Which playoff round is the most fun to watch?

What round is the most fun to watch/follow?


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Round one for sure. If nothing else, there's pretty much always at least one game that's really going any given night. Just by sheer volume. But you also get that fresh out the gate excitement level, playoffs still feel shiny and new and most of the teams are coming in at full strength. Plus the potential for some surprises and back and forth matchups that you didn't expect, or blowouts that you didn't see coming. Lots of storylines to follow all over the place and often the best actual hockey before everything gets ground down and dragged into the muck.


It's particularly pronounced with this current playoff format. More and more, the best matchups under this playoff seeding tend to happen right off the line as the playoffs open. The later rounds just end up feeling like "the battle of whoever's left". Didn't used to be that way. At least it feels to me like we used to get a lot more terrific matchups deeper into the playoffs where you're just waiting for the titans to square up.
 
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The hockey and the storylines are better at the beginning. Round-1 is like Game Of Thrones – epic matchups, multiple character arcs, with no idea which main character is going to be knocked off next.

Like most great stories, the NHL playoffs are fuelled by the journey more than the ending.
 
Round 1, it has the most series and everything is still up for grabs. Conference finals are also fun, but it really depends on the 4 teams that remain as to how interesting it is
 
In order of excitement:

Round 1
Round 4
Round 3
Round 2


I think one of the reasons the League likes the current playoff format is that we often get juggernauts playing each other in round two, lending some added excitement to a kind of mundane round. Everyone's excited for round one - it's a new seasons' playoffs and anyone can win! Third round determines the finalists, fourth round determines the cup winner.

But round two is kind of in a netherworld. It's the turn card of the NHL playoffs. The flop (round one) sets the stage, the river (round four) determines the winner. Somehow round two doesn't measure up for me, unless we have two top teams playing (i.e. Preds - Jets 2018).


m.
 

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