The 2015 NHL playoffs kick off Wednesday night. Hockey fans are placing their bets and firming up their pools, all with one question in mind – why are the Oilers and Leafs so terrible who will hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup?
Picking a winner this season won’t be as straightforward as in years past – last year’s champion LA Kings didn’t make the playoffs. Neither did the defending Presidents’ Trophy-winning Boston Bruins.
READ MORE: Wide-open NHL playoffs means it’s anyone’s Cup
Seven of the teams competing for the Cup this year didn’t even make the playoffs last season.
Five Canadian teams are in the post-season, some of them by the skin of their teeth. Celebrations have started early in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and Winnipeg, as fans celebrate the return of multiple Canadian teams making the NHL’s second season (last year, the Canadiens were the only Canadian team to advance, the first time that’s happened since 1973).
READ MORE: NHL playoff bets underway in Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa
The team at Twitter have picked their winner, predicting that the New York Rangers will win it all.
https://twitter.com/TwitterCanada/status/588401875923312640/photo/1
It may be welcome news to the Rangers who lost in the Stanley Cup finals to the Kings last year.
Twitter spent the past three months analysing tweets, looking specifically at tweets about NHL teams talked about in the context of winning.
“We analyzed how many Tweets used a team-related keyword alongside a ‘winning’ related keyword from Jan. 12 to April 13,” read a post on the Twitter blog.
From there, Twitter pitted the teams in a head-to-head battle to determine who Twitter users think will win each series and eventually the Cup.
Here’s how it played out:
Don’t agree with Twitter’s prediction? Tweet out who you think will win and follow our live blog below:
With files from The Canadian Press
Comments