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Update — The Stars defeated the Kraken in Game 7 2-1 and advance to the conference finals. With the four-team field set, the conference finals will officially begin with the Eastern Conference Final between the Panthers and Hurricanes at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 18. The West Final between the Stars and Golden Knights is at 8:30 p.m. ET on Friday, May 19.
The second round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs are cruising along with some potential upsets in the making. The round has a ways to go, but within the next week we’ll have the four-team field for the Eastern and Western Conference Finals.
*Update*: 3 of the 4 teams are set for the Conference Finals. The Hurricanes will face the Panthers in the East. The Golden Knights advanced in the West and will face the winner of Kraken-Stars. That series will play Game 7 on May 15. That means the Conference Finals should start within a couple days of that.
The Conference Finals round will start once the second round has come to a close. We could have the first team advancing as soon as Wednesday night. The WC2 Florida Panthers have jumped out to a 3-1 series lead on the No. 2 Toronto Maple Leafs and are hosting two of the final four games.
In the other Eastern Conference series, the No. 1 Carolina Hurricanes defeated the No. 2 New Jersey Devils 3-2 in OT in Game 5 to win their second-round series 4-1.
In the Western Conference, the No. 2 Dallas Stars and WC1 Seattle Kraken are tied 2-2. In the other series, the No. 1 Vegas Golden Knights and No. 2 Edmonton Oilers are tied 2-2.
The Stars-Kraken series cannot end before Saturday, May 13, so we know the Conference Finals round will not start until after that day at the earliest.