NHL Conference Finals Schedule Set as Four Heavyweights Close In

The league has the conference finals timetable locked in, and the bracket is down to the kind of teams that can smell the Stanley Cup from a few flights away. Every game now carries the sort of pressure that turns good series into ugly ones, because one bounce can redraw the whole road to the Final. The NHL has reached the stage where travel, rest and goaltending tweaks matter almost as much as talent, and the schedule is part of the story now.