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The Colorado Avalanche are prohibitive favorites in their first round Western Conference Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings, which begins with Game 1 on Sunday at Denver. The Avalanche (55-16-11, 121 points) won the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the best regular-season record. They also led all teams with 302 goals and have a gallery of stars led by NHL-leading goal scorer Nathan MacKinnon, who tallied 53 times on the season and finished with 127 points. Colorado’s Martin Necas reached 100 points (38 goals, 62 assists), while defenseman Cale Makar, a two-time Norris Trophy winner, had 20 goals with 59 assists. Colorado’s calling card is a relentless attack with speed and skill. “We’ve always been a

Although the Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers met four times during the regular season, each team will have a different look Sunday afternoon when they meet in Boston for Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series. Boston and Philadelphia split their four games in the regular season, but three of those were played before mid-November. The seventh-seeded 76ers didn’t play the second-seeded Celtics after Jayson Tatum returned from a ruptured Achilles, and the Boston didn’t face Philadelphia with Paul George in the lineup. George was injured when the season began and then missed games in February and part of March after he was suspended 25 games for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy. Tatum averaged 21.8 points, 10.0 rebounds and 5.3

Ottawa opens its playoff run on the road Saturday night at Lenovo Center, and this is not an easy first draw. Carolina gets home ice, carries the stronger market respect, and comes in priced like the more complete team. That part is not surprising. The Hurricanes usually control games with structure, pressure, and territorial play, especially at home, and that tends to show up right away in playoff series. Still, this opener is not quite as simple as laying the favorite and moving on. Ottawa has enough pace and enough offensive push to make Carolina work for clean control, and that matters in Game 1. The Senators are the kind of underdog that can look outmatched for stretches and still

Minnesota opens its first-round series on the road Saturday at American Airlines Center against Dallas, with Game 1 set for 5:30 p.m. ET. This is one of those playoff matchups that has felt inevitable for weeks. The Wild finished 46-24-12 with 104 points, the Stars closed 50-20-12 with 112, and now the reward for Dallas is home ice in a series that should be tighter than the opening moneyline says. The Wild did not exactly limp into the postseason, but they were not pushing at full throttle late either. Minnesota had already locked in its spot and managed some lineup decisions down the stretch, so the recent results need context. Dallas, meanwhile, kept showing the profile of a team that