We’re down to the Conference semifinal stage — or the Elite 8, to steal some college basketball parlance — of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs. The story of the opening round was upsets, upsets and more upsets:
— Top overall seed Vancouver, the Presidents’ Trophy winner, lost to No. 8 Los Angeles.
— Boston, the defending Stanley Cup champion, lost to Washington.
— Pittsburgh, who finished with the fourth-most points (109) in the NHL, lost to Philadelphia.
As such, we’re left with a pretty interesting Round 2.
Western Conference
No. 2 St. Louis vs. No. 8 Los Angeles
No. 3 Phoenix vs. No. 4 Nashville
Eastern Conference
No. 1 New York Rangers vs. No. 7 Washington
No. 5 Philadelphia vs. No. 6 New Jersey