role; red: decreasing role), and my qualitative thoughts on the series.

We will open up with the Eastern Conference...

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