Through the first-round, the 2015 NHL playoffs have provided some serious highs and for some unfortunate franchises, even lower lows.
While squads like the New York Islanders, Detroit Red Wings, Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins have head home, tails tucked firmly between their legs, the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks, New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens all have to be considered serious contenders after their hard-fought - and in the case of the Rangers and Ducks, not all that hard-fought - first-round victories.
Let's take a look at some of the biggest surprises of the NHL playoffs thus far...
1. The Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild squaring off in round-two
When the NHL playoff field was set, who really thought that one of the West's second-round series would feature a tilt between the Hawks and the Wild?
Anyone? Anyone? Feel free to raise a hand. I'll wait.
While the seemingly annual playoff letdown by the St. Louis Blues wasn't all that surprising considering their recent postseason history, the play of Devan Dubnyk - 2.32 GAA and .912 SV% - and a Wild team some thought would be looking for Mike Yeo's replacement by season's end, was.
As for the Blackhawks, their advancement past the Predators isn't really the surprising part - it's the poor effort put forth by Peter Laviolette's crew that was. Yes, an injury to mammoth defenseman Shea Weber would shake any team to the foundation, but good teams find a way to win despite painful personnel losses.
It's the NHL playoffs after all - attrition is as much a part of the game as sticks and pucks.
Which brings me directly to my next point (though it's not exactly about the playoffs)...
2. Ken Hitchcock still has a job
Ken Hitchcock is a hell of a hockey coach - let's get that out of the way right now.
Despite issues of his grating personality eventually wearing on every team he's every coached, Hitchcock has managed to string together an NHL head coaching career that has seen him amass a 708-429-88-97 regular season record, two Cup Finals appearances and one Stanley Cup victory.
Unfortunately for Blues fans, in four seasons at the helm in St. Louis Hitchcock has led the Blues to two first-place and two second-place finishes in the Central Division, yet hasn't been able to push the team past the second-round of the playoffs.
It's become something of a running joke each season - can the Blues overcome their own innate playoff self-destruction and finally make the Cup run their talented, deep squad is so clearly capable of?
After being bounced from the 2015 NHL Playoffs by the Wild in six games, what questions are left for Blues GM Doug Armstrong about Hitchcock that his continuous playoff failures haven't already answered?
Maybe it's the core of the team as some have suggested - maybe T.J. Oshie and a handful of other talented, but out-of-place players need to be shipped elsewhere.
But maybe, just maybe the common thread here is Hitchcock. Maybe when the chips are down and the postseason is on the line, Hitchcock just can't reach his players.
Maybe under Hitch, the Blues playoff implosion has become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy and the only way to fix that is to move on from him.
Maybe Amstrong will, in fact, dump Hitchcock after taking time to think it over.
Who knows?
But the patience of ownership in St. Louis has to be growing thin and there's really no question that Hitchcock is lucky to have survived this latest playoff failure, even to this point.
3. The New York Islanders bounced by the Capitals; Caps looking dangerous
Ok, so they may have been the third seed and the Capitals may have been the second seed, but it certainly seemed like this was going to be the year the Islanders turned the corner as a franchise.
Really, a playoff berth and a couple of postseason victories mark a major step forward for the formerly moribund Islanders organization and thanks to a bevy of offseason moves by GM Garth Snow, the team is certainly headed in the right direction, so the headway made this season is nothing to scoff at.
That being said, it really felt like the Isles were going to breakthrough and make a nice little Cup run.
In the wake of Snow's announcement that the team would be retaining head coach Jack Capuano and his staff, the first-round loss seems to have become something of an opportunity for growth - a teachable moment, if you will.
Capuano and Co. now know what it takes to make the postseason.
Together, can they take that small - and yet at the same time major - next step in the 2015-16 playoffs?
As for Barry Trotz's group - yes it took some come-from-behind efforts to maneuver past the Isles and yes it took a last-gasp goal to steal the first game from the Rangers in round two, but that kind of resiliency will serve them well throughout the playoffs.
Considering the strong team effort the Caps are putting together - along with captain Alexander Ovechkin's usual other-worldly contributions - Washington might be closer to serious Cup contenders than they've thus far been given credit for.
4. Patrick Kane already looks like Patrick Kane
Want proof that Patrick Kane is not a normal human being?
After reports emerged that Kane would likely miss somewhere in the vicinity of six to 10 to possibly even 12 weeks - though the expectation was closer to the 10-week end of the spectrum - with an upper-body injury suffered during a game against the Florida Panthers in February, Blackhawks faithful everywhere hung their heads in premature mourning for the 2014-15 NHL season.
Kane made his miraculous return in Game 1 against the Predators, just about seven weeks after the initial prognosis.
As to be expected, Kane looked a little off his game his first time back on the ice. In Game 2 he scored and by the time Game 5 rolled around, he suddenly looked like Patrick Kane again.
The suddenly surging Wild will be a tough out for the Hawks in the second-round, especially considering Dubnyk's recent run, but having a healthy and rejuvenated Kane back is a huge boost to the entire Hawks squad.
5. Ducks domination
It may not be entirely fair to say that it's a surprise that Anaheim looks dominant, especially considering their 51-24-7 regular season record and first-place finish in the Pacific Division.
Still, the way they breezed past the Winnipeg Jets in round-one, completing the sweep with a general sense of ease thanks to a 27.3 power play conversion rate and a general disinclination to share the puck with Winnipeg, was eye-opening.
If Game 1 of their second-round series against Calgary is any indication, their course to the Western Conference Semi-finals may prove to be much easier than anticipated.
The Ducks, the heaviest team in the NHL, absolutely manhandled the Flames in the first contest, 6-1. Even more important was the manner in which they did it - they dared the Flames skaters to carry the puck into the zone, pinning the much smaller Calgary forwards against the stanchion and inflicting serious bodily harm on whoever was dumb enough to try.
While the Flames could very possibly kick themselves into a higher gear and use the heavy-handed Ducks' size advantage against them, Game 1 provided Bruce Boudreau's group with a clear blueprint for how to advance onto the next round.
The Flames were near the bottom of the league in puck possession numbers during the regular season - playing a strong possession team like the Ducks does not seem to bode well for their postseason life.
