Thoughts?

Around the League

Of the 16, 10 predicted the Avalanche to win the Cup, while the other six think the Lightning will skate away with their third straight championship.

Game 1 is at Ball Arena in Denver on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, CBC, SN, TVAS).

As for the Conn Smythe Trophy, which goes to the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar got six votes and teammate, forward Nathan MacKinnon, got four votes.

Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was the only Lightning player to get multiple votes with three, while forward Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos, and defenseman Victor Hedman each got one.