It shouldn't be happening this early in the playoffs, but that shouldn't stop anyone from appreciating the upcoming second-round series between the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

We all know the NHL's divisional playoff format is flawed. The Capitals won the Presidents' Trophy with a league-best 118 points in the regular season, and the Penguins finished with the second-best record in the NHL. They shouldn't be facing each other until the Eastern Conference final.

A traditional bracket pitting No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No 7, and so forth, makes much more sense. That's why it still exists in the NBA and in the ultimate example of numerical seeding, the NCAA tournament.

No disrespect to the New York Rangers or the Ottawa Senators, but the fact that one of those inferior squads is guaranteed a spot in the conference final before having to play either the Capitals or the Penguins is ridiculous.

Related - Winnik slams playoff format: 'It's the stupidest thing ever'

However, boasting a top seed doesn't mean much once the NHL's two-month postseason marathon begins. The Capitals were No. 1 entering the playoffs last season, but the Penguins knocked them out in six games.

The top seed in the Western Conference this season, the Chicago Blackhawks, were swept out of the opening round by the Nashville Predators, a wild-card team.

It's unfortunate that the two best teams in the NHL are playing each other one round too soon, and that one of these two dominant squads is going to be sent packing before the Eastern Conference final just because of the format, but they were going to have to play each other eventually.

"(We) kind of expected that we'd probably see each other at some point, so we just have to prepare," Sidney Crosby told reporters Monday, via Sportsnet.

The Penguins have won eight of nine playoff series against the Capitals in their history, but this Pittsburgh squad looks a little different than the one that eliminated the Capitals last spring.

Marc-Andre Fleury isn't watching from the bench this time around. He's the Penguins' No. 1 netminder again due to an injury to Matt Murray, who hasn't resumed skating since he was hurt moments before Game 1 against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Crosby is flanked by two talented young wingers, Jake Guentzel and Conor Sheary, and the trio has been one of the NHL's most effective units since it was formed earlier in the campaign.

The Capitals have made some changes since their last meeting, too. All-world center Nicklas Backstrom has jumped up to the top line with Alex Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie, while Justin Williams is now in the team's top-six. "Mr. Game 7" provided the overtime winner in the extra frame of Game 5 against the Toronto Maple Leafs last week.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

We're well past the point of focusing exclusively on the Crosby-Ovechkin narrative, particularly because these two teams have so much secondary scoring and all-around depth.

Both offenses are stacked with prolific scorers and dynamic playmakers. The Penguins led the NHL with 3.39 goals per game, and the Capitals weren't far behind that pace, ranking third with 3.18. Many of those goals came via the man advantage, and the two teams tied for third in the league with a 23.1 percent success rate on the power play in the regular season.

The Capitals have the unquestioned edge in goal with 2016 Vezina Trophy winner Braden Holtby, who's nominated for the 2017 award. Washington also got a boost on the back end before the trade deadline, landing Kevin Shattenkirk in a deal with the St. Louis Blues.

Pittsburgh was ravaged by injuries on the blue line this season, the most devastating of which was the neck ailment that forced Kris Letang out for the rest of the season earlier this month. But Olli Maatta and Trevor Daley are back, and the additions of Ron Hainsey and Mark Streit before the deadline now give the Penguins options on the back end.

It's always a blast when the Capitals and Penguins play in the postseason, and even if it is happening a little earlier than it should, this one should be another doozy.

Betting line

(Odds courtesy: Bodog)

Prediction

Capitals in seven. Washington allowed fewer goals than any other team in the regular season, and while Holtby deserves much of the credit for that, it was a team effort.

Offense is obviously important, too, but these two high-powered scoring machines are essentially a wash. It will likely come down to who's more effective in their own end. Between goaltending and the defense corps, the Capitals have the edge there.

Schedule

*If necessary

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Rob Blake knew he wanted John Stevens as his head coach when Darryl Sutter was fired.

"There was no search," the Los Angeles Kings general manager told reporters Monday. "We went to John as soon as the changes were made."

Stevens was named the Kings' new head coach Sunday, less than two weeks after the organizational shakeup by parent company AEG that left Sutter and former general manager Dean Lombardi unemployed, while Blake and new team president Luc Robitaille earned promotions.

Stevens, who had been the Kings' associate head coach since 2014 and a Los Angeles assistant since 2010, already has a plan to fix a team that failed to qualify for the postseason this spring.

