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The first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs rolls on Thursday night, with five more series and 10 more teams set to begin their postseason run, headlined by the top seeds in the West and East -- Nashville and Tampa Bay -- taking to the ice. 

After a Wednesday night that saw the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins absolutely embarrass the rival Philadelphia Flyers, the Winnipeg Jets claim a comeback win over the Minnesota Wild and the upstart Vegas Golden Knights log win No. 1 against the Los Angeles Kings after an inexplicable pregame show, the next slate of playoff hockey includes bouts involving the reigning Western Conference champs and -- believe it or not -- last year's last-place NHL team.

Scroll down forThursday's full schedule, with GameTrackers, and updates from all the action around the NHL. 

Thursday's schedule, results

Martin Jones blanks Ducks as Sharks jump out to series lead

This game was particularly huge for two Sharks: Martin Jones, who needed just 25 saves to pitch his fourth career playoff shutout, and Evander Kane, who buried two goals in his first career playoff start. But then, the Sharks aren't surprised. They brought Kane on for an infusion of offense, and infusion of offense is what they got.

The Ducks, frankly, looked bad in the opener of the Battle of California. These two teams looked mighty similar coming into the series, but you won't see the Ducks winning a lot of games that involve Rickard Rakell, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf letting off a shot apiece. The Ducks got some opportunities early on, they just weren't able to capitalize, and those opportunities dwindled until it was too late.

It was an all-around weird game for the Ducks, who had seven penalties. Penalty minutes was already a concern heading into this series, so to start this way is a bad sign. John Gibson did what he could in his first game back, but the absence of Cam Fowler was glaring in this game.

The Ducks have another game at the Honda Center to try to redeem themselves, but the Sharks proved that their goal scoring is a force to be reckoned with. Now, the Ducks need to try to salvage their first two games with a split, and that's going to start with their first line putting shots on net and giving John Gibson any kind of opportunity to keep them in the game.

Holy moly, Filip Forsberg

Goal of the playoffs just two days in? It may very well be. He went through TWO sets of legs.

How you feeling, Capitals fans?

Evander Kane goes on a scoring spree in the Ducks-Sharks series

Evander Kane is doing what he was brought in to do. At 7:07 in the second period, Kane opened the scoring in the Battle of California on a gorgeous centering pass from Joe Pavelski. The Sharks, who of course traded for Kane at the deadline this season, easily capitalized on a two-man advantage.

It was the first goal to get past John Gibson in this postseason, as he continues to recover from injury. However, Gibson simply had no chance on this shot as Kane took the pass, squared it up and buried the shot to give the Sharks the first lead for either team of the series.

And that wasn't the only time the former Buffalo Sabres forward lit the lamp on Thursday. With just over six minutes left in the second period, Kane was already on the board again with an outstretched score right in front of the net.

Filip Forsberg breaks the tie minutes after clutch Rinne save

After Pekka Rinne stoned Nathan MacKinnon in an Avalanche rush, it felt like things would turn the Predators' direction shortly. Sure enough, minutes later, Filip Forsberg (who has a surname that may be familiar to some Avalanche fans) redirected a shot into the back of the net to break a 2-2 tie.

The shot, which was a redirect of a Roman Josi screamer from the blue line, gave the Predators a 3-2 lead with 13:52 left. The Avalanche have a tough comeback ahead of them, as the Predators try to close out what's been a surprisingly stressful Game 1.

Ryan Johansen lays out Tyson Barrie

With the game between the Avalanche and Predators tied at two nearing the second intermission, Ryan Johansen absolutely demolished Tyson Barrie after Barrie let off a wrister towards Pekka Rinne. Barrie didn't cover his six on the shot and, well, you know the rest.

Predators Avalanche is about what we expected, a bit of a slugfest, although it hasn't been as one-sided as some people expected. With that being said, there was nothing evenly matched about this hit, as Barrie got leveled.

Artemi Panarin buries the Capitals in Game 1

Different year, same Capitals?

The Caps blew a late third period lead against the Blue Jackets in Game 1, then lost in overtime. It was Artemi Panarin who delivered the death strike for Columbus, and boy was it a beauty. Panarin managed to sneak a filthy top shelf snipe past Philipp Grubauer for the game-winner.

