This might be the most exciting year to make predictions for the Stanley Cup playoffs. After months of Zoom calls, rewatching old games, ranking anything that can be ranked, we get back to a bit of normalcy. Debates will rage about which players were affected the most by the lengthy layoff. And the quality of the ice conversations will be endless with back-to-back-to-back games on one sheet in August. It’s what we’ve all been waiting for.

Without further ado, here are the results of The Athletic’s predictions for the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.

We’d also like to hear what you think, so fill out your predictions here.

The champion

Apparently, only a portion of our team learned from last season and the Tampa Bay Lightning are favorites once again.

The Colorado Avalanche, as the second favorite to be crowned champion, led the vote for Stanley Cup runner-up at 35.9 percent. The Golden Knights got 20.5 percent of the vote to lose in the final series.

Voters overwhelmingly picked Bruins-Lightning as the Eastern Conference finals matchup (38.4 percent). The Penguins, Capitals and Flyers were the only other teams to get multiple votes to make the conference finals.

In the West, there was a split between the Golden Knights and Blues as to who would face Colorado. The Avs versus the Golden Knights was the expected matchup for 41.0 percent of voters, and the Avs against the Blues was the matchup for 30.8 percent of voters. The Stars and Oilers are the only other clubs to get multiple votes.

We can all connect the dots when it comes to the Conn Smythe voting.  If you think the finals will be Tampa against Colorado, the playoff MVP is coming from one of those teams. The difference was that Mikko Rantanen (one vote) was the only Avalanche player to be selected other than Nathan MacKinnon, while five different Lightning players got votes.

Hype machine

Worth noting, in our voting for the potential surprise team and the likely biggest bust, the Maple Leafs, Penguins and Stars got multiple votes in both categories.

Qualifying Round

Let’s be honest, this don’t-call-it-the-playoffs qualifying round to open the NHL’s return could be the best thing to come out of the new format. There will be games all day, teams could be eliminated before you figure out where to stream the games and it ends with one of the “losers” getting the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.

In a normal year, picking who will win a series is tough. These best-of-5 series could be impossible, which shows in the split-voting for most of the eight series.

But I did say most … fans in Montreal and Chicago should direct all complaints to the comments section when Carey Price gets hot to shut out the Penguins, or Patrick Kane outshines Connor McDavid.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)