The Kings were the NHL's best possession team this season, but they scored only 2.43 goals per game, which ranked sixth-worst in the league.

Stevens said Anze Kopitar will remain captain next season. The center had the worst non-lockout season of his NHL career from an offensive standpoint, managing only 12 goals and 52 points in 76 games.

Kopitar was named captain last June, about six months after signing an eight-year, $80-million extension.

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The NHL's rookie class was incredibly deep this season, so it's only natural that a slew of phenoms would be left out when the three Calder Trophy finalists were announced Thursday.

Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, and Zach Werenski all deserve their nominations, but many of their contemporaries could also be acknowledged for having impressive inaugural campaigns.

Here are five rookies who might have played well enough to be finalists in any other year:

William Nylander

Matthews' teammate had himself a terrific first full campaign in the NHL, scoring 22 goals and adding 39 assists while missing only one game in the regular season.

Nylander played 22 NHL games last season, three shy of the mark that would have disqualified him for the award in 2016-17, but that shouldn't diminish what he accomplished.

The 20-year-old tied for third among rookies in points; placed second among all Leafs in helpers, fourth on the team in goals, and tied for third in points; and set a franchise rookie record with a 12-game point streak in March.

Mitch Marner

The Leafs showed off a trio of talented rookie centers this season.

Marner led all rookies as well as the entire Leafs squad with 42 assists - setting a franchise rookie mark of his own with his 41st.

The 19-year-old tied Nylander for third on the rookie points list with 61, and he did it in four fewer games.

Matt Murray

Many forget that the Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender was eligible for this award, thanks to the same 25-game rule that allowed Chicago Blackhawks star Artemi Panarin to win it last year.

Murray played 13 regular-season games for the Penguins last season before usurping Marc-Andre Fleury as the starter and helping Pittsburgh win the Stanley Cup.

He retained the No. 1 role when healthy this season, going 32-10-4 with a 2.41 GAA and a .923 save percentage. Murray certainly had some help in front of him, but the 22-year-old finished in the top 10 in the league in wins while making 49 appearances.

Sebastian Aho

Only Matthews and Laine scored more goals than Aho among rookies this season.

The Carolina Hurricanes winger notched 24 goals and finished fifth in the class with 49 points while playing every game.

Those totals ranked him second on the club behind Jeff Skinner in both categories - an impressive feat for the 19-year-old, despite the Hurricanes' less than high-powered offense.

Mikko Rantanen

The Colorado Avalanche were by far the worst team in the NHL in 2016-17, but Rantanen was one of the club's lone bright spots.

He led Colorado and finished in a tie for fifth among rookies with 20 goals, and although he only posted 38 points, that was good enough for third on the team, five points ahead of Gabriel Landeskog.

The Avalanche may end up trading Landeskog and Matt Duchene at some point, but the 10th overall pick in 2015 should be a significant piece of the club's core for years to come.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

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It's probably going to be spun as wiping the slate clean, but the firings of Dan Bylsma and Tim Murray only make the future murkier in Buffalo.

Sabres owner Terry Pegula hit the reset button Thursday, jettisoning the head coach and general manager in a shocking double whammy that disrupts the club's ongoing rebuild and only creates more uncertainty going forward.

Bylsma is gone after only two seasons behind the Buffalo bench, with three years left on his contract. The Sabres missed the playoffs in both of those campaigns, but his departure is particularly eye-opening given Wednesday's report that young star Jack Eichel was prepared to walk if Bylsma was retained.

Murray lasted less than four years in his role as Sabres GM, and his dismissal is by far the more surprising move, especially considering he signed a multi-year extension in October.

The now-former GM stripped down the roster to kick-start the rebuild upon being hired midway through the 2013-14 season, then selected Sam Reinhart and Eichel second overall in back-to-back drafts, brought in Ryan O'Reilly, Evander Kane, Robin Lehner, and Dmitry Kulikov in trades and signed Kyle Okposo to a long-term deal in free agency.

His tank-and-load-up rebuild plan was derailed by several factors.

The Sabres "lost" two straight draft lotteries and missed out on top picks Aaron Ekblad and Connor McDavid. Kane was allegedly involved in multiple off-ice incidents and O'Reilly got himself into one of his own. Lehner was dogged by injuries that limited him to only 80 games combined in the last two seasons.

