NHL Playoff Bracket 2012: Surprising Teams with Best Stanley Cup Chances

Is there really such a thing as a surprising upset in the Stanley Cup playoffs? It's practically become an annual rite of the NHL postseason to feature favorites falling out of contention well before the puck drops on the Finals.

That's certainly been the case this time around, with four lower seeds having claimed leads or won their respective series and at least one overseeded underdog taking advantage of home ice so far.

With so many such teams slated to advance, it's tough to peg any of them as particularly vulnerable to slide out of the postseason after one series win. Although, these three teams would appear to be in position to compete for the Cup after the way they've played thus far.

Philadelphia Flyers

Is it fair to say that a five-seed beating a four-seed in the first round is that shocking of a result?

Well, when that four-seed is the Pittsburgh Penguins, who were nearly everyone's pick to win the whole thing coming into the postseason, then yes, it is a shocker of sorts. The Pens featured a veritable cast of All-Stars—between Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Kris Letang, Jordan Staal and James Neal—many of whom were well-versed in the ways of playoff hockey.

Then again, if any team was going to knock the Pens off their pedestal, it was the Flyers. Pittsburgh's Keystone State rivals spent most of the series proving how potent they were offensively, slotting home 20 goals in the first four games, before finally slowing the pace in Game 5 and showing off some stout defensive play in a Game 6 victory to close out the series.

The Flyers won't likely face a more difficult opponent going forward through these playoffs, which isn't so much to suggest that Philly can expect smooth sailing from here on out so much as that the team is more than capable of sticking it to the best the league has to offer.

If Claude Giroux continues to shine (14 points against the Pens) and Ilya Bryzgalov plays as well in goal as he did toward the end of that series, the Flyers will be as tough an out as any left in the field. 

Nashville Predators

The four vs. five series out West wasn't so much surprising for the end result—the little-brother Nashville Predators upending the older, wiser Detroit Red Wings—as it was for how quickly the series was decided.

The Preds certainly had the talent and the ambition to make a deep run through the postseason, especially after shipping off a host of assets at the trade deadline to bring in Hal Gill, Paul Gaustad and Andre Kostitsyn as rentals.

Not to mention the sneaky arrival of Alexander Radulov from the KHL.

All of which geared Nashville up for one last run at the Cup, knowing that Shea Weber and Ryan Suter might both bolt this summer.

But for "Hockeytown South" to dispatch the originals in just five games is rather remarkable. Granted, all five games were close, low-scoring affairs.

Still, it speaks volumes of the Preds' readiness to contend for the Cup that they were able to pull out four hard-fought wins in five games against a club as battle-tested as the Wings.

Los Angeles Kings

If you'd told just about anyone in L.A. prior to the season that the Kings would be in position to advance to the second round of the playoffs, they wouldn't have so much as batted an eye. After all, this was supposed to be the Kings' year, the year they parlayed back-to-back first-round exits into a serious run at the Cup, with Jonathan Quick in goal and Mike Richards joining the talented, young nucleus of Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown.

Of course, things didn't quite go as the Kings had hoped. A slow start (particularly on offense) led to a coaching change and a deadline deal for Jeff Carter, none of which seemed to spark much of an offensive renaissance until the home stretch of the season.

As long and winding as the road has been for L.A., it's led to the very same door, one on which the Kings are currently knocking with a 3-1 series lead over the heavily-favored Vancouver Canucks. The Kings benefited from the early absence of Daniel Sedin, who's spark helped to keep the Canucks alive in Game 4.

Luck or no, L.A. has been solid all around against the hated Canucks, showing off the sort of goaltending and timely scoring that can fuel a deep run through the postseason.

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