That goal gave the Blue Jackets their first playoff series lead in franchise history. As for the Capitals, well...not a great start for another year in which they're trying to erase serious playoff demons.

Blue Jackets' Nick Foligno takes a puck to the face

During third period efforts to erase the Capitals' lead, Columbus saw its center and captain collapse into a bloody pile after Foligno took a puck straight to the face on a slap shot from Jakub Jerabek.

Foligno got off the ice under his own power soon after the ugly play, albeit with blood dripping from his face. He was later spotted back on Columbus' bench with a sizable gash on his cheek.

Nazem Kadri thrown out, could face suspension

The Bruins were up 4-1 on the Leafs late in Game 1 when Nazem Kadri got himself into some trouble with this hit on Tommy Wingels. The Leafs' forward delivered an unnecessary and dangerous hit on a defenseless Wingels, crunching him hard into the boards. Wingels left the game, and so did Kadri, who was given a game misconduct and penalized for charging and boarding.

Wingels caught Mitch Marner with a high hit that went unpenalized just prior to getting run by Kadri, but nothing excuses a hit like that. I wouldn't be surprised if Kadri got at least a one game ban from the NHL, especially after the Doughty ruling.

Josh Anderson gets tossed, Caps pounce

Blue Jackets winger Josh Anderson didn't have the best start to the playoffs, as he was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for boarding Washington's Michal Kempny in the first period of Game 1. Was it worth that severe of a ruling? That's up for you to decide, but officials said "the degree of violence of the impact" was enough to warrant five and a game.

That penalty proved to be really costly for Columbus, as the Capitals went on to score twice on the ensuing major penalty and take a 2-0 lead into first intermission.

Columbus' penalty kill was bottom-five in the league this season, so they're probably going to want to stay out of the box moving forward, especially considering the weapons the Caps have.

That being said, they may have gotten a raw deal with the major.

Bruins and Leafs trading blows

The Bruins and Maples Leafs should be one of the more entertaining series of the first round, as both teams have plenty of offensive talent and play an exciting, fast-paced game. We got an immediate glimpse at that during Game 1 on Thursday.

Boston came out very hot on home ice, dominating the first 10 minutes of play and getting on the board early thanks to a Brad Marchand power play goal. It looked like Marchand may have entered the zone offside, but Toronto decided not to challenge and risk getting hit with another penalty.

The Leafs eventually got their footing and battled their way back. They struck back with an equalizer in the first when Zach Hyman showcased some great speed and strength with this goal against the Bruins' top defensive pair of Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy.

This game has been quite delicious so far.

Kings' Doughty gets 1-game ban

The Golden Knights earned a 1-0 win over the Kings on Wednesday night in a game that set the tone for a physical series, and now we've got our first suspension of the playoffs. Kings' defenseman Drew Doughty will serve a one-game suspension for a hit to the head of Golden Knights' forward William Carrier halfway through the third period, NHL Player Safety announced Thursday. 

The suspension is presumably due to a total neglect of the puck and the lack of effort to pull up. Carrier's penchant for bodying Doughty up all game likely did nothing to support his case either.

It's a brutal blow to an already depleted Kings' defense that had Doughty, a strong candidate for the Norris Trophy, on the ice for nearly half of Wednesday's game (28:02 in icetime). Jake Muzzin and Derek Forbort have already missed time for the Kings. 

How to watch all the Stanley Cup playoff games

Just look here for a complete TV and game schedule assembled by our very own Pete Blackburn.

Who should you be cheering for this postseason?

If you find yourself without a team (or giving up on one -- see: Avs fans after Thursday night?), we have reasons that you should root for and reasons you should root against every single playoff contender. That includes the eight teams on deck for Thursday.

Who's going to win Thursday's games?

We don't know! But that's kind of the point. We have educated guesses and predictions, but all of that flies out the window once the puck is dropped. Either way, the staff here has made picks and bold predictions for the entire postseason. You can find those here.

Odds for each series

The experts at SportsLine have run simulations and have your betting odds for the eventual Stanley Cup champions. Both conferences have genuinely interesting sleepers and matchups. You can find all of those odds here.