You'll have to forgive your hockey fan friends today.
On the morning after the opening night of NHL playoffs, you may find them experiencing signs of extreme giddiness or agitation (depending on their team allegiances), alongside sleepiness and bouts of daydreaming/armchair coaching.
In fact, you may have to get used to it. It's typically a two-month ailment.
Indeed, the 16-team tournament to determine who hoists the Stanley Cup got underway in four cities on Monday night and will continue with another four on Tuesday as the event winds to its parade-lap conclusion sometime in mid-to-late June.
The puck heads at B/R have been experiencing our own symptoms as the postseason has approached, too, and we're continuing to cope while also continuing to get together to discuss content—in this case dissecting the playoff field into tiers of contention.
We came up with four levels and assigned teams based on their regular-season play, their prospective matchups and just the general feel of how likely it seems that any one of them could be doused in Champagne at any point in the near future.
Long Shots
Seattle Kraken
Hey, we like the Kraken as much as anyone. They suffered through the inaugural season expansion pains and were a non-factor last year but transformed into a prolific offense that averaged more than 3.5 goals per game.
And the 40-point jump in the standings is nothing to sneeze at.
But they had the misfortune of drawing the defending champs in the first round. And though there are some reasons to suggest they can make it a long series and perhaps even win it, it's difficult to then foresee them doing it three more times against high-end foes.
Florida Panthers
One team won 65 of 82 games while setting a record for points in a season, had a goal differential nearly twice as large as the next best team and posted both the best home and road records in the league.
The other is the Florida Panthers.
It was a prodigious fall from winning a Presidents' Trophy to clawing into the tournament in the final week, but that's where the Panthers find themselves. Forget the 16 games it'd take to win the whole tournament—it's hard to see them winning more than one at all.
New York Islanders
The Islanders were the last team included on this slide for a reason.
They have capable goaltending with Ilya Sorokin. They have a returning offensive star in Mathew Barzal, whose presence could activate the talents of trade-deadline pickup Bo Horvat. And they have several players on board who went to the playoff final four in both 2020 and 2021.
But the enormity of the feat, particularly in an ungodly stacked East, seems just too much. It wouldn't be earth-shattering to see them find a way to sneak past Carolina, but to follow that up with two more series wins just to get to the Cup final is too big an ask.