The second round of the NHL playoffs was full of surprises. Series wins by the Winnipeg Jets and the Washington Capitals raised the most eyebrows, but even the most die-hard Tampa Bay and Vegas true believers had to be stunned by how easily their teams made it to the conference finals.

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals will face off in the Eastern Conference Finals beginning tonight. Perhaps based on Tampa Bay’s surprisingly easy dismissal of a good Boston team in the semifinal round, or perhaps the swarm being mindful of Washington’s almost legendary playoff struggles through the years, the group predicted Tampa will take this matchup with a high degree of confidence, as shown above.

To say that the participants in the Western Conference Finals are a surprise is an understatement. In October, sports books would’ve given you incredibly long odds that the Jets and Vegas Golden Knights would be meeting for a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals. The swarm forecasts a much tougher series here, taking 7 games with Winnipeg just barely having an edge to win.

If the swarm’s predictions are accurate, the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals will feature the Tampa Bay Lightning and Winnipeg Jets. The swarm thinks the Jets may give the Lightning more trouble than the Caps, but even so they forecast a six-game series with Tampa Bay hoisting the hardware at center ice.

We’ll be holding weekly NHL swarms and paying $25 to the highest performing member of the Swarm? Want to join the Swarm or see the picks? Click the button below…

Want to learn more about our Swarm AI platform? Check out our TED talk…