The bigger issue, though, is that the Sabres didn't improve fast enough. Given their talent, they should have been a playoff team this spring. By all accounts, the players never collectively embraced Bylsma's coaching style. He came to "develop a winning culture," but couldn't win consistently in a brief but revealing two-year stint.

But canning a GM who completely retooled the roster while letting go of an experienced coach this quickly represent shortsighted decisions that reek of a familiarly fast trigger-finger from Pegula, the same man who dismissed Bills head coach Rex Ryan after less than two seasons and may not have even consulted GM Doug Whaley about it.

Pegula hasn't been afraid to fire members of his front office and coaching staffs, meaning continuity hasn't exactly been a hallmark of his ownership.

It's easy to say the Sabres' rebuild is stalling, and that it has failed so far, but to fire both Bylsma and Murray in one fell swoop implies a level of frustration from Pegula that few expected.

He's shown impatience with futility in the past, and the hockey club has certainly been futile, but in Eichel, Reinhart, Kane, defensive stud Rasmus Ristolainen, and 19-year-old prospect Alexander Nylander, there are plenty of encouraging pieces in the organization.

The problem appears to be that most of these core members of the Sabres future have required some time to develop, and Pegula doesn't seem to enjoy waiting.

It didn't help Murray or Bylsma that the Toronto Maple Leafs' well documented "Shanaplan" has already landed them back in the playoffs with sky-high hopes for the future buoyed by Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Nylander's brother, William, and the rest of a prospect pool oozing with talent.

But comparing one rebuild to another isn't a productive endeavor, and while the Sabres' plan hasn't gone as swimmingly as their counterparts up the QEW, there are still reasons to be optimistic in Buffalo.

Whether or not Pegula realizes that fact - or has the restraint to let the next GM and coach carry out their plans completely - are other matters entirely.

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Each week, theScore looks at the teams, players, and other hockey figures trending upward and taking a step back. This week, we're looking at some playoff surprises.

▲ Tom Wilson

Because scoring the overtime winner in Game 1 wasn't enough, the Washington Capitals pest tallied twice in a crucial Game 4 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.

Wilson has as many goals as Alex Ovechkin so far in these playoffs, and the Toronto-born winger has looked like an entirely different player against his hometown team.

Coming into this series, he'd never scored in 28 career playoff games, and he managed only seven goals and 19 points in 82 regular season contests.

Wilson's contributions are often of the more physical variety and he's accustomed to getting under the skin of opponents, but he's been a thorn in the Leafs' side in a most unexpected way.

▼ Boston Bruins

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

It's not particularly surprising that the Bruins are trailing the Ottawa Senators in their first-round series, given that Boston is the lower seed.

But it is a mild shock that the Bruins are on the brink of elimination after only four postseason games, considering how much improvement they showed in the regular season after Bruce Cassidy took over the coaching reins.

All four playoff contests have been decided by a single goal, and the Bruins have lost three in a row - including Wednesday's 1-0 victory by Ottawa that gave the Senators a 3-1 series lead.

Two of those three losses came in overtime, which only further illustrates how tight the series has been and how, with a few bounces the other way, Boston could have been on the verge of eliminating Ottawa.

▲ Bobby Ryan

One of the major reasons for the Senators' success in the series has been Ryan's resurgence.

The veteran forward had one of the worst regular seasons of his career from a production standpoint, but he's been revived in the postseason.

Ryan has three goals in four first-round games and back-to-back game-winners with the lone goal Wednesday night and the overtime winner Monday in Game 3.

He's accounted for 30 percent of Ottawa's goals in the series, underscoring how critical his improved play has been for the Senators early on in these playoffs.

▼ Chicago Blackhawks

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

The top seed in the West is on the ropes.

Chicago came into the postseason as the best team in the conference, with home ice secured through the first three rounds, but that won't matter much if the Blackhawks can't make it past the Nashville Predators.

That's the potentially disastrous possibility they're facing now, with the Predators holding a commanding 3-0 series lead in their first-round matchup.

The Blackhawks couldn't solve Pekka Rinne at all in the first two games, and when they did it twice in Game 3 - jumping out to a 2-0 lead - they coughed it up and allowed Nashville to come from behind and win 3-2 in overtime.

