The first round of the playoffs has been very interesting. Each series has had a number of fascinating subplots and stories. Here is a look at some inside analysis and observations from what has been an exciting playoffs, so far. The best part is, we still have a bit more than three more rounds to go.

Real credit has to be given to Predators goalie Dan Ellis. Despite the fact that his team lost in six games in round one, Ellis played very well. He kept the Preds in every game and had an impressive .938 save percentage. More tellingly, Ellis faced 240 shots, or an average of 40 shots per game, against the Red Wings. The next highest total Colorado's Jose Theodore with 200 shots in six games.

Entering the season, the 27-year-old Ellis had a total of one NHL game played in his career and appeared to be a career minor leaguer. By the end of the season, he captured the Preds' starting goaltending job and helped get Nashville into the playoffs. His future appears to be much brighter than it was a year ago and Ellis has established himself as a solid NHL goalie.

One amazing thing to come out of the Sharks-Flames series is the strength of the Sharks' organization in developing top flight NHL goalies. Both Evgeni Nabokov and Miikka Kiprusoff came up through the San Jose system. Add the Leafs' Vesa Toskala and you have three strong starting NHL goalies coming out of San Jose at roughly the same time. A lot of credit has to be given to the Sharks' late goalie coach, Warren Strelow who passed away last April.

The Sharks will face major organizational changes if they fail to win Game Seven at home Tuesday night against the Flames. The Sharks have been considered serious Stanley Cup contenders every year since the lockout, but have yet to advance past the second round of the playoffs. Coach Ron Wilson will certainly be gone, but don't expect him to be the only casualty. In the last two years, the Sharks have let series leads slip away and just seemed to lack that killer instinct. If they blow a 3-2 lead in this series, look for a major overhaul.

One Sharks player who has been a big disappointment in the opening round of the playoffs is Brian Campbell. Campbell has two assists in the series but he hasn't scored at all on the power play and his defense has been tentative. He has been both out of position at times and he has failed to play physical hockey when needed. The Sharks really need Campbell to pick up his play if they hope to advance deep into the playoffs.

The Avs got stellar goaltending from Jose Theodore and his comeback to the ranks of top caliber starting goalies seems to be complete. The other thing the Avs-Wild series made clear is that when he's able to play, Peter Forsberg is still a difference maker. In fact, the Avs were a lot better team in the playoffs than they were down the stretch of the regular season simply because they had Ryan Smyth, Joe Sakic, Forsberg and Adam Foote back. The Avalanche are a much better and more explosive team than they were in January and February.

The Canadiens came through in Game Seven to oust a feisty Bruins team. There was a lot of pressure on Montreal to win the series and they came through. Carey Price earned the shutout, his second of the series. The question is are the Habs good enough to win in spite of what appears to be Price's inevitable inconsistency? Like most young goalies, Price can be spectacular at times and have awful games at others. It almost cost Montreal the opening round series, but as they get deeper into the playoffs, it may be too much for the Habs to overcome. Montreal has to hope Price's inconsistency is just due to first round jitters.

Watching Alex Kovalev score without his helmet in Game Five of the opening round series just brought back memories of Guy Lafleur as the speedy Montreal winger's blond hair moved in the breeze as he sped by. Obviously, players not wearing helmets is unsafe and there's no way to go back to those days, but it certainly was easier to identify the players and identify with them when they didn't wear them. Perhaps the NHL should allow players to go without helmets during regular season shootouts. The most talented offensive players usually take part in shootouts anyway and it certainly couldn't hurt the league's promotion efforts.

The Ducks had two major problems in their opening round defeat at the hands of the Stars. First was their lack of goal scoring which plagued them most of the season. Second was their undisciplined play which led to too many penalties. The Ducks won the Stanley Cup a year ago by playing a tough, physical brand of hockey but this year, they apparently crossed that thin line between intimidating and dirty more often than they should have. For whatever reason, the Ducks just didn't have the same edge they had last season. Ineffective penalty killing didn't help either against the Stars.

The Devils changed their style of play this season under Brent Sutter. New Jersey has not been able to replace the talent they lost in recent seasons on defense. Without Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer and now Brian Rafalski on defense, the team doesn't have the strength on blue line it once had. There is some good young talent on the Devils' defense, but players like Johnny Oduya and Paul Martin are not in their prime yet. In addition, New Jersey has too many role players like Mike Mottau and Vitaly Vishnevsky, to be a top defensive team in this league. Add Martin Brodeur's age and you can see why the Devils are not an elite team right now. A lack of scoring depth didn't help either against the Rangers.

There is a lot of talk about the Rangers' young players like Brandon Dubinsky and Marc Staal, but the truth is that this year's team still relies heavily on Jaromir Jagr. Jagr played exceptionally well in the Devils' series, leading the Rangers with eight points in just five games. He picked up at least one point in every game except the opening contest of the series. While he had a sub par regular season, the Rangers need Jagr to continue his fine level of play in the playoffs or New York's chances of reaching the conference finals are slim.