The Return of Slappy-Puck

That's right folks, after a hiatus of 137 days, hockey is returning! In 5 days the NHL will finally resume. The NHL will be jumping right into their 24 team postseason on Saturday and I'm looking forward to it. In case you haven't been up to speed with what's been going on in the NHL world, I'll catch you up.

First of all, the NHL ended their season with about 11-14 games left of the schedule. They decided to scrap the last few games and jump right into the playoffs. 24 teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences will be headed to the two new hockey hubs in Canada. The Eastern Conference teams will be playing in Toronto while the Western Conference teams will be playing in Edmonton. Similar to the MLB, there won't be any fans in the stands. Exhibition games will be played from July 28th - July 30th. Here are the current top 4 seeds for each division: EAST (1) Boston Bruins, (2) Tampa Bay Lightning, (3) Washington Capitals, (4) Philadelphia Flyers. WEST (1) St. Louis Blues, (2) Colorado Avalanche (3) Vegas Golden Knights (4) Dallas Stars.

The rest of the teams will be playing a best-of-five playoff series to advance to the round-of-16 Stanley Cup tournament. The four best-of-five series qualifiers in the Eastern Conference include #5 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #12 Montreal Canadiens; #6 Carolina Hurricanes vs. #11 New York Rangers; #7 New York Islanders vs. #10 Florida Panthers; #8 Toronto Maple Leafs vs. #9 Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Western Conference games include #5 Edmonton Oilers vs. #12 Chicago Blackhawks; #6 Nashville Predators vs. #11 Arizona Coyotes; #7 Vancouver Canucks vs. #10 Minnesota; #8 Calgary Flames vs. #9 Winnipeg Jets.

Slowly but surely our beloved sports are coming back. Comment below on who you guys think will win the cup!