A great deal of credit is due to the Predators, who've simply outplayed their Central Division rivals, but it is surprising to see the Blackhawks in danger of being swept out of the opening round.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs gave the Washington Capitals a scare in the opening game of their first-round playoff series, but Barry Trotz acknowledged his club's slow start actually had a positive effect.

"It's a (really) good wake-up call for us," the Capitals head coach told reporters, according to TSN's Mark Masters, following Washington's 3-2 victory. "I know we have another level."

The underdog Leafs scored the first two goals of the series, the first coming less than two minutes in courtesy Mitch Marner and the second scored by Jake Gardiner midway through the opening frame.

Justin Williams brought the Capitals level with a pair of goals that eventually forced overtime, and Tom Wilson finished off the comeback with the game-winner in the extra period.

Related: Wilson's OT winner completes Capitals' Game 1 comeback over Leafs

Trotz didn't like how Washington played for the first 30 minutes of the game, according to The Athletic's James Mirtle.

The Capitals out-shot the Leafs 13-7 in the third and 6-2 in overtime, and Washington ultimately prevailed, so Trotz shouldn't have much of an issue with how the Presidents' Trophy winners finished Game 1.

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Mike Babcock was understandably disappointed after the Toronto Maple Leafs squandered a chance to clinch a playoff berth Thursday night.

"We made it way harder than it should (have been)," the head coach told reporters after the 4-1 win by the Tampa Bay Lightning, according to TSN's Mark Masters. "We didn't play like we normally do."

The Leafs never led in the game, which ultimately kept Tampa Bay's playoff hopes alive, moving them within three points of Toronto for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot.

"We never established the game we normally play," Babcock said. "We got to go back to the drawing board and get re-energized."

Morgan Rielly also lamented the missed opportunity.

"We knew what was at stake," the defenseman said. "We didn't do our job. Not very pleased with the game and it just puts more pressure on the next one."

James van Riemsdyk took a more optimistic view.

"We're in a good spot," the Leafs forward said. "Great spot, actually. We control our own destiny still ... we'll be ready to go for Saturday."

Toronto hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins that evening in their penultimate regular-season game before Sunday's clash with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Both the Lightning and the New York Islanders sit three points back of the Leafs with two games to play.

The Islanders will play the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, then the Ottawa Senators on Sunday. The Lightning travel to Montreal to face the Canadiens on Friday night, then host the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday in their regular-season finale.

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The Presidents' Trophy is staying in Washington.

Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals will have the NHL's best regular-season record and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs for the second consecutive campaign thanks to a 2-0 victory over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.

The Capitals won the Presidents' Trophy last season with a 56-18-8 record before being eliminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinal.

Washington sits atop the conference and the Metropolitan Division at 54-18-8 with two games remaining in its regular-season schedule.

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The Montreal Canadiens are the Atlantic Division champions once again.

The Canadiens clinched the division title with a 4-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Monday night, ensuring their second Atlantic crown in the last three seasons while officially dethroning the Panthers, who won it in 2015-16.

Montreal, which led the Atlantic nearly from start to finish, holds an eight-point advantage on the second-place Toronto Maple Leafs. While the Leafs have a game in hand, they would need five regulation or overtime wins to tie the Canadiens, but only have four games left.

It's the first division championship for the Canadiens since they went 50-22-10 in 2014-15.

Montreal is 46-24-9 with three games remaining in its regular-season schedule.

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Mike Babcock doesn't yet want to acknowledge the possibility of Auston Matthews being named the next captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"I’m not comfortable talking about anything like that," the head coach told reporters Sunday, according to Postmedia's Terry Koshan. "Right now we have (alternate) captains."

Leo Komarov, Tyler Bozak, Morgan Rielly, and Matt Hunwick are all wearing an "A" as Toronto's alternates this season.

The Leafs have been playing without a captain since trading Dion Phaneuf to the Ottawa Senators in February 2016. Phaneuf wore the "C" for parts of six campaigns beginning in 2010-11.

Matthews leads the club with 38 goals and 66 points, and the 19-year-old rookie has already broken a pair of franchise scoring records.

The Edmonton Oilers made Connor McDavid the youngest captain in NHL history when they gave him the honor in October at 19 years and 266 days old.

Matthews will turn 20 on Sept. 17, just a few weeks before the 2017-18 campaign gets underway.

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