The Los Angeles Kings pulled out a huge win in a tight game against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night. The game went back and forth and featured some lucky, and unlucky, bounces which ultimately found the Kings having the last laugh. 

Evidently the team Twitter account wanted to have a laugh as well. As shown in the photo above, LA's official account Tweeted out after the victory, "To everyone in Canada outside of BC, you're welcome". As you might have expected, fans outside of the Los Angeles area didn't find the joke very funny. 

We all expected the Nashville / Detroit playoff series would be a wild one highlighted by physical play between two teams that really, really don't like each other. 

In the waning seconds of Nashville's victory in Game 1, Shea Weber proved just how much animosity there is between the Predators and Red Wings. As Weber battled with Henrik Zetterberg for the puck right as the final horn sounded, he shoved Zetterberg's head to the boards. As if that wasn't enough, Weber firmly grasped the back of Zetterberg's head and forcefully shoved it into the glass crossing the line between competitive play and a completely dirty hit. 

Today marks the first day of each team's journey to win 16 games. The 2012 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs will be a roller coaster ride of excitement, despair, and surprise. Who will break out as an MVP candidate? Which goaltender will steal a series for their team? How dirty will some of these rivalries get?

While we may not be able to answer all these questions at once, some of the staff at Puck Drunk Love has decided to chip in with their predictions for the first round of the playoffs. Find your favorite staff writer and see if you're on board with their picks or laugh as you disagree with them. We'll be following up our first round picks with another round of predictions before the second round starts.

Let the NHL Playoffs begin!

David Rogers:

The battle of the 4th and 5th seeds in both Conferences are pure gold. It's hard to pick which series between Philadelphia/Pittsburgh and Nashville/Detroit will deliver more entertainment (though we know which will be covered more), but both on paper indicate they should be absolute joys to watch. If you're a casual fan just checking out some predictions, try your best to tune in to one of these two series. They are going to be physical, heated contests between teams that simply don't like each other. I can't wait.

NYR vs. OTT
Rangers in 6

BOS vs. WAS
Boston in 6

FLA vs. NJ
NJ in 5

PIT vs. PHI
PIT in 7

VAN vs. LA
VAN in 6

STL vs. SJ
STL in 6

Steven Stamkos is arguably the best pure scorer in the NHL when he's healthy. As it turns out, he's one of the best pure scorers when he's not healthy too. 

Tampa Bay Online reported that Stamkos spent the last month of the 2011-12 NHL season with an injured left shoulder. If this news comes as a surprise to you it's likely because Stamkos was potentially at his best of the 2011-12 season in the final month when he apparently was injured. He finished the season with 60 goals and ended with an incredible run of 10 goals in the last nine games of the regular season. 

The Colorado Avalanche have a unique way of doing business. Evidently, Colorado's front office prefers to handle all contract matters during the summer after the regular season has concluded. While we aren't here to say Colorado is incorrect with how they choose to handle their business, it is worth noting that their method has created a fairly unique situation. 

Heading into 2012-13, the Colorado Avalanche have just eight players under contract. They have 11 forwards and four defenseman from the 2011-12 season set to be free agents in 2012-13, leaving the Avalanche with a whole bunch of decisions to make this summer. 

The wait is finally over! The real hockey season will begin this Wednesday as the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs kicks off. Through NHL.com and the NHL Network, all the schedules for each of the first round match ups have been released:

The Western Conference

Vancouver Canucks (1) vs. Los Angeles Kings (8)

St. Louis Blues (2) vs. San Jose Sharks (7)

The Chicago Blackhawks spent the 2011-12 season deploying Corey Crawford and Ray Emery in net. The goaltender that was the "number one" starter by definition was simply whichever netminder had the hot hand at the time. It has been a shaky system at times but ultimately it has been one that has worked, carrying Chicago to yet another playoff berth. 

As a result, the Blackhawks have decided to reward Emery for his hard work by giving him a one-year, $1.15 million extension as reported by Sporting News.  no comments

Earlier this month we wrote about how EA's NHL 13 would feature a player on the cover selected by the fans in a March Madness style bracket. Some players have taken it to heart, waging war against their fellow competitors in an effort to get their mug on the cover for all fans to see. 

Scott Hartnell took things a step further and honestly, we shouldn't be surprised. Hartnell released a video where he asks for your vote for EA's cover set to the style of a standard political commercial. In the spot, Hartnell dons a coat and tie and offers examples of why he is the ideal choice for the NHL 13 cover. The end result is pure entertainment.

The Montreal Canadiens will not be in the 2011-12 playoffs. Carey Price is out with a minor concussion. As if Montreal fans weren't depressed enough, backup goaltender Peter Budaj added insult to injury. 

In just his 15th start of the season, Budaj committed a huge blunder, wandering well out of his crease to handle a puck coming into his zone. No harm there, right? Budaj appeared to be in the clear until he decided to dish a pass to Vincent Lecavalier. Only one problem - Lecavalier skates for the Lightning. The end result was one of the easiest goals you'll ever see in a hockey game. Perhaps even more bizarre is the fact his awful pass was the second goal of the night he was directly involved in setting up. 

It's one bizarre night for Peter Budaj. Things started out extremely well as Budaj received the secondary assist on Montreal's first goal of the night scored by Alexei Emelin just over two minutes into the first period. Unfortunately, five minutes later Budaj was involved in another goal, this time one for the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

It's rare you see a goalie earn an assist on a goal. It's even rarer when a goaltender directly sets up a goal for each side. At the very least we can't accuse Budaj of being biased. 

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David Rogers is a staff writer for Puck Drunk Love & runs FrozenNotes.com.

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I'm not the world's biggest fan of Mike Milbury. Personally, I think he exists for the sole purpose of irritating Pierre McGuire and Jeremy Roenick, and he does an outstanding job at both. Admit it - you like to watch him annoy other people, especially McGuire and JR. You probably would have liked to have been there to see him grab hold of the kid that was picking on his son during practice. The video of him going after a fan with a shoe is funnier than Khrushchev going after the UN with the same thing. His quips (if you'd like to call them that) regarding the Sedin twins, European hockey players, and billions of other bits of knowledgeable insight are indispensable, if what you consider indispensable to be uninformed and obnoxious.