The Washington Capitals, the eighth seed, will take on the Florida Panthers, the winners of the President’s Trophy, in the first round of the playoffs.

So which do you want first: the good news or the bad news? Trick question; it’s all bad news!

Here are some predictions and and odds.

Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic

Dom’s model really likes the Panthers. He has the Capitals winning the first round just 15 percent of the time. That’s the worst odds of any first-round matchup outside Colorado/Nashville, and it results in the Caps having a hilarious 0.2 percent chance of winning the Cup.

MoneyPuck

MoneyPuck is much more bullish on the Caps against the Panthers, giving them a 36 percent chance of making the second round, which is still terrible odds, but it’s better than 15.

I’d tell you what the chances are the Caps win the Cup, but the sliver is too small. (jk it’s three percent).

Micah McCurdy of HockeyViz

Hockey’s pre-eminent vizzer won’t have his “rainbow death crab” predictions up for a day or two, but he’s suggested that his model likes Washington’s chances the most.

You mean, what is the chance that the Caps win at Florida? I have them at around 40%.

— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) April 29, 2022

But that’s still pretty bad!

Meanwhile, I checked Yahoo’s and Fox Sports‘ odds for the Caps to win the Cup, and they had them at +3000 and +4000 respectively. Looooong odds.

The real predictions, i.e. the ones that come from Keith, a Coin, will be out early next week.

Headline photo: Amanda Bowen/